Your notes are just files on your computer.
Notefile is a Chrome side-panel notepad that writes every note straight into a folder
you choose — on Windows or Mac. Plain .txt when it's plain. A real
.docx the moment you bold a word. Point it at your Dropbox folder and it syncs
across your devices — without a single note ever passing through our servers.
Chrome — Windows & Mac
Not another notes app with a database.
Every other notepad extension keeps your writing inside itself. Notefile keeps it in your folder, in formats anything can open.
A folder, not an account
Pick any folder on disk — Dropbox, Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, or nothing at all. Notes are written there directly, one file each.
Sync you already pay for
There is no sync engine to trust. Your cloud folder propagates the files; Notefile just reads and writes them on each device.
Note content never leaves
Reading and writing notes is isolated from every line of networking code. Our server only ever sees a license key or a trial email — never a note.
Capture any region as text
Drag a box over a chart, a slide, a screenshot. On-device OCR turns the pixels into an editable note. Nothing is uploaded.
A real editor
Headings, fonts, colour, highlights, checklists, tables with row/column tools, code, links, images, alignment. No syntax to read past.
Search that finds
Type across file names, titles, bodies, tags and folders at once. Every hit shows a snippet centred on the match.
The file follows the writing.
You never pick a format. Notefile decides on every save, from what's actually in the note.
.txtNo formatting at all? A plain text file with a title line and your words. Readable in Notepad forever.
.docxOne bold word, one bullet, one colour — and it becomes a real Word document. Opens and re-saves in Word, Google Docs and Pages.
.mdOlder vaults keep their Markdown with frontmatter, untouched. The rule never converts what you already have.
Ten seconds to set up. Then never again.
Pick a folder
Anywhere on your Windows PC or Mac. Put it inside your Dropbox or Drive folder if you want it on your other machines too.
Write
Open the side panel next to whatever you're reading. Auto-saved to disk half a second after your last keystroke.
Open it anywhere
Your notes are files. Read them on your phone, edit them in Word, back them up, take them with you.
Your notes never reach a server. Nothing else about you needs to, either.
Note reading and writing is isolated from every line of networking code in the extension — it's checkable, not just promised. There's no account for the notepad itself. The one server we run exists only to run the 30-day trial and check license keys: starting a trial takes an email, confirmed with a one-time code, and activating a license sends a key and a random per-install id. Neither ever carries a title, a tag, or a word you wrote.
One plan. Try it free first.
30 days of every feature, no card required — just an email, verified with a one-time code.
Free trial
- Every feature, unlocked
- No credit card
- Just an email to start, verified with a code
- Your notes stay yours when it ends
License
- Use on up to 3 devices
- All updates included while active
- Works offline for a week between checks
- No auto-renewal — you're never charged unexpectedly
Try every feature free for 30 days first — all sales are final. Refund policy
The things people ask.
Does this really work without an account?
There's no account for the notepad itself — no profile, no password, no sign-in. Starting the trial takes only an email, confirmed with a one-time code so trials can't be handed out to addresses nobody can receive mail at; that's the only thing our server ever sees, along with a license key once you activate. Your notes never touch it.
How does sync work if there's no server for notes?
It doesn't sync — your cloud folder does. Point Notefile at a folder inside Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or iCloud Drive and those apps propagate the files exactly like any other document. Install Notefile on your second machine (Windows or Mac), point it at the same folder, and your notes are there.
What happens to my notes if my license lapses?
Nothing. They're plain files in your folder. Notefile stops opening until you renew; your notes carry on existing in Word, Notepad, Obsidian, or anything else. Access also keeps working for about a week if we simply can't reach the license server — losing wifi doesn't lock you out.
Why .docx and not just Markdown?
Because plain text can't spell a highlight, a font, a table cell colour or a line height — and losing those silently on save is worse than the file being a little heavier. A note with no formatting stays a plain .txt.
Is the text capture sending my screen anywhere?
No. OCR runs inside the extension, on your own machine, on both Windows and Mac. The captured pixels never leave the browser.
Does it work on Windows?
Yes — Notefile is built on the standard File System Access and Side Panel APIs, which work the same way in Chrome on Windows and Mac alike. There's nothing platform-specific about it.
Notes that outlive the app that made them.
Just an email to start. Uninstall anytime and your notes are untouched.