Notes that
stay yours.

VB Notes keeps every note as a plain markdown file in a folder you choose, and finds them by what they mean. Free, with no account.

Download for Mac, Windows, Linux

Pangong at dusk: an illustration of mountains over a lake — Point at a line: the file and the note match, line for line.

Ask in your own words.

Search by meaning finds the note you have in mind even when you can’t remember a word of it. The model runs on your phone, so your notes are never sent anywhere to be searched.

Exact words still work, and they come back at once.

Searching “what does my flatmate owe me” finds the note “Rent split with Arjun”.

Rent split with Arjun19 Oct

October rent paid in full. Arjun owes his half of the electricity bill, settle on the 5th.

by meaning#home/money

Not one word of the question is in the note. The model reads what both mean, on the phone itself. (A sample note.)

Typing two square brackets in a note lists the notes by title. Picking “Packing list” writes [[Packing list]] as a link to that note.

New in 0.4

One note leads to the next.

Type two square brackets and the start of a title. VB Notes lists the notes that match; pick one and the link is written for you, closing brackets and all.

Tap a link to open its note. Link to one that doesn’t exist yet, and it’s there when you follow it.

In the file a link stays plain [[Packing list]], the way Obsidian and Bear write them.

New in 0.4.3

Ask about your notes.

Chat with an AI about the note in front of you, or about all of them. For all notes, VB Notes finds the ones that fit each question and sends only those, and shows them under the answer.

It’s off until you turn it on, and it runs on your own account: OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, xAI, or a model on your own computer through Ollama.

With OpenRouter, every answer shows what it cost, and Settings keeps a running total for the month.

Your API key stays on your device, never in your notes folder. In the desktop and phone apps.

This noteAll notesSample notes

What do I still need to sort out for Ladakh?

Going by Trip to Ladakh, the permits are done. Still open:

Cash: ATMs are few after Leh.
Diamox, sunscreen and a warm layer.
The Pangong camp: book it before July.

The route is settled: two days in Leh first, then Nubra over Khardung La, and back along Pangong.

$0.0021 on OpenRouter

Trip to Ladakh

Ask your notes…

The notes that match and your question go to OpenRouter.

Asked “What do I still need to sort out for Ladakh?”, the chat answers from the note Trip to Ladakh: the permits are done, and cash, Diamox and sunscreen, and the Pangong camp are still open. The answer cost $0.0021 on OpenRouter, and the note it used shows under it.

Made for the phone first.

A clean page that opens ready to type, the formatting keys right over the keyboard, and your library one swipe away.

Your notes
A note
The library
Search
Ink, the dark theme

The same folder on your computer.

Keep your notes folder in iCloud Drive and the desktop app opens the very same files. Press ⌘O to jump to any note, or to start a new one titled with what you typed. The style bar under a note has Bear’s formatting buttons and shortcuts.

The desktop app with the find-or-create window open over a note

The desktop app in the dark theme, listing notes found by meaning

Rust, not Electron. Built with Tauri on your system’s own web view, so it doesn’t ship a copy of Chrome.
Small. 15 MB on the Mac, a 6 MB installer on Windows.
Search by meaning here too. The same model as the phone, run by llama.cpp, on the GPU on Apple Silicon.

For macOS 13 or later, Windows and Linux.

Everything a note needs.

Headings, lists, quotes and tables
Checklists you tick with one tap
Code, coloured by its language
Mermaid diagrams, drawn in the note
Links between notes: type [[ and pick one
Photos and voice notes, kept beside your notes
Nested #tags, each with its own colour and icon
Pins, bookmarks and Trash
Themes, fonts and spacing of your choosing
Save from any app through the share sheet
Busy tags kept out of the main list

Free. No account.
No ads.

Your notes are files on your phone, or in your own iCloud Drive. VB Notes has no server of its own to send them to.

How VB Notes handles your data

Download VB Notes.

Mac
Apple Silicon and Intel, macOS 13 or later. Signed and notarized.
.dmg
Or with Homebrew: brew install --cask elavneet/vbnotes/vb-notes
Windows
Installer (.exe) or package (.msi).
.exe
Linux
AppImage, .deb or .rpm.
AppImage
iPhone
On the App Store, iOS 17 or later.
Android
On Google Play, Android 8 or later. The APK is also on GitHub.