MarginNote 4: AI Notes·MindMap

MarginNote is the PDF study

About this app

MarginNote is the PDF study tool for deep readers. One excerpt is a PDF highlight, a mind map node, and a flashcard — one capture, three places. This is the Card Axis architecture, so you stop ferrying content between a PDF reader, a notes app, and a flashcard tool. A decade of iteration. 188K+ App Store ratings.
【Four Featured Mechanics】
▸ Card Axis — One excerpt, three renders. Document highlight, mind map node, and flashcard are the same card seen from three angles. 
▸ Title Link — Old notes auto-surface in new documents. When a familiar concept appears in what you're reading, your past annotation lights up on the page. 
▸ Extended Note — Long-press anywhere on a PDF to open writing space. No anchored text required; three display modes (inline / margin / collapsed). 
▸ Immersive Mode (4.4) — Three-state toggle: Read / Write / Recall. UI folds away. Recall blurs excerpts with Gaussian blur — tap to reveal only after you've actually recalled.
【AI Capabilities (introduced in 4.2)】
AI book breakdown · AI OCR templates · AI translation · AI Q&A · AI flashcard generation 
Our stance is AI as assistant, not replacement — every suggestion can be saved as your own thinking node, never thinking for you.
【Apple Intelligence (iOS 26+)】
Recall Mode hints can run on-device via Apple Intelligence — pick "Apple AI" or "cloud LLM" in Settings. With Apple AI selected, three tiers of help — Neighbor Coordinate · Reasoning Prompt · Key Distinction — are generated by Apple Foundation Models right on your device: no network calls, no AI credits used, your notes never leave your device. Even if you've selected cloud LLM, going offline auto-falls back to Apple Intelligence (provided your device supports it) — so libraries, planes, and exam-day silent rooms never break your hint loop.
【Full Workflow】
Fast OCR · Study Sets (PDF / EPUB / video / audio) · direct read from Zotero / cloud drives / USB · 10 mind map styles · book recomposition · dual-document compare · concept maps · handwriting layers
【FSRS Spaced Repetition】
Built on the open-spaced-repetition project's algorithm (paper accepted by ACM SIGKDD; Anki has used FSRS as its default scheduler since v23.10). Push short-term memory into long-term.
【Built For】
Anyone re-reading a single document until it sticks — med school (USMLE / MCAT) · law school (LSAT / bar exam) · grad prep (GRE / GMAT / CFA) · researchers · language learners (IELTS / TOEFL) · serious readers.
【All Apple Platforms】
iPhone + iPad + Mac under one Apple ID. iCloud syncs Study Sets, notes, and review progress. Native Apple Pencil support on iPad.
—
Questions? Email [email protected] 
Terms: https://dist.marginnote.com/MarginNote_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf 
Privacy: https://dist.marginnote.com/MarginNote_Privacy_Policy.pdf

What stands out

Card Axis Architecture: One excerpt creates synchronized PDF highlights, mind map nodes, and flashcards.

AI Assistance: Features include AI book breakdowns, translation, Q&A, and on-device Apple Intelligence support for privacy.

Spaced Repetition: Built-in FSRS algorithm optimizes long-term memory retention for exam preparation.

Version updates

Version 4.4.6

This update adds an in-app Message Center and continues to improve AI Extract Questions, study set document management, Markdown text boxes, handwriting, version history export, and overall stability. AI Extract Questions - After AI Extract Questions is complete, use “AI Read-Through & Re-Breakdown” on chapters with unsatisfactory splitting. AI re-evaluates question or content-unit boundaries and rebuilds the cards from the original text. - Improved recognition of specially formatted documents, reducing separated choices, merged questions, and missed questions. Message Center - Added an in-app Message Center for official messages and product updates. Study Set Management & Backup - Added “Organize by Source Path” for study set documents, with collapsible hierarchies for local files, iCloud Drive, and external folders. - Missing source documents can now be re-linked. - Added duplicate card detection and repair for study sets. A protective backup is created before repairs are applied. - Study set backups can be exported without version history, with the five most recent versions, or with all versions. MarginNote Agent AI Breakdown (Lab) - MarginNote Agent organizes long documents chapter by chapter into structured mind maps. It supports General Breakdown, Original Book Structure, Key-Point Q&A, and Terminology Dictionary tasks. - Review and refine results chapter by chapter, and view or restore previous chapter versions. - Supports automatically applying card color styles. - MarginNote Agent uses MarginNote’s built-in AI service. Running tasks consumes MarginNote credits. - To use this feature, enable MarginNote Agent in Settings > Lab. Other Improvements & Fixes - Fixed Markdown text boxes failing to render, overflowing, disappearing, or displaying incomplete content. - Fixed font, color, and other formatting being lost after moving text boxes across pages. - Reduced memory usage when loading Markdown caches and large study sets. - The card editor now supports pasting copied handwriting strokes. - Improved handwriting rendering performance when zooming and scrolling large mind maps. - Fixed handwriting being incorrectly disabled after leaving Immersive Mode. - Fixed a potential crash after exiting handwriting mode. - Fixed automation settings for different excerpt tools overwriting one another. - Fixed compatibility issues affecting some mind map branch styles. - Fixed existing layouts and styles being reset when inserting a table of contents or grouped content. - Fixed incorrect PDF export ranges for collapsed pages. - Fixed crashes caused by invalid crop dimensions on certain malformed PDF pages. - Fixed an iPad issue where incorrect settings pop-up heights clipped the bottom input fields.

8 月 23, 2026 · Apple App Store · iOS · View source

AppRank score

The average of the verified ratings available across this app’s platforms.

★ 4.5735 ratings

Cross-platform average