Free during the test phase · iPad, iPhone, Android and web
Notes on PDFs that stay PDFs.
Highlight, write and attach voice notes on any PDF. Memo writes them into the file as standard annotations and keeps the file in your own Google Drive, or on your device. Nothing to export, nothing to lose.
No account needed to try it on this device.
Why Memo
Most note apps keep your notes in their own format. Memo keeps them in the PDF.
No lock-in
Every highlight, stroke, note and shape is a standard PDF annotation with its appearance stream. Open the file in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome or the Drive preview and your notes are there, unchanged.
Your files stay in your Drive
Memo works in one folder of your Google Drive, My Drive/Memo by default or any path you choose. Memo never touches anything outside it, and Drive's revision history keeps your notes through time.
Offline first
Edits are saved on the device first, then uploaded. Lose the connection mid-upload and it resumes where it stopped. No account at all? Use Memo on this device only and connect Drive later.
iPad, iPhone, Android and web
One app, the same PDFs everywhere. Apple Pencil pressure on iPad, a finger or stylus on Android, a mouse and keyboard shortcuts on the web.
Features
What you can do
Everything here ships today, on every device.
Pen and highlighter with pressure
A pressure-sensitive pen (Apple Pencil), a highlighter pen, an eraser, shapes and arrows. Strokes are standard PDF ink annotations.
Notes on text
Select text, press Note: the text is highlighted and your note sits just above it as a small chip. It is stored as the highlight's comment, so other readers show it too.
Media and voice notes, inside the PDF
Images, photos, videos, audio, voice notes and any file are embedded as standard PDF attachments. They play inline in Memo and open from the attachments panel of other readers.
Split view, up to 4 documents
Open documents side by side, stacked or in a 2 × 2 grid. Drag dividers, swap panes, and open the same PDF twice to compare pages.
Search everything, with #tags
Search the text printed on the pages and your notes, comments and media titles across the whole library. Filter by kind, tag and date; #tag and field:value work in the search box.
Bookmarks as PDF outlines
Bookmark a page with B. It is saved as a standard PDF bookmark, listed next to the PDF's own table of contents, and visible in any reader's sidebar.
Lasso and screenshots
Lasso several annotations to move, recolor, duplicate or delete them. Capture the lassoed area as a PNG: copy it, share it, or paste it on another page.
Compare this device and Drive
See which PDFs are only in Drive, only on this device, the same or different, and which side is newer. Download, upload or merge them one by one or all at once.
Saves in about 2 ms on a 42 MB file
Saves are PDF incremental updates: only the changed objects are appended. One edit on a 42 MB PDF takes about 2 ms and adds about 2 KB.
How it works
How it works
Step 1: Choose where your PDFs live
Sign in and connect one folder of your Google Drive, or pick "Use on this device only". PDFs already in that folder show up in your library.
Step 2: Open a PDF, or start a blank notebook
Blank, lined, grid or dotted paper: a blank notebook is a PDF too. Highlight text, write with the pen, add a note, drop in a photo or record a voice note.
Step 3: It is saved into the PDF itself
Each edit is appended to the file in about 2 ms, then synced to Drive when you want: automatically, periodically, manually or on Wi-Fi only. Open the PDF anywhere.
Made for people who read with a pen in hand
Students
Annotate lecture slides and textbooks, keep a blank notebook per course, and find a #tag across every document before the exam.
Researchers
Read papers side by side in split view, highlight and comment, then search the text of the PDFs and your own notes at once.
People who review documents
Contracts, reports, drafts: mark them up and send back a normal PDF. The reviewer's notes open in any reader, no app required.
Teachers
Correct assignments with the pen, leave a voice note on a page, and hand the PDF back with everything embedded in it.
Pricing
One plan. 0.99 € a month.
After a 14-day free trial, billed by the App Store or Google Play. Free during the test phase, and the web app is free for now.
Memo
Free during the test phase0.99 €per month
14 days free. Billed by the App Store or Google Play. Cancel in your store subscriptions.
The web app is free for now: the stores cannot bill a website. If that changes, it is announced here first.
Questions
Which readers show my notes?
Any reader that follows the PDF standard. Highlights, underlines, pen strokes, shapes, text boxes, sticky notes, images and media cards are checked against the engines behind Google Drive and Chrome (PDFium), Poppler, and Apple's Preview and iOS (PDFKit). Attached files are in the PDF's attachment list, so Chrome, Edge, Acrobat and Preview can open or save them.
What happens when I am offline?
Edits are saved on the device first, so you keep working. Uploads wait for a connection and resume where they stopped, even after the app was closed. If the PDF is already on the device, it opens without a network at all.
Where are my files stored?
In one folder of your own Google Drive (My Drive/Memo by default, or any path you choose), or only on your device if you prefer. Memo has no server that stores your documents.
Is there a proprietary format?
No. Memo only works with PDFs. Even a blank notebook is a PDF with lined, grid or dotted paper drawn on its pages. Your notes are standard PDF annotations, bookmarks, attachments and metadata.
Can I use Memo without a Google account?
Yes. Choose "Use on this device only" and the PDFs are stored locally. You can connect Google Drive later from Settings and upload what was on the device in one step.
Which devices does it run on?
iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, and the web. The web app is open today. The iPhone, iPad and Android apps are in test: join the TestFlight beta or the Google Play test and you get the store version when it ships.
Does it handle big PDFs?
Yes. A save appends only what changed, about 2 ms and 2 KB per edit on a 42 MB file. Uploads to Drive are streamed in 8 MB chunks with retries and resume, so a 300 MB PDF never sits whole in memory.
What is coming next?
AI notebooks written from a prompt and AI summaries are planned, not shipped. Page thumbnails with reorder and rotate, opening PDFs from anywhere in Drive, export of highlights to Markdown and a version history browser are on the roadmap.
Your PDFs, your notes, your Drive.
Open Memo in the browser, or join the test on iPhone, iPad and Android. Sign in, pick a Drive folder or stay on this device, and start writing.