Comparison
Evernote vs Google Keep: which note app should you actually use in 2026?
These two apps are aimed at very different people, even though they both say "notes" on the tin. Google Keep is free, instant, and built for sticky-note thinking — quick captures, checklists, and reminders that sync everywhere. Evernote is the heavyweight: a structured, search-first notebook with deep OCR and the famous Web Clipper, which you pay $129.99 to $169.99 a year to use properly. Here's an honest, side-by-side look — plus what to reach for if your real problem is filing documents, not jotting notes.
The short version
Google Keep is the right pick for most people, and the reason is simple: it's free, it's instant, and it does the thing most people actually want a note app to do — capture a thought, a list, or a photo in two seconds and find it later. If you live in Gmail, Docs, and Android, it's already there and costs nothing. Evernote is the better pick when your notes have become a reference library you search constantly — long-form notes, the Web Clipper, deep OCR, notebooks and tags — and you'll pay $129.99 to $169.99 a year for that depth. Neither is broken; they're just different shapes. The deciding question is honest and concrete: are your notes mostly short captures and lists, or a growing archive you reach back into? Captures and lists, Keep. A searchable knowledge base you'll pay to maintain, Evernote.
Evernote vs Google Keep, feature by feature
| Feature | Evernote | Google Keep |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Long-form notes and a searchable reference library | Fast quick-capture, lists, and reminders |
| Cost to use it fully | $129.99–$169.99/yr — the free tier is very tight | $0 — Keep is free, with no paid tier of its own |
| Free plan | 50 notes, 1 notebook, 1 device, 1 GB | Full app; notes share your 15 GB Google quota |
| Quick capture speed | Partialcapable, but a heavier app to open | Yesopen, type, done — its whole point |
| Checklists & to-do lists | Yessupported inside notes | Yescore feature, with check-off and reorder |
| Rich text & long notes | Yestables, formatting, long-form | Noplain text + checklists; ~20,000 chars/note |
| Notebooks / folder hierarchy | Yesnotebooks, stacks, and tags | Nolabels and colors only — no folders |
| Search inside notes & images (OCR) | Yesdeep search; Evernote's sharpest edge | Partial"Grab image text" OCR; lighter search |
| Web clipper | Yeslong the category leader | Nono native clipper |
| Voice notes with transcription | Partialaudio attachments | Yesrecord a voice memo, get the transcript |
| Real-time sharing & collaboration | Partialshared notebooks; heavier | Yeslive shared notes and lists |
| Works across platforms | YesWindows, Mac, iOS, Android, web | Yesweb, iOS, Android (no desktop app) |
| Reads & extracts fields from documents you drop in | Noattaches files; doesn't read them | Noattaches images; doesn't read them |
| Encryption of stored content | Partialselected text inside a note only | PartialGoogle account-level; no per-note encryption |
What each one costs in 2026
Evernote
- Free$050 notes, 1 notebook, 1 device sync, 1 GB. Enough to evaluate the app, not to live in it.
- Starter$129.99/yrBilled annually. More notes and notebooks, 3-device sync, 10 GB monthly uploads, larger storage.
- Advanced$169.99/yrBilled annually. Unlimited notes and notebooks, unlimited devices, AI Search, more storage.
Google Keep
- Google Keep$0The full app — notes, lists, voice memos, image OCR, reminders, sharing — free with any Google account. There is no paid tier for Keep itself.
- Storage (shared)$0Notes count against your Google account's 15 GB shared quota (Drive, Gmail, Photos). Notes are tiny, so most people never feel it.
- Google One (optional)from $19.99/yrOnly if you need more than 15 GB across all of Google — 100 GB starts at $1.99/mo. It's a storage upgrade, not a Keep upcharge.
Pick Evernote if… pick Google Keep if…
Pick Evernote if…
- Your notes have grown into a reference library you search constantly, and deep OCR plus tags is how you find things.
- You rely on the Web Clipper to save articles, receipts, and full web pages with their formatting intact.
- You write long-form notes with tables and rich formatting, organized into notebooks and stacks.
- You'll pay $129.99–$169.99 a year for a structured, cross-platform notebook and want it maintained.
Pick Google Keep if…
- You want to jot a thought, a list, or a photo in two seconds and never think about cost or setup.
- You already live in Gmail, Docs, and Android, and want notes that are just there with no extra app.
- Your notes are mostly checklists, reminders, and quick captures rather than long reference documents.
- You share live lists with a partner or roommate and want voice memos that transcribe themselves.
A third option
Neither one fits? You might be filing documents, not taking notes
If you tried both and they felt like the wrong shape, it might be because you're not really taking notes — you're filing the paperwork that piles up: tax forms, insurance policies, IDs, statements. Keep is too lightweight to hold them and Evernote turns into a tagging chore. Granite is built for exactly that job: drop in a PDF or a photo and it reads the document, classifies it against 60-plus types, pulls the dates, amounts, and account numbers that matter, and answers plain-English questions with a citation to the source page. It's not a note app — there's no editor — so keep Keep or Evernote for notes. For the documents you receive, let Granite do the filing.
See Granite pricingFAQ
Evernote vs Google Keep FAQ
- Is Google Keep really free?
- Yes, completely. The full Keep app — notes, checklists, voice memos with transcription, image OCR, color-coded labels, pinning, and time or location reminders — is free with any Google account, and there's no paid tier for Keep itself. The only practical limit is that notes count against your Google account's 15 GB quota shared with Drive, Gmail, and Photos. Notes are tiny, so most people never come close. Evernote, by contrast, gates real day-to-day use behind a $129.99-plus annual plan.
- Why is Evernote so much more than Google Keep?
- Because they're different products. After Evernote was acquired by Bending Spoons in 2023, its free plan was cut to 50 notes, one notebook, and a single device, and paid pricing rose to $129.99 a year (Starter) and $169.99 a year (Advanced), both billed annually. You're paying for depth — deep search and OCR, the Web Clipper, notebooks and tags, long-form rich notes. Keep gives away a lighter feature set for free. If you don't need that depth, the price gap is the whole story.
- Is Google Keep good enough to replace Evernote?
- For a lot of people, yes — if your notes are mostly short captures, checklists, and reminders. Keep is fast, free, and frictionless, and it syncs across web, iOS, and Android. Where it falls short is depth: there are no notebooks or folders (just labels and colors), notes cap at roughly 20,000 characters, formatting is basically plain text plus checklists, and there's no Web Clipper. If your notes have become a long-form reference library you search constantly, Evernote still does that better.
- Can I move my notes from Evernote to Google Keep?
- There's no one-click import, so it takes some manual work. Evernote exports notebooks as ENEX or HTML files, and Keep imports best from Google Docs or Drive, so the common path is to move content through Google Docs and then into Keep — which works cleanly for text but loses Evernote-specific structure like tags and notebooks. Given Keep's plain-text design, many people only migrate the notes they still reach for and leave the deep archive in Evernote. Export a backup from Evernote first either way.
- Should I use Evernote or Google Keep to store important documents?
- Honestly, neither is built for that. Keep lets you attach images and Evernote lets you attach PDFs, but neither reads the document, pulls out the key fields, or answers questions about it — you're still filing and tagging by hand, then hunting through pages later. If your goal is organizing paperwork like tax forms, insurance policies, and IDs rather than writing notes, a purpose-built document vault is the better tool. Keep a note app for notes; use something that actually reads documents for documents.
- Do Evernote or Google Keep encrypt my notes?
- Both protect data in transit and at rest at the infrastructure level, but neither encrypts your account end-to-end. Evernote can encrypt selected text you highlight inside a note; Keep relies on Google account-level security and offers no per-note encryption or password lock. Neither does per-document or per-field encryption. If encrypting sensitive documents at rest matters to you, a purpose-built document vault is meaningfully stronger than either note app — note apps are built for convenience, not for guarding paperwork.
Keep exploring
- Granite vs EvernoteIf you used Evernote as a filing cabinet for real paperwork, here's the tool it was trying to be.
- Granite vs OneNoteAnother note app put side by side with a vault built for the documents you receive.
- Granite for important documentsAn organizer that reads your files and pulls the key fields, instead of making you tag them.
- How Granite reads every documentAuto-classify against 60+ types and extract the fields that matter, on upload.
- Free for your first 25 documentsOne flat $99/year after that. No per-seat math, no document cap.
- What happens to your documents laterEmergency contact, inactivity heartbeat, and an always-exportable archive — Granite's continuity layer.
Jotting notes? Pick either. Filing documents? Try Granite.
Granite is free for your first 25 documents — the full reader, plain-English search, and encrypted export, no card required. Drop in a tax form or an insurance policy and watch it file itself, while your notes stay in the app you already use.