4.4 Immersive Mode: UI folds; one capsule for Read / Write / Recall. Recall blurs excerpts; tap to reveal after recall. AI Hint can run on Apple Intelligence on-device.
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.
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Questions? Email service@marginnote.com
Terms: https://dist.marginnote.com/MarginNote_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf
Privacy: https://dist.marginnote.com/MarginNote_Privacy_Policy.pdf
Great improvements have been made comparing to MN3
cherry 998
Academic wise, the new version is 100% cool, but it is also 100% more complex than the old version. If you are willing to learn this app, I am sure it will greatly facilitate your work/study (with mind-map / dictation / document review etc.) ‘WILLING TO LEARN’ means wasting hours to understand & adjust features to work in your way. Like setting highlighters / fonts / Notes/ Cards/ keyboard short cuts. It literally took me the whole day to understand the new features and how to use. By the way, the tutorials they provided are not very useful. You still need time to configure the app to the way you like, especially if you have previously used a MN 3. A lot of things changed. Good thing is the highlighting function on MN4 works better than the MN3, and they finally provided more options for mind-map structures. I compare MN4 with Goodnotes and Notability, I think it is more compatible for Mac users rather than iPad. If you use Mac to study, then it is a good option for you. For MN3 user, the sync function works well. All your old notes integrated to MN4. I used iCloud to backup all the notes, so the transferring works well for me between the 2 apps.
Best by far
Marsmite
It's a great research tool, but I have a few complaints related to integration and platforms.The Mac version requires cloud connectivity to work with Zotero, which is now a cloud-only app. That's fair enough, but Zotero's desktop app and browser extension for Firefox are equally functional and entirely free. Why not let Pro MarginNote integrate with those established tools? I certainly don't trust my own research to cloud-only storage. That would be a huge risk.I am also frustrated by the lack of a Windows version after all this time. MarginNote 4 is great. Near flawless. It doesn't need work. Why doesn't the development team focus their efforts on a native Windows version, so that the software is viable for R&D businesses? I would very much like to get my teams trained to use MarginNote and to roll it out company-wide, but the cost of doing so is too high financially and in convenience because it requires a Mac or iPad next to every PC. I cannot justify that. The business opportunity for MarginNote on Windows is huge, and I don't understand why the company chooses to ignore it. Very frustrating.Great app, still with unrealised potential.
Best app for pdf notes
Nigel Cutler
For years I have been collecting notes from multiple sources for writing my own articles. Collating these into some sort of order has been a time consuming nightmare, particularly when wanting to refer back to source. This app seems to meet all my needs, I have only just started using it and it seems too good to be true. I’m waiting for something to go wrong! For it to crash or go into overload with all the information I’m sending it, but so far so good. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Congratulations to the developers!
New App, So, Do Some Training On It.
Customer_952
It’s a brand new app — as one would expect when £/$/€ Upgrades!Users still have MN3 installed, so, keep using it until trained on MN4.There are more YT/Other ‘How To’ videos Online each week.There’s a HUGE user guide on the website for your leisurely usage.D/L the User Guide to your favoured PDF app, & go learn it all, hmm.A brand new app is going to have bugs/kinks to iron out — chill!I believe if you put effort in to training you’ll soon love the new app.If you wonder about VFM: MN3 was around many years; it’s worth it.My thanks to the human being(s) who brought this to my tech pad!I look forward to integrating this fab app in to my insane workflow.With kindest regards from my multiverse to all MN’ers!Good evening, now, where’s the Coffee?
New/Improvements:
Immersive Mode & Recall Mode Experience Optimization
- Added the hand tool to the handwriting toolbar in Immersive/Recall mode, which can be used to drag the canvas or browse pages.
- The bottom toolbar in Immersive mode can now be collapsed into a three-dot control to reduce interface obstruction.
- Immersive mode now supports Research Browser: You can open the Research Browser panel for document excerpts/mind map cards while in Immersive mode, presented as a floating window, making it easy to look up information while reading.
- Optimized excerpt/handwriting toolbar menus in Immersive mode: Supports adjusting the tool order in the menu bar, keeping it consistent with classic mode, and duplicated tools will now be fully displayed.
- iPhone experience optimization: When opening a study set that hasn't recorded an immersive state for the first time, it now defaults to Immersive mode, significantly improving the small-screen experience without affecting the same study set's settings on iPad and Mac; the document/mind map linked view now supports adjusting the split ratio.
- Added a "Show One-by-One" option in recall mode. When enabled, only one revealed excerpt or mind map card is displayed at a time, making the recall pace more controllable.
- Handwriting is now supported in recall mode.
New "Legacy Features" Settings Section
- Centralized management of toggles for Trash (Legacy), legacy recall mode, legacy handwriting toolbar icons, and more (Settings → Legacy Features). The legacy recall mode is only available in non-immersive mode, and related menus and keyboard shortcuts will be limited accordingly.
Overall Performance & Experience Optimization
- Reduced potential stutter during selection changes while keeping the interface refreshing normally; also optimized stability when handling AI conversation errors.
Fixes:
- Fixed the issue where the eraser shortcut was not working in Immersive mode on Mac, and improved the stability of related shortcuts.
- Fixed the issue where formula styles were not loaded correctly on macOS 26.5.
- Fixed the issue where math formulas in note cards could display abnormally.
- Fixed a display anomaly with the toolbar in Immersive mode.
- Fixed the issue where tapping on a blank area could not clear the text selection when prompt status was enabled in immersive recall mode.
- Fixed the issue where the tool order could be lost after handwriting tool settings were synced.
- Fixed the issue where recall prompt screenshots could capture the wrong page under virtual documents.
- Fixed the issue where typing or tapping was temporarily unresponsive right after a plugin pop-up appeared.
- Fixed display anomalies with colors, cursor, and prompt labels in the chat input box under dark mode.
- Fixed the issue where Korean book titles could be truncated or displayed abnormally in the book switcher.
Version 4.4.1
Subscriptions
MarginNote Max Annual
Full Max access with yearly billing
Free Trial
The developer, Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
Identifiers
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Identifiers
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Diagnostics
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Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Provider
Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd
Size
338.5 MB
Category
Productivity
Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 14.0 or later.
Apple Vision Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
Languages
English and 4 more
English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese