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
This update introduces PDF Condense and Block Selection, along with a new External Agent Book Breakdown feature. It also upgrades Immersive Mode and the AI chat panel, while continuing to improve Backup & Sync, text box editing, Markdown rendering, and the in-app feedback experience.
New PDF Condense
• After selecting PDF content, you can condense the original text into a short summary displayed in a collapsed form at the original location, making it easier to recall and review.
• Condense settings support condensation granularity, output language, font, and font size. You can also choose between cloud AI and on-device offline AI. On-device offline AI requires Apple Intelligence support and does not consume MarginNote built-in AI credits.
New PDF Block Selection
• After enabling Assistive Excerpt, you can select one or multiple text blocks and then perform Excerpt or Condense.
• This mode is designed for more precise selection and organization by paragraph or content block, making PDF excerpting and condensing more flexible.
New External Agent Book Breakdown
• Chapter content can be exported as a breakdown task package and saved to iCloud, the app directory, or another location accessible to external agents such as Claude Code, Codex, or OpenClaw.
• After processing, the package can be imported back into MarginNote to generate source-linked mind map cards.
• External Agent Book Breakdown does not consume MarginNote built-in AI credits.
Immersive Mode Improvements
• Document-only view now also supports Immersive Mode.
• The document menu in Immersive Mode now includes Show Document Notebook Bar, Dual-Document Comparison, Table of Contents, Import Document, and Linked Documents, allowing you to browse and jump through the table of contents, import documents, compare documents side by side, and manage linked documents while staying immersed.
• The AI chat window in Immersive Mode has been upgraded to a floating window.
• Floating windows, including AI Chat and Research Browser, now support dragging, resizing, and minimizing to a bubble. They also remember their last position and size to reduce obstruction of reading content.
Text Box Editing Improvements
• Improved text box editing, including cursor positioning, text selection, keyboard avoidance, and content clipping. Also fixed an issue where the background color could be lost when remembering text box styles.
• Newly created text boxes are now constrained within the page by default to avoid overflow.
Customer Support Upgrade
• In-app Feedback & Support now supports directly attaching files such as images, documents, logs, crash files, archives, and videos, with a single attachment limit of 20 MB.
• Users can now like support replies, helping us continuously improve support quality.
Other Improvements and Fixes
• Optimized PDF selection, Markdown formula rendering, and web import experience, reducing menu anomalies, rendering issues, and import freezes.
• Optimized backup and import processes for WebDAV, Google Drive, and other services, improving transfer and login compatibility.
• Optimized the large-file upload process for Baidu Netdisk, reducing memory usage during uploads and improving backup stability for large files.
• Optimized the restore purchase process, improving the accuracy of restoring entitlements such as Max and Pro-to-Max upgrades, and providing clearer prompts when restoration fails.
• Fixed multiple display issues in Immersive Mode, including toolbar residue, invisible top navigation, mind map covering documents, and icon flickering.
• Added multilingual text and fixed some localization issues.
• Reduced the frequency of in-app rating prompts to minimize interruptions during learning.
• Continued improvements to overall experience and stability.
Version 4.4.2
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
Usage Data
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary based, for example, on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Provider
Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd
Size
340.7 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