Questions about Graphite.

Graphite is the AI notebook for makers: your notes are plain markdown — files on your Mac in the Mac app, or kept by your browser on the web — and it works with the AI you choose, a key from any major provider or an OpenRouter account, and that provider bills you for what you use. Free with your own AI key. Two plans are coming: Plus, $39.99 a year or $4.99 a month, to publish your notes to the web, and Pro, $159.99 a year or $19.99 a month, with Graphite's AI. Your notes never lock. It isn't related to the other products named Graphite, such as the code review tool at graphite.com.

Graphite is free today: the notebook and the Guide work with your own AI key, and your AI provider bills you for what you use. Two plans are coming: Plus, $39.99 a year or $4.99 a month, to publish your notes to the web at a link Graphite hosts, and Pro, $159.99 a year or $19.99 a month, which adds the Guide on Graphite's AI, with no key to get. Each will start with 7 days free, with a card. Your notes will never lock: capture, opening, writing, linking, searching, your folders and projects, the Map, the receipts' totals and export will always work without a plan.

A folder is for something you keep learning about — Bitcoin, AI, design. You never finish one. A project is something you're making from what you learn — an article, a video, a talk. It starts as a question and ends when you've made it. You set up your own from the + beside Folders in the sidebar — New folder or New project — and each is a note: a project's page has your words about it, the notes in it, what's missing from it and a line of what Graphite notices — how many notes, how many questions are open, when you last taught it back, when a draft was started — and a folder's page has its projects and its notes. In the sidebar, a folder or a project opens onto what's in it. A project holds what you're making; links hold what you know. A note is in one project at a time, and links to as many notes as it likes. Which one a note is in is one line of its frontmatter — project:, or topic: for a folder — so its file never moves, and Obsidian reads it too. Every note in no project or folder waits in the Inbox until you move it — drag it onto one in the sidebar — or, once you turn on File my Inbox in Settings → AI, Graphite files it.

An outline or a first draft, arranged from your own sentences with the gaps marked; a script for a video, set out as scenes; or one web page you own, as a file. Copy as Markdown is there for a blog or a newsletter. Before you make anything, What's missing lists the questions between your notes and something you could publish, and Teach it back checks you can explain it. Each starts from the note you're in, in Actions beside the Guide — and what's missing from the Guide too. What the Guide writes is labelled as its own: what's missing and an outline go into the note only when you keep them, and a draft into a new note of its own. Format tidies a note's headings, lists and spacing, and Write it up turns its rough points into sentences, asked to keep every point and add none — each shown change by change for you to accept or reject. Split into notes, under Organize on the Graphite button's card, cuts a long note into notes of their own at its paragraphs and headings, keeping every word. Without a key, publishing a page, Copy as Markdown and the plain version of a script still work.

Only when you keep something or accept a change, with Undo. And when it drafts, it arranges your own sentences; anything it can't find in your notes it leaves out or asks you for. An edit it suggests — Format, Fix the spelling, Shorten it, Refine the language, Write it up, or what you typed — and a summary show in the note, change by change, and nothing is written until you accept them: each one, all of them, or none. A summary goes in as Graphite's own block, titled Summary. What's missing goes into the note as a section of its own and an outline under a heading, when you keep them, and an answer or a research brief, when you choose Add to note, as the Guide's own block, marked with the Graphite mark; a draft you keep is a new note of its own, and a script for a video is saved as one when you choose. Each is a line in the Logbook. With File my Inbox on, it also writes one line of frontmatter on a note it files — project:, or topic: for a folder — and nothing else. It never changes a word you wrote unless you accept the change.

No. It arranges a first draft from your own sentences and marks what's missing; you write the rest. When you ask, Write it up suggests your own rough points as sentences — asked to keep every point and add none — and Refine the language suggests clearer wording, each shown change by change for you to read and accept or reject.

Yes, any note but a receipt, as a page you own. Publish a page makes one web page of it, as a single HTML file: downloaded in a browser, saved where you choose on the Mac. Graphite doesn't host it and uploads nothing: anyone you give the file to, or who visits where you put it, can read it. Check it first, with a key, points out what a stranger wouldn't follow and anything that looks private, and changes nothing. Copy as Markdown is there for a blog or a newsletter.

It writes a script for a video from your note: scenes, what to say and what to show. It doesn't make the video itself. With a key, the Guide drafts the script when you ask, labelled as its own; without one, you get a plain version, a scene for each part of the note, quoting its first lines. Copy it, or save it as a note.

No. Graphite is a notebook for what you write: it doesn't record audio or video, join a call or transcribe anything. Notes you took in a meeting, or a transcript from another app, can be pasted in as a note like any other.

You explain an idea in your own words to Graphite playing a curious student, in the Guide beside the note, whose words stay out of sight while you teach — Show the note brings them back. It asks why, asks for an example, and asks what your words mean — it never corrects you and never gives the answer away. Afterwards it steps out of the role and marks your explanation against your own notes: unsupported, question or link, never a score. Each gap becomes a question under What's missing in the note you taught.

Only in a narrow sense: in a notebook where you've turned on File my Inbox, it files what's in the Inbox on its own, into the project or folder each note clearly belongs to, and where you've said yes to reading receipts, it reads each photo or PDF there as a receipt. Everything else waits for you to ask: answering, explaining, connecting, teaching it back, finding what's missing, arranging an outline or a draft from your sentences, suggesting an edit, organizing a note or tidying your notes, researching, and drafting a script for a video — and nothing it writes goes into a note of yours until you keep it or accept it. It says what it did in the Logbook, and you can undo it. On its own, it never changes your words, never deletes anything, and never moves a file you put somewhere yourself, except a photo or a PDF in the Inbox, which moves once, when it's filed as a receipt, and Undo puts it back.

No. Until you turn on File my Inbox in Settings → AI, it files nothing, and it never merges, renames, tags or deletes a note unless you accept that step. Once File my Inbox is on, it files that notebook's Inbox on its own: it sends each Inbox note's title and first lines, with the names of your projects and folders, to your AI provider — the notes waiting when you turn it on, then each new one a few seconds after you write it, and any waiting when you open the notebook — and puts each note in the project, or else the folder, it clearly belongs to, with one line of frontmatter. With a key for another provider, filing stays off until you turn it on again. A note about something none of your projects covers gets a suggestion to start one; it never starts a project without your click. It never writes in a note on its own: what's missing, an outline or a draft are written only when you ask for them, and go into your notes only when you keep them, and an edit it suggests is written only when you accept it. Receipts take a second yes: after it, it reads each photo or PDF in the Inbox — a photo goes to your AI provider as a smaller JPEG copy without its location, a PDF as it is; a DeepSeek or Groq key is sent neither, and an xAI key no PDFs — checks what it read on your computer, and files the receipt under Receipts by its year, moving the original there beside it. A receipt it can't check waits in the Inbox with one question. It writes each act in the Logbook — what changed, and why — with Undo, and keeps the Logbook for 90 days in the app, outside your notes. It never changes your words, never deletes anything, and never moves a file you put somewhere yourself: a photo or a PDF in the Inbox moves once, when it's filed as a receipt, and Undo puts it back. When you ask, the Graphite button's card also suggests how to tidy the notes you already have — Clean up duplicates, Organize into folders, Tidy titles and tags, Delete empty notes — each a step you accept or reject, with Undo.

Yes, when you ask, and only the steps you accept. On the Inbox, All notes, or a project's or a folder's page, the Graphite button's card offers Clean up duplicates, Organize into folders, Tidy titles and tags and Delete empty notes, and Merge these for notes you select. Each step comes with why, and you accept or reject it, one at a time or all at once; each step done is a line in the Logbook, with Undo. Notes written twice, empty notes and merges are worked out on your device, with nothing sent and no key needed; it finds copies of the same note, not every note that says something similar. A merge keeps every paragraph of each note, and the links to them follow it. For folders, titles and tags it sends each note's title, where it's filed, its tags, its length and its first lines, with the names of your folders and projects, to your AI provider. In one note, Organize suggests a title, tags or a folder for it, or splits it into notes, keeping every word.

They're where they were, word for word, every field and file. Since 23 October 2026, everything is a note: an explainer shows in the sidebar as a project, by its question, with the notes filed under it, and nodes, concepts and questions asked on their own are notes like any other — in the project they're filed under, or in the Inbox while they're in none — and Search (⌘O) and the Map find every one. Nothing was moved or rewritten. What's on your mind?, note types, the Network, and the Questions, Concepts, Nodes and Explainers places left the app that day; the release notes say what took their place.

They stay in your notebook, as files. A photo or a PDF you drop in is kept in the Inbox as it is. Reading them takes a yes of its own: after it, Graphite sends each photo or PDF in the Inbox to your AI provider with your key, a photo as a smaller JPEG copy without its location and a PDF as it is. It reads each one as printed — merchant, date, total, tax, tip, payment, category — checks what it read on your computer (the parts add up to the total, the date is a real day, the currency is a known code, it isn't one you already have), and files it under Receipts by its year, moving the original there beside it, unchanged. One it can't check waits in the Inbox with one question. Receipts adds them up by month, per currency and by category, for Work, Personal or both, and exports a CSV and the originals without a key, a subscription or the network. Totals are never converted between currencies, and they're sums of what Graphite read and you checked: Graphite isn't tax software. With a DeepSeek or Groq key it can't read photos or PDFs, and with an xAI key it can't read PDFs; it says so, and you can paste a receipt's text instead. It doesn't read a PDF over 2.8 MB: paste the receipt's text instead. In a browser that can't open a HEIC photo, it keeps the photo but doesn't read it: add it as a JPEG, or use the Mac app. In the browser, receipts are kept in that browser: export them, or use the Mac app, to keep them for years.

They stay where they are. In the Mac app, choose Open folder as notebook… and pick your vault: Graphite leaves every file where you put it, except a photo or a PDF in the vault's Inbox folder that, after your yes, it reads as a receipt: that moves once, when it's filed, and Undo puts it back. Graphite keeps a few top-level folder names as its own — Notes, Inbox, Receipts and Published, however they're capitalized, and the folders earlier versions of Graphite made. If your vault already has a Notes, Inbox, Receipts or Published folder at its top, Graphite treats it as its own: a note in it that's in no project or folder shows in the Inbox, where File my Inbox can file it with one line of frontmatter. Every other folder is yours. Graphite never moves a note out of a folder of yours, and a note in one stays out of the Inbox and is never filed. A file it didn't make is a note. New notes go into Notes, Graphite's own folder on disk — and so do the projects and folders you make in Graphite, each a note — and receipts under Receipts, by year. Notes stay plain markdown, [[wikilinks]] and callouts use the same syntax — including links written with a folder path or a .md ending, like [[Clients/Plan]] — and frontmatter fields Graphite doesn't use are kept exactly as they were. A project: or topic: field your vault already uses counts only when it links to a project or a folder you've set up in Graphite, so it doesn't empty your Inbox. JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP and HEIC images and PDFs show in your notes: ![[photo.jpg]] shows the picture, and ![[scan.pdf]] a card that opens it. Showing one never changes it or adds a file beside it. Other attachments, like SVG, video and audio, stay in the files untouched. The browser version keeps its notes in the browser and can't open a folder.

It can. Its explanations are labelled as its own and say where people usually get confused, so you know what to check. What Research brings is the model's own knowledge, not a search of the web: it answers in the Guide with a few findings, then a line that says what to check and where, and adds nothing to the note unless you choose Add to note. The Guide is asked to say plainly when it isn't sure and not to invent a source or a link, and you check what it says before you keep it. When you teach it back, Graphite never marks you by what it “knows” — only by your own notes.

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM), renamed on 16 July 2026, starts from sources you add, in your Google account, and works with Gemini. Graphite starts from what you write down: once you turn on File my Inbox, it files it into your folders and projects; when you ask, it finds what's missing and arranges a first draft from your own sentences, leaving out anything it can't find in your notes; it keeps everything as plain markdown files you can open in any editor, works with the AI you choose, and asks you to teach what you learned back, marking your explanation against your own notes.

Not for your notes: writing, search, links and the Map work without one, and so do your folders and projects, tags, publishing a page, Copy as Markdown and the plain version of a script for a video. The Guide needs one, because it calls a model — filing, reading receipts, explaining, answering about a note, finding what's missing, arranging an outline or a draft from your sentences, suggesting edits, researching, connecting, teaching, asking your notebook and checking a page before you publish it. Paste a key from any major provider in Settings → AI, or connect OpenRouter instead. How to get an AI API key for Graphite walks through each provider: where to make a key, what light use costs, and how to cap what it can spend.

Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), Google (Gemini), xAI (Grok), Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter and the Vercel AI Gateway. Paste a key from any of them into Settings and Graphite recognises which it is — or sign in with OpenRouter instead of pasting one. You pay the provider for what you use, at their prices; Graphite never charges for the AI on your own key. A Claude or Gemini subscription can't be used by other apps — Anthropic doesn't allow it, and Google offers no way to — so for those you'd use an API key, or OpenRouter. Signing in with ChatGPT needs OpenAI's approval, which we've asked for.

You don't have to. With your own key, Graphite is free — the notebook and the Guide — and your provider bills you for the model's words. The plans that are coming will pay for what needs Graphite's own servers: Plus, a page Graphite hosts for you, and Pro, Graphite's AI too, so you won't need a key at all.

In the Mac app, in a folder of plain markdown files on your Mac: Documents/Graphite/My notebook for a new one, or any folder you open with Open folder as notebook… in the File menu. In a browser, in that browser's storage on that device, which a browser may clear — Safari does after about a week without a visit — so keep a copy now and then with Settings › Notebook › Keep a copy, as markdown files in a .zip or a folder. If you used Graphite in a browser at graphite-silk.vercel.app before 28 October, your notes are still there: open that address and keep a copy. Unzipped, the copy is a folder the Mac app opens as a notebook; the browser notebook can't load one yet.

Not yet. The desktop app is for Macs with Apple silicon, on macOS 13 or later. On an Intel Mac, Windows or Linux, use Graphite in your browser, with your notes stored in that browser.

Yes, in your phone's browser. Write a note, arrange the Inbox, read and edit notes, add a receipt, or ask Graphite from its button above the bar at the bottom. The sidebar, the note and the margin open one at a time so your note has room. Notes and receipts stay in that browser on that device; they don't sync with the Mac app or another browser. Export a copy to keep them. There's no separate phone app yet.

In the Mac app, yes: writing, linking, searching and the Map work offline, because your notes are files on your Mac. In a browser, the notebook needs a connection to open, and your notes are kept by that browser. Anything that asks your AI provider — the Guide, and most of what the Graphite button's card suggests — needs a connection in both.