Your Private
AI Notebook
A free note-taking app with powerful local AI that never leaves your device.
A new Safe Mode launch path lets even an 8 GB Mac open Canto without crashing. Low Memory Mode is far more aggressive too \u2014 typically freeing more than a gigabyte of RAM \u2014 and the Memory dashboard finally agrees with Activity Monitor.
v0.5.12 makes Canto launch on the Mac you actually own.
If your Mac is short on memory at launch — or if Canto crashed on the previous launch — Canto now boots into a deliberately stripped-down mode instead of failing. Notes, editor, and search work normally; AI features pause until you opt back in with one click.
The master toggle now tightens chat-model cache, vision context, the document database, embeddings, and renderer cleanup all at once — typically freeing more than a gigabyte of RAM on machines running chat and vision side by side.
When the model you have loaded is too big for the memory you have right now, the Memory panel suggests the largest already-downloaded model that will fit — and the same recommendation drives the Safe Mode banner’s Load chat model button.
The dashboard now sums every Canto process — main app, every window, helpers, the vision worker — instead of only the main one. A new Processes section breaks the total down so you can see exactly which subsystem is heavy.
Each row in the Memory dashboard used to say INACTIVE for two completely different things. They’re now distinct: IDLE for “loaded but resting” and LM OFF for “the master switch is off”, with matching dot colors.
A tighter, more powerful way to explore the product.
Canto is dense software. The page now surfaces the most important workflows upfront, then expands only where the extra detail actually helps.
Agent Chat
Search notes, draft revisions, and inspect changes before they land.
@ Mentions
Pin notes, cells, attachments, or past sessions as structured AI context.
Selection AI
Rewrite, summarize, or expand highlighted text.
Code Notebooks
Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript live beside your writing.
Memory Links
Surface related notes by meaning, not just keywords.
Knowledge Graph
Explore your vault as a living graph.
Vault Manager
Batch-organize note titles, folders, and tags with review-first AI.
Live Transcription
Turn spoken audio into searchable, editable notes while you work.
Let an agent draft, revise, and inspect changes before they land.
Agent Chat is one of the best reasons to try Canto. Recent releases added live streaming progress on long tool calls, per-step durations, and interleaved reasoning, so a heavy multi-step run feels less like a black box and more like a colleague thinking out loud.
- Live "Preparing… N characters" readout during long tool calls
- Per-step wall-clock durations next to every timestamp
- Reasoning interleaved with the tool calls it led to
- Saved chat history per note or notebook with cleaner browsing
- Diff review before any change actually lands in your notes
Address anything in your vault, then drive the agent with one keystroke.
The latest releases give every important thing in Canto an address. Type @ to pin a notebook cell, a note, an attachment, a past chat session, or whatever you have selected. Type / to run a quick command or kick off a multi-step skill — no more describing what you want in prose and hoping the AI guesses right.
Five providers ship today: selection, cell, note, attachment, and session. Each one becomes a typed pill the AI can resolve unambiguously.
The old Ask AI modal is gone. Type / for quick commands or full multi-step skills, with AI-titled sessions that auto-organize.
- Live by default — pinned mentions re-resolve at submit so the AI sees your latest content
- Lock any pill to freeze a specific version while you keep editing
- Mention-only submits — pin a few items, hit Enter, and let the AI infer the task
- Token-budget readout shows what your pinned context will roughly cost
- Sessions tied to the current note float to the top of the @session dropdown
- Free users get selections, cells, the active note, and its attachments; Pro unlocks vault-wide search and past sessions
Ten built-in models, plus room to bring your own.
Canto ships with a real model lineup, not a single hidden endpoint. Connected models also show clearer read and reply limits, so choosing the right one feels less like guesswork.
A degraded but usable launch path for low-memory or post-crash boots. Canto skips the chat model, vision worker, voice transcription, and link search so the editor and your notes always come up. One click brings AI back online — and if your last model is too big, Canto suggests a smaller one you already have.
Bypass the RAM safety check to load larger models on smaller Macs. May reduce context window or cause instability. v0.5.12 makes the toggle considerably more aggressive — chat-model cache, vision context, the document database, embeddings, and renderer cleanup all tighten the moment you flip it.
Use each model’s full context window instead of the conservative 32K default — up to 262K tokens for long documents and deep research sessions.
Connect Ollama or LM Studio to use any local model you’ve downloaded — or route through Ollama to cloud providers like OpenAI and Anthropic. Works alongside your built-in models.
Search the web without breaking your note flow.
The new web search flow in Canto keeps current sources inside the same workspace as your notes. Pull in newer information, compare it against your existing thinking, and turn results into drafts without context switching.
- Search fresh sources without jumping out to the browser
- Pull relevant findings straight back into your notes
- Compare external results against your local knowledge base
- Keep research, drafting, and revision in one loop
Clean up a messy vault with batch actions you can still review.
Vault Manager makes large-scale organization feel safer. You can group, rename, retag, and move notes in bulk, then inspect the plan before the changes land.
- Batch rename, move, and retag notes from one workspace
- Preview the suggested structure before applying it
- Keep AI-assisted cleanup reviewable instead of opaque
- Useful when your vault has grown faster than your folder system
Capture spoken ideas and turn them into notes while the conversation is happening.
Live Transcription brings audio directly into your note workflow. Record thoughts, meetings, or interviews, then keep the transcript searchable, editable, and close to the rest of your research.
- Transcribe speech into notes as the session unfolds
- Keep transcripts searchable and editable after capture
- Useful for meetings, lectures, brainstorming, and interviews
- Fits naturally beside summaries, follow-up notes, and linked documents
See It in Action
Watch how Canto transforms your documents, connects your ideas, and edits your notes with AI.
Agent Chat in Action
Watch the agent search your notes, write a summary, and ask for approval before making changes — all without leaving your editor.
Chat with Your PDFs
Attach any PDF and ask questions directly. Extract insights, summarize sections, and cross-reference with your existing notes — all without uploading to the cloud.
Split Panes & Tab Cycling
Drag any tab into a second or third pane. Use Ctrl+Tab to cycle through every open note across all panes without touching your mouse.
Discover Related Notes
Search through thousands of notes instantly. Canto understands meaning, not just keywords, surfacing relevant ideas and connections you might have forgotten.
Nothing. Ever. Leaves. Your. Device.
All AI runs locally. Your notes are stored in an encrypted SQLite database on your Mac. No cloud. No telemetry on your content. No exceptions.
What You Can Do with Canto
One app for writing, thinking, coding, and organizing — all powered by private AI.
Research & Analyze
Drop PDFs, papers, and documents into Canto. Summarize, extract insights, and connect ideas across sources — all without uploading anything to the cloud.
Write & Run Code
Prototype in Python, JavaScript, or TypeScript right inside your notes. Variables are shared across all three languages — define data in Python, transform it in JS, all in the same notebook.
Think & Draft
Brainstorm with AI, outline documents, rewrite prose, and expand ideas. Canto suggests related notes and autocompletes as you type — no internet required.
Journal & Plan
Daily notes are created automatically every morning. Capture tasks with checklists, reflect with AI assistance, and let Memory Links connect today’s thoughts to past notes.
How Canto Compares
Privacy-first local AI, multimodal document intelligence, and code notebooks. Here's how Canto stacks up.
| Feature | CantoBest | Notion | Jupyter | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inline AI tools (Cmd+K, Selection AI) | ✅ Built-in, local | ⚠️ Cloud only | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| AI Agent Chat + autonomous note edits | ✅ Multi-step, diff review | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Chat with PDFs & docs (local, cited) | ✅ Local, page-cited | ⚠️ Cloud only | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Image & video AI understanding | ✅ On-device vision + Whisper | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| MCP server (agent integrations) | ✅ Built-in | ❌ No | ❌ No | ⚠️ Plugins |
| Execute code in notebooks | ✅ Python, JS/TS (shared vars) | ❌ No | ✅ Python only | ⚠️ Plugin/DIY |
| Semantic linking (auto) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Manual only | ❌ No | ⚠️ Plugins |
| Knowledge graph | ✅ Built-in | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Built-in |
| Works offline (AI + code) | ✅ 100% | ❌ Cloud only | ⚠️ Server needed | ⚠️ No AI |
| Privacy (local-first) | ✅ 100% local | ❌ Cloud storage | ✅ Local | ✅ Local |
| Pricing model | One-time $14.99 | $10-15/mo | Free (complex) | Free (DIY) |
Comparison based on default/typical behavior as of April 2026. Feature availability may vary by plan or configuration.
Free to Use. Pay Only for Unlimited AI.
Canto is a fully functional note-taking app for free. Upgrade once to unlock unlimited local AI — no subscriptions, ever.
No account required. Just download.
- Unlimited notes & folders
- WikiLinks + Backlinks
- Code Notebooks (Python, JS, TS)
- Encrypted exports & backups
- Split panes & daily notes
- Mermaid diagrams + LaTeX math
- Knowledge graph
- Full-text search
- Safe Mode + Low Memory Mode for tight Macs
- 10 free AI queries to try
1 device · Lifetime updates
Everything in Free, plus:
- Unlimited AI queries (no quotas)
- 10 built-in local models to choose from
- External endpoints — Ollama, LM Studio, or any OpenAI-compatible API
- Ask AI (Cmd+K) — instant prompts
- Agent Chat for multi-step tasks
- Agent edits notes with diff review
- Vault Manager for bulk organization
- Selection AI — rewrite, summarize, expand
- Memory Links + Related Notes
- Semantic search across all notes
Cheaper than 3 months of any AI subscription — and you keep it forever.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pricing, privacy, model support, and license logistics in one place.
Start free today. Upgrade once if unlimited AI becomes part of your workflow.
Keep the note-taking app for free. Unlock the heavy AI workflows only when you actually want them.
Free forever for note-taking · 10 AI queries included · Unlimited AI for $14.99 one-time