Heptabase review

Heptabase is a visual knowledge base for learning, research, and note-taking. Its main workspace is a whiteboard where you arrange note cards, sources, and other materials to make sense of a topic. Cards can connect to related notes through bi-directional links, and sources, highlights, notes, and discussions can live together in the same knowledge base.

The product also includes PDF annotation and offline access to notes and files. Its AI can help explain sources, take notes, and organize information. That makes Heptabase a focused research and learning tool, not a general-purpose workspace by default. The distinction matters if you are comparing it with Notion: a commenter in an r/IAmA thread said they still returned to Notion for relational databases, multiple views, and button-based automation. Heptabase is aimed at visualizing connected knowledge, rather than reproducing every database workflow.

Heptabase’s clearest strength is turning research into something you can arrange and revisit. Whiteboards and reusable cards let you group ideas visually; links connect notes, while PDFs can be annotated as part of the research workflow. Offline access is useful when you need your notes and files without an internet connection. The product is built around understanding complex topics, rather than treating notes as a pile of pages.

Its paid plans have room to grow with heavier AI use:

• Pro is $11.99 monthly or $8.99 per month with annual billing. It includes unlimited notes, whiteboards, tags, image uploads, and collaborator invites, plus 100 AI credits monthly. Its AI agent uses Gemini models only.
• Premium is $23.99 monthly or $17.99 per month with annual billing. It adds unlimited PDF uploads and parsing, unlimited Q&A with basic AI models, an AI agent using GPT, Claude, and Gemini, and 1,800 monthly AI credits.
• Premium+ is $71.99 monthly or $53.99 per month with annual billing, with 8,100 monthly AI credits and a 33% discount on AI credits.

According to the published pricing information, annual billing saves 25%. That makes the cost and AI allowance easier to compare before switching.

Heptabase is not the cheap option, and there is no free plan listed. Pro starts at $11.99 monthly, or $8.99 per month on annual billing, but it has only 100 AI credits a month and limits the AI agent to Gemini. Unlimited PDF uploads and parsing start at Premium, which costs $23.99 monthly or $17.99 per month annually. Premium+ is $71.99 monthly or $53.99 per month annually; its AI-credit add-on prices are not published. A free trial is not listed either.

It may also be the wrong fit if you depend on database views and automation. In an r/IAmA thread, a user said they went back to Notion for relational databases, varied views, and buttons. Other Heptabase users have asked for better tag tables and Kanban views, reported slow performance on large whiteboards, and said iPad handwriting was not available at the time of their comments. These are user reports, not universal findings, but they point to trade-offs worth checking against your workflow. Choose Heptabase for visual research; skip it if you need a cheap, database-heavy notes app.

According to the pricing information checked November 7, 2026, Heptabase has no free plan. Pro costs $11.99 per month, or $8.99 per month with annual billing. It includes unlimited notes, whiteboards, tags, image uploads and collaborator invites, plus 100 AI credits monthly; its AI agent uses Gemini models only.

Premium is $23.99 monthly or $17.99 per month annually—about twice Pro’s price. It adds unlimited PDF uploads and parsing, unlimited Q&A with basic AI models, access to GPT, Claude and Gemini in the AI agent, and 1,800 monthly credits. Premium+ costs $71.99 monthly or $53.99 annually. That steep jump buys 8,100 credits monthly and a 33% discount on AI credits; add-on prices are not published.

The listed annual rates are monthly equivalents, and annual billing saves 25%. If you need more than Pro’s AI allowance, compare Premium’s included credits with your expected use before committing. The pricing information does not specify a free trial.

Switching effort is hard to estimate from the available information: it describes Heptabase’s notes, cards, whiteboards, PDF annotation and links, but not import tools, export formats or migration steps. Those details matter if you are moving a large library or expect to leave later. Check whether your current app’s content can be exported in a format Heptabase accepts, and confirm how you can export your Heptabase data before moving important research.

The published product information also does not include Reddit reports, so we can’t attribute reasons for leaving to users there. The practical reasons to hesitate are clearer: Heptabase has no free plan, and its pricing climbs sharply if you need more AI credits or broader model access. It may also be a poor fit if you rely on relational databases or iPad handwriting, according to the stated product verdict. If those are central to your workflow, compare alternatives before rebuilding your notes and whiteboards in Heptabase.