Google Keep review: price, free version and privacy

Our verdict

Pick Google Keep for quick ideas, reminders and shared lists, especially if you already use Google services. Students who need full notebooks or PDF annotation should use it next to a dedicated note app, not instead of one.

What Google Keep is

Google Keep is a free note app where notes, checklists, photos, drawings and voice memos sit in a grid of colored cards. The description says voice memos are transcribed automatically, text in images becomes searchable, and reminders can fire at a set time or when you reach a place. Notes can be shared and edited with others in real time and sync across phone, tablet and computer, including keep.google.com.

Who it suits

• Quick notes and to-do lists
• Shared checklists with family or classmates
• Time and location reminders

Strengths

• Completely free, with no in-app purchases listed
• Time-based and location-based reminders attached to notes
• Real-time shared lists, as a screenshot shows with two collaborators on one checklist
• Automatic transcription of voice memos and searchable text from images, according to the description
• Syncs with the web version at keep.google.com and is offered in 73 app languages

Limits

• Organization is by labels and colors, not notebooks or folders, so a semester of lecture notes is hard to browse
• The listing describes no PDF annotation and no page layout for long study notes
• The privacy label links 9 data types to you, including location, contacts and search history
• Requires iOS 18.0 or later

What the free version does

Everything is free. The listing shows no in-app purchases and the description does not mention a paid tier.

Price

Google Keep is free on the US App Store in November 2026, with no in-app purchases listed.

Privacy

No tracking is declared, but 9 data types are linked to you: location, contact info, contacts, user content, search history, identifiers, usage data, diagnostics and other data.

What the screenshots show

The screenshots show a grid of pinned, colored notes (an address, a photo, a drawing and a shopping list) and a shared camping checklist with two collaborators' avatars.