Notion
Docs, wikis and databases in one workspace, with AI that can write inside a page and answer questions across everything the workspace holds.
What you'd use it for
Keeping a company's notes, SOPs, wikis and light databases in one searchable place, with AI that can answer questions across all of it rather than one document at a time.
- Ask a question across every document in the workspace and get an answer pulled from the page that actually contains it, on the Business plan
- Turn a recorded meeting into a summary with action items and follow-ups, on the Business plan
- Draft or rewrite text inside a page without leaving it, on any plan's AI trial
- Autofill a database's fields from existing rows so a table fills itself in
- Track subtasks and dependencies inside a database, with basic forms to intake new records
The verdict
Notion earns its place when a company's documents, SOPs and light databases genuinely live in one workspace, because that is what makes the AI able to answer questions across the whole thing rather than one pasted file. The AI that actually does that work sits on the Business plan at $20 per member per month, and Custom Agents add a second, credit-metered bill on top of that. It suits an organisation that will put in the effort to keep a real, structured knowledge base current. It is a poor fit for a team that mainly wants records other software reads and writes reliably, or an AI layer bolted onto notes nobody maintains.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 per member / month | One person, or a small team keeping notes and light records. | Databases with subtasks and dependencies, basic forms, basic sites, Notion Calendar, trial AI. |
| Plus | $10 per member / month | A team that has outgrown the free limits on uploads and collaboration. | Custom forms and sites, unlimited charts, unlimited collaborative blocks, unlimited file uploads, basic connections. |
| Business | $20 per member / month | Businesses that want the agent and search features, not just the documents. | Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes, Enterprise Search, SAML SSO, granular database permissions, private teamspaces. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Organisations with a security function. | Zero data retention with LLM providers, SCIM provisioning, audit log, advanced security controls, customer success manager. |
| Custom Agents (add-on) | Free to try, then $10 per 1,000 monthly Notion credits | Teams building agents that do repeated work inside the workspace. | Credit-metered agent runs on top of a paid plan. |
Read from Notion's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- An email address or Google account to sign up; no credit card for the free plan
- The Business plan, at $20 per member per month, for Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search
A few minutes to sign up and get an empty workspace with a first page; realistically a few days of migrating and structuring existing notes before the AI retrieval has enough to search.
Your first run You sign up with an email or Google account, name a workspace, and land on an empty page within a couple of minutes; the AI trial can generate a first doc or autofill a database on the spot, but the AI actually feels useful once you have brought in a real body of notes for it to search.
Where it breaks
The agent features that justify the price sit on the Business tier at $20 per member per month, which is double Plus, and the per-member pricing means a five-person team is at $1,200 a year before any AI credits. Those credits are billed separately at $10 per 1,000, so the real cost of running an agent regularly is not visible from the pricing page. Notion is also easy to over-build: a workspace that models everything becomes a workspace nobody outside the person who built it can navigate.
Browser, macOS and Windows desktop apps, iOS and Android. The desktop app is the same product in a window. Notion Calendar is a separate application that installs alongside it.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for a team whose workspace would just be scattered pages nobody keeps current — the AI retrieval only works if the underlying documents are actually organised and maintained. Not for anyone who needs software-grade records, such as invoices or data other apps sync with, rather than documents; that is Airtable's job. Not worth paying for on the strength of the AI alone: the features that justify the price sit on the Business plan at $20 per member per month, double the Plus tier, which removes storage and collaboration limits but adds no intelligence.
Notion’s actual product is the fact that everything is in one place. Notes, the client list, the SOP nobody can find, the meeting record — all of it in a single searchable workspace, which is what makes an AI layer over the top worth anything.
An assistant that can answer from your whole company’s written record is a different proposition from one that can answer from a document you pasted. That is why the AI features sit where they do: the value is not the writing, it is the retrieval.
Where the money is
The tier that matters is Business, at $20 per member per month, because that is where Notion Agent, AI Meeting Notes and Enterprise Search live. Plus at $10 removes limits; it does not add intelligence.
Then there is a second meter. Custom Agents are billed in credits at $10 per 1,000 monthly credits, on top of the seat price. Budget for both or you will be surprised.
The comparison that matters
Against Airtable, the split is honest and clean: Notion is a document tool with a database inside it, Airtable is a database with a friendly surface. If the thing you need is records that other software reads and writes reliably, Airtable is built for that. If the thing you need is your company’s knowledge in one searchable place, this is.
Notion is connected and it acts when asked. Unattended work still belongs to Make or n8n.
Alternatives
Records & databasesAppsAirtable
A database that looks like a spreadsheet, with an API, forms, views and AI fields on top — the place most small businesses end up keeping the records an automation needs to read and write.
Documents & filesAppsConfluence
Atlassian's team wiki, where Atlassian Intelligence summarises long pages and answers questions from your own documentation on request.
Records & databasesAgentsClickUp
Tasks, docs, goals and dashboards in one workspace, with an AI layer that summarises, writes and answers questions across everything you have stored in it.
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