A notes app with a real API, an MCP server for your editor, and Markdown all the way through. Run the assistant on your own Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini key, with no message limit.
Get started for US$8Most notes apps keep what you write behind an interface you can only click through: no API, a plugin for everything, and an export that loses half of it. Scratchpad gives you the same access the app has, from a terminal, a script, or the assistant in your editor.
Make a token in Settings and reach your notes from a script, a cron job, or a phone shortcut. List, read, search, create, edit, and append to notes, and organise folders, with Markdown or plain text in and out.
Tokens come in three scopes. A capture token can add notes but never read one back, so a token on your phone gives nothing away if the phone is lost. The API reference.
Paste Markdown and it arrives formatted. Copy a note, or just a selection, as Markdown. Bring in a folder of .md files, an Obsidian vault, or your notes from Notion, Bear, or Evernote, folders and all.
Export everything as Markdown whenever you like, and it opens in Obsidian, iA Writer, or your editor. Nothing is stuck in a format only Scratchpad can read.
Code blocks with syntax highlighting for about 35 languages, guessed if you don't pick one, and a copy button. They work inside lists, too.
Write equations in LaTeX, inline like $x^2$ or on a line of their own, typeset as you type. Add footnotes, tables, and tabs, and keep the whole spec in one note.
One command adds it to Claude Code, and Cursor or Codex take the same address. Ask your editor what you decided in last week's notes. We're open-sourcing it soon.
Apps for Mac and Linux, with a shortcut for a new note from any app, and the web app on every phone and computer.
Export every note as Markdown in one go, or download a single note as Markdown, plain text, or JSON. Leave whenever you like, with everything.
I wanted my notes to work like the rest of my tools. Now Claude Code can read them, a script can add to them, and they're on my phone too.
No limit on assistant messages, the API and the MCP server included, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Unlimited AI assistant with your own Anthropic, OpenAI or Gemini key.
A code from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google, also called an API key, that lets the assistant run on your own account with them. You paste it into Settings, they bill you for what you use, and Scratchpad sets no limit. A ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini subscription isn't a key. Rather not deal with one? The US$12 plan runs on our key, with 500 messages a month. More about using your own key.
Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Gemini, plus any service that speaks OpenAI's format, such as OpenRouter, Groq, or DeepSeek. Your key is stored encrypted and never sent back to your browser.
List, read, and search notes, read the text inside attached files, create and edit notes, append to them, and organise folders, with a token scoped to capture, read, or full access. A token can't make another token or change your account. The reference.
No. The API and the MCP server come with both plans. The only difference is the assistant built into Scratchpad: your own key with no limit at US$8 a month, or ours with 500 messages a month at US$12.
Yes. It comes with both plans and it's documented in full. It isn't a beta.
Not yet. We're open-sourcing it soon, on GitHub. Until then, the hosted one works with any MCP client at https://app.scratchpad.sh/api/mcp. How to connect one.
No, but there's a 30-day money-back guarantee. If Scratchpad isn't for you, email us within 30 days of your first payment and we'll refund it in full.
US$12 a month, or US$8 with your own AI key. 30-day money-back guarantee.