The best notes apps with an MCP server (2026)

A year ago, connecting ChatGPT or Claude to your notes meant somebody’s GitHub project and an afternoon of config files.

Now 16 of the 24 notes apps we checked ship their own MCP server. So “does it have one” stopped being a useful question. The useful questions are whether the AI you use can reach it, what it’s allowed to do once it’s in, and what you pay to get there.

Those answers vary a lot more than you’d guess.

A word about us first. We make one of these apps. Harbor is in every table below on the same terms as everyone else, and it loses some rows. Last checked: September 16, 2026. We read each server’s own documentation and, where the code is public, the code. Bear’s tool list came from its server, installed on a Mac. Harbor’s came from our own source. We didn’t run a benchmark, and we won’t pretend we did. This category moves monthly — Notion changed how its search works twice in the two weeks before we wrote this.

New to MCP itself? Start here. This post assumes you know what it is and want to pick.

What we judged

Four things decide whether a notes app’s MCP server is any good to you. The number of tools isn’t one of them.

Can your AI reach it? A hosted server runs on the company’s computers, and you connect by signing in. ChatGPT’s connectors can use those, and so can Claude on your phone. A local server runs on your own computer, usually only while the notes app is open, and only AI apps on that same computer can use it. Either way, whatever the assistant reads goes to the AI company. That part never changes.

What can it actually do? Nearly all of them search, read and write. The differences are in the corners: whether search reaches the text inside scans and PDFs, whether the assistant can open an attachment, whether it can touch tags and tasks.

Can it delete, and can you rein it in? An assistant that reads your notes is useful. One that can delete them needs a leash. We looked at whether there’s a delete tool at all, whether deletes go to the trash, and whether you can make a connection read-only or limit it to part of your library.

What does it cost to get in? Some put MCP on the free plan, some behind a paid one. Some don’t say.

All of them, side by side

*Mem moves notes to the trash, but deletes collections permanently. “Not stated” means the vendor doesn’t say which plans include MCP. Tana’s hosted server needs a paid plan.

Our picks

Safest to hand an AI: Craft

Craft lets you make a connection read-only. It also lets you limit a connection to chosen documents, your daily notes and tasks, or whatever matches a search. No other hosted server on this page documents either.

It’s on Craft’s free plan, too. If what’s stopping you is “what if it wrecks something,” this is the answer. One thing to know: Craft’s own docs say ChatGPT needs a paid ChatGPT plan with developer mode switched on.

NotePlan does the same kind of thing on a Mac: a read-only switch, folder allow and deny lists, and a dry run before it moves or deletes anything, unless you switch that off. But it’s local, and it’s $99 a year with no free plan.

Best if your notes are scans and PDFs: Mem

Mem is the only server we found that documents searching inside attachments — PDFs, images, recordings — across the whole library. A separate tool reads an attachment’s contents. If your notes are receipts, contracts and photographed whiteboards, that’s the difference between an assistant that finds the document and one that finds the note it’s stapled to.

Two catches. Mem doesn’t say which plans include MCP, and notes created through it count against your plan’s allowance, which is 25 new notes a month on Free. And a collection deleted over MCP is gone for good.

Bear and Heptabase get partway there. Bear searches recognized text in one note’s images and PDFs, and Heptabase can read a processed PDF. Neither searches that text across everything at once.

We’ll come back to where Harbor stands on this, because it isn’t flattering.

Best on a Mac: Bear

Bear ships the most complete local server we found: 26 tools covering notes, tags, pins and attachments. Deletes go to the trash. Overwriting a note requires proof the assistant read the current version first, so it can’t blindly flatten an edit you just made. Since 2.9, you can limit it to certain tags or hide certain tags from it.

It’s free — the server isn’t a Bear Pro feature. The catch is the one every local server has. It’s macOS only, it works with AI apps on that Mac, and it’s no help from ChatGPT’s connectors or your phone.

Best free and open source: Joplin

Joplin’s server ships switched off, and so does every tool inside it. You turn on exactly the ones you want. That’s the most careful default on this page, and it suits the people who use Joplin.

It also does search by meaning with a model that runs on your own computer (not on Intel Macs), so “find my notes about the roof leak” works even if you never wrote the word “leak.” The server is still labeled beta, it’s desktop only, and Claude Desktop needs a small bridge program to connect.

Most reach, if your notes are really a wiki: Notion

Notion’s hosted server has 36 tools, works on the free plan, and has no delete tool at all. A lot of that list is databases, views, comments and Notion’s own agents. Great if Notion runs your team. Less relevant if it holds your recipes.

Two things to know. Search changed twice in early September, and search by meaning now needs Notion AI. And no delete tool doesn’t mean no damage — an assistant can still rewrite a page. Notion suggests turning on your AI app’s confirm-before-changes setting. Do.

On Evernote now? It has one, and it costs you

Evernote’s server is real, hosted and in beta: 28 tools, including search by meaning, attachments, and deletes that go to the trash.

It isn’t on Free. The cheapest plan with MCP is Starter, at $99 a year with a 1,000-note cap, and Free is down to 50 notes anyway. Evernote’s own pages disagree about what the server does, too. A help article says it can read and create notes, while the developer docs list 28 tools including edit and delete. Go by the developer docs, and look at what the plans actually cost before you pay for this.

Harbor: where we sit, and where we lose

Here’s ours, on the same terms.

Harbor’s server is hosted. You add https://app.harbor.my/mcp to Claude or ChatGPT as a connector and sign in, and that’s the whole setup. It works in Claude on the web, desktop and phone, and in ChatGPT.

What we’d point to:

• No delete tool. An assistant can create, append to, move, tag and file notes. It can’t delete one. It can rewrite a note, and the earlier version stays in that note’s history.
• The access only works for MCP. The token your assistant holds is refused everywhere else in Harbor’s API.
• Its edits are labeled. Every change is recorded against a device called mcp, so you can tell its work from yours.
• No plan gate. It works on the free start and on the one paid plan, $99 a year. There’s no higher tier to upgrade to.

Where others beat us:

• You can’t make it read-only or limit it to one notebook. Craft does both. We don’t.
• Its search doesn’t reach the text inside attachments. Harbor OCRs your images and PDFs, and search in our apps finds that text. Over MCP, though, search covers note titles, text and tags. The assistant can open an image and read it, but it has to find the note first. Mem does this better.
• No search by meaning. Evernote, Mem, Heptabase and Joplin have it. Ours is keyword search, with the same query syntax as Harbor’s search box.

And one limit we’d keep even if we could drop it. Encrypted notes never reach an assistant — not the note, not the scrambled text, just a marker saying it’s locked.

Built around AI: Notejoy and Hjarni

Two apps sit near the top of Google for this question, partly because each wrote a page answering it.

Notejoy is hosted, free, has an Evernote importer, and has release notes going back to 2016. Its help page calls its server “the most robust MCP server amongst the notes app currently on the market.” It has 21 tools, and none of them edit tags, open attachments or touch tasks. Bear, Mem, Evernote, Notion and Hjarni all expose more. It’s a perfectly good server. It isn’t the most robust one.

Hjarni was built for this from the start: about 40 tools, attachments, a version history you can roll back, and a listing in Claude’s connector directory. It was founded in 2026 by one developer, its phone apps launched in August, it has no Evernote import, and its free plan stops at 25 notes.

Neither is a bad pick. If you’re moving a big library, weigh the importer and the track record as heavily as the tool list.

The rest

• Capacities is hosted, listed in both ChatGPT’s and Claude’s directories, with 15 tools and no delete tool. Each connection covers one space. It needs Pro, $119.88 a year.
• Heptabase is hosted, with 19 tools and no way to delete or upload. It doesn’t say which plans include MCP, and there’s no free plan to try it on.
• Tana’s outliner runs a free local server that’s on by default, plus a hosted one in beta that needs a paid plan.
• Reflect is local, Mac only and in beta. Its own setup guide says ChatGPT Desktop isn’t supported.
• Anytype is local and free, with 34 tools. Its search matches titles and snippets, not the full text of a note.
• Logseq built a server into its new database version, which is itself in beta. Six tools, no delete.
• Obsidian has no official server. The plugin nearly everyone uses, Local REST API, added MCP in May 2026. It’s excellent, and it’s one developer’s project. It has no read-only mode, and one of its tools can run any Obsidian command.

The ones without one

• Apple Notes — none from Apple. Community projects fill in, on a Mac.
• Microsoft OneNote — none. Microsoft ships official MCP servers for Word, mail, Teams and OneDrive. OneNote isn’t among them.
• Google Keep — none. Google’s Workspace servers cover Gmail, Drive, Docs and more, but not Keep.
• UpNote — none, and no public API to build one on.
• Notesnook — none, on purpose. In April its maintainers declined a contributed MCP server and said a command-line tool is the plan instead.
• Standard Notes — none.
• Supernotes — not yet. Its team said in June that it’s building a hosted one.

If you’re weighing a move off one of these for this reason, our Evernote alternatives comparison covers everything else that matters.

So which one?

Pick the notes app first. An MCP server is a door, and the room behind it is the thing you’ll live in for years.

Then check three things before you connect anything: whether your AI can reach it, whether it can delete, and whether you can narrow what it sees. They take five minutes to find out, and they’re the part a tool count leaves out.

Sources

Checked September 16, 2026: Anytype MCP · Bear command-line tool and MCP · Bear 2.9 · Capacities MCP · Craft MCP · Craft MCP security · Evernote MCP tools · Evernote compare plans · Heptabase MCP · Hjarni MCP · Joplin MCP · Logseq database version · Mem MCP tools · Microsoft MCP servers · Google Workspace MCP servers · Notejoy MCP · NotePlan MCP · Notesnook’s decision · Notion MCP tools · Obsidian Local REST API · Reflect and AI · Supernotes MCP thread · Tana local API and MCP · Harbor MCP.