Notion AI Review

If you’re already living in Notion for your notes, docs, and project management, Notion AI feels like a natural extension of your workspace. Rather than being another standalone AI tool requiring constant tab-switching, it lives right where you’re already working—which turns out to be more valuable than you might think.

Launched in early 2023, Notion AI represents a different philosophy from tools like ChatGPT or Claude. Instead of being the star of the show, it’s designed to be a helpful assistant that fades into the background, only appearing when you need it.

The Convenience Factor

The killer feature of Notion AI isn’t any particular capability—it’s context. When you’re already writing a project brief in Notion and need to brainstorm ideas, you don’t have to switch to ChatGPT, copy-paste context, get a response, and paste it back. You just hit Space, type your prompt, and keep working.

This seamless integration shines in several scenarios:

Meeting notes become infinitely more useful. After dumping your raw notes into a page, Notion AI can extract action items, summarize key decisions, and even draft follow-up emails—all without leaving the document.

Writing assistance feels natural because Notion AI understands the context of your entire page. Ask it to expand a bullet point into a paragraph, and it maintains the tone and style of what you’ve already written.

Brainstorming sessions benefit from having AI right in your workspace. Dump initial thoughts, have Notion AI generate variations or additional ideas, then organize them using Notion’s databases and views.

Documentation gets less painful. Point Notion AI at your messy notes and ask it to create proper documentation, FAQs, or tutorials. The results need editing, but it handles the heavy lifting of structure and initial draft.

What It Does Well (and Doesn’t)

Notion AI excels at quick, contextual tasks within your existing workflow. Need to fix grammar? Done in seconds. Want a different tone for a paragraph? Easy. Translate a page to another language? No problem.

Where it shines:

• Summarizing existing content in your workspace
• Editing and improving text you’ve already written
• Quick translations of pages or sections
• Extracting action items from meeting notes
• Generating outlines based on your ideas

Where it struggles:

• Complex research tasks - It’s not connected to the web like Perplexity
• Long-form original content - Quality lags behind dedicated writing tools
• Advanced reasoning - Not as capable as GPT-4 or Claude for complex problems
• Specialized knowledge - Lacks the depth of domain-specific tools

Think of Notion AI as a really smart intern who knows your workspace inside-out but hasn’t read much outside of it. Great for execution and polish, less impressive for deep thinking or research.

The Economics Make Sense

At $10/month per user (added to your Notion plan), the pricing is refreshingly straightforward. No tokens to track, no usage limits, no surprise bills.

For Notion power users, this is an easy decision. You’re already paying for Notion (Free to $12+/user/month), and adding AI for $10 is cheaper than subscribing to ChatGPT Plus ($20) while offering tighter integration.

For casual Notion users, the math is trickier. If you’re on the free plan and only occasionally use Notion, spending $10/month for AI might not make sense when free alternatives exist.

The value calculation depends entirely on how central Notion is to your workflow. If you’re in Notion daily, it’s a no-brainer. If you open it monthly, skip it.

Should You Add It to Your Notion?

The decision framework is simple:

Get Notion AI if:

• You use Notion daily for work or personal projects
• You’re already comfortable with AI tools
• You want AI integrated into your workflow, not separate
• You frequently write, edit, or organize content in Notion
• You value convenience over cutting-edge capabilities

Skip it if:

• You rarely use Notion
• You need advanced AI for research or complex tasks
• You’re happy tab-switching to ChatGPT
• Budget is tight and you can use free alternatives
• You need specialized AI tools for your domain

The Verdict

Notion AI isn’t trying to replace ChatGPT or Claude—and that’s perfectly fine. It’s designed to make your Notion experience better, and it succeeds at that specific goal.

The integration is genuinely seamless, the pricing is fair for regular Notion users, and it handles everyday tasks competently. You won’t be blown away by its capabilities, but you’ll appreciate having it when you need quick assistance without breaking your flow.

For Notion enthusiasts, it’s an easy recommendation. For everyone else, evaluate how much you actually use Notion before subscribing.

Best for: Daily Notion users, teams already on Notion, productivity enthusiasts, anyone wanting AI integrated into their workflow.

Skip if: Casual Notion users, need advanced AI capabilities, want standalone AI tool, working on complex research or analysis.