Heptabase
Card-and-whiteboard knowledge base with an AI agent and tutor
Overview
Heptabase is a visual knowledge base: write notes on cards, arrange them on whiteboards, and pull in PDF highlights, YouTube transcripts and journals. An AI agent, AI tutor and MCP and CLI access sit on top. Plans are paid, from $8.99 a month billed yearly, apart from a limited free plan for invited collaborators.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 12 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- Unlimited notes, whiteboards and tags
- Unlimited collaborator invites
- PDF highlights and YouTube transcripts
- AI agent (Gemini models only), 100 AI credits a month
- Everything in Pro
- Unlimited PDF uploads and OCR
- AI agent with GPT, Claude and Gemini; AI tutor
- 1,800 AI credits a month
- Everything in Premium
- 8,100 AI credits a month
- 33% discount on extra AI credits
Use cases
What you can produce with Heptabase
- Notes on cards arranged on infinite whiteboards
- Bi-directional links between cards and whiteboards
- An AI agent that reads, searches and reorganises cards, or breaks a book into a citation-backed whiteboard
- PDF highlights and YouTube transcripts in the same library
- Daily journals and a web clipper
- Notes readable and editable by Claude, ChatGPT or coding agents through MCP, the CLI or plugins
- Readwise and Zotero integrations
Heptabase pairs an infinite whiteboard with card-based notes, PDF annotation and daily journals, plus an AI agent and tutor that work over your own library. Its strength is the spatial canvas for working through complex topics, and the team ships updates every few days.
There is no self-serve free plan, only a seven-day trial; Pro's AI is limited to Gemini models and 100 credits a month; and there is no full REST API, though MCP, a CLI and ChatGPT and Claude plugins cover most agent access. Built for deep work, not task management.
What we found
Heptabase remains independent and ships at a fast clip: the desktop app reached v1.112.3 on 9 October 2026, and the changelog shows releases every few days, including an AI agent on mobile, a ChatGPT plugin in September and a Claude plugin in October. The operating company, Hepta Platforms, Inc., says it raised nearly $1.7 million in seed funding in early 2022 from investors including Y Combinator, Kleiner Perkins and HOF Capital, and that it has been cash-flow positive since its first year.
Pricing changed shape in 2026. A Premium+ tier arrived in March, and the three plans now differ mainly in AI: Pro carries 100 credits a month and Gemini models only, Premium 1,800 credits with GPT, Claude and Gemini models, and Premium+ 8,100. Billed yearly they work out to $8.99, $17.99 and $53.99 a month; month to month they cost $11.99, $23.99 and $71.99. Earlier versions of this page labelled the yearly rates as monthly and mentioned a lifetime option that Heptabase does not offer. There is a seven-day trial, and the only free plan is for people invited as collaborators, who can edit shared whiteboards but get no journal, card library or AI.
The core idea is unchanged. Notes live on cards, cards are arranged on whiteboards, and PDF highlights, YouTube transcripts and journal entries feed the same library, tied together by bi-directional links. The desktop app keeps a local database for offline use. There is still no general public REST API, but an MCP server, a command-line tool and the two chatbot plugins now let outside agents read and write notes.
We could not trace the user sentiment an earlier version of this review summarised, so we make no claim about it. The changelog does show repeated performance work on large whiteboards.
Heptabase suits students, researchers and writers who will arrange their notes spatially. Anyone who mainly wants quick capture, task management or a free tool will be better served elsewhere.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Heptabase's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Heptabase unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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