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QOwnNotes icon

QOwnNotes

v26.11.2·Productivity

About QOwnNotes

QOwnNotes is an open-source notepad and to-do manager by Patrizio Bekerle, released under GPL-2.0. Every note is a plain-text Markdown file in a folder you choose, so you can see notes in Finder, open them in other editors and sync them with Nextcloud, ownCloud, Syncthing or Dropbox.

The Mac release is a Qt6 universal binary that runs natively on Intel and Apple silicon and requires macOS 13 Ventura or later. Written in C++, it is light on memory. It offers Markdown highlighting and preview, wiki-style links with backlinks, tabs, spellchecking, external change detection, AES-256 encryption, scripting and AI integration, plus Nextcloud features such as note versions, trash, CalDAV tasks and Deck cards.

Key features

  • Notes stored as plain-text Markdown files
  • Universal binary for Intel and Apple silicon
  • Markdown highlighting, preview and tabs
  • Wiki-style links with backlinks
  • External change detection with diff view
  • Nextcloud/ownCloud versions, trash, CalDAV tasks and Deck
  • AES-256 encryption, scripting and AI integration
  • Dockable panels, custom shortcuts and dark mode

Download via Quark Drive

Quark Drive link coming soon

We’re still preparing the Quark Drive share for this app. It will appear here once it’s ready. Tap “Request” to bump it up.

How to install

“App is damaged and can’t be opened”

Move the app into Applications, open Terminal, run this line, then open the app again:

xattr -cr "/Applications/QOwnNotes.app"
“Developer cannot be verified”

In Finder → Applications, Control-click the app, choose Open, then Open again. On macOS 15 or later: System Settings → Privacy & Security, then “Open Anyway” at the bottom.

Apple silicon or Intel?

Apple menu → About This Mac. If the chip says Apple M, pick the Apple silicon build; Universal works on both.

Check the file

Run this in Terminal and compare the result with the SHA256 listed for the cloud file:

shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/file-name

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Changelog

v26.11.2Current
Release notes
## 26.11.2 - Fixed regular expression replacements losing surrounding text context, so lookarounds and word-boundary checks work correctly, while preserving capture references and case sensitivity (for [#3831](https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes/issues/3831)) - Added an **Enable font ligatures** option in the editor font settings for regular text and code (requires Qt 6.7 or newer and a ligature-capable font; restart required) (for [#3830](https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes/issues/3830)) - Added built-in [OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai/) AI support, listed first in the AI settings with encrypted API-key storage and a connection test (for [#3829](https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes/issues/3829)) - Includes the free-only `openrouter/free` router and free Gemma 4 and Liquid LFM 2.5 models for summarizing, rewriting and organizing notes - Free model availability and rate limits can change; no paid fallback is configured - Changed the default Groq AI model to `openai/gpt-oss-20b` for users without a saved model selection, replacing the retired `llama-3.1-8b-instant` (thank you, Agustin Torres) (for [#3813](https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes/pull/3813)) - Fixed AI connection tests changing the selected backend or saved model, and made them work even when AI features are disabled - The Groq test now uses `openai/gpt-oss-20b` instead of displaying a retired model name while testing the saved model - Fixed the stored attachments and stored images dialogs …

Official changelog

FAQ

How do I download QOwnNotes?

The Quark Drive share for QOwnNotes is being prepared and will appear in the download section of this page.

Is QOwnNotes free?

QOwnNotes license: GPL-2.0. appwl only lists official builds and charges nothing for downloads.

Which systems does QOwnNotes support?

This page offers QOwnNotes for macOS, version 26.11.2.

Is QOwnNotes from appwl safe?

appwl only lists official releases with their version and date. You can verify the SHA256 using the install tips on this page.

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