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The best brain dump app depends on how you empty your head

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The best brain dump app is often the one already on your phone: Apple Notes or Google Keep, both free. If you'd rather talk than type, AudioPen turns a spoken ramble into clean text. If your brain dump is mostly tasks, Todoist's free plan catches them fast. And if you want the dump to sit next to the week it has to fit into, Carnet has a brain dump page every day, for $10 a month.

We make Carnet, so read this page with that in mind. For every other product, we read its own site, pricing page or store listing on October 9, 2026. We did not run a lab test. The sources are listed at the bottom.

Brain dump apps at a glance

AppBest forPriceFree planPlatforms
Apple NotesTyping it out with zero setup, on Apple devicesFreeYes, all of itiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple Vision, iCloud.com
Google KeepZero setup on Android, or across Android and iPhoneFreeYes, all of itAndroid, iPhone, iPad, computer, Wear OS
AudioPenTalking instead of typing$99 a year for PrimeYes, recordings up to 3 minutesWeb, iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, Apple Watch
TodoistA brain dump that is mostly tasksPro at $7 a month, or $5 a month billed yearlyYes, 5 personal projectsMac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple Watch, Wear OS
CarnetA daily brain dump page next to your week$10 a monthNo. 7-day free trial, card requiredWeb browser on computer, tablet and phone. No native app
WorkflowyOne long outline you indent as you goPro at $8.99 a month, or $6.99 a month billed annuallyYes, 100 nodes a monthWeb, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux
NotionKeeping the dump inside a workspace you already usePlus at $12 a month, or $10 a month billed yearlyYes, for individualsMac, Windows, iOS, Android

A brain dump needs very little: a blank space that opens fast and doesn't ask you to file anything first. Every app below gives you that. What differs is what happens afterward, when the list has to become a week.

1. Apple Notes: the free one you already have

Apple Notes comes with the iPhone, iPad and Mac, and syncs through iCloud. Apple's listing describes a Quick Note you can start from Control Center without opening the app, checklists, and audio you can record and have transcribed inside a note.

Price: free.

Pick it if you use Apple devices and you want to start tonight, with nothing to install and nothing to learn.

Skip it if you use Android or Windows. Away from Apple devices, you're left with iCloud.com in a browser. And keep in mind that a note is not a plan: once you've sorted the dump, the tasks still need somewhere to go.

2. Google Keep: free, on Android, iPhone and your computer

Keep is Google's notes app. Its store listings describe notes, lists, photos and audio, voice memos that are transcribed automatically, labels and colors to organize, and reminders attached to a note. Everything syncs across your phone, tablet and computer, and there are widgets to capture a thought from an Android home screen.

Price: free with a Google account.

Pick it if you're on Android, or you move between an Android phone and another device, and you want a brain dump you can type or speak.

Skip it if your brain dumps run long. In our reading, Keep is most comfortable with short notes and lists, and fifty unsorted lines are easier to work through on a full page. Like Apple Notes, it holds the dump but not the week.

3. AudioPen: for people who think out loud

AudioPen is a voice app. You talk, it transcribes what you said, then rewrites it as clean text at the level of rewriting you choose. It supports a long list of languages, and one account works on the web, iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows and Apple Watch.

Price: free with limits, the main one being that a recording stops at three minutes. AudioPen Prime raises that to 15 minutes and makes recordings unlimited. It costs $33 for three months, $99 for a year or $159 for two years.

Pick it if typing is what stops you. Talking while you walk can get more out of your head than staring at a cursor.

Skip it if you expect the result to land in a planner. AudioPen gives you text. Deciding what happens on Tuesday is still yours. And three minutes is short for a full brain dump, so on the free plan you'll record in pieces.

4. Todoist: when the dump is mostly tasks

Todoist is a to-do list app. Two of its features matter for a brain dump: Smart Quick Add, for entering tasks fast, and Ramble, which captures tasks by talking.

Price: the free plan, called Beginner, includes 5 personal projects, Smart Quick Add, task reminders and a limited number of Ramble sessions each month. Pro costs $7 a month, or $5 a month billed yearly ($60 a year), with unlimited Ramble.

Pick it if what's in your head is a pile of things to do, and you want each one to become a task with a reminder. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple Watch and Wear OS.

Skip it if half of what you write isn't a task. A worry, an idea, a sentence you want to keep: in a task manager, each of those turns into one more box to check, and the list grows instead of shrinking.

5. Carnet: a brain dump page next to your week

Carnet is our product: a weekly planner in the browser, born from a paper bullet journal. Every day has a brain dump page, a free page to empty your head and sort later. Next to it, the week sits on a two-page spread with seven day boxes, a "This week" box for tasks that don't have a day yet, and a Notes box for what isn't a task.

So the sorting has somewhere to go. "Send the invoice" goes in Wednesday's box. "Follow up with the landlord" waits in This week. "Idea for Dad's birthday" goes to Notes. Search finds a page from one word, so last month's dump isn't lost. Carnet has no AI: you do the sorting.

Price: $10 a month during the open beta. One plan, cancel anytime.

Pick it if writing the list was never the hard part, what happens to it afterward is, and you want the page and the week in the same place.

Skip it if you want a free tool or a native app: Carnet has no free plan, only a 7-day free trial (card required), and it runs in the browser, with nothing to download from an app store.

6. Workflowy: one long outline

Workflowy is a single bulleted list. You press Enter for a new item and Tab to indent it under the one above, as deep as you like. Click a bullet and it becomes the whole screen. Its site promises no documents and no folders.

Price: the free Basic plan includes every feature but limits you to 100 nodes a month, a node being one item in your list. Past the limit you can still add items, and a popup invites you to subscribe. Pro costs $8.99 a month, or $6.99 a month billed annually, with a 7-day trial.

Pick it if you think in outlines. You dump flat, then indent lines under each other until groups appear. That is sorting, done in place.

Skip it if you plan to stay on the free plan and dump every day. At 25 lines a morning, you reach 100 items in four days.

7. Notion: only if you already live there

Notion is a workspace of pages and databases. Its Free plan is aimed at individuals, with unlimited pages and blocks for a single person. It has desktop apps for Mac and Windows and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Price: free for individuals. The first paid plan, Plus, costs $12 per member a month billed monthly, or $10 billed yearly.

Pick it if your notes and projects are already in Notion. One page called "Brain dump" is all it takes.

Skip it if you'd be opening Notion for the first time to do this. A blank workspace invites you to build a system before you've written a line, which is the opposite of emptying your head. We wrote more about that in our Notion alternative page.

The plain option: a paper brain dump notepad

A notebook and a pen belong in this list. There's no battery, no notification next to the page and nothing to set up. For the dump itself, paper is as good as any app here, and for some people it's better.

Its limits show up later. Paper doesn't search and doesn't sync, and a line that has to move to next week must be copied by hand. If that copying is where your system breaks, that is the moment an app earns its price. If it isn't, keep the notebook.

How to choose a brain dump app

Three questions settle it.

  • Do you type or talk? If you talk: AudioPen, or the voice features in Apple Notes, Keep and Todoist. If you type: any of the others.
  • What's in your dump? Mostly tasks: Todoist. A mix of tasks, worries and ideas: a free-form page, which means Apple Notes, Keep, Carnet or paper.
  • Where does it go afterward? If you already have a planner you trust, a free notes app is enough. If your lists never make it into your week, pick a tool where the dump and the week live together.

Don't pay for the dump. Any blank page does it. If you pay for something, pay for what happens after.

FAQ

What is the best brain dump app?

For most people, it's the notes app already on their phone: Apple Notes on an iPhone, Google Keep on Android. Both are free and open fast. Look further only if you prefer to talk (AudioPen), if your dump is all tasks (Todoist), or if you want it next to your weekly plan (Carnet).

Is there a free brain dump app?

Yes, several. Apple Notes and Google Keep are entirely free. Todoist, Workflowy, AudioPen and Notion have free plans with limits: 5 personal projects on Todoist, 100 nodes a month on Workflowy, three-minute recordings on AudioPen.

Is a mind dump app different from a brain dump app?

No. "Mind dump" and "brain dump" name the same thing: getting everything out of your head and onto a page before you sort it. Any app in this list works for both.

Can I do a brain dump by voice?

Yes. AudioPen is built for it and rewrites what you say as text. Apple Notes can record and transcribe audio inside a note, Google Keep transcribes voice memos, and Todoist's Ramble captures tasks by talking, with a monthly session limit on the free plan.

Do I need a special app for a brain dump?

No. A brain dump needs a blank page and a few minutes, and paper works. An app helps with what comes after: finding an old line again, and having the same page on every screen you own.

Try the spread before you decide

You don't need an account to see whether a week on two pages suits you. Open the homepage, click a line and write. Nothing is saved, it's scratch paper.

Try Carnet's weekly spread

Sources

Checked on October 9, 2026.