aiCat vs Notion AI
Notion AI: bundled into Notion's paid plans; effectively starts from about $10 per member per month on top of Notion itself. aiCat: free to start, Premium starts from $6/month. Neither is a superset of the other, and this page says which is which.
Notion AI is the assistant for a company whose knowledge lives in Notion, and inside that boundary it does something aiCat cannot: answer from your own documents, with links back to them. Outside the boundary it does nothing at all, and for most people the boundary contains well under half the working day.
What follows is written to be usable by somebody who ends up choosing Notion AI. Prices are floors — the cheapest tier each product is honestly available at — checked in August 2026 and worth re-checking on the vendor's own page before you decide on price alone.
Inside one workspace, or across all of them
| aiCat | Notion AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it works | Every application on macOS, Windows and Linux — Notion included | Inside Notion |
| What it knows | A memory you write, edit, encrypt and own | Your entire workspace, with citations back to the page |
| What it needs underneath | Nothing | A paid Notion plan |
| Voice | Dictation at your caret anywhere, plus read-aloud | Neither, outside Notion |
| Translation and fact-checking | Both, on the same key | Not the product |
| Team administration | Team plan with shared settings and memory sync | Whatever Notion's admin already gives you, which is a real advantage |
| Price floor | Free; Premium starts from $6/month | From about $10 per member per month, on top of Notion |
What happens outside the wiki
- Works everywhere, including inside Notion in the browser
- No underlying subscription is required before the AI is useful
- Dictation, read-aloud and translation, none of which are in scope for a workspace assistant
- A memory you own and can export, rather than one tied to a workspace
What Notion AI knows that aiCat cannot
- Answers grounded in your team's actual documents, with citations
- Database and page context aiCat cannot see
- One bill and one admin surface for a team already standardised on Notion
Which one fits the way your team works
Your team's knowledge is all in Notion
Notion AI. Grounded answers with citations are worth the seat.
You want AI in your email and chat too
aiCat. Notion AI does not leave Notion.
You are not already paying for Notion
aiCat. Paying for the workspace to get to the AI is an expensive route.
You need dictation
aiCat. It is not in scope for a workspace assistant.
You are one person, not a team
aiCat. Notion AI's advantages are mostly organisational.
Hands-on: a fortnight of a Notion-first team
One person's account of using both. It is an opinion, it is not a benchmark, and it is here because the rest of this page is a table.
A fortnight on a team that really is Notion-first made the split obvious rather than arguable. Inside Notion, its AI was the better tool by a distance — 'what did we decide about the billing migration' returned the actual decision with a link to the page, and nothing a hotkey does compares to that. Then the same question in Slack, where three quarters of the discussion had actually happened, and there was nothing. The pattern held all fortnight: the wiki was well served and the inbox, the code review and the customer thread were not served at all.
Stay on Notion AI if Notion is where the work lives
If your team genuinely runs on Notion — specs, notes, decisions, databases — Notion AI's ability to answer from those pages is worth more than anything a general tool can do to a selection, because it knows things aiCat has no way to see.
aiCat is what covers the rest: the half of the day that is not in a wiki, and the languages and the voice work that a workspace assistant does not attempt.
Try aiCat on the text Notion AI cannot reach
Free to start, 10 aiCatCoins included, no card. macOS, Windows and Linux.
aiCat pricing at a glance
| Plan | Price | aiCatCoins / month | Max selection | What it unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10 | 500 chars | Everything aiCat does, plus free dictation and your own memory |
| Premium | from $6/mo (list $10) | 3 000 | 5 000 chars | Think More, read-aloud, encrypted memory, premium models |
| Team + Offline | from $18/member | 12 000 | 50 000 chars | Edit your memory, MCP access, local models, team sync |
| Enterprise | from $90/member | 150 000 | Unlimited | SSO, audit, best coin rate |
Read the whole page? Then you were deciding. Try both — Notion AI keeps its key
aiCat is free to start with 10 aiCatCoins a month and does not conflict with anything else on your machine.
Frequently asked
Is aiCat a good Notion AI alternative?
It depends on why you are looking. aiCat replaces Notion AI for people who want one key that acts on text anywhere on the machine, in any language. It does not replace Notion AI for writing and editing inside notion pages, where it is genuinely good, which is what Notion AI is built around.
Is aiCat cheaper than Notion AI?
Yes, and the comparison has a second layer: Notion AI is priced on top of a Notion plan you are already paying for, so the real figure per person is the AI charge plus the seat underneath it. aiCat starts free, Premium starts from $6, and it needs nothing beneath it. For a team already committed to Notion, the incremental cost is what matters and it is smaller than it looks.
Can I use aiCat and Notion AI together?
Yes, and it is the common arrangement: Notion AI for the wiki and the meeting notes, aiCat for the inbox, the chat, the review comments and the six other applications the same people spend the rest of the day in.
What does Notion AI do that aiCat does not?
Answers grounded in your team's actual documents, with citations; Database and page context aiCat cannot see; One bill and one admin surface for a team already standardised on Notion.
What is aiCat?
aiCat is a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux. You select text anywhere on your computer, press one hotkey, and an AI does what you need with it — proof-read, translate, explain, check the facts, read it aloud, or answer a question about it.
Does aiCat work in every application?
Yes. It works at the operating-system level rather than through per-app plugins, so it covers native apps, browsers, IDEs, terminals and PDF viewers alike.