Evernote price increase 2026: what changes in December, and how to leave

What did Evernote change?

Two things, and they are separate:

• The price of legacy store subscriptions. Evernote says it's "updating the price of some legacy Evernote subscriptions purchased through the Apple App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android)", and that Apple or Google will show you the new price and the date before it takes effect (Evernote Help). The CHF 109 to CHF 163 figure for Personal Annual comes from one of those Google Play notices, as reported by Der Bund.
• The Terms of Service. Evernote's Terms now show "Last update: October 1, 2026" (Terms of Service). Your contract moves to Bending Spoons Operations S.p.A., an Italian company in Milan, and the terms now come in two versions: one for the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, and one for everyone else (Evernote's announcement).

To be fair to Evernote: its Terms announcement says "Your plan, price, and renewal date don't change." That's about the Terms update. The price increase comes through the app stores, on its own track.

How much is the Evernote price increase?

Here's what's confirmed, and where each number comes from:

Some background: Evernote retired its Personal and Professional plans and replaced them with Starter and Advanced. It says those older plans "are no longer available" and you can't switch back to them (Evernote Help). Its Compare plans page now lists Free, Starter, Advanced, Flexible and Unlimited. If you still pay for Personal through a phone app store, you're on a legacy subscription, and that's the group getting these notices.

Who does the Evernote price hike affect?

People who pay for an older Evernote plan through Google Play or the Apple App Store. Evernote says plainly that if you subscribed on evernote.com (web billing), its mobile price article doesn't apply to you (Evernote Help).

How it reaches you depends on where you live and your store:

• Consent required: you have to approve the new price to keep your subscription. If you don't, it ends at the end of your current billing period. Evernote says this is common in countries including Austria, Germany, Poland and South Korea.
• Notice only: you get a notice and the subscription renews at the new price automatically, unless you cancel before the renewal date.

Can you keep the old price? Evernote's answer is "No." Your options are to accept (when asked) or cancel before renewal. Refunds for App Store and Google Play charges generally go through Apple or Google, not Evernote (Evernote Help).

What happens on December 1 with Evernote's new Terms?

If you signed up before October 1, 2026, the new agreements, Terms of Service and privacy documents take effect for you on December 1, 2026. If you signed up after, they already apply (Evernote's announcement).

Evernote is direct about what that means: "By continuing to use Evernote after December 1, 2026, you're accepting the updated agreements and Terms of Service." And if you don't agree, it asks you to "stop using the Evernote Service and close your account before December 1, 2026."

Other changes Evernote lists in the same announcement:

• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, the terms are governed by Italian law and no longer include an arbitration agreement.
• In Brazil, the contract is no longer with Evernote do Brasil or under Brazilian law; the terms for the rest of the world apply, including their arbitration agreement.
• The separate software license terms for the apps are now part of the Terms of Service, and the User Guidelines were rewritten.
• Evernote Points are no longer issued. If you still have some, Evernote says to contact its support.
• For AI features, Evernote says what you put in and what comes out are yours, and it doesn't use them to train AI models.

One line in the current Terms is worth reading if Evernote is your archive: you agree that "you will not use the Evernote Service to back up your hard drive or to store or archive files" and "you will not use the Evernote Service as a password manager or to store sensitive financial information" (Terms of Service).

How do I export my notes from Evernote?

Do this before you cancel anything. Exporting only works in the Evernote desktop app for Windows or Mac, not on Evernote Web, and Evernote says free users can export too (Export notes and notebooks):

1. Open the Evernote desktop app.
2. Select a notebook, or the notes you want to export.
3. Right-click and choose Export....
4. Pick ENEX as the format. ENEX keeps tags, dates and attachments, and it's what other apps import.
5. Choose which attributes to include (tags, created date, author), then click Export.
6. Repeat for each notebook.

A few limits from Evernote's help page: you can export up to 100 selected notes at a time, or a whole notebook. Each ENEX file can be 300 MB to 2 GB, which you choose when exporting. With lots of notebooks, set aside an evening.

How do I cancel my Evernote subscription?

Where you cancel depends on who bills you. Export first, then:

• Google Play: Play Store → profile icon → Payments & subscriptions → Subscriptions → Evernote (Evernote Help).
• iPhone or iPad: Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions → Evernote (Evernote Help).
• Billed by Evernote: cancel from the Billing page in your account settings. Evernote says you keep access until the end of your current billing period (Evernote Help).

Cancel before your renewal date to avoid the new price. If you're not sure who bills you, Evernote suggests checking your store's subscription screen or your purchase receipt email.

Is Koru a good Evernote alternative?

If what bothers you is paying more every year to reach your own notes, it might be. Koru is my app: a free, open-source (MPL-2.0) desktop workspace for notes, docs and files. Here's what that means in practice:

• Local-first: your notes live in a local database on your device, not on our servers.
• Works fully offline, and there's no account to create.
• Sync between your own devices is peer to peer and end-to-end encrypted, built on iroh. More on how the sync works.
• A native app written in Rust, not a website in a window. Docs, files and terminal tabs sit side by side in one window.
• Imports from Evernote, Notion, OneNote and Google Docs, and exports everything as Markdown or TextBundle, so you're never stuck again.
• Free and open source. You can read the code and build it yourself.
• Runs on Windows and macOS.

Be clear about what you'd give up. Koru has no mobile app yet, so if you capture mostly from your phone, that's a real gap today. It also has no web clipper, no search inside images and scanned PDFs, and no shared notebooks: it's for your own notes, not a team. If you depend on those every day, Evernote is still ahead. The full side-by-side is on Koru as an Evernote alternative.

How do I move my Evernote notes into Koru?

The Evernote import runs on your computer from your .enex files. Nothing is fetched from Evernote and you don't sign in to anything:

1. Export each notebook from Evernote as ENEX, as above.
2. In Koru, choose Import…, then Evernote, and pick the files. You can also drop them into the Koru window.
3. Each file becomes its own container in Koru, named after the file, with its notes inside. Anything that couldn't be converted is listed on a page named FAILED.

Tags, checklists, simple tables, links, images, PDFs and other attachments come across. Encrypted text isn't decrypted (you get a placeholder), Evernote Tasks keep their text but not their due dates or reminders, and importing the same file twice makes a second copy. Details on what the Evernote import keeps, or download Koru.