See It
Ask a notebook one question and open every cited passage.
Atlas capability 2
Work With Your Own Sources and Notes
Help me explore what I have collected.
Build a bounded notebook or growing knowledge system around documents, websites, recordings, images, data, and human annotations.
Before connecting a tool, decide whether the collection can leave the device, whether the vendor may retain it, and how reviewed results return without overwriting human notes.
What this can include
- Collect documents, media, links, and notes into a bounded source collection.
- Ask source-grounded questions and retrieve supporting passages.
- Compare sources while keeping citations attached.
- Generate timelines, maps, quizzes, reports, audio, and video from sources.
- Discover related notes and missing connections.
- Choose local, private-cloud, or public-cloud processing.
Try It
Load a prepared source packet, annotate an answer, and export the reviewed result.
Build It
Design a durable retrieval system with local files, citations, permissions, backups, and reviewed write-backs.
Current tool map · checked August 13, 2026
Tools that may help
These are representative options, not rankings or endorsements. Prices are dated United States dollar orientations; open the official page before choosing or paying.
Airtable
Airtable
A collaborative relational database and low-code platform for organizing records, views, forms, and automations.
- Cost snapshot
- Free plan; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop, mobile, api
Esri
ArcGIS StoryMaps
A web authoring environment for combining maps, media, narrative, and place-based explanations.
- Cost snapshot
- Public viewing is free; authoring depends on ArcGIS access. A stable USD entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web
Audacity
Audacity
An open-source multitrack audio recorder and editor for cleaning, arranging, and exporting sound.
- Cost snapshot
- Free open-source desktop software.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, local
OpenAI
ChatGPT
A general multimodal assistant for questions, sources, writing, images, data, voice, and connected work.
- Cost snapshot
- Free tier; Go $8/month in the US, Plus $20/month, and Pro $200/month. API usage is separate.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop, mobile, api
Anthropic
Claude
A general assistant for source work, analysis, writing, coding, and long-form collaboration.
- Cost snapshot
- Free tier; Pro $20/month, Max 5x $100/month, and Max 20x $200/month. API billing is separate.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop, mobile, api
Consensus
Consensus
A research search and synthesis interface focused on scholarly literature.
- Cost snapshot
- Free access advertised; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web
Descript
Descript
Transcript-first recording and editing for podcasts, video, captions, and AI-assisted media repair.
- Cost snapshot
- Free tier; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop
Elicit
Elicit
A literature-search and extraction workspace for papers and systematic-review tasks.
- Cost snapshot
- Free Basic plan; Plus $11 per user/month when billed $132 annually.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web
Flourish
Flourish
A browser tool for creating interactive data visualizations, maps, scrollytelling, and presentations.
- Cost snapshot
- Free public tier; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web
Gemini
Google’s multimodal assistant for questions, research, creation, code, and Workspace-connected tasks.
- Cost snapshot
- Free tier; paid consumer plan price was not confirmed from the public first-party page during this pass.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, mobile, api
Google AI Studio
A browser workbench for experimenting with Gemini models and turning prompts into API prototypes.
- Cost snapshot
- Free development allowance plus model-, token-, and media-metered Gemini API pricing.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, api
Google Earth
A global imagery, terrain, map, and storytelling environment for exploring places and change.
- Cost snapshot
- Free consumer access.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop, mobile
iNaturalist
iNaturalist
A community platform for recording nature observations and receiving identification suggestions.
- Cost snapshot
- Free community platform.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, mobile
Internet Archive
Internet Archive
A nonprofit digital library for archived websites, media, software, books, and other cultural material.
- Cost snapshot
- Free access and borrowing where available; donation-supported.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, api
LM Studio
LM Studio
A desktop application for downloading and running compatible language models locally with chat and a local API.
- Cost snapshot
- Free download shown; no paid entry price confirmed.
- Good fit
- technical; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, local, api
Make
Make
A visual workflow automation system for connecting APIs and applications through multi-step scenarios.
- Cost snapshot
- Free plan; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, api
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Merlin Bird ID
A free mobile guide that suggests bird identifications from descriptions, photographs, and sounds.
- Cost snapshot
- Free mobile application.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- mobile
n8n
n8n
A visual workflow automation platform that can be cloud-hosted or self-hosted and extended with code.
- Cost snapshot
- Self-hostable Community Edition software is $0; cloud and hosting costs are separate.
- Good fit
- technical; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, local, api
NotebookLM
A source-grounded notebook that chats with a bounded collection and creates study, audio, and video artifacts.
- Cost snapshot
- Free access; higher limits come through Google AI or Workspace plans. A stable public USD entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web
Notion
Notion
A collaborative workspace for documents, wikis, databases, project notes, publishing, and optional AI assistance.
- Cost snapshot
- Free plan; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop, mobile, api
Obsidian
Obsidian
A local Markdown knowledge base that can connect notes, sources, plugins, and AI-assisted workflows.
- Cost snapshot
- Core app is free for personal and commercial use; Sync, Publish, and some services are separately priced.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, mobile, local
Ollama
Ollama
A local model runner and API for downloading, serving, and integrating compatible language models.
- Cost snapshot
- Free open-source runner; hardware and model licenses are separate.
- Good fit
- technical; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, local, api
Perplexity
Perplexity
A web-search answer engine that returns linked sources and supports deeper research workflows.
- Cost snapshot
- Free tier; a stable consumer USD entry price was not confirmed from the public first-party page.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, mobile, api
QGIS
QGIS
A free open-source geographic information system for mapping, spatial data, analysis, and publication.
- Cost snapshot
- Free open-source software.
- Good fit
- technical; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, local
Readwise
Readwise Reader
A read-later and annotation service that collects articles, documents, highlights, and exports.
- Cost snapshot
- 30-day free trial; $9.99/month billed annually or $12.99 month-to-month.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, mobile
Allen Institute for AI
Semantic Scholar
A free scholarly search engine and API for discovering papers, authors, citations, and related work.
- Cost snapshot
- Free public search and API access within documented limits.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, api
SillyTavern
SillyTavern
A self-hosted assembly environment connecting language models, characters, lore, memory, images, voices, and group chats.
- Cost snapshot
- Free open-source interface; model, voice, image, and API providers may add separate costs.
- Good fit
- technical; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, local, api
Speechify
Speechify
Text-to-speech reading, narration, and voice tools across documents and devices.
- Cost snapshot
- Free tier; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, desktop, mobile, api
Wolfram
Wolfram|Alpha
A computational knowledge engine for calculations, data, formulas, and structured factual queries.
- Cost snapshot
- Free basic access and paid Pro; a stable public USD entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, mobile, api
OCLC
WorldCat
A global union catalog for locating books and other holdings in participating libraries.
- Cost snapshot
- Public catalog searching is free; borrowing and delivery depend on participating libraries.
- Good fit
- beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web
Zapier
Zapier
A hosted automation platform for connecting apps, moving data, and triggering AI or conventional workflow steps.
- Cost snapshot
- Free plan; a stable public USD paid entry price was not confirmed.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- web, api
Zotero
Zotero
An open-source citation manager for collecting, annotating, organizing, and citing research sources.
- Cost snapshot
- Core app is free; optional Zotero storage starts at $20/year for 2 GB.
- Good fit
- guided beginner; See It, Try It, Build It
- Access
- desktop, mobile, local
Run this even when the list looks current
Find current tools and prices
Product names, access, plans, and limits change. Copy this prompt into an assistant with current web access.
I want to work only from my selected source collection, cite exact supporting passages, preserve my annotations, and label anything not supported by the collection for a curiosity event or learning project. Find useful tools that are available today. Assume I may not be technically experienced. Prefer official product, documentation, and pricing pages. For each tool include a plain-language description, the easiest first step, access method, required account or installation, free plan or trial, current consumer subscription price, current API or credit cost, important limits, privacy and data-use considerations, output ownership, and direct official links. Separate subscriptions from usage pricing. Show United States dollar prices, state the date checked, label anything unconfirmed instead of guessing, and remind me to verify the official pricing page before spending money.Trust boundary
Human judgment remains in charge.
A notebook experience helps understand a collection; an Obsidian experience helps maintain a knowledge system that keeps growing.