I’ve been a Notion power user for years. Databases nested in databases, templates for everything, the whole obsessive setup. So when Notion AI launched, I was skeptical. Did my beloved workspace really need AI bolted on?

After using it daily for over a year, my answer is a qualified yes—with some important caveats.

What Notion AI Actually Does Well

The feature that won me over wasn’t the flashy stuff. It was the humble “summarize” function.

I have meeting notes scattered across hundreds of pages. Before Notion AI, finding the key decisions from a client call three months ago meant reading through pages of rambling notes. Now I highlight a block, hit “Summarize,” and get the essential points in seconds.

This scales beautifully. I summarize weekly notes into monthly reviews, monthly reviews into quarterly insights. The AI handles the compression while I focus on the analysis.

Drafting from context is the second killer feature. When I’m in a project page with specs, timelines, and requirements already documented, I can ask Notion AI to draft an email update or create a task breakdown. It pulls from the surrounding context intelligently—not perfectly, but well enough that I’m editing rather than writing from scratch.

The brainstorming assist surprised me too. I’ll dump a rough idea into a page, then ask for ten variations or alternative approaches. About half are useful, which beats staring at a blank page.

The Pricing Reality

Notion AI costs $10/month per member on top of your existing Notion subscription. For a solo user on the free plan, that’s $10/month. For a team of ten on the Plus plan, you’re adding $100/month to your bill.

Is it worth it? That depends entirely on how you use Notion.

If Notion is your daily workspace where you write, plan, and organize—yes, the AI features will save you hours weekly. The summarization alone justifies the cost if you’re drowning in documentation.

If you use Notion casually for a few lists and light note-taking, skip it. You won’t use the features enough to justify the expense.

Where Notion AI Falls Short

It doesn’t understand your whole workspace. This is the big one. When I ask Notion AI a question, it only sees the current page and maybe some linked databases. It can’t search across my entire workspace to find relevant information.

I wanted a second brain that could answer “What did we decide about the pricing strategy last quarter?” by actually finding that information. Notion AI can’t do this yet. You have to navigate to the right page first, which defeats much of the purpose.

Writing quality is middling. The drafts Notion AI produces read like… AI writing. Competent but generic. I always rewrite substantially. It’s a starting point, not a finished product.

The Q&A feature is limited. Notion introduced Q&A to search across your workspace, but it’s inconsistent. Sometimes it finds exactly what I need. Other times it completely misses obvious information. I’ve learned not to trust it for anything important without verifying.

Practical Use Cases That Work

Meeting notes processing: Record meeting (I use Otter.ai), paste transcript into Notion, use AI to extract action items and summarize key decisions. This workflow saves me 20+ minutes per meeting.

Content repurposing: I write long-form content in Notion. The AI helps me pull out social media snippets, email newsletter sections, and summary bullets. Not creative work, but useful grunt work.

Database population: When I’m adding entries to a database, the AI can help fill in description fields, generate tags, or suggest categorizations based on the content. Speeds up data entry significantly.

Translation and tone adjustment: I work with international clients. Notion AI handles translation adequately for internal notes (not client-facing content). The “improve writing” and “change tone” features are genuinely useful for adjusting drafts.

Notion AI vs. Just Using ChatGPT

This is the question everyone asks. Why pay for Notion AI when ChatGPT exists?

The answer is context and convenience.

ChatGPT requires copying content out of Notion, pasting it into another interface, getting results, and pasting them back. Notion AI works inline, right where you’re already working. For quick tasks—summarize this, brainstorm that, fix this paragraph—the reduced friction matters.

For complex writing or analysis, ChatGPT (or Claude) still wins. They’re more capable, offer more control, and produce better output for substantial tasks. I use both: Notion AI for quick inline work, dedicated AI tools for heavy lifting.

The Verdict

Notion AI is a solid productivity enhancer for committed Notion users. It won’t transform how you work, but it removes friction from dozens of small tasks that add up.

Get it if: Notion is your primary workspace and you write/organize there daily. The summarization and drafting features will pay for themselves in time saved.

Skip it if: You use Notion casually, already have ChatGPT Plus, or need AI that understands your entire knowledge base (look at tools like Mem or Reflect instead).

My rating: 7/10. Useful, not revolutionary. The lack of true workspace-wide intelligence holds it back from being the “AI-powered second brain” Notion markets it as. But for what it does—inline AI assistance while you work—it does it well.

The future I want is Notion AI that actually knows everything in my workspace and can surface connections I’ve missed. We’re not there yet, but the foundation is solid. If Notion keeps improving the Q&A and cross-workspace features, this rating goes up significantly.

For now, it’s a helpful assistant that lives where I work. That’s worth $10/month to me.