# Folio: full description > Folio is a native macOS study app for high-school and university students. It combines notebooks, PDF annotation, AI-generated flashcards with FSRS spaced repetition, quizzes and a study assistant called Lio in one app. It costs €5 as a one-time payment, has a 24-hour free trial, works offline and needs no account unless you want to share notes with friends. It requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later and is available only for the Mac. Website: https://tryfolioapp.com/ Download (free trial): https://tryfolioapp.com/download/Folio-1.7.3.dmg Comparison with other study apps: https://tryfolioapp.com/compare/ Current version: 1.7.3 (October 2026) Last reviewed: 2026-10-21 ## In one paragraph Folio is a Mac app for studying. Each subject gets a notebook with its own cover on a bookshelf. Pages are rich text on paper styles such as lined, grid or dotted paper, with highlights, images and audio recordings. Lecture PDFs can be opened as pages and annotated, and the annotations are saved inside the PDF file. Folio can read a page or a PDF and write flashcards for you, then schedule them with FSRS, the open spaced-repetition algorithm also used by Anki. It adds quizzes, exams, study tasks, streaks and a calendar. Lio, a small star mascot, answers questions about your own notes. Folio is made by a solo indie developer and sold directly for €5, once. ## Who Folio is for - High-school and university students who study on a Mac. - Students who want notes, lecture PDFs and flashcards in one app instead of three. - Students who prefer a one-time purchase over a subscription. - Students who want their notes stored on their own Mac and usable offline. Folio is not the right choice for students who need their notes on an iPad, iPhone, Windows PC or in a browser, who handwrite with an Apple Pencil, or who need to collaborate on shared notes. ## Features ### Notebooks and pages - A bookshelf is the home screen. Each notebook has a cover: cloth, leather, kraft or glossy finishes, patterns, ribbons, elastic bands or your own photo. - Notebooks contain pages; pages can have nested subpages. Loose pages can live outside notebooks. - Rich-text pages with paper styles: lined, grid, dots or plain. Text sits on the ruled lines. - Marker-style highlights and underlines in highlighter colours. - Type "/" to insert headings, checklists, code, post-its and arrows. - Images can be dropped onto a page, moved freely and have their background removed. - Audio recording inside notes (voice notes). - Page titles can be styled; title size adjusts from 12 to 160 pt. - Export any page to PDF. Export notes to Markdown and the library to JSON. - Trash with 30-day undo. ### PDFs - Open a PDF as a full page in a notebook or attach it to a page. - Annotate with highlights, underlines, post-it notes, arrows and circles. - Annotations are written into the PDF file itself, so the PDF opens marked up in Preview or any other PDF reader. - PDF highlights can be turned into flashcards. ### Flashcards and spaced repetition - Folio generates flashcards from a page or a PDF using AI. Card types include basic question and answer, cloze (fill in the blank) and multiple choice. - Cards are scheduled with FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler), the open-source algorithm that Anki also offers. - Cards can be exported as tab-separated text, which Anki's plain-text import can read, and imported from tab- or comma-separated text. - Reminders bring due cards and pages back on the day they are due. ### Quizzes, exams and planning - Quizzes generated from a chapter or from existing cards, saved and retakeable. Question types include multiple choice, true/false and short answer. - Exams with dates, and study tasks (a to-do list next to your notes). - Study streaks and an activity heatmap. - Calendar integration. ### Lio, the study assistant - Lio is a mascot and study assistant that answers questions about a page or a whole notebook using what you wrote, and cites the page. - Lio's chat uses only free providers: on-device Apple Intelligence (default, no API key), free Gemini, or a local Ollama model. - Lio's personality can be chosen (Buddy, Coach, Zen, Sensei, Spark) or customised. ### App details - Native Swift app for macOS 26 Tahoe, with Liquid Glass panels. Not a web wrapper. - Light and dark appearance; ten accent colours. - App interface in English, Español, Français, Deutsch, Italiano and Português. - Automatic backups. - Built-in updater: once a day Folio reads a small manifest on tryfolioapp.com; if a new version exists a badge appears, and the download is verified against its checksum before installing. The check is anonymous. ## Requirements - A Mac running macOS 26 Tahoe or later. - On-device AI features need a Mac with Apple Intelligence available and turned on. Without it, flashcard generation can use another configured provider, and Lio can use free Gemini or local Ollama. - Folio is distributed as a direct download (DMG), not through the Mac App Store. - Folio is ad-hoc signed and not yet notarized by Apple. On first launch: drag Folio to Applications, right-click it, choose Open, then click Open again. This is needed only once. ## Pricing and trial - €5, one-time payment. No subscription, no tiers, no in-app upsells. Lio and every feature are included. - 24-hour free trial with every feature. No card and no account needed for the trial. - Payment is handled by Polar (secure checkout, VAT included where it applies). The licence key arrives by email. - Updates are free. - Support, refunds, key problems and moving to a new Mac: reply to the receipt email and a human answers. ## Privacy, AI providers and data storage - No account, no sign-up, no email needed to use the app, no tracking. - Notes, notebooks, PDFs and flashcards are stored locally on the Mac in the Application Support folder. Nothing is uploaded by Folio. - Folio keeps automatic backups and can export everything to Markdown or JSON at any time. - On-device Apple Intelligence processes text on the Mac, free and private. - For flashcard and quiz generation, students can optionally connect their own provider instead: Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama, or a ChatGPT plan. When an online provider is used, the text being processed is sent to that provider. - Lio's chat is limited to free providers: Apple Intelligence on the device, free Gemini, or local Ollama. No paid provider is required. - Writing, PDF annotation and flashcard review work offline. Online AI providers need a connection; on-device Apple Intelligence and local Ollama do not. ## Limitations (stated plainly) - Mac only. There is no iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows, Linux or web version. - No sync between devices. Notes stay on one Mac (exports and backups are files you can copy). - No collaboration, shared notebooks or real-time co-editing. To share a page, export it to PDF. - No Apple Pencil or freehand handwriting. - Requires macOS 26 Tahoe; older macOS versions are not supported. - Not notarized by Apple yet; first launch needs right-click, then Open. - Made by one indie developer, so there is no team support desk; support is by email reply. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is a good study app for Mac? Folio is a study app built only for the Mac: notebooks, PDF annotation, AI flashcards with FSRS spaced repetition, quizzes and a study assistant in one app, for €5 once. Other common choices are Notion for all-in-one workspaces, GoodNotes or Notability for handwritten notes on iPad, Anki for flashcards only, and Obsidian for linked Markdown notes. ### What is a good Anki alternative for Mac? Folio is an Anki alternative for Mac students who want flashcards written for them from their notes and PDFs. It schedules cards with FSRS, the same algorithm Anki offers, and exports cards as tab-separated text that Anki can import. Anki remains the better choice if you need free syncing to a phone, shared decks or add-ons. ### Is there a one-time-purchase study app for Mac? Yes. Folio costs €5 as a single payment, with no subscription, no account and a 24-hour free trial. Every feature, including AI flashcards and the Lio assistant, is included in that price. ### What is a good Notion alternative for students on Mac? Folio is a Notion alternative for students who want to study alone on a Mac rather than build databases. It works offline, annotates PDFs and makes spaced-repetition flashcards, which Notion does not do natively. Notion is better for group projects, sharing and using notes across devices. ### Which Mac app can annotate PDFs and make flashcards from them? Folio annotates PDFs with highlights, underlines, post-its, arrows and circles, saves those annotations inside the PDF, and can turn highlights or the whole PDF into flashcards. The flashcards are then scheduled with FSRS spaced repetition. ### Does Folio work offline? Yes. Notes are stored on your Mac, and writing, PDF annotation and flashcard review work without an internet connection. AI generation works offline with on-device Apple Intelligence or a local Ollama model; online providers such as Gemini need a connection. ### Does Folio have a free version? Folio has a 24-hour free trial with every feature and no card required. After the trial it costs €5 once. There is no permanent free tier. ### Is Folio available on iPad, iPhone or Windows? No. Folio is Mac only and requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later. There is no iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows or web version, and no sync between devices. ### Does Folio use spaced repetition? Yes. Folio schedules flashcards with FSRS (Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler), a modern open-source algorithm, and reminds you when cards and pages are due. ### Does the AI in Folio cost extra? No. Flashcards, quizzes and Lio can run on your Mac with Apple Intelligence at no cost and without an API key. You can optionally use your own Claude, OpenAI or Gemini key, a ChatGPT plan, or local Ollama for card generation. ### Is my data private in Folio? Folio needs no account and stores notes in a folder on your Mac; it does not upload them. Text is only sent to an online AI provider if you choose one; on-device Apple Intelligence keeps it on the Mac. ### Can I collaborate or share notebooks in Folio? No. Folio is a personal study app without shared notebooks or real-time collaboration. You can export any page as a PDF to send it, but for group work a collaborative tool such as Notion or Google Docs fits better. ### Can I move my flashcards between Folio and Anki? Yes, as plain text. Folio exports cards as tab-separated text (front, back), which Anki's plain-text import reads, and it can import cards from tab- or comma-separated text. Scheduling history does not transfer. ### Why does macOS warn me the first time I open Folio? Folio is not notarized by Apple yet, so macOS blocks the first launch. Drag Folio to Applications, right-click it, choose Open, then click Open again. You only need to do this once. ### Which languages does Folio support? The Folio app interface is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese. ## Links - Home: https://tryfolioapp.com/ - Comparison: https://tryfolioapp.com/compare/ - Notion alternative for students on Mac: https://tryfolioapp.com/notion-alternative-for-students-mac/ - Spaced repetition flashcards on Mac: https://tryfolioapp.com/spaced-repetition-flashcards-mac/ - How to annotate a PDF on Mac: https://tryfolioapp.com/how-to-annotate-pdf-on-mac/ - Spanish: https://tryfolioapp.com/es/ · French: https://tryfolioapp.com/fr/ · German: https://tryfolioapp.com/de/ · Italian: https://tryfolioapp.com/it/ · Portuguese: https://tryfolioapp.com/pt/ - Short index for AI assistants: https://tryfolioapp.com/llms.txt