If you spend a lot of your time doing research, taking notes, or just trying to make sense of endless tabs open across your browser, this one’s going to feel personal.
Because when I first heard about Remio AI, I thought it was yet another research tool promising to “revolutionise how we work.” But after actually spending time in it — and using it in real projects — I realised it’s one of those rare apps that genuinely does change how you handle information.
What is Remio AI?
Remio AI is basically your research assistant on autopilot. It quietly indexes everything you search, every document you download, and every webpage you open — all while you continue browsing normally. It’s like having someone follow you around taking perfect notes while you think. It works well with modern websites, older ones are a little slow.
Right now, it’s available on macOS, with a waiting list for the Windows version. For the best experience you’ll need a Mac with an M chip. It also has a Chrome extension, which is a must have if you’re doing online research.
You can try it for free, but the paid plans remove a lot of the limitations in the free version. It’s currently on sale, with a 50% discount, an early bird discount for the:
- BYOK (bring your own key) plan at $6.20 per month, which normally costs $12.40 for the annual subscription, and $15/month if you prefer monthly billing.
- Pro plan at $8.25 monthly (normally $16.60 billed yearly), or $20/month for monthly billing.
Using Remio AI in Chrome
Now, let’s start with what happens inside your browser.
When you visit a webpage, Remio AI instantly indexes it, and adds it to your knowledge base. You can quickly request a summary, and this summary isn’t generic. It’s well-structured, with key points and references you can actually click on. Tap any reference, and you’re taken straight to that section or source.
You can also chat with the AI directly about that page. Ask questions, clarify details— and it replies with cited references. Honestly, this part makes research fun. It’s like having an assistant who doesn’t get tired, doesn’t judge your late-night deep dives into random topics, and somehow always knows which paragraph you meant but forgot to highlight.
When chatting to the AI, you can even go beyond the current webpage. Remio AI can search the entire web, and give you information beyond what you’re currently looking at.
Effortless Capture
The Chrome extension quietly saves the webpages you browse and adds them to your personal knowledge base. No buttons to press, no “Save for later” rituals. It just happens.
The first time I realised how powerful this was, I had been researching rammed earth construction, battery storage systems, and… somehow copper textiles in the same evening. Normally, this would be a mess and I lose track of half of it. But when I opened Remio AI later, everything was there — and searchable.
It’s a small feature that solves a very real problem: we often stumble on great resources but never save them properly. Especially in Chrome going back to your history sucks. So, I really love what Remio AI does.
Inside the App
Once you open the app, you get a great workspace to further work on your research. You can access different AI models depending on your plan — some are unlimited, while advanced ones cap at about ten responses a day on the Pro plan we’re using.
Privacy and Permissions
Now, one of my biggest concerns with AI tools is always privacy — and Remio AI deserves a lot of credit here.
Every feature that needs access — whether it’s your local files, Chrome tabs, audio recordings, or even integration with tools like Mail, Slack, Google Docs, or YouTube — asks for permission first. You can approve or decline anything, and that control makes the whole experience feel transparent.
You can also import Markdown notes and even bring in those from Obsidian, which is great for people who already have large knowledge archives. During my testing, I mostly worked with Chrome and local files. If you’re using Remio AI, what’s your integration like?
Viewing and Reading
Every webpage you capture can be viewed either as it appeared in the browser or in Reading View. Reading View strips out the clutter, removes ads, and presents a clean page — perfect for long sessions. I almost never go back to the browser view anymore. And the best part? Even offline, your saved pages are still accessible.
Notes and Journals
Let’s talk about the note-taking experience. Remio AI gives you two main tools — Notes and Journals. They’re practically the same thing, except journals automatically include a date stamp, which makes them perfect if you’re tracking progress or documenting ideas chronologically.
The split-view layout is perfect. You can read a document on one side and take notes on the other, all in one workspace. It feels natural and efficient — especially for researchers and students. Documents are also linked to your notebooks if you prefer that setup.
The only downside? Drag-and-drop doesn’t work between your source and notes. So, copying snippets or references still feels old-fashioned. It’s something the developers really need to fix, because it would save so much time. That said, the writing tools themselves are great, you get:
- Headings
- Bullet and numbered lists
- Quotes
- Tables
- Hyperlinks
Everything works; minimal, intuitive and modern. There are only two missing features. The first one is text colour, which would be nice for highlighting important details. Images too.
Now, here’s my favourite part — your AI responses can become notebooks. You can literally convert a detailed answer into a saved research notebook, complete with references. Instead of typing notes manually, you review the AI’s summary by checking with the sources. It’s like skipping the boring part of research or study and jumping straight to understanding.
Searching and Filters
Your knowledge base grows fast — you can search by keyword, type of content, or even focus on specific information categories. For example, if you’re looking for a webpage, you can filter it.
The previous search history is also saved, which is incredibly helpful when you’re revisiting old projects.
The Organisation Problem
But now, let’s get to the most frustrating part of Remio AI — organisation. After collecting all this amazing information, everything ends up in one giant collection; no matter what you focus on (collections, notes, webpages). You open your workspace, and there it is: a massive, unorganised endless list of documents, notes, and saved webpages.
There’s no way to select multiple items at once, and no drag-and-drop into folders (which the app calls collections). If you want to sort 20 documents into one folder, you’re doing it 20 times manually.
Pinned collections on the sidebar make it slightly easier to manage your main topics, but for everything else, it’s chaos. At least you can navigate through some notes quickly when they are pinned. But, you can’t pin all your folders. In Remio AI though, you will seriously consider it.
Even adding something to a collection feels unnecessarily complicated. First you have to open each document or note you want to organise. You can’t do it from the folders. You can’t just scroll through a list of collections you’ve created already — you have to search for the collection name every single time. There’s an option for suggestions, but if the app misses it, you’re back to typing.
Now imagine trying to add something to a collection you created a year ago — but can’t remember its name. That’s when you realise how much a simple drop-down or scroll menu could fix this whole issue. I really hope the developers tackle this next because the rest of the app is so well-thought-out that this messy organisation system feels out of place.
Inside the documents though, links to other notes are very easy to spot, and create. Navigating back to the main note is also very easy. Visually, the app prefers a thumbnail-based display for your notes and documents. Personally, I’m not a fan. I’d much rather have a list view that shows more content on one screen — it’s cleaner, faster to scroll through, and better for managing large amounts of data. Hopefully, that’s on their roadmap.
Final Thoughts
Remio AI does something rare — it actually understands the chaos of research and does the heavy lifting for you. It saves what you read, references what you ask, and organises your digital brain… mostly.
Yes, it still needs work — especially around collections, sorting, and navigation. But in every other way, it’s one of the most promising tools I’ve tested this year. It’s already doing enough to make my workflow lighter, faster, and much more enjoyable. And for anyone who lives inside their research — that’s worth a lot.
What do you think of Remio AI? Is it something you’d actually use in your workflow?
