English
An online notepad that saves as you type
This online notepad saves every change to your browser's local storage a fraction of a second after you stop typing. There is no Save button to forget and no login. The dot next to "Saved" turns amber while a change is pending and green once it is stored, with the time of the last save.
Because the notes never leave your device, the page keeps working without a connection once it has loaded. You can close the tab, restart the computer and come back a week later in the same browser: the notes are where you left them. The left column (a menu at the top on phones) lists every note, newest first, with a search box that looks through titles and text.
Where are my notes stored, and what deletes them?
Notes are kept in this browser's local storage for this site only. That is private and quick, but it is not a cloud backup. Here is what each common action does:
| What you do | Your notes |
|---|---|
| Close the tab or the browser | Kept |
| Restart or update the computer | Kept |
| Open the site in another browser or on your phone | Not there (nothing is synced) |
| Write in a private or incognito window | Deleted when that window closes |
| Clear browsing data with "cookies and site data" ticked | Deleted |
| Safari, site not opened for 7 days of browsing | Can be cleared by Safari's tracking protection |
If the browser blocks storage entirely (some privacy extensions and strict modes do), a red warning appears at the top and the indicator says "Not saved". You can still write and download, but treat it as a scratch pad.
How to back up or move your notes
- Download .txt saves the open note as a plain text file named after its title. Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) does the same from the keyboard.
- Download .md saves the same text with a Markdown extension, handy if you write with
#headings and-lists and plan to open it in Obsidian, VS Code or a GitHub repo. - Download all (.zip) packs every note into one archive, one .txt per note. Do this before clearing your browser or switching computers.
- Open file brings a .txt or .md file back in as a new note. You can also drop files straight onto the writing area.
A weekly .zip takes one click and a few kilobytes. Ten pages of notes come to roughly 30 KB, so even years of lists fit on any USB stick or cloud drive.
Find and replace, word count and line count
Find & replace opens a bar above the text. Enter jumps to the next match, Shift+Enter to the previous one, and the counter shows "2 of 7". With Match case ticked, replacing "May" with "June" changes the month but leaves "you may" alone. Replace all goes through the browser's own editing history, so Ctrl+Z puts everything back in one step.
The counter under the text updates as you type. A word is any run of characters between spaces, so "e-mail" is one word and "3 pm" is two. Select part of the text and the selection gets its own count, useful for checking one paragraph against a 150-word limit.
| Text | Words | Characters | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call Sam at 3 pm | 5 | 16 | 1 |
| Milk / Eggs / Bread (three lines) | 3 | 15 | 3 |
| Empty note | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Line breaks count as characters, which is why three short lines of 4, 4 and 5 letters add up to 15 rather than 13.
Display options that actually help
- Monospace lines up columns of numbers, code and plain-text tables. Turn it off for normal writing; proportional text is easier to read in long paragraphs.
- Wrap lines off keeps each line on one row with a horizontal scrollbar. That is the right choice for CSV data and log files, where a wrapped line looks like two records.
- A− / A+ changes the text size from 12 to 32 px. The setting is remembered, together with monospace and wrap.
- Insert date stamps the current date and time at the cursor, for journals and meeting notes.
What not to keep in a browser notepad
Local storage is not encrypted. Anyone who can use your browser profile can open this page and read the notes, and so can any extension with access to all sites. Don't keep passwords, card numbers or recovery codes here; a password manager is built for that. On a shared or library computer, download what you need and delete the notes before you leave. The editor is plain text only, so pasted formatting, images and links turn into plain characters.
Frequently asked questions
Does this online notepad save my notes?
Yes. Every change is saved to your browser's local storage less than a second after you stop typing, and the indicator shows Saved with the time. Close the tab, come back next week in the same browser, and the note is still there.
Can I use a notepad online without login?
Yes, there is no sign-up and nothing is sent to a server; notes live only in this browser. The flip side is that nothing is synced, so a note written on your laptop will not show up on your phone.
What happens to my notes if I clear browser data?
They are deleted. Clearing cookies and site data, writing in a private window or running some cleanup apps wipes local storage, so press Download all (.zip) now and then to keep a copy.
How much text can the notepad hold?
Most browsers give each site about 5 MB of local storage, which holds well over a million characters of plain text. The line under the note list shows how much you are using, for example 12 notes · 40 KB.
Can I open a .txt or .md file in the notepad?
Yes. Press Open file or drop a .txt or .md file onto the writing area; it opens as a new note titled with the file name. Files up to 2 MB are accepted.
How do I find and replace a word?
Press Find & replace, type the word and its replacement, then press Replace all. Tick Match case to change May the month but leave you may alone; Ctrl+Z undoes the whole replacement.
Is there a shortcut to save a note as a file?
Yes. Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) downloads the open note as a .txt file named after its title. Autosave runs regardless, so the shortcut is only for getting a copy out of the browser.