A lot of people assume OneNote requires an Office 365 subscription like Word or Excel do, and search this phrase specifically to check if a standalone free copy exists. It does: Microsoft has offered OneNote as a free download for years, tied only to a free Microsoft account, not a paid plan. This page gets you the installer directly for both Windows and macOS. Notes sync automatically once you're signed in, and you can keep using it indefinitely without ever adding a subscription.
Free Standalone App vs. the Office Suite Version
The free OneNote app and the version bundled inside Office 365 are functionally close to identical, though the standalone free app occasionally lags a version or two behind on the newest features Microsoft ships to subscribers first.
Both save notebooks to OneDrive by default, so switching between devices, or later moving to a paid Office plan, doesn't require re-importing anything.
Who ends up using Microsoft OneNote
OneNote suits students and professionals who want free-form, notebook-style note-taking without paying for a full Office subscription.
- Students organizing lecture notes with typed text, handwriting, and clipped images
- Professionals keeping meeting notes that sync automatically across devices
- Researchers building a searchable archive of clipped web pages and PDFs
Before you install
A couple of things worth knowing about Microsoft OneNote before you request the link: it covers Windows and macOS, so grab the build that matches the machine you're setting up. And on pricing, Microsoft OneNote is free to use outright — there's no paid tier hiding behind it, so what you install is the whole app. It's developed and maintained by Microsoft.
System requirements
- WindowsWindows 10 or 11 (64-bit); older 7/8.1 builds usually still run but no longer get official support
- macOSa recent macOS release — check the download page for the current minimum version, since Apple Silicon vs Intel builds sometimes differ
It's a lightweight tool, so there's no serious CPU/RAM/storage requirement beyond what its OS already needs to run comfortably.
Quick steps
- Download the free installer for Windows or macOS below.
- Sign in with any free Microsoft account when prompted.
- Create your first notebook, it syncs to OneDrive automatically.
Microsoft OneNote: the honest trade-offs
- Genuinely free standalone app, not a disguised Office trial
- Free-form canvas lets you place text, ink, and images anywhere on the page
- Automatic OneDrive sync keeps notebooks current across PC, phone, and web
- Standalone free build sometimes gets new features later than the Office 365 version
- Searching inside handwritten ink notes is less reliable than searching typed text
The file offered here is Microsoft's own standalone OneNote build, not a trial version of the paid Office suite in disguise.
Other Office & Productivity downloads people search for
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Keeping Microsoft OneNote up to date
Microsoft OneNote usually has a built-in updater or store-based auto-update (Microsoft Store / Mac App Store / Play Store, depending on platform); if you installed it manually, re-downloading the current build from the official source is the fallback. Sticking to the developer's own distribution channel — which is what this page links to — means you're never stuck on an old build with unpatched bugs just because a mirror site stopped updating its copy.
Features, install steps, alternatives and more detail live on the main Microsoft OneNote page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an Office 365 subscription to use this?
No, a free Microsoft account is all that's required; the paid Office subscription only adds a few newer features and larger OneDrive storage.
Will my notes sync if I later install OneNote on a phone?
Yes, as long as you sign in with the same Microsoft account, notebooks sync automatically across the PC, mobile, and web versions.
