Why Cordial
Notes that work for you, not the other way round.
Most AI note-takers are a subscription wrapped around an app. Cordial turns that around: you pay for what you use, your data stays yours, it plugs into the AI you already like, and the app itself can become yours.
No subscription. Pay for what you use.
There's no monthly plan to forget about. Each thing Cordial does for you is metered at list price: the minutes of speech it transcribes, the AI calls that write and file your memos, the questions you ask. A quiet month costs a dollar or two. A busy one costs what it costs, and you can see exactly why.
- Itemized in your account by day, task and kind of memo.
- Shared running costs on their own line, called Overhead, never buried in the rest.
- Free when no AI is needed: reading a PDF or text file, searching by words.
October
An example month
- Voice, 126 minutes
- $3.02
- Writing and filing, 158 memos
- $0.79
- Summaries, 41
- $0.08
- Chat, 97 questions
- $1.46
- Photo reads, 6
- $0.06
- Search index and storage
- $0.02
- Overhead
- $0.50
- Total
- $5.93
Your data is yours.
Cordial exists to keep your thoughts, not to sell them. Nothing you capture is sold, used for advertising or used to train our models. Your account is walled off from every other account, your files are encrypted at rest, and originals are only ever handed out through links that expire within minutes.
- Download everything on request: memos, audio, files, transcripts, every version, chats.
- Delete your account on request. It's gone, not hidden.
- A plain-language privacy policy that names every service your data passes through.
cordial-export/ ├─ account.json ├─ projects.json ├─ entries/ │ ├─ 2026-10-03 Garden prep for Saturday/ │ │ ├─ audio.m4a │ │ ├─ transcript.json # word by word │ │ ├─ note.md # the text today │ │ └─ versions/ # every earlier edit │ └─ 2026-10-02 Fence quote from Dale/ │ ├─ quote.pdf │ └─ note.md ├─ chats/ └─ usage.csv
What an export holds. Today it's by request; a one-click download is on the way.
Bring your own agent.
You shouldn't have to switch assistants to use your own notes. Cordial runs an MCP server, the open standard for connecting AI assistants to tools, so Claude, Claude Code, Cursor and others can search and read your memos right where you already work.
- One key per connection, each with its own scope: every project or a chosen few, read-only or allowed to edit.
- Bulk changes wait for your yes, and deleting isn't possible at all.
- One-click sign-in from the Claude apps, or paste a key anywhere else.
Make the app yours.
The app you open every day should fit how you think. Make your own copy of Cordial's web app in one tap: it stays exactly as it is through our updates, and you can switch back anytime. Next, you'll describe the change you want, like a calendar heatmap, a reading list or a page per project, and Cordial will build it into your copy from the same documented data your agents use.
- Live now: your own copy of the app, kept the way you like it.
- Coming next: change it by describing what you want.
- No black box: every record and route is documented.
Memos
My year in memos
Side by side
Cordial next to a typical AI note-taker.
| Topic | Typical AI note-taker | Cordial |
|---|---|---|
| What you pay | A monthly or yearly subscription, used or not, and sometimes a device too | Only what you use. A regular month is about $8 |
| How you capture | Their app or their recorder | Any browser on any device, plus the iPhone share sheet |
| Your data | Lives inside their app | Yours to download or delete, with a documented API |
| AI assistants | Their built-in assistant | Cordial's own chat, plus any MCP agent you choose |
| Filing | Tags it chooses | Your projects, by your descriptions. It never invents one |
| The app itself | Theirs, as shipped | Your own copy, and soon one you reshape by asking |
Ready when you are.
Cordial is open to invited users for now. If you have an invite, sign in and start talking.