To use Notion AI, click the circular AI icon at the bottom of any page — or press Shift+Cmd+J on Mac (Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows) — then type a request, use the /ai slash command inside a block, or highlight existing text to see editing options. The part most guides gloss over is the plan: Notion changed how AI is billed in 2026, and it now runs on metered credits instead of the flat "included with Business" setup people remember.
Short answer: Open Notion AI from the bottom-right icon, the
/aislash command, or Shift+Cmd+J (Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows). Type a request, highlight text for AI edit options, or use@to pull in a page for context. Every plan, including Business and Enterprise, now gets only a limited trial before AI draws from paid Notion credits.
I've run Notion AI across a personal workspace and a small team workspace for the past few months, and in my testing the buttons take about five minutes to learn. The pricing model is what trips people up, because it shifted under everyone's feet this year. Here's what each entry point actually does, what's genuinely free right now, and the prompts that produce something usable instead of generic filler.
What you'll need
A Notion account is free to create and doesn't need a card. That gets you a trial of Notion AI on any plan — Free, Plus, Business, or Enterprise all show "Limited Trial" for the core AI features (chat, generate, autofill, translate) on Notion's own pricing page, which surprised me the first time I checked it, since older reviews still describe Business as unlimited. Once the trial runs out, AI usage draws from Notion credits at $10 per 1,000 credits, billed to whoever owns the workspace. For Research Mode, Enterprise Search, AI Meeting Notes, and Claude agents specifically, you need a Business plan ($20/member/month) or Enterprise. Nothing else to install — Notion AI runs inside the same web, desktop, or mobile app you already use.
Step-by-step: how to use Notion AI
1. Open the AI icon or use the keyboard shortcut
Click the small circular icon in the bottom-right corner of any Notion page, or press Shift+Cmd+J on Mac or Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows to open Notion AI chat from anywhere in your workspace, including outside a specific page.
2. Try the /ai slash command inside a page
Type /ai on any line and you'll see the usual Notion block commands mixed with AI actions in purple — things like "Write," "Brainstorm ideas," or "Summarize." Hitting the spacebar on a fresh blank line does the same thing as a shortcut.
3. Highlight text to see editing options
Select any block of existing text and a small toolbar appears with AI actions: improve writing, fix spelling and grammar, make shorter, make longer, change tone, or translate. This is the fastest way to clean up a rough draft you already wrote, rather than asking AI to start from nothing.
4. Chat with the Notion Agent across your workspace
Click the AI icon and ask a question in plain language — "what did the product team decide about the Q3 launch date?" The Notion Agent searches pages, databases, and any connected apps you've linked (Slack, Google Drive, Gmail) and answers with citations back to the source. Use @ to point it at a specific page or person instead of letting it search everything.
5. Autofill a database property
Open any database, add a new property, and set its type to AI Autofill. Give it an instruction — "summarize this row in one sentence" or "extract the deadline from the notes column" — and Notion AI fills every row automatically, re-running whenever the source data changes.
6. Turn on Research Mode for bigger questions (Business/Enterprise)
From the Home tab, click Research at the bottom of the search window and ask an open-ended question. Research Mode digs through your workspace, connected apps, and optionally the open web, and can take up to ten minutes on a complex query — it shows its sources so you can check its work before trusting a number it pulls back.
Notion AI plans and what's actually included
| Plan | Price | Notion AI access | Research Mode / Enterprise Search | Claude agents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/member/mo | Limited trial only | Not included | Not included |
| Plus | $10/member/mo | Limited trial only | Not included | Not included |
| Business | $20/member/mo | Limited trial, then credits | Included | Included (beta, credit-billed) |
| Enterprise | Custom | Limited trial, then credits | Included, zero data retention | Included (beta, credit-billed) |
Prices and the "limited trial" wording came straight off Notion's pricing page on August 2, 2026 — I checked it directly rather than trusting an older screenshot, since this is one of the areas Notion has changed the most this year. Once a workspace's trial credits run out, admins buy more at $10 per 1,000 Notion credits, and a single Research Mode query or agent run can burn anywhere from a handful of credits to a few dozen depending on how much it has to read.
Example prompts you can copy
Specific instructions beat vague ones by a wide margin in my testing:
- "Summarize this meeting doc into five action items with an owner and a deadline for each."
- "Rewrite this paragraph for a non-technical reader, keep it under 100 words."
- "Search my workspace and connected Slack for anything mentioning the Acme contract renewal, and list the pages you found it in."
- "Autofill this database's 'Priority' column based on the due date and the notes field — explain the rule you used in one sentence."
- "Research how our top three competitors price their entry-level plan, and cite where each number came from."
Notice the pattern: each one names the source material, states the output format, and tells the AI what "done" looks like instead of leaving it to guess.
Common mistakes to avoid
The mistake I see most is assuming Business still means unlimited AI, then getting caught mid-project when a workspace runs out of trial credits and every teammate hits a paywall at once — check your workspace's AI usage in Settings before you build a workflow that depends on it running constantly. Second, asking Notion AI to write from a blank page when you already have a rough draft; highlighting existing text and asking it to improve or trim gets a far more usable result than generating from nothing. Third, skipping the @ mention when you want a specific answer — without it, chat searches your whole workspace and sometimes pulls in an outdated page instead of the current one. Fourth, running Research Mode on a question that's really just a lookup; it can take minutes on something a simple /ai prompt would answer in seconds. And fifth, turning on AI Autofill across a huge database without testing the instruction on a handful of rows first — a vague rule multiplied across a thousand rows wastes a lot of credits fixing mistakes after the fact.
Tools that make this easier
Notion AI is strongest at workspace-aware writing and lookup — it's less of a fit if your main job is long-form content at scale, where a dedicated tool usually wins; my tested best AI writing tools roundup covers the ones worth paying for separately. For teams weighing Notion's AI against the model it's actually built on in places, how to use Claude AI walks through the standalone version, including the same Claude models Notion now offers through its "Auto" model picker. If your team already lives in Google Docs, how to use Gemini in Google Docs covers the closest direct competitor to Notion's AI Autofill and chat. Marketing and content teams comparing broader options should see best AI tool for content creation, and small teams deciding whether Notion's AI tier is worth the jump from Plus to Business will get more value from best AI tool for small business. Teachers and students building notes and study databases in Notion have their own shortlist in best AI tool for teachers.
My take
Notion AI earns its place once you treat it as a workspace search-and-edit tool rather than a general chatbot — the autofill and cross-app search are genuinely useful in a way a standalone AI tool can't match, since they see your actual data. What changed my opinion this year is the pricing: budgeting for credits instead of assuming Business includes unlimited AI is now a real planning step, not an edge case. Test the trial on your own workspace before committing a team workflow to it, and keep an eye on the credit balance the same way you'd watch any other line-item cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Notion AI free to use?
There's a limited trial on every plan, including Free, but no plan currently includes unlimited AI. Once trial credits run out, usage draws from Notion credits at $10 per 1,000, on top of whatever plan your workspace already pays for.
How long does it take to learn how to use Notion AI?
The basics — the AI icon, the /ai slash command, and highlighting text for edits — take about five minutes to pick up. Getting good at writing specific prompts that avoid re-runs takes a handful of real tasks, closer to a week of regular use.
What is the easiest way to use Notion AI?
Highlight text you've already written and ask AI to improve, trim, or change its tone, rather than generating a page from scratch. Editing existing content consistently produces a more usable result than a blank-page prompt.
Do I need a paid Notion plan to use AI at all?
No — Free and Plus both include a limited trial of the core AI features. You only need Business or Enterprise for Research Mode, Enterprise Search, AI Meeting Notes, and Claude agents specifically.
Can Notion AI search apps outside of Notion?
Yes, if you've connected them. The Notion Agent and Research Mode can search linked apps like Slack, Google Drive, and Gmail alongside your Notion pages, and Research Mode can optionally include the open web.