AI Overview & Setup
Notemap integrates AI to supercharge your mind mapping workflow. Whether you need to brainstorm ideas, expand on a topic, refine your wording, or generate an entire branch of child nodes from a simple prompt, Notemap’s AI features help you think faster and build richer maps with less effort.
Video: Overview of AI features in Notemap -- generating nodes, brainstorming, refining text, and more
Pro Feature
AI is a Pro feature in Notemap. It uses a bring-your-own-key model, meaning you provide your own API key from a supported AI provider. This gives you full control over your usage and costs.
Supported Providers
Notemap currently supports Google Gemini as its AI provider. The following models are available:
| Model | Best For |
|---|---|
| Gemini 3 Flash | Best balance of speed and quality for everyday use |
| Gemini 3 Pro | Most powerful model for complex, nuanced tasks |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | Great price-performance ratio |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | State-of-the-art reasoning capabilities |
| Gemini 2.0 Flash | Fast and versatile with a 1M token context window |
Model Recommendations
- For most users: Start with Gemini 3 Flash. It offers the best balance of speed and quality and handles the vast majority of mind mapping tasks with ease.
- For complex tasks: Choose Gemini 3 Pro when you need deeper reasoning, such as generating detailed hierarchies or analyzing complex topics.
- For budget-conscious usage: Gemini 2.5 Flash delivers strong results at a lower cost per request.
- For large maps: Gemini 2.0 Flash supports up to 1 million tokens of context, making it ideal when working with very large mind maps.
Setting Up AI
Getting started with AI in Notemap takes just a few steps:
- Open Settings by pressing Cmd+, or choosing Notemap > Settings from the menu bar.
- Select the AI tab.
- Paste your Google Gemini API key into the API key field.
- Choose your preferred model from the dropdown menu.
- Close the settings window. AI features are now ready to use.
If you do not have a Gemini API key yet, you can get one from Google AI Studio.
You can switch models at any time from the Settings > AI tab. Try different models to find the one that works best for your workflow and budget.
How AI Works in Notemap
All AI actions are available from the right-click context menu under the AI submenu. Select any node, right-click, and choose from the available AI actions.
When you trigger an AI action, Notemap sends the relevant context to the AI model. This includes the selected node’s text, its position in the hierarchy, and the surrounding branch structure. The AI uses this context to generate suggestions that are relevant and well-integrated with your existing map.
Available AI Actions
- Generate Children — Create new child nodes from a natural language prompt
- Expand Branch — Add depth by generating sub-children for existing children
- Refine Text — Improve the wording of a node with alternatives to choose from
- Brainstorm Mode — Interactive brainstorming with different thinking styles
- Summarize Branch — Get an overview and key points for an entire branch
- Generate Questions — Surface thought-provoking questions about a topic
- Auto-Complete — Get AI-powered text suggestions while editing a node
Each of these features is covered in detail in the following documentation pages.
Privacy & Security
Your API key is stored locally on your Mac and is never sent to Notemap’s servers. AI requests are made directly from your device to Google’s API endpoints. Your mind map data is only shared with the AI provider when you explicitly trigger an AI action.
AI features require an active internet connection and a valid API key. If your API key is invalid or your connection is interrupted, AI actions will display an error message. Your mind map data is never affected by AI errors -- the worst that can happen is a request that does not complete.