Notepad

// Where these notes actually live

Everything you type here is written to localStorage, which is a small store the browser keeps for each site. It belongs to three things at once: this site, this browser, and this profile on this device. Open the same page in a different browser and you get an empty pad, because a note saved in Chrome is not a note Firefox can see. The same is true of a second profile, a guest window, and a phone.

It is not an account, so there is nothing to log into and nothing to lose the password to. It is also not a backup. Clearing browsing data deletes it, and so does anything that clears cookies and site data: the browser setting that wipes on exit, most cleaner extensions, and a private window the moment you close it. If a note has to survive the machine it was typed on, download it.

The budget is roughly 5 MB for the whole site, which is a lot of plain text and no photographs. Plain prose runs about a megabyte per 500,000 characters, so the practical ceiling here is a few long documents rather than a filing cabinet. When a save is refused because the store is full, this page says so on the spot and stops claiming your last few keystrokes are safe.

// What a browser notepad is good at, and what it is not

It is the fastest path from a thought to somewhere it will still be in an hour. There is no app to open, no account, no folder to choose, and no first-run tour. That is the whole case for it: a tab you leave open for the number a colleague just read out, the draft of a message you do not want to type into the message box, the paragraph you are moving between two documents.

It does not sync, and that is the trade rather than a missing feature. Syncing means a server holds the text, an account identifies who wrote it, and both become things that can be breached, subpoenaed, or quietly mined. Nothing here leaves the device, which is why nothing here can follow you to another one. If you need the same note on a laptop and a phone, this is the wrong tool and a real notes app is the right one.

It also has no version history, no undo beyond what the text box itself remembers, and no recovery if you delete a note by mistake. Those are all features that need a server or a database behind them. Treat it as a scratchpad you can trust, not as the only copy of something that matters.

// How the pad behaves while you use it

The note saves itself a fraction of a second after you stop typing, and the line under the box says when the last save landed. Switching notes, opening a new one, closing the page, and putting the tab in the background all write anything still pending first, which closes that window almost everywhere. The exception is a phone deciding to reclaim a tab it has already hidden, where the last fraction of a second of typing can be lost.

Tabs are named after the first line with anything on it, which means a note titles itself as soon as you give it a heading. Seven fit. Each is stored under its own key, which means one unreadable note cannot take the rest down with it, though they all draw on the same 5 MB. Deleting a note removes it immediately and permanently.

Getting text back out is deliberately boring: copy the whole note to the clipboard, or download it as .txt or .md, named after its first line. The counts under the box update as you type. Words and characters use the same counting rules as the word counter on this site, so the two pages never disagree about the length of the same text; lines are counted here only.

Two tabs open on the same note is the one case that usually goes wrong on pages like this, where the second tab quietly saves its stale copy over the first. Here the tab holding text that has not been saved yet always wins, because that text is the only copy in existence, and the page says so on the tab that won rather than resolving it silently.

// fair questions

Does this notepad save automatically?

Yes. Every note saves a fraction of a second after you stop typing, and again whenever you switch notes or close the page. The line under the box says when the last save landed, and says so plainly if a save was refused rather than leaving you to assume it worked.

Can I get my notes back after closing the tab?

Yes, as long as you come back in the same browser on the same device and have not cleared site data since. The pad reopens on the note you were last using, with every other note still in its tab. Coming back in a different browser, a private window, or on another device gives you an empty pad, because the notes were never sent anywhere they could follow you.

Is anything uploaded to a server?

No. The text stays in this browser and is never sent anywhere. That is what makes it private, and it is also exactly why it cannot sync: with no copy on a server, there is nothing for another device to fetch.

What happens if I clear my browser data?

The notes are deleted, with no way to recover them. Anything that clears cookies and site data has the same effect, including a browser set to clear on exit and most cleaner extensions. Download a note before clearing if you need to keep it.

Is there a size limit?

Browsers give a site about 5 MB of local storage, shared across all the notes here. That is a few hundred pages of plain text, and far more than a scratchpad usually holds. If a save is ever refused because the store is full, the page says so at once and tells you to download the note rather than pretending it saved.

Can I use the same notes on my phone and my laptop?

No. Notes are tied to the browser they were typed in, so a phone and a laptop each have their own pad. Downloading a note as a .txt file and sending it across is the way to move one, and any notes app with an account is the better tool if you need that every day.