Notion
One Workspace. Every Team. Twenty Lifetime Responses.
$8B
Value Extracted
7
Key Initiatives
Notion is the beloved workspace app that acquired end-to-end-encrypted competitor Skiff in February 2024 and shut it down, requiring users to manually export their data. In May 2025 it retired the $10 AI add-on and folded AI into a $20-per-user Business tier, capping Free and Plus plans at 20 lifetime AI responses. EnshitifAi assigns Notion an Extraction Index of $8B.
The Story
Notion earned something most software never gets: users who evangelize it unpaid, build its templates for free, and describe a productivity app as part of their identity. We helped them understand what that community was actually for. In February 2024 Notion acquired Skiff — an end-to-end encrypted workspace — and announced it would be shut down, which it was, by a company that does not offer end-to-end encryption. In May 2025 the AI add-on was retired and folded into a $20 tier, and the free and Plus plans were capped at twenty AI responses. Not per month. Ever.
Common Questions
Is Notion enshittified?
By EnshitifAi's reckoning, it is early but unmistakable. In February 2024 it bought Skiff, an end-to-end encrypted workspace, and shut it down without migrating a single account. In May 2025 it killed the $10 AI add-on and moved AI behind a $20-per-user Business plan, leaving Free and Plus users with 20 AI responses for the lifetime of the account.
What dark patterns does Notion use?
Lifetime-capped teasers — 20 AI responses total on Free and Plus, a number engineered to be spent before you can evaluate whether the feature is worth $20 a month. Bundle-the-AI pricing that raised the effective floor from about $18 to $20 per seat. And export friction: your pages leave as Markdown and CSV, but the database relations, rollups and formulas that took months to build do not survive the trip.
What happened to Skiff after Notion bought it?
Notion acquired Skiff on February 9, 2024 and announced the platform would sunset within six months, later extended to twelve after user backlash. Skiff accounts were never converted to Notion accounts — every user had to manually export email, contacts, calendar and files. Skiff's entire proposition was end-to-end encryption; Notion does not offer it.
How much does Notion AI cost now?
The standalone $10-per-member add-on was retired on May 13, 2025 in version 2.51 and folded into the Business plan at $20 per user per month. Free and Plus ($10/user) tiers now include 20 lifetime AI responses, so any regular use means paying the $20 floor. As of May 4, 2026, Custom Agents bill separately at $10 per 1,000 Notion credits.
Key Achievements
- 1
Acquired Skiff — an end-to-end encrypted docs, email, calendar and file platform — on February 9, 2024 and announced its shutdown within six months, extending to twelve only after user backlash; Skiff accounts were never migrated, leaving every user to manually export their own data from the encrypted service they had chosen specifically to avoid trusting a third party
- 2
Absorbed Skiff's privacy-community goodwill into a product that is not end-to-end encrypted, retiring the encrypted workspace and keeping the team — the clearest available demonstration that a privacy guarantee is a feature of a company's ownership, not of its software
- 3
Retired the $10-per-member AI add-on on May 13, 2025 in version 2.51 and folded AI into the Business tier at $20 per user per month, raising the effective floor for an AI-using seat from roughly $18 to $20 and converting an opt-in purchase into a plan upgrade
- 4
Capped Free and Plus plans at 20 AI responses for the lifetime of the account — not monthly, not annually, ever — a quantity calibrated to be exhausted during evaluation rather than during use, so the only way to learn whether the feature is worth $20 a month is to already be paying it
- 5
Introduced consumption billing on May 4, 2026 with Custom Agents metered at $10 per 1,000 Notion credits, adding a variable line item on top of the per-seat subscription that the per-seat subscription was supposed to replace
- 6
Built an acquisition engine out of unpaid enthusiasm — a template gallery, a creator ecosystem, and an ambassador program in which the most devoted users produce the tutorials, templates and social proof that bring in the next cohort, at a labor cost of zero
- 7
Engineered switching costs out of structure rather than contract: exports produce Markdown and CSV, but the relational databases, rollups and formulas that make a Notion workspace worth years of accumulated setup do not survive the export, so the data is portable and the work is not
People do not describe a subscription as part of who they are. They described us that way for years, unpaid, in public. The pricing page was always going to be the last place that affection showed up.
I. Zhao
Co-Founder, Tools for Thought (Business Tier and Above)
Want Results Like These?
Schedule your complimentary Value Extraction Assessment today.