Your highlights, on your machine, forever. No account. No subscription.
Plainmark highlights text on any web page and finds it again when you come back, even when the page has changed. Export to Markdown for Obsidian and Notion. Nothing ever leaves your browser.
Free · unlimited highlights · no account
Reading slowly is not a failure of speed. It is a decision to let a sentence do its work before moving on to the next one. Most of what we read online is skimmed; most of what we remember was read twice.
A highlight should be a promise: I will come back to this. The promise is only worth something if you can find the passage again.
PlainmarkFreeHow it works
Three steps, no setup, no sign-up.
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Add Plainmark to Chrome
Free, no account. The extension is under 1 MB and asks for four small permissions, explained below. It never asks to read every site.
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Select text and pick a colour
A small colour bubble appears next to your selection. Or right-click and choose "Highlight selection", or press Alt+Shift+H.
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Come back any time
Your highlights are back when you reopen the page. Turn on automatic display per site, add notes and tags, export the page to Markdown.
Free and Pro
Highlighting is free and unlimited. Pro adds the ways to get your highlights out and to organize them, for a single one-time payment.
Free What you get for free
- Unlimited highlights on any web page, in five colours.
- Highlights come back when you return to the page, and survive most page changes: the extension looks for the exact passage and its surroundings, not a fragile position.
- The list of highlights on the current page: click one to jump to it, change its colour or remove it.
- Automatic display on the sites you choose, with a per-site permission you grant yourself.
- 3 free Pro exports to try the Markdown export and the backup.
Pro 19 USD one-time, lifetime license
- Markdown export for Obsidian: one .md file per page with front matter (title, source URL, date, tags) and every quote.
- Copy as Markdown for Notion: paste a page's highlights as blocks in one go.
- Notes attached to any highlight, and tags.
- Full-text search across every highlight you ever made, on every page.
- Full backup export and import (JSON), to move to another computer or keep an archive.
Nothing leaves your browser
Highlights are stored in your browser's extension storage, on your computer. No server, no sync, no account, no analytics. The extension asks for four permissions and never for blanket access to every site.
Sees only the page you invoke it on
Permissions activeTab and scripting. The extension runs on the current tab when you click its icon, press the shortcut or use the right-click entry. It cannot read other tabs or your history.
Shows highlights automatically only where you say so
Optional per-site permission. When you turn on "show automatically" for a site, Chrome asks you to confirm that one site. You can take it back at any time from the settings.
Keeps your highlights on your computer
Permission storage. Highlights, notes, tags, settings and the license state live in local extension storage, and go away if you uninstall. Use the backup export to keep a copy.
Adds one entry to the right-click menu
Permission contextMenus. "Highlight selection" appears when text is selected. That is all it does.
The only network request the extension can ever make is the license check with the payment provider when you activate a Pro key. Page content and highlights are never transmitted. Details in the Privacy Policy.
Pricing
One price, paid once. Less than a year of a highlighter subscription, and it never renews.
Free
No account needed
- Unlimited highlights, five colours
- Highlights come back when you return
- Per-page list, per-site automatic display
- 3 free Pro exports
Pro
Lifetime license · 1 user · up to 3 devices
- Everything in Free
- Markdown export for Obsidian, copy for Notion
- Notes and tags
- Search across all highlights
- Backup export and import
14-day money-back guarantee. Taxes calculated at checkout. Your license key is emailed right after payment.
Questions
Does it work on any site?
On regular web pages, public or behind a login, yes. It cannot run on Chrome's own pages (chrome://), on the Chrome Web Store or in the built-in PDF viewer. Text inside images, canvases or embedded frames cannot be highlighted.
What happens when a page changes?
Each highlight stores the exact passage plus the words around it and its position. When you come back, the extension first checks the position, then searches for the passage, then tries again ignoring case and typographic quotes. If the passage is gone, the highlight stays in your list marked "not found on this page" and is painted again the day the text reappears. It is never deleted on its own.
Why do I have to turn on "show automatically" per site?
Because the alternative is an extension that reads every page you visit. Plainmark only runs on a site when you click its icon, or when you have explicitly allowed that site. Chrome shows you the exact site you are allowing, and the settings list lets you take it back.
Does it upload my highlights?
No. They are stored in your browser's extension storage on your computer. There is no server, no account and no sync. The only request the extension can make is the license check when you activate a Pro key, and it contains no page content.
How do I get my highlights into Obsidian or Notion?
Pro adds two buttons on every page: "Markdown file" downloads a .md note with front matter, a source link and every quote, ready for your Obsidian vault; "Copy for Notion" puts the same content on the clipboard as Markdown, which Notion pastes as headings, quotes and links. The guides walk through both.
What if I reinstall Chrome or change computer?
Extension storage is local, so highlights do not follow you on their own. Pro includes a one-click backup (a JSON file with every page and highlight) and an import that merges it back without duplicates.
How many devices can I use a Pro license on?
One Pro license is for one person and can be activated on up to 3 devices or Chrome profiles. Deactivate a device from the extension's License panel to free a slot.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, in full, within 14 days of purchase and without giving a reason. Email support@plainwaretools.com from the address used at checkout with your order number. See the Terms of Sale, section 7.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Highlighting, restoring and exporting need no connection. Activating a Pro key needs the internet once; after that the license is re-checked about once a day and keeps working for 14 days without a connection.