Obsidian is great for keeping your own notes as local Markdown files. Getting YouTube videos and articles into it takes the Web Clipper or community plugins, plus some setup. MensorAI saves those sources from your browser instead, and you can copy what you find into your vault as Markdown.
Last reviewed: October 2026. We make MensorAI, so we're biased. We've tried to be fair about Obsidianand to say where it's the better pick. Try both if you can.
MensorAI started as a YouTube note-taking tool for learners. Now it saves articles, passages and YouTube moments as you go, and when you sit down to write, you ask across all of them. Every answer links back to the passage it came from.
These are the things to know if you collect videos and articles to write from.
MensorAI saves your sources as you read and watch. When you write, you ask across all of them, and every claim links to the passage it came from.
Install the extension and save the moment you’re at in a YouTube video, with the captions around it. Articles and passages work the same way. There are no plugins or API keys to set up.
Ask across everything you saved without bringing your own model. Every claim links to the passage it came from.
Copy a piece as Markdown or download the .md file and drop it into your vault. Each claim keeps its citation and a link to its source.
Your library lives in your MensorAI account, so it’s there in any browser where you sign in. There’s no separate sync to pay for.
See how MensorAI and Obsidian compare feature-by-feature.
No. Your library lives in your MensorAI account, so it’s there in any browser where you sign in, but your notes aren’t files on your computer. If owning plain files matters most to you, stay with Obsidian and copy your MensorAI pieces into your vault as Markdown.
No. For your own notes Obsidian is better: it has links between notes, a graph view and plugins, and MensorAI has none of those. MensorAI is for the sources you write from. You can use both, with MensorAI for collecting and asking and Obsidian for the writing.
No. There are no plugins or themes. If you like shaping your tool around how you work, Obsidian is the better choice.
Saving is free. Asking and finding videos on YouTube need an active trial or a paid plan. You get a 7-day free trial of Pro features with a limited AI allowance. No credit card required. After that, plans are $9, $19 or $22 a month, and they differ only in how many AI requests you get per day.
Saving is free, and there's a 7-day free trial of Pro features with a limited AI allowance. No credit card required. Keep using Obsidianand try MensorAI on the next thing you're writing.