Obsidian Sync pricing in 2026: what Standard and Plus cost and include

Obsidian Sync pricing, as of November 2026, comes in two plans on Obsidian's own Sync page. Sync Standard costs US$4 per user a month billed annually, or US$5 billed monthly, for 1 synced vault and 1 GB of storage. Sync Plus costs US$8 per user a month billed annually, or US$10 billed monthly, for 10 synced vaults and 10 GB, which you can raise to 100 GB. Obsidian itself is free, and Sync is an optional add-on you need only when you want Obsidian's own service to keep your devices in step.

We make Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac, so weigh our view with that in mind. Every fact about Obsidian here comes from its Sync page, its pricing page and its Sync help pages, which we read on November 6, 2026 and link where they come up. We ran no tests of Obsidian Sync and took no screenshots, and where a page said nothing about a question, we say we found nothing.

How Obsidian Sync pricing works in 2026, plan by plan

Obsidian Sync pricing in 2026 is split into Standard and Plus, and the two plans differ in how much they hold more than in what they do. Both come with the same encryption, shared vaults and every system Obsidian runs on, and both keep version history, for different lengths of time. The table puts the Sync page next to Obsidian's help page on plans and storage limits, as of November 2026.

A few things the table cannot show. Storage is one limit for your whole account, shared by all your vaults, and the plans page says version history and attachments count toward it. When you reach the limit, the Sync plugin stops syncing files and asks you to prune your remote vault. The Sync FAQ adds that older versions of attachments are kept for two weeks, while your notes keep the plan's full history.

Why the pricing page shows only one Sync line

Obsidian's general pricing page lists Sync as a single line: US$4 per user a month billed annually, or US$5 billed monthly, as of November 2026. Those match Sync Standard on the Sync page. The pricing page names no Standard or Plus tier and gives no storage limits, so Plus and the limits of both plans appear only on the Sync page and in the help pages.

The same pricing page lists Publish, a separate add-on for putting notes on the web, at US$8 per site a month billed annually or US$10 billed monthly, as of November 2026. The figures match Sync Plus, but Publish is billed per site and has nothing to do with syncing your vault.

What extra storage costs

Only Sync Plus can grow past its starting storage. The Sync page says Plus is upgradable to 100 GB, and the plans help page says you raise it from your account dashboard. We found no price for that extra storage on the Sync page, the pricing page or the Sync help pages we read, so check the dashboard before you plan around it.

The Obsidian Sync price per month, and what a year costs

The Obsidian Sync price per month is US$4 on Standard or US$8 on Plus when you pay for a year up front, and US$5 or US$10 when you pay month to month, as of November 2026. Paying yearly saves 20% on both plans. For one person, a year works out like this:

That is our arithmetic: the per-month price times twelve, at prices as of November 2026. The pricing page offers students, faculty and nonprofit employees a 40% discount on Sync. If it applies to annual billing, the same arithmetic brings a year of Standard billed annually to US$28.80 and a year of Plus to US$57.60. The page does not say how to apply or which billing periods the discount covers. It says Obsidian offers no other discounts or promotions, and it does not mention taxes, so your own bill may differ by country. The pricing page offers full refunds on Sync within 7 days of purchase, with no questions asked, and the Sync page also promises a refund within 7 days.

Sharing changes the math. Obsidian's help page on collaborating on a shared vault says all collaborators must have an active Sync subscription, so each person in a shared vault pays for their own plan.

These examples are made up, to show how the limits play out:

• Example: a student with one text-heavy vault. Ana keeps lecture notes and a reading log in one vault, mostly Markdown with a few small pictures. Standard's 1 vault, 1 GB and 5 MB file limit fit her, and with the education discount a year billed annually would cost US$28.80 by our arithmetic.
• Example: a designer with large attachments. Ben drops PDFs and screen captures over 5 MB into his notes. Standard would not sync those files, so he needs Plus for its 200 MB file limit, at US$96 a year billed annually.
• Example: two people sharing one vault. A couple keeps a household vault. Each of them needs a Sync subscription, so two Standard plans billed annually come to US$96 a year. The shared vault help page says the attachment size limit follows the plan of the person who hosts the vault.

To see how Sync sits next to everything else you pay for, add it to the subscription cost calculator.

What else comes with each Sync plan

The plans differ in size, but the rest of Obsidian Sync works the same on both. This is what Obsidian's own pages say about it, as of November 2026.

• Encryption. Obsidian's security and privacy page says a new remote vault uses end-to-end encryption by default, so no one, including Obsidian, can read your notes. You can choose standard encryption instead, where Obsidian manages the key and could decrypt your data if needed. With the default, Obsidian cannot recover a lost encryption password, and the page says the remote data stays encrypted and unusable. It names AES-256 in Galois/Counter Mode as the cipher.
• Where the servers are. The same page says Sync servers are hosted by DigitalOcean, with regions in Singapore, Frankfurt, San Francisco and Sydney, or an automatic choice based on where you are when you set it up.
• Selective sync. The Sync page says you can switch images, audio, video and PDFs on or off, and exclude folders, to reduce what gets transferred. On Standard, that helps you stay under 1 GB.
• Sharing. A shared vault can have up to 20 collaborators, and joining someone else's vault does not count toward your own vault limit. Collaborators get the same permissions as the owner, except that only the owner can invite people. The help page says real-time editing of the same file is not supported: simultaneous edits are merged during sync.
• Systems. The FAQ says Sync works on every platform Obsidian runs on: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS.
• When a subscription ends. The FAQ says Obsidian keeps your remote vaults, with their version history, for one month after the subscription expires, and your local vaults are not affected. If you take a refund, it says the data is deleted from Sync servers at once.
• Moving down a plan. The plans page says that to go from Plus to Standard you first reduce your remote vaults to one, and free up space if you are over 1 GB. Its quickest route creates a new remote vault, which loses the old version history.

Do you need Obsidian Sync at all?

You need Obsidian Sync only when you want your vault on more than one device and the free routes do not suit you. Obsidian's help page on syncing your notes across devices says your notes are stored on your device, so they work offline, and syncing is what puts them on your other devices. It describes Obsidian Sync as the most straightforward and officially supported method, then lists other routes with their caveats.

The page also tells you not to sync one vault through two services at once, such as Obsidian Sync and iCloud together, to avoid conflicts or corruption. Read side by side, the routes sort people into four groups, and Sync matters most to the first:

1. An iPhone plus a Windows computer. iCloud Drive carries a warning on Windows, and OneDrive and Google Drive are not officially supported for vaults on iOS. Sync is the route the page recommends on both.
2. Apple devices only. iCloud Drive is recommended between Mac, iPhone and iPad, so many people in this group can skip Sync.
3. Computers only, and comfortable with tools. Syncthing or Git can work, with the trade-offs in the table.
4. One device. You need no sync at all. A regular backup matters more.

If phones are central to how you take notes, our guide to local-first AI note apps with mobile support compares other apps on that point.

How Barside keeps your computers in step

Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. Like Obsidian, it keeps your library on your computer and works offline with no account. It has its own sync between computers, and it differs from Obsidian Sync in price, in encryption and in reach.

• It is part of Barside Plus. Cloud sync comes with Barside Plus, an optional add-on at US$20 a month or US$200 a year, plus sales tax. Plus also includes encrypted cloud backup and cloud agents.
• It is not end-to-end encrypted, while Obsidian Sync is by default. What you sync is stored on Barside's servers, encrypted in transit and at rest, and the server can read it. That is what lets cloud agents run your scheduled agents while your computers are off.
• It covers computers only. Barside has no phone app.
• It holds more per file. Sync holds 50 GB per member and up to 200,000 items, and files up to 2 GB each sync. A larger file stays on its computer.

To turn it on:

1. In Settings & backups → Barside Plus, sign in to Barside and choose Monthly · US$20 or Yearly · US$200. Checkout opens in your browser.
2. Open Settings & backups → Cloud sync and turn on Sync this PC. On Linux the switch is called Sync this computer, and in Barside for Mac Sync this Mac.
3. Install Barside on your other computer from the download page, sign in with the same account and turn on sync there too.

Changes then arrive a few seconds after you make them. Settings such as your theme stay separate on each computer, and saved passwords, clipboard history and AI keys never sync. When the same note changes on two computers at once, Barside keeps both versions, one with "(conflict copy)" after its title. Our guide on how to sync notes between computers covers each step and limit.

The free ZIP backup moves a library once

Without Barside Plus, you can still take your whole library to another computer. In Settings & backups, under Take everything with you, choose Export backup to save everything as one ZIP file. On the other computer, choose Restore backup in the same place and pick the ZIP; Barside shows what it holds and asks before it replaces anything.

This is a one-way move. Whatever you change afterward stays on that computer until you export again, so the ZIP does not keep two computers in step the way sync does. The ZIP is not encrypted either, so keep it somewhere safe.

Obsidian Sync and Barside Plus side by side

If syncing notes is all you want, Obsidian Sync costs less, reaches your phone and, with its default encryption, keeps even Obsidian from reading your notes. Barside Plus makes sense when you work only on computers and also want encrypted cloud backup and agents that run while your computers are off.

Bringing an Obsidian vault into Barside, links included

An Obsidian vault is a folder of Markdown files, so there is nothing to export. Barside reads the folder and turns your wiki links into note links:

1. Open Settings & backups → Notes from other apps and choose Import next to Import notes.
2. Find Obsidian and choose Choose vault folder, then pick the vault's main folder.
3. Barside shows Ready to import, with how many notes and attachments it found.
4. Under Import into, keep A new workspace or pick an existing one, then choose Import.

Wiki links become note links with backlinks, embedded pictures show in the note, and checklists become tasks. Barside imports up to 5,000 notes and 1 GB of files at a time, so a larger vault goes in folder by folder. Pictures, audio and video come along, but PDFs and other attachments stay behind, with a line naming each one, as do plugins, canvases and bases. The vault itself is left untouched.

Two limits are worth knowing first. The import makes copies, so the vault and Barside stop being the same files, and Barside keeps notes in its own library format, so you cannot open them in a plain text editor the way you can with a vault. The guide on moving from Obsidian to Barside walks through every step, and the Obsidian alternative page compares the two apps fairly, including where Obsidian is the better fit.

Where your notes live with each option

With Obsidian, your notes are files in a vault on your device, and the security page says Obsidian does not encrypt the local vault; your encryption choice only affects the remote copy. With Barside, your library sits in Barside's data folder on your computer, and Barside does not encrypt it either, so your computer's sign-in and disk encryption protect both.

Once you turn on Barside's cloud sync, the synced content sits on Barside's servers, readable by the server, as Barside's privacy page explains for cloud sync. Cloud backup works differently: it is encrypted on your computer before upload, with a key that only your computer and your recovery key can open, as described in the cloud backup privacy notes. Local-first storage and private backups explains each layer.

Works well with

Sync is one piece of keeping a library you own. These guides cover the rest: syncing and moving between computers, bringing a vault across, and how local-first storage works in Barside.