In this post, I’ll be sharing my experiences of using Napkin.ai, a generative AI application that creates diagrams based on text input.
I use Napkin.ai regularly to create diagrams for some of my blog posts. The AI-driven application is now out of beta, and I’ll share my thoughts on whether I plan to pay for it in the future.
How I Use Napkin
I use Napkin when my writing includes an idea that I think could be explained visually in a diagram. To demonstrate its capabilities, I’ll share what I consider to be the best example of my using Napkin.
Example of How I Have Used Napkin
In a blog post titled “Understanding Technology: A Deep Dive“, which I published in May 2025, I argued that technology doesn’t evolve independently but has a symbiotic relationship with humans at its core.
I described the following process in my original blog post:
- Our drive to find new knowledge leads to the discovery of new ideas and physical phenomena, adding to our existing collection of knowledge.
- Innovation/Invention: The continuous mixing of new ideas, existing ideas, and existing technologies leads to the development of new technology or improvements to existing technologies.
- New and improved technology gives us new or better tools to explore for new knowledge or to view and share existing ideas in better ways.
To create the image, I copied and pasted those bullet points, which I then highlighted so Napkin knew that was the source information and the context it was going to use to design an image. A number of images were generated, and I selected the one I liked the best.
I liked that it showed the process as a loop, representing an iterative approach leading to better technology over time.
My Experiences of Using Napkin
I’m a big fan of Napkin. Based on my own experiences, it has created some useful diagrams based on the information I’ve provided, such as the example I shared earlier in this post.
I believe that the diagrams it has generated have, in most cases, added more context to the ideas I was trying to convey than words alone.
Conclusion
A couple of weeks ago, just as I started working on this post, Napkin announced that the application was coming out of beta and revealed its pricing structure.
The application will have a freemium pricing structure, and as I don’t use it that often, I plan to remain on the free tier for now and assess whether it meets my needs. You can find out more about the Napkin pricing tiers here.
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