Frequently asked questions
About Soulver - the world's best notepad calculator
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About Soulver - the world's best notepad calculator
Last updated
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Soulver 3 for Mac is available as a one-time (non-subscription) purchase of $34.95 on the and as a on our website.
($20) and ($14) are available on the App Store.
All versions of Soulver are also available on (240 apps for $9.99/month).
Soulver 3 for Mac requires macOS 12 (Monterey) or later, and is compatible with the latest macOS 15 (Sequoia).
If you're still on macOS 10.14 (Mojave), 10.15 (Catalina), or macOS 11 (Big Sur) you can of Soulver 3.
Soulver 3 for iPhone & Soulver 3 for iPad require iOS 16/iPadOS 16 or later, and are compatible with the latest iOS 18 & iPadOS 18.
Yes: we offer a no-commitment 30-day trial.
You are not charged when the trial ends. You may purchase or delete Soulver at any time, during or after the trial.
After the trial ends, you can continue to view any sheets you have created (although they will no longer be editable).
A single serial number works on up to 5 Macs, even with different App Store accounts
We make slightly more per sale than from the App Store (and supporting indie developers is a good thing).
We are able to refund your transaction if required, issue tax invoices, and offer student discounts
Get all platforms (Mac, iPhone & iPad) as part of a single Setapp subscription
Complementary access to AI assistant, Live Stocks & Advanced Weather (ordinarily $26/year)
Never pay an upgrade fee for a major update (for Soulver 4, Soulver 5, etc)
Automatic updates in the background & no serial number to keep track of
Option to subscribe to optional data services, like AI assistant, Live Stocks & Advanced Weather ($26/year)
Ensure that you're signed into the same App Store account that you used to purchase originally. You might also try logging out and back into your App Store account.
We craft Soulver individually for each platform we build for. Soulver is a best-of-class native Mac app (AppKit), and a best-of-class app for the iPad and for the iPhone (UIKit).
Each major release typically comes with years of free updates & support (our historical average is 6 years per major version on the Mac, and 14 years on iOS).
Unfortunately Apple doesn't allow this (or offer developers a way to migrate customers from other sales channels, to the App Store).
Go to the General Settings (⌘-,) and select In iCloud under Sheetbook Location
Tap the cog to go to Settings > then Sheets & Syncing and select in iCloud under Store Sheetbook
Alternatively, if you just need to sync a single sheet, export it (by dragging it out of the sidebar, or going File > Export > Soulver 3 File), and save it to a synced location, like Dropbox or iCloud Drive.
Go File > Open, click Show Options and tick "Import to Sheetbook".
If you synced your Soulver 2 files with iCloud, you can probably find them under iCloud Drive / Soulver.
Tap the Files button and choose "Import Soulver Files"
If you synced your Soulver 2 files with iCloud, you can probably find them under Files / Soulver.
Soulver supports "Resume", a feature in macOS which restores the position of your windows on launch.
For Resume to work correctly:
Don't close your window manually before you quit Soulver
Ensure "Close windows when quitting an app" is disabled in the macOS Desktop & Dock settings
Sure, use a comment (// this is a comment), or a label (this is a label: ):
Additionally, if the number is surrounded by parenthesis and accompanied by at least one other word, it will be ignored by Soulver.
Soulver conforms to the industry standard binary prefix system, which you can read about here:
The gist of it is that units like kB, MB & GB behave like normal base-10 SI units.
Additional units have been introduced to represent base-2 binary units (KiB, MiB, GiB, etc)
To disable this notation go to the Format menu and untick Notation for Large Numbers .
You can also access line specific formatting settings by clicking the action button on an answer:
To turn off notation for all lines, go to
Settings > Calculator > Number Formatting
and disable Notation for Large Numbers
Soulver (first released in 2005) was the first notepad calculator to use an answer column on the right side of a text editor, and the first notepad calculator to let you use words alongside numbers.
We prefer the Soulver approach though, with your expression being evaluated as soon as you type it, because there is no extra calculation step required.
Actually, no. Soulver does not use machine learning algorithms, or even regular expressions.
SoulverCore scans text for particular phrases (much like a data detector), and evaluates the last valid mathematical expression on a line of text.
For the first Soulver (back in 2005) our goal was to invent a better calculator interface for computers. To us, this meant:
Answers would calculate live, with no press of an equals button required
You could add commenting words alongside calculations for clarity & context
You would be able to reference and edit previous calculations, and define variables based on them
We succeeded in these goals by placing an "answer column" alongside a notepad, inventing a new kind of notepad calculator in the process. This approach also took advantage of the powerful document & text editing infrastructure in macOS.
We strive to improve Soulver over time, without making it more complicated.
We're currently focused on:
Providing more helpful functions that "take a load off your brain" when working through problems involving calculations
The ability to personalize your calculation "environment" (global variables, custom units, & visual settings, etc)
Building best-in-class & beautiful apps for each Apple platform (using native technologies, with deep OS integration)
Don't rule it out!
In the meantime, there are numerous clones of Soulver available for other platforms & the web:
Soulver clones in the browser
Soulver clones for Android
Soulver clones for Windows
We support Soulver clones on other platforms. We believe everyone benefits when great UI concepts are copied, evolved upon, and widely used.
If you make a calculator product inspired by Soulver, please do consider writing an acknowledgment of the source of this idea (somewhere on your website, or in your application credits perhaps).
Then let us know so we can feature it here 🙂.
Note that the Mac App Store version cannot accept a serial number due to Apple's rules, so please download and use the version if you have purchased Soulver directly through us.
Some developers with a similar engineering approach charge a monthly or yearly subscription fee for access to all platforms ( & for example). If you like this model, subscribe to and get all versions of Soulver (+240 other apps) for $10/month.
We prefer one-time purchases per major release. Like & , we set appropriate prices for each platform. You save money by only paying for the platforms you need, and only paying once.
Use the if you have a serial number.
By default Soulver formats your large answers with :
The first notepad calculator we know of is by Mark Widholm, originally released for Macintosh in 1993.
is a modern version of the MathPad design. Like MathPad, Calca prioritizes commenting over math, and uses a special symbol (=>) to manually invoke calculation.
Soulver is powered by a natural language calculation engine called
If you're curious about how we built SoulverCore, check out the wonderful by Robert Nystrom.
Soulver clones made in (compatible with Windows & Linux)
