Frequently asked questions

About Soulver - the world's best notepad calculator
If your question is not answered here, send us an email or a tweet. We're happy to help.

Availability & platforms

Where can I get Soulver 3?

Soulver 3 for Mac is available as a one-time (non-subscription) purchase on the Mac App Store or as a direct download on our website.
Soulver for Mac is also available on Setapp (240 apps for $9.99/month).
Soulver 3 for iPad is available on the App Store and on Setapp.

Can I try Soulver before purchasing?

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).

What are the system requirements for Soulver 3?

Soulver 3 for Mac requires macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later, and works great on the latest macOS (Sonoma).
If you're still on macOS 10.14 (Mojave) or 10.15 (Catalina), you can download an older version of Soulver 3.
Soulver 3 for iPad requires iPadOS 16 or later and works great on the latest iPadOS 17.

Should I get Soulver directly from you, or from the App Store, or from Setapp?

Benefits of the direct download version

  • 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

Benefits of the Mac App Store version

  • Automatic updates in the background & no serial number to keep track of
  • Family sharing included
  • Ability subscribe to optional data services, like inline AI, Live Stocks & Advanced Weather

Benefits of the Setapp version

  • Get Soulver for Mac and iPad as part of your Setapp subscription
  • Never pay an upgrade fee for a major update (Soulver 4, Soulver 5, etc)
  • Complementary access to AI, Live Stocks & Advanced Weather
  • Early access to pre-releases of big updates (this is an opt-in feature in Setapp's settings)

Can I still get Soulver 2 for Mac & iOS?

Yes, Soulver 2 for Mac & iOS are unlisted (hidden from search) on the App Store but are still accessible.
Soulver 2 for Mac is available here.
Soulver 2 for iOS/iPadOS is available here.

Purchasing & licenses

Do you offer upgrade pricing for Soulver 2 users?

We're not doing upgrade pricing from Soulver 2 to Soulver 3.
Soulver 3 is still great deal for longtime customers. It's a single purchase (not a subscription), and is the first paid update in about 10 years.

Do you support family sharing on the App Store?

Yes. Share Soulver with your family when you purchase through the App Store.
The direct download version of Soulver can also be used on up to 5 Macs in a household (so feel free to share the license code with your family).

Can I transfer my direct Soulver 3 license into an App Store license?

No, Apple doesn't give developers a way to do this.

My App Store purchase of Soulver 3 is not being recognized on a new Mac

Ensure you're signed into the same App Store account that you used to purchase, and that any connection blocker software (like Little Snitch or Trip Mode) allows outgoing connections to RevenueCat.

Why are Soulver 3 for Mac & iPad separate purchases?

It's standard practice in our industry for non-subscription productivity apps like Soulver to set appropriate prices for each platform (see Things, iA Writer, etc).
Additionally, we don't use cross-platform technologies, instead creating individual versions from the ground up for each platform we build for. Soulver is a best-of-class native (AppKit) Mac app, and a best-of-class (UIKit) app for the iPad.

Technical Questions

How do I sync my sheets using iCloud?

On Mac

Go to the General Settings (⌘-,) and select In iCloud under Sheetbook Location
Soulver for Mac syncing settings
Choose "In iCloud" in Soulver for Mac's General Settings

On iPad

Tap the cog to go to Settings > then Sheets & Syncing and select in iCloud under Store Sheetbook
Soulver for iPad Syncing Settings
Choose "In iCloud" in Soulver for iPad's Sheets & Syncing Settings
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.

Can I get Soulver to ignore certain numbers in my text?

Sure, use a comment (// this is a comment), or a label (this is a label: ):
Labels & comments in Soulver
Additionally, if the number is surrounded by parenthesis and accompanied by at least one other word, it will be ignored by Soulver.

Soulver tells me 1 GB equals 1000 MB. But 1 GB is actually 1024 MB, isn't it?

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)

Does Soulver remember my window positions?

Yes, 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
Make sure you're not closing Soulver's windows when you quit the app!

Can I turn off notation in answers?

By default Soulver formats your large answers with SI notation:
M stands for million
To disable this notation go to the Format menu and untick Notation for Large Numbers .
The answer with notation disabled.
You can also access line specific formatting settings by clicking the action button on an answer:
Contextual Menu on an Answer
To turn off notation for all lines, go to
Settings > Calculator > Answer Formatting
and disable Notation for Large Numbers

General

Was Soulver the first notepad calculator?

Soulver 1.0 (originally 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 that allowed words to be used alongside numbers.
The first notepad calculator we know of is MathPad by Mark Widholm, originally released for Macintosh in 1993.
Calca is a modern version of the MathPad design. Like MathPad, Calca prioritizes commenting over math, and uses a special symbol (=>) to manually invoke calculation.
We prefer the Soulver approach though, with your expression being evaluated as soon as you type it.
There is no extra calculation step (or ugly evaluation syntax cluttering up your sheet) required.

Soulver is a natural language calculator. Is it using machine learning or AI to achieve this?

Actually, no. Soulver does not use machine learning algorithms, or even regular expressions.
Soulver is powered by a natural language calculation engine called SoulverCore.
SoulverCore scans text for particular phrases (much like a data detector), and evaluates the last valid mathematical expression on a line of text.
If you're curious about how we built SoulverCore, check out the wonderful Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom.

What were the original design goals for Soulver?

For the first Soulver (back in 2005) our goal was to invent a better calculator interface for computers, where:
  1. 1.
    Your answer would be calculated as you type - no "equals" press required
  2. 2.
    You could see, edit & reference previous calculations (unilke a traditional calculator)
  3. 3.
    You could use commenting words alongside numbers for added clarity & context.
  4. 4.
    You could declare variables to be used in further calculations.
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 takes advantage of the powerful document & text editing available infrastructure on modern Macs.

What are the current design goals for Soulver?

For subsequent Soulver versions, including 3, our primary goals have been to:
  1. 1.
    Make best-in-class native apps (deep OS integration, and keeping up-to-date with interface design trends)
  2. 2.
    Add more and more useful calculation phrases & functions, to take a load off your brain when working through problems in your work & day-to-day life
  3. 3.
    To allow you to personalize your calculation environment (with global variables, custom units, & lots of settings)

Will Soulver ever be available for Windows, Android or Linux?

Soulver is written in Swift, and we don't have plans to bring it to other platforms where Swift is not supported.
However there are numerous clones of Soulver available for these platforms.
For the Web
For Android
For Windows
Cross-platform Electron (Mac, Windows & Linux)
We welcome Soulver clones on other platforms. Everyone benefits when new UI concepts like Soulver are copied, evolved and innovated upon.
However, if you do make a product inspired by Soulver's interface, please leave an acknowledgment of Soulver as the source of the idea somewhere on your website, or in your application credits, and let us know so we can feature it here.
Last modified 1mo ago