3-2-1: Notion!

The weekly newsletter that keeps you up to date with Notion’s latest features, tips, tutorials, & resources.

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In this week’s issue of 3-2-1:

• Notion acquires Aquarium

• Important billing update

• Soft UI Updates

• Notion analytics tutorial

• AI is the new plastic

• Notion AI and Clippy walk into a bar…

Hey — it's Rames

I started journaling back in 2016. Since then, I’ve always written — some periods more consistently than others. But recently, I stopped, and here’s the reason why.

[continue reading]

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3 Tips

1/ 🐠 → 🛠️: Aquarium Joins Notion!

Over the past five years, Aquarium has been a key player in advancing AI systems, helping teams across industries — like computer vision and NLP — deploy smarter, more efficient models. Their goal? To make building and fine-tuning production AI faster and easier.

So, what’s next for Aquarium? They’re taking on an exciting new chapter — joining Notion! 🎉

Aquarium’s expertise in AI retrieval perfectly complements Notion’s mission to unlock the power of generative AI for its 100 million+ users — from students to large enterprises. This partnership aims to boost Notion’s AI-powered search across platforms, especially with integrations like Slack, Google Drive, and GitHub.

2/ Notion’s Billing Update

Back in June 2024, Notion increased its plan prices, and by the end of August, they introduced a new twist to billing. Here’s the key update: billing is now based on “seats” instead of active members.

Confused? Let’s break it down.

Active Members vs. Seats

• Before: You were charged based on active members, meaning if someone left mid-billing cycle, your invoice would get prorated, and you’d receive credit for the unused period.

• Now: You pay for seats up front for the entire billing period, regardless of whether those seats are in use.

What Does This Mean?

1. Empty seats still cost you: If your team has 10 members, you pay for 10 seats. But if one member leaves, that empty seat remains billed until your next renewal. There’s no more proration for the current cycle.

2. Annual billing caution: If you’re on an annual plan, be extra careful. Any new member — even briefly added — locks in a seat charge for the rest of the year. Managing your team closely becomes essential to avoid paying for unnecessary seats.

3. Plan ahead for adjustments: To reduce the number of seats you’re paying for, you’ll need to wait until the next billing cycle. This can be tricky if you’re on annual billing, where your renewal might still be months away.

New Billing Dashboard

Notion has rolled out a new dashboard in the workspace settings. It gives you a quick overview of:

• The number of active seats you’re paying for vs. the active members in your space

• The next billing deadline, so you’ll know exactly when adjustments will apply

PS: if the new interface isn’t live for you yet, it should roll out soon!

3/ Design Updates

Notion rolled out many soft UI updates last week. Most of them were radius or size improvements. Like Sara, I personally find them super sleek and cute.

2 Resources

1/ Notion Analytics: Everything You Need to Know

It seems many folks don't know how to use Notion analytics, where to find them, or how to track their Notion site analytics. I get these questions all the time.

So last week, I wrote a comprehensive tutorial that explains:

• Notion Page Analytics: Learn how to track the performance of individual pages, including insights into views and user interactions.

• Workspace Analytics: Discover how to access high-level metrics for your entire workspace, such as member activity, engagement trends, and search behavior.

• Notion Site Analytics: Uncover ways to monitor the performance of your published Notion pages and understand visitor engagement over time.

• Google Analytics Integration: Explore how to connect your Notion site with Google Analytics to unlock deeper audience insights.

• Extended Analytics Options: Find out how advanced tools like Notionlytics can provide even more detailed data and real-time feedback tracking.

2/ AI Is the New Plastic

AI is the New Plastic is a short but thought-provoking blog post by Linus Lee, drawing a comparison between AI and — you guessed it — plastic.

The piece explores how plastic became revolutionary and wildly popular in the 1950s, identifying similar patterns in the rise of AI today. Just as plastic brought tremendous benefits but also significant ecological downsides, Lee highlights that AI faces parallel challenges in the modern world.

1 Tweek: Tweet of the Week

Rames Quinerie

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