Why is buying a notebook in Australia harder than it should be?
The best notebook in Australia for most people is the Moleskine Classic Soft Cover Large at about $36, with the RETTACY A5 dot grid three-pack at about $23 if you want dot grid without journal prices and the Spirax 595A 240-page A4 at about $6 for school and uni. Journal and notebook are used interchangeably here, because the shelf is the same one.
Because almost nobody writes an honest comparison. Search for the best notebooks in Australia and the first page hands you a Reddit thread, two stationery shops selling their own stock, and American guides recommending Japanese books you cannot get here without a three week wait. None of that helps when the school stationery aisle has been picked over and you need to know whether the cheap Spirax will survive a term in a backpack.
Notebooks are also a category where the specs that matter are barely advertised. Two A5 hardcovers can look identical in a photo and behave completely differently, because one is printed on 70 gsm paper and the other on 100 gsm. One lays flat when you open it, the other fights you every time.
So we did the boring part: we went through the Amazon Australia notebook pool, pulled the listed paper weight, page count, sheet size, ruling and binding for every serious contender, and checked the rating, review count, stock and current price on each. What follows is seven notebooks covering the realistic range, from an Australian school classic to a soft cover journal you would happily give as a gift. Seven picks, seven different brands, no filler.
What are the best notebooks in Australia right now?
If you want one notebook that will still feel good in six months, get the Moleskine Classic Soft Cover Notebook in Large Ruled. It is the dearest of our picks, but 192 ivory pages, an elastic closure, a ribbon marker and a back pocket in a soft Large body is a combination that has not needed reinventing. It holds a 4.8 star rating across more than 2,500 Australian ratings.
If you plan, sketch and write in the same book, the RETTACY Dot Grid Notebook Spiral three pack is the better buy. You get three A5 spiral books with clear hard covers and 160 dot grid pages each on 100 gsm paper, which is heavy enough that gel pens behave. Three books means you can run one for work, one for personal and one spare without thinking about it.
And if this is for school, uni, or anywhere pages get consumed fast, the Spirax 595A Notebook Side Opening A4 is still the answer, as it has been for decades. It is the cheapest of our seven picks, it holds 240 A4 pages, and it carries a 4.8 star rating. Buy several.
How do the best notebooks compare?
Four things separate these seven: sheet size, page count, paper weight and binding. Prices below are what Amazon Australia was charging when we last checked, and they move, so treat them as a band rather than a promise.
How did we choose these notebooks?
NestPath researches and studies listings rather than running a lab. Here is what that meant for this guide.
- We started from the current Amazon Australia notebook pool and kept only books in stock at a sane Australian price, dropping reseller listings well above the category band.
- We took sheet size, page count, paper weight, ruling and binding from the manufacturer detail on each listing, never from a guess.
- We checked the star rating and rating count on every finalist, and preferred a deep review base, noting where a pick's is thin.
- We forced brand spread, so seven picks means seven different makers rather than variants of one house brand.
Which notebook is the best all rounder?
The Moleskine Classic Soft Cover Notebook in Large Ruled is the one to buy if you want a single notebook that is still pleasant in month six. It is a soft cover Large at 13.3 by 21.3 cm, just under A5, 240 grams, with 192 ruled pages on the ivory stock Moleskine has used for years. The soft cover matters more than people expect: it bends into a bag and it does not crack at the spine the way a rigid board cover eventually does.
The details are what you pay for. The elastic band keeps the book shut so cards do not fall out, the ribbon marker means you open to the right page one handed, and the expandable back pocket swallows tickets and the scrap you wrote a phone number on. None of it is clever, but all three are missing from the Spirax and the Amazon Basics, and you notice within a week.
The paper is listed at 70 gsm, which is the honest catch. Fine for pencil, ballpoint and most rollerballs, and the ivory tone is easier on the eye than bright white under a lamp, but not the sheet you want for a wet fountain pen. It sits on a 4.8 star rating across more than 2,500 Australian ratings, a three way tie for the highest of our picks alongside the Spirax and the Rhodia, and it earns that at the top of the price band rather than the bottom.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
It is the dearest thing here, and 192 pages is not much paper if you measure value that way. The 70 gsm stock will show ghosting on the reverse with a wet nib. The soft cover takes the shape of your bag over time. And Moleskine's line is huge, so check you are ordering Large, Soft Cover and Ruled rather than Pocket or Squared.
What if you want dot grid without paying journal prices?
The RETTACY Dot Grid Notebook Spiral three pack is the value pick, and the one we would hand to anyone starting a planning habit. You get three A5 books, 21.1 by 14.5 cm, each with 160 dot grid pages on 100 gsm paper under a clear hard plastic cover. Having three books instead of one changes how you use them.
The spiral binding is the reason to choose these over a sewn journal. A spiral book opens completely flat and folds back on itself, so you can write on a train seat, a lap or a crowded desk without holding the page down.
The 100 gsm paper is the other reason. That is heavier stock than most notebooks in the band, and it is the practical difference between using both sides of a page and only one. Gel pens and fineliners sit on the surface rather than soaking through.
Dot grid is also the most flexible ruling there is: it guides your handwriting like lines do, but the dots disappear behind a diagram instead of striping through it. With 4.7 stars across more than 4,700 ratings, this is the second most reviewed pick here.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Spiral books are bulkier than sewn ones and the coil can snag on a bag lining. The clear plastic covers pick up scuffs fast, so they look tired sooner than leatherette. 160 pages per book is modest, though you have three. And if you are left handed, the coil sits under your writing hand on the reverse of each page.
What is the best cheap notebook for school and uni?
The Spirax 595A Notebook Side Opening A4 is the cheapest of our seven picks. It is 240 A4 pages, 210 by 297 mm, in a cardboard cover with a single spiral down the side, made by ACCO Brands, and it has been the default Australian school notebook for generations. If you need pages rather than a possession, this is where the money goes furthest.
A4 is the point of it. It is the only A4 book among our picks, and a full A4 page holds roughly twice what an A5 page does, which matters when you are copying a whiteboard or taking lecture notes at speed. Diagrams fit and margins fit.
The single spiral is deliberate design rather than a cost cut: it lets the book lay flat so both pages are usable. The cardboard cover is the trade off, keeping the price down but looking its age by October. That is what contact covering is for, and our guide to book covering in Australia walks through the sizes and technique.
The rating tells the real story. It holds 4.8 stars, tying the Moleskine and the Rhodia for the highest of our picks, at the very bottom of the price band. That happens because the 595A does one job properly and has done so for decades.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The cardboard cover offers no real protection, so a loose book in a backpack gets bent corners within weeks. No elastic, no pocket, no ribbon. The paper is basic and suits pencil and ballpoint better than gel or fountain pens. The rating count is the smallest of our picks, and A4 will not fit a handbag.
Which notebook has the most reviews behind it?
The Amazon Basics Classic Notebook, by an enormous margin. It sits on more than 66,000 ratings at 4.6 stars, more than every other pick in this guide combined and then some. It is a hardcover at 21 by 12.7 cm with 240 ruled pages, weighing 349 grams, and the obvious choice if you want a proper hard cover without spending journal money.
The format copies the classic notebook shape at 5 by 8.25 inches, close enough to A5 to share the same bags and sleeves. The difference is the rigid board cover, so the book keeps its shape in a backpack and you can write standing up. That is genuinely useful if you take notes on site or on a building walk through.
240 pages in a book this size is generous, the same count as the Spirax in a much smaller footprint. What you trade away is refinement: no ribbon, no elastic, no back pocket, no published paper weight and a plain black board finish. At this price with this rating volume it is still the least risky purchase on the page. If your notebook lives on a desk, pair it with a proper desk organiser and it stops migrating under the laptop.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
It is the lowest rated of our seven picks at 4.6 stars, although with 66,000 ratings behind it that number is far more trustworthy than a 4.9 from thirty reviews. The listing states no paper weight, a real gap if you write with anything wet. The hard cover adds bulk. And it comes in a limited set of rulings, so check whether you want lined, grid or plain before ordering.
Which notebook is best for fountain pens?
The Rhodia Rhodiarama A5 Dot Grid, if you care how a pen feels on paper. It is an A5 soft cover at 14.8 by 21 cm with 160 dot grid pages on Clairefontaine 90 gsm ivory stock, wrapped in smooth Italian leatherette with an elastic closure. Clairefontaine has made paper in France since the 1850s and it shows in the writing surface.
Heavier, smoother paper is the whole argument. At 90 gsm this is denser stock than most notebooks in the band, and the listing describes it as smooth enough to be a pleasure with a fountain pen. That means less feathering at the nib and pages you can use on both sides. If you have a decent pen sitting unused because your notebook fights it, this is the fix, and our guide to the best fountain pens in Australia covers the other half of that pairing.
The build is quietly good too. The leatherette cover has a soft finish that does not scuff the way plastic does, and there is a pocket in the back cover for cards. At 290 grams it is heavier than it looks, which is the paper. It shares the top rating in this guide at 4.8 stars across around 900 ratings, tied with the Moleskine and the Spirax.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
160 pages is lean for the money, so you buy this for the writing experience rather than the page count. The soft cover will not protect corners in a heavy bag. Colour availability moves around and the listed price varies between cover colours, so the shade you want may not be the price you saw. And dot grid is a poor fit if you simply want ruled lines.
What should you buy if you need a whole year of notebooks at once?
The feela Composition Notebook eight pack is the bulk answer. You get eight composition books at 24.8 by 19 cm with marble style pastel covers and wide ruled pages, 1.92 kilograms for the set. This is the only pick here that sits between A5 and A4: bigger pages than a journal, still narrow enough for a school backpack.
Buying eight at once solves a specific Australian problem. Notebooks are easiest to find in the back to school windows and hardest to find mid term, when a book fills up unexpectedly. Eight covers a full secondary subject load with spares.
Composition format suits students. Soft covers are lighter than board, so a full backpack does not become a health hazard, and there is no coil to catch on anything. Eight pastel covers matters more than it sounds, because colour coding by subject beats reading spine labels at the bottom of a bag. It carries 4.7 stars across more than 800 ratings. If you are outfitting a study space, a whiteboard beside the desk pairs well with a stack of these.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The listing states no page count and no paper weight, the usual gap with budget multipacks, so you are buying on format rather than specification. Wide ruled lines are generous, so small handwriting wastes vertical space. The size is awkward to file next to A4. And eight books is a lot of commitment to one cover style.
What is the best notebook to give as a gift?
The MGGAO A5 Ruled Journal punches hardest above its price. It is an A5 hardcover at 21.1 by 14.2 cm with 188 ruled pages on 100 gsm ivory paper, in a faux leather cover with an elastic closure, two ribbon markers, a riveted pen loop and a back pocket. That is a genuine journal feature set at a mid range price.
The 100 gsm paper is the headline. Along with the RETTACY, it is the heaviest stock listed among our picks, and it is why this book handles gel pens and rollerballs far better than its price suggests. Ivory pages are also easier on the eyes under artificial light.
The small decisions are the rest of it. The pen loop is riveted rather than glued at a seam, which is the part that fails first on cheap journals. Two ribbons instead of one means you can hold a working page and an index page at once. The listing states it lays flat at 180 degrees, unusual for a hardcover at this level. At 430 grams it holds 4.7 stars across more than 340 ratings.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Faux leather can crease and peel at the corners over years in a bag, which cloth or board will not. The rating base is the second smallest of our picks, so there is less collective experience behind it than the Amazon Basics or RETTACY. Ruled is the only layout in this listing. And MGGAO colours come and go, so the shade shown may not be the shade in stock.
Which notebook should you buy?
Match the situation on the left to the book on the right.
What should you look for in a notebook?
Five things decide whether you like a notebook, and only one is the cover.
Size comes first. A4 at 210 by 297 mm is the note taking size: full width diagrams, room for margins, roughly double the content of an A5 page. It is what school and university run on. A5 at 148 by 210 mm is the carrying size, because it fits a handbag, a laptop sleeve and every backpack pocket. Anything below A6 is for capture, not thinking.
Then binding. Spiral books lay completely flat and fold back on themselves, which is why they win on trains, laps and crowded desks, but the coil catches on bag linings and sits under a left hander's wrist. Sewn hardcovers look better on a shelf, but many will not stay open without a hand on the page. Stapled exercise books are the cheapest and least durable.
Paper weight is the spec nobody mentions. 70 to 80 gsm is standard and completely fine for pencil and ballpoint. 90 to 100 gsm is noticeably better with gel pens, rollerballs and fountain pens, because heavier stock lets ink sit on the surface instead of soaking in, which is how you get to use both sides of every page. Among our picks the Moleskine lists 70 gsm, the Rhodia lists 90 gsm, and the RETTACY and MGGAO both list 100 gsm. If a listing states no gsm figure at all, assume the lower end.
Ruling matters more than people expect. Lined is fastest for pure writing. Dot grid guides your hand like lines but disappears behind tables and sketches, which makes it the most flexible option if you do more than write sentences. Grid suits maths, blank is for drawing. If you are unsure, dot grid is the safest first buy.
Then count pages against price. A 240 page A4 book and a 160 page A5 book are wildly different amounts of paper at similar money. A student burning through a book a term should buy pages, and someone journalling weekly should buy quality. If you are setting up a study nook, our home office setup guide covers the desk, chair and lighting side.
How do you make a notebook last?
Cover it, carry it flat, and keep the pen out of the pages.
Cardboard covered books like the Spirax are the ones that need help. A layer of clear contact film roughly doubles the cover's working life for very little money, which is why Australian schools have been sending home covering lists since forever. Do it before the first day, not after the corners have curled. Hardcovers and leatherette journals need no covering, but they do need to travel flat rather than jammed at an angle against a laptop.
Do not clip a pen onto a page. It is the most common way to tear a notebook, and it is why a riveted pen loop like the one on the MGGAO is a real feature rather than a gimmick. If your book has no loop, an elastic band around the covers with the pen slid under it does the same job. Keep spares out of direct sun and out of a parked car, because summer heat warps covers and yellows ivory paper faster than years on a shelf.
Finally, date and index. Write the start date on the inside cover and the end date when you finish, and leave the first two pages blank for a contents list you fill in as you go. It costs nothing and turns a stack of finished notebooks into something you can search.
You will also want
These get bought within a fortnight of the notebook itself.
Which notebook brands are best in Australia?
Three of the questions Google shows on this search are brand questions, so here is the short version. Moleskine is the default premium notebook and the one this guide ranks first. Rhodia, printed on Clairefontaine paper, is the one fountain pen users reach for. Leuchtturm1917 is the German hardcover that bullet journallers ask for by name, sold in Australia through stationery specialists rather than through Amazon AU. MUJI and kikki.K both run their own Australian stores and sit either side of the price middle, MUJI plain and cheap, kikki.K decorative. Studio Milligram is the Melbourne stationery shop whose own-label books turn up whenever Australians ask each other this question, and Notely is the Australian brand printing on recycled paper if that is the deciding factor. At the other end, Spirax is the Australian school classic and still the best value per page in the country.
The picks on this page are the ones sold on Amazon AU, which is why Leuchtturm1917, Milligram, MUJI and kikki.K are named here rather than ranked. If you want one of those, buy it from the brand or from a stationery shop, and use the paper weight and page count in our tables as the yardstick to compare it against.
What else did we consider?
Plenty of well regarded notebooks did not make the cut.
The Midori MD Notebook A5 and the Kokuyo Campus range are both excellent Japanese books, and both showed as currently unavailable on Amazon Australia when we checked, so we could not recommend either with a straight face. The same applies to the AHGXG thick journal, which has a strong rating but no stock.
Moleskine's Cahier three pack was tempting, but pocket sized 64 page books are a different product for a different job. The Moleskine Classic Hard Cover is the obvious alternative to our top pick if you prefer a rigid cover.
Among the bulk options, the feela Kraft 16 pack and the feela Soft Cover eight pack are both solid, but we did not want three feela sets in one guide. The ZCZN 12 pack blank notebooks were tempting on price, but 60 pages per book is a false economy. The five subject divider notebooks tempted us for uni, but the ones in stock had very few ratings or ratings low enough to be a warning.
We also looked hard at the Australian specialists. Milligram, Bunbougu and Muji all sell excellent notebooks, and Moleskine runs its own Australian store, but most of their range does not appear on Amazon Australia at all. If you want Leuchtturm1917, Traveler's Company, Stalogy or Midori, those independents are where you will find them.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best notebook brand in Australia?
Spirax is the brand most Australians grew up with, and its 595A A4 book is still the school and university default. For a keepsake, Moleskine and Rhodia are the two brands in our picks with the strongest reputation for paper and build. Amazon Basics is the safe value option, and it has drawn far more ratings than any other pick here.
Is A4 or A5 better for a notebook?
A4 is better when you write a lot in one sitting, because a full page holds roughly twice as much as an A5 page and diagrams do not run off the edge. A5 is better when the notebook travels, because it fits a handbag, a laptop sleeve and most backpack pockets. Of our picks, the Spirax 595A is the A4 option and everything else sits at A5 or close to it, apart from the feela composition size.
What paper GSM should a notebook have?
For everyday pencil and ballpoint work, 70 to 80 gsm is fine. With gel pens, rollerballs or fountain pens, 90 to 100 gsm is noticeably better, because the ink sits on the surface instead of soaking through and you can use both sides of a page. Among our picks the Moleskine lists 70 gsm, the Rhodia 90 gsm, and the RETTACY and MGGAO both list 100 gsm.
Are dot grid notebooks better than lined?
Dot grid is better if you mix writing with tables, diagrams and layouts, because the dots guide your hand without printing lines through your work. Lined is better if you only write sentences, and blank suits drawing. If you are not sure, a dot grid multipack such as the RETTACY three pack is the most flexible starting point.
How many notebooks does a school year need?
Most Australian secondary students get through about one A4 book per subject per year, so a five or six subject load means five to eight books once you allow for a couple that fill early. Buying a multipack up front, such as the feela eight pack, means nobody is hunting for a replacement mid term.
What is the best notebook for bullet journalling?
A dot grid page, a paper weight of 90 gsm or more so the pages take a marker, and numbered pages if you want the index to work. On this page the Rhodia Rhodiarama A5 is the closest fit at 160 dot grid pages on 90 gsm Clairefontaine stock, and the RETTACY three-pack is the cheap way to try the format before committing. Leuchtturm1917 is the book most bullet journallers name, and it is bought here through stationery shops rather than Amazon AU.
What is the difference between a journal and a notebook?
Nothing structural. Journal usually means a hardcover or soft cover book with better paper, an elastic closure and a ribbon, sold to be written in for months. Notebook usually means the cheaper spiral or side-opening book bought by the term. The specifications that actually separate them are paper weight in gsm, page count and whether the book lies flat, which is why our tables list those rather than the label on the front.
Where can you buy notebooks in Australia?
Amazon AU carries every pick on this page. Officeworks is the default for Spirax and school stationery, and Australia Post outlets carry the same tier. For the premium end, Studio Milligram, kikki.K, MUJI Australia and Harry Hartog all sell in store and online, and Leuchtturm1917 sells direct in Australia. Buying the premium books locally also avoids the three-week wait that comes with importing a Japanese notebook.
What else should you set up while you are at it?
Notebooks are one line on a longer stationery and study list.
About the author
Anish Puri founded NestPath in 2026 after going through the Australian first-home-buyer process himself. NestPath focuses on Australian first-home buyers because the existing review sites are American, generic, or both. Anish handles editorial selection across the homeowner hub. Reach out: hello@nestpath.com.au
