Productivity app Notion to exit Russia, citing US sanctions

The popular U.S.-based productivity and note-taking app Notion has announced plans to suspend its service in Russia starting in September.

The decision, according to the company’s statement on Tuesday, is a response to U.S. government sanctions that prohibit access to certain software products and services in Russia.

“We understand this change may be disruptive,” Notion said, advising its Russian users to consider exporting their content from the app.

Notion is widely used by students, tech entrepreneurs and startups to plan tasks, manage team projects, create websites, and build databases.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, other companies that have announced the suspension of their services in Russia include Microsoft, Czech antivirus developer Avast and developer platform Docker Hub. Firms have cited either moral reasons or economic sanctions imposed by the EU and U.S.

It is unclear how many people in Russia currently use Notion. In January, the company posted on X that it had reached 1 million users and listed the countries where they were located. 

The Russian flag appeared second, following Poland, though it’s unclear whether the countries were listed randomly or by user count. The company did not respond to a request for further comment.

We just hit 1 MILLION MEMBERS across community-led Notion groups, representing all of these countries (wow!):

🇵🇱🇷🇺🇹🇼🇺🇦🇪🇬🇵🇸🇫🇷🇯🇵🇨🇦🇮🇳🇧🇷🇳🇱🇨🇭🇵🇭🇰🇷🇵🇹🇸🇬🇺🇸🇬🇧🇲🇽🇪🇸🇨🇳🇩🇪🇮🇩🇬🇭🇲🇾🇧🇪🇿🇦🇦🇺🇸🇾🇵🇰🇵🇪🇹🇭🇦🇷🇹🇷🇨🇴🇬🇷🇮🇹🇻🇳🇨🇱🇦🇼🇱🇰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇻🇪🇯🇲🇸🇻🇫🇮🇲🇳🇲🇲🇲🇦🇭🇲🇩🇰🇹🇹🇵🇦🇷🇴🇧🇩🇭🇺🇰🇬🇸🇬🇮🇪🇦🇿🇨🇿🇮🇱🇳🇬🇵🇱🇸🇪🇦🇹🇸🇰🇪🇪🇸🇻🇯🇴🇸🇦🇪🇬🇹🇳🇦🇪🇮🇸🇱🇹🇭🇰🇵🇫🇰🇿

— Notion (@NotionHQ) January 18, 2023

According to Notion's statement, Russian users will have access to their workspaces through September 8. 

“If any billing information connected with the workspace is currently or was previously associated with Russia, the workspace will be terminated,” the company said. “This is necessary for compliance with sanctions, and updating an account’s billing information will not change the restriction.”

Notion began declining Russian cards for payment in 2022. At that time, many Russian users switched to the free version of the app. In February 2024, Notion stopped functioning in Russia without a virtual private network (VPN), according to user reports.

Russian users have expressed their frustration on Reddit about the upcoming suspension.

“I’m a regular Russian college student, studying my way out of this cursed place named the Russian Federation,” one local user wrote.

“Today I woke up... and got the love letter from Notion saying that on September 9, all my workspaces will be nuked. Just because the life random generator decided that I would be born on a certain territory,” they added.

“This was a sucker punch, honestly. I have hundreds of databases there. It’s been four years of uni, and right before the start of a new academic year, we have this. The stupidest thing is that they didn’t even have to do this. Anxiety up, mental health down,” another user said.