How to Make your Notion Aesthetic with Simple Notion Icons (FREE)

Short answer is: use Simple Notion Icons - it is 100% free, fast and seamlessly-working. Long answer below.

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Notion: so simple, yet so powerful.

Given its simplicity, there are few elements you can add to customize the minimalist Notion page. The icon would be one of those things that can add some flavour.

In this article, we'll show you: A. Where and how you can get 100% free, beautiful Notion icons, B. How to add Notion Icons, C. Even more sources for getting aesthetic Notion icons.

Feel free to skip through some sections, depending on what part of our guide you want to check.

Without any further ado, here's the answer.

Notion's way of adding icons

As soon as you open a page in Notion, you're going to have in mind the 3 basic details: Title, Cover, Icon.

Ever since an update in August 2022, Notion added their own standard icons that can be used for free on any page.

Aside from the emojis, if you want to make use of these actual icons that Notion provides, simply click the 'Add icon' button as soon as you open a new page, and then pick your favourite one.

To change the colour of that Notion icon, simply click it and you'll see a pop-up with the available colours (see the image above).

Want to read the full story about Notion's standard icons? We've actually written a separate guide that shows you how to add an icon in Notion.

Basically, we went deep into detail on how to actually add any icon to your Notion pages.

How do you add custom icons to Notion?

The shortest answer is for "Where can I find the best free Notion icons" is:

1. Head over to Simple Notion Icons
2. Click on any icon you like (hint: you can use the search function in the upper right corner)
3. Go back to Notion → click the "add icon" button. PRO TIP: If you're on desktop, you might have to hover your mouse above your title to see the button
4. Click on the icon → Select "link" → Paste in that box (use CMD/CTRL + V) → Job done! 🎉

Where can I find aesthetic Notion icons?

The best place to find free downloadable Notion icons is on https://notionicons.simple.ink.

You'll find a big selection if icons there, which are easily usable. It comes to down to a few clicks (copying the icon  → 2 clicks in Notion → pasting the icon). You'll be able to change colors, the thickness of the icon and you'll be able to search through the icons.

We've created this library of icons which we're giving away for free, at no extra cost. That's it — no gimmicks, no hidden paywalls, no nothing.

If you're wondering why, the answer is really simple and straightforward: we want people to know of our Notion website builder

But this is about the icons, not our website builder, so we'll get back on-topic.

Pro tips for using our copy-and-paste Notion icons

What we've described above is the quickest way to use them, but as you'll see for yourself, there's more to it.

We'll walk you through a few pro tips on how to use our collection of fun Notion icons below:

Pro Tip #1: Change the color for aesthetic Notion icons

If you click the downward-facing arrow next to the 'color' field, you'll see some pre-made options of colors.

Use those buttons to save time when picking a color. If you want (and are able) to keep it all organised and tidy, use the same color for all your Notion icons to keep them in harmony.

Alternatively, you can use different colors for different sections of your dashboard/files/pages etc.

Pro Tip #2: Go your own way with the colors

If you look again at the 'color' field, you'll see that we've made added an editable field there. Sure, you can click the dropdown to see some pre-made options, but what's the point of an editable field?

You might or might not know what a hex code is.

If you don't, to put it simply, a hex code is a unique code for a color. Two dark greens can look about the same, but if they're slightly different, they'll have two hex codes. Why does this matter? It's easy: if you have a specific shade you want for your Notion icon, you can add it there in that field and the icons will be automatically changed.

Some example of famous hex codes for colours:

• Tiffany Blue: #0ABAB5
• Snapchat Yellow: #FFFC00
• Supreme Red: #EE0606
• Airbnb Red: #FD5C63
• Amazon Orange: #FF9900
• Lamborghini Yellow: #DDB321
• Spotify Green: #1DB954
• Starbucks Green: #00704A
• Simple.ink blue (lol): #009AFE

Check out these websites. You'll be able to find different aesthetic colour palettes:

• https://coolors.co/
• https://flatuicolors.com/
• https://colorhunt.co/
• https://www.color-hex.com/color-palettes/

What do you do once you have the hex code? Just paste it into that field and press 'enter'. Hint: you may or may not have to add the "#" before the number/character combination.

Pro tip #3: Use the 'size' slider

Need to make the icons bigger or smaller? Use the first slider in our live editor on Simple Notion Icons to change that.

Hint: if you're building a Notion-powered website, the icon you set on your Notion page will be there on your website. Simple.ink has a generous free plan for website building so... give us a try?

Pro tip #4: Use the 'bold' slider

Same story as before — use that slider to increase/decrease the thickness of the icon. As soon as you drop the slider, the changes should be applied.

Remember: a lighter (thinner) icon looks more elegant, but is less legible.

A thicker icon looks more powerful, but be careful not to go too over-the-top.

How do I get Notion icons?

To get Notion icons, there are a couple of options:

1. You can use an emoji
2. You can create your own icon — this takes time and we suggest checking step #1 or #3 for most people's cases
3. Use the Simple Notion Icons pack: free, customizable, copy-and-paste Notion icons

Click the coloured text above to access the list of icons. Once there, use the search bar to find the icons you're in need of.

Hint: our Library has a search function that other icon packs might not have. If you search for a word, we'll also show you the synonyms.

Why does this matter?

Say you're looking for a "flash" icon — you know, the thing that comes out of the sky (out of clouds, I guess?) when there's a storm outside.

You'll type in 'flash' and the icon comes up. Job done, right? Not really. Some other people might think of:

• Zap
• Thunder
• Bolt
• etc

On other icons packs, you'll have to guess the exact word the creators have used — if not, you'll see the sad "No results found" text. Our search system is made so that we show all the synonyms. So even if you don't use the exact same word, we'll still find it for you.

Scroll to the higher point of this page to see, with pictures, how you can add those icons. We've tried our best to explain this as simple as possible, so make sure you check that if you're clueless as to how to use those icons.

Where can I get Notion Icons GIFs (animated)?

It's true: you are able to add animated icons to your Notion. And yep, you can add an icon there that keeps on moving, rotating or changing — infinitely, in a loop.

To do that, what we currently suggest going for is

1. Icons8's Notion icon set
2. LordIcon.com
3. Go crazy (more below)

The first two options include a mix of paid and free icons. We suggest browsing through them, as they're well organized, and they are what you need if you want a neat, clean Notion collection.

One thing to keep in mind is dark mode. Most icons will have a white background, which is not visible if you're in light mode, but the moment you switch to dark mode, a white box will be visible.

That said, some icon makers have taken care of that and have added a rounded-edge rectangle around it — at least you won't have ugly, sharp corners. You might be ok with the box, but it's just something to keep in mind!

Now onto that 3rd item list...

Option #3: go crazy with Notion animated icons

I genuinely believe this is an under-valued tip/hack in Notion: no one seems to be talking about this, but sky is the limit here. Keep this secret safe 🤫

You can set any GIF as a Notion icon.

And you might very well know GIPHY. In fact, there's tons of websites with GIFs, but here's how a psychedelic icon might look:

Probably you won't go for a meme GIF as an icon, but hey — gifs aren't all about memes. There's countless of examples of crazy visuals (psychedelic or not) that you can add there for your page. Make sure you send us a DM with how your collection of pages will look like, if every page's icon is animated!

To set a GIF as an icon, you'll go through the same workflow: add icon → select a link, this time → paste the URL of the GIF there. Here, use the one we've used in the example above:

https://media4.giphy.com/media/mNWv6LwHbZFDVh7Ahi/giphy.gif?cid=790b76114f308da9179408962e56bf632e96d66445194edf&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

If you paste this URL, you'll get the crazy visual as an icon.

Where can I get cute icons for Notion?

To get cute, customizable Notion icons, head over to the Simple Notion Icons collection of cute icons.

Over there, you will be able to search through the icons — type in a word of something that you find cute, and our search results should show you a selection of icons from which you can choose.

The best part comes now: you'll be able to customize these icons to your liking. Use a cute colour, and make sure you keep the 'bold' slider to low amounts. Or not! If the icon you found looks cuter in a thicker format, feel free to use that! We won't mind.

As time goes by, we'll keep adding new collections of cute Notion icons, so let us know what else you'd like to see.

Make sure you scroll to the upper parts of this article to learn how you can implement those icons and what other customizations you can apply to your cute Notion icons. Look for the highlighted "Pro Tip" sections!

What if I don't like these icons? Where else can I find Simple Notion Icons alternatives?

If you don't like the icons we've put up, that's fine. No hard feelings.

We'd just love it if you could let us know what else we could do better — what we should add/change about them!

But with that said, here are some other sources of Notion icons you might want to check. They might not be as easy to use or as customizable, but we'll admit that we don't have all the Notion icons under the sun in our library.

NOTE: While all our icons are free, some creators might charge for their icons.

Notion Icons Alternative #1: Vyshnav's Notion Icons

Head over to Vyshnav's icons here. This icon pack has got light/dark mode features, and presents 272 icons in 8 different colours. This has been the 4th iteration of this pack!

Notion Icons Alternative #2: Tablericons

Tablericons.com offers some customizability, which is great! Be mindful of the search synonym situation we've mentioned above, just in case you won't find the icon you're looking for. Note that you might need to download the icon first and then upload it.

As a side-note, TablerIcons and Csaba Kissi (its creator) have been an inspiration for Simple Notion Icons 😸.

Notion Icons Alternative #3: The Noun Project

The Noun Project is a huge database of icons, counting more than 3 million icons. They're minimalist, clean and aesthetic. The only downside might be that you'll need to pay for a license to either customize the icons, or to use them in a commercial setting.

Notion Icons Alternative #4: FlatIcon

FlatIcon.com is another great option with even more icons: 5.7M+ icons. Once again, be mindful if you're using the icons for any commercial icons - you'll need a license for that.

Notion Icons Alternative #5: FeatherIcons

FeatherIcons comes are customizable, but they're only presenting ~300 icons. Sometimes, however, more choice = more problems. Give them a try. The great news is that they're open source. What does that mean? It means you can use them in a commercial project (i.e. a project you're monetising) with no problem.

Notion Icons Alternative #6: Iconstore

Iconstore.co presents ~300 icons that are made by first-class designers (or so they claim). Not sure what first-class designers are — I think they're taking only first-class on trains.

Notion Icons Alternative #7: Streamline Icons

Streamline created these icons for you which are as well editable before choosing one. They are free to use, but they require attribution (in simple English: you need to credit them).

Notion Icons Alternative #8: Flat-icons

Flat-icons.com, although very similar in name (and in design?) to option #4, is separate from it. Have a look at their selection as well.

Notion Icons Alternative #9: Speckyboy's icons

Although not very dense, you might find here some icons you'll like. Note that you'll have to download this pack first.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any limitations on the type of icons I can use?

Notion supports most image formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF). However, for best results, use high-resolution PNGs or SVGs.

Can I upload my own custom icons?

Yes, you can upload custom icons from your device by clicking on the icon area and selecting "Upload an Image."

How do I remove an icon in Notion?

To remove an icon, click on it and select the "Remove" option.

Can I use animated icons?

Yes, Notion supports GIFs, allowing you to use animated icons for added visual interest.

Conclusion

Customizing your Notion workspace with free icons can greatly enhance its appearance and functionality. With resources like Simple Icons, Flaticon, Icons8, and Emojipedia, you have access to a wide range of icons to suit your needs. Adding and customizing these icons in Notion is straightforward, making it easy to create an engaging and organized workspace.

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