MindMap AI imports FreeMind .mm files directly, with no conversion step. Open Canvas, go to All Projects, click Import Project, and select your .mm file. Your hierarchy, node text, links, folded branches, and arrow links all come across. Node notes do not, so move any you need first. Importing is free.
FreeMind did more than most tools to make digital mind mapping normal. Its one-click folding, its speed, and the fact that it was free and open source under the GPL made it the default for a generation of researchers, students, and knowledge workers. Plenty of people still have folders of .mm files worth keeping.
Its own release history is the reason people start looking around. FreeMind's last stable version, 1.0.1, is dated April 2014, with a beta from 2016 and nothing since; active development moved to the Freeplane fork years ago. FreeMind's own feature list makes the exit easy on purpose, noting that maps are stored in XML specifically to keep the cost of switching to another tool low. MindMap AI has imported .mm files since v2.0.15, released 6 April 2026. This guide covers finding your file, importing it, exactly what survives, and the one thing to move before you start.
What you need before you start
- Your .mm file – this is FreeMind's own save format, so no export or conversion is needed. If the map is open in FreeMind with unsaved changes, save it first.
- A MindMap AI account – the free plan is enough. There is no import limit and no credit cost.
- A file under 20 MB – the parser also accepts up to 100,000 XML elements and 50 levels of nesting, which works out to roughly 100,000 nodes and about 48 levels deep. Nodes containing HTML formatting count toward the element cap faster than plain text ones. A large hand-built FreeMind map is typically a few hundred kilobytes, so no real file comes close.
- Two minutes, plus a look at your notes – if you use FreeMind's per-node notes, read the note warning below before you import.
Step 1: Find your .mm file
There is no export step. FreeMind saves in .mm natively, so the file on your disk is already the one you need.
If the map is open in FreeMind, save it first so the file matches what you see on screen. If you are not sure where FreeMind put it, use File then Save As to write a fresh copy somewhere you will find it, such as your desktop.
Two things worth knowing about the format. It is XML, which is why the import is lossless for structure. And .mm became a common interchange format, so a file you got from Coggle, Freeplane, or another tool will import the same way, although what survives depends on which tool wrote it.
Step 2: Import the .mm file into MindMap AI
Sign in at MindMap AI. If you are new, you can sign up with Google, Apple, or email in under a minute.
Open the Canvas page, click All Projects, then click Import Project. Select your .mm file and confirm.
Your map opens as a fully editable MindMap AI project. Your FreeMind central topic becomes both the root node and the project title, so the map arrives already named. Branches keep the left and right placement they had around the centre, folded branches arrive folded, and arrow links come across as labelled arrows. Every node is editable by hand or by AI, nothing is read-only, and nothing sits behind a paid tier.
Step 3: What carries over, and what does not
The .mm format carries structure, text, and links faithfully. What it does not carry is FreeMind's visual styling and, importantly, its note panels.
| FreeMind element | Comes across | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Central topic | Yes | Becomes your root node and the project title |
| Branches and sub-branches | Yes | Full parent and child hierarchy |
| Left and right branch placement | Yes | Side placement around the centre is preserved |
| Node text | Yes | UTF-8 throughout, so accented and non-Latin characters are safe |
| Folded branches | Yes | FreeMind's folding survives. A folded branch imports folded, with its children hidden |
| Links on nodes | Yes | Both the node's link attribute and inline links, with anchor text kept as the label |
| Arrow links between nodes | Yes | Become labelled arrows on the canvas, including their curve shape. A link from a node to itself is the one case that is skipped |
| Node notes | No, and silently | See below. This is the one to read before you import |
| Node colours, fonts, and line styles | No | Style attributes are dropped and a MindMap AI theme is applied instead |
| Images inside nodes | No | Image elements are not parsed. Re-add them in MindMap AI, where images are unlimited on every plan |
| Change history | No | Your MindMap AI version history starts fresh at import |
Move your note text before you import
FreeMind gives every node its own note panel with an HTML editor, and people who use FreeMind seriously tend to use it heavily. Its own map gallery is full of maps where the real content lives in the notes and the nodes are just labels.
Note text does not import, and nothing tells you it is missing. The nodes come across normally, so the map looks complete on arrival while the substance is gone.
Fix it before you export, not after. In FreeMind, move any note text you need into child nodes. It then imports as ordinary node text, and once the map is in MindMap AI you can use AI summaries to condense a long child node back down to a line.
MindMap AI's own Notes feature is on the roadmap rather than shipped, which is why there is nowhere for note text to land today. If notes are the core of your FreeMind maps, that is worth weighing before you migrate the whole library.
If your file came from Freeplane rather than FreeMind
Freeplane uses .mm too and adds features FreeMind never had. Two of them do not survive: a map with more than one start point imports only the first, and nodes left floating free of the tree are skipped. Both happen without a warning. In Freeplane, attach the extra start points and floating nodes under your main topic before saving, and everything arrives in one map.
Step 4: Put the AI copilot to work on it
FreeMind is a fast editor for structure you already have in your head. Everything in it is something you typed. Once a map is in MindMap AI, it becomes something you can develop through conversation instead.
- AI copilot – chat your way from an imported outline to a finished chart. The copilot works incrementally, so your existing nodes and manual edits are preserved rather than overwritten.
- AI expand – pick any node from your old map and grow it in one click. Useful on the branches that were placeholders you never got back to, which every long-lived FreeMind map has.
- AI summaries – turn a long branch into a one-line summary without deleting what sits underneath it. This is also how you compress the note text you moved into child nodes.
- AI relationships – have the AI find and link related ideas across branches, on top of the arrow links that came across with your file.
- AI focus topic – rebuild the chart around a single branch when that branch has outgrown the map it lives in.
- AI themes and AI styling – ask for a visual style in plain language. This is how you replace the node colours and fonts that did not survive, in one prompt rather than node by node.
- AI retry prompt – retry any prompt. Retries do not use credits.
You can also switch the same content between a mind map, a logic chart, and an organization chart, or drop into outline view to work on it as text.
Importing a whole folder of .mm files
There is no cap. MindMap AI's free plan includes unlimited imports, unlimited projects, and unlimited storage, so bringing across a decade of FreeMind files costs nothing and consumes no AI credits.
Work through them in batches rather than all at once, and import each batch before starting the next. If your older files use notes heavily, do the note-moving pass on a handful first to see how much of it you actually still need. Plenty of it will be stale.
Troubleshooting
The import failed or the file was rejected. Check the file is .mm and under 20 MB. FreeMind can also export HTML, PDF, and images, and those cannot be imported as projects.
My notes are missing. Note panels do not import. The node text comes across but anything in a note does not. Move note text into child nodes in FreeMind and import again.
The map lost all its colours and fonts. Expected. Styling is replaced by a MindMap AI theme. Use AI styling to describe the look you want rather than restyling nodes one at a time.
Part of my map is missing, and it was off to one side. This happens with Freeplane files rather than FreeMind ones. Floating nodes and extra start points are skipped. Attach them to the main tree and save again.
Accented or non-Latin characters look wrong. Both FreeMind's format and MindMap AI's importer are UTF-8, so this should not happen. Send us the file through Help and Support so we can look at it.
FreeMind and MindMap AI, side by side
| Feature | FreeMind | MindMap AI |
|---|---|---|
| Latest release | 1.0.1, April 2014 | Shipping continuously |
| AI features | None | AI copilot: generate, expand, summarize, restyle |
| Where it runs | Java desktop app, works fully offline with no account | Browser, iOS, Android, Chrome and Edge extensions, needs a connection |
| Cost | Free and open source under the GPL | Free plan with unlimited maps, nodes, and storage; Basic $9.99/month |
| Per-node notes | Rich HTML notes on every node | On the roadmap, not yet shipped |
| Sharing | Send the .mm file | Shared workspaces with live synced updates, public links, iframe embed |
| Chart types | Mind map | Mind map, logic chart, organization chart, outline view |
| Inputs | Typed text | Text, PDFs, documents, CSV, images, audio, video, Markdown, HTML, XML, JSON |
| Mind map file imports | .mm and a few others | 8 formats: XMind, MindManager, Mapify, Coggle, FreeMind, Freeplane, SimpleMind, MindMap AI |
Two rows there go FreeMind's way, and they matter to some people. It runs entirely on your own machine with no account, no connection, and no subscription, and its per-node notes are richer than anything MindMap AI offers today. If those are why you chose it, they are still good reasons.
What FreeMind cannot do is help you think. It has had no new features since 2014 and no AI at all, and on current macOS the Java build is increasingly awkward to run. If your maps have stopped growing because expanding them means typing every word yourself, that is the gap MindMap AI fills.
For a fuller breakdown, see our FreeMind vs MindMap AI comparison.
Moving from another tool?
MindMap AI imports eight mind map formats. If FreeMind is not the only tool you are consolidating, we have step-by-step guides for XMind, MindManager, and SimpleMind, plus native support for Coggle, Freeplane, and Mapify files.
FAQ
Yes. MindMap AI has imported .mm files since version 2.0.15, released on 6 April 2026, with FreeMind support added in version 2.0.22 on 16 May 2026. There is no conversion step, because .mm is FreeMind's own save format: you use Import Project on the Canvas page and select the file. The imported map is a fully editable MindMap AI project rather than a read-only copy, so you can edit nodes by hand or ask the AI copilot to expand and reorganise them immediately. Importing is included on the free plan and consumes no AI credits.
No, and this is the main difference from migrating out of a cloud tool. FreeMind saves natively in .mm, so the file already sitting on your disk is the one MindMap AI reads. If the map is open in FreeMind with unsaved changes, save it first so the file matches what you see on screen. If you cannot find where FreeMind stored it, use File then Save As to write a fresh copy somewhere obvious. Do not use FreeMind's HTML, PDF, or image exports, because those are flat output and cannot be imported as editable projects.
Yes, and more of it than you might expect. In MindMap AI your central topic becomes the root node and the project title, the full branch and sub-branch hierarchy is preserved, left and right placement around the centre is kept, folded branches arrive folded, links on nodes come across with their anchor text, and arrow links between nodes become labelled arrows on the canvas. The parts that do not survive are FreeMind's visual styling, images inside nodes, and note panels. Structure and text are the parts the format carries faithfully.
They do not import, and nothing warns you, so this is worth handling before you start. The node itself comes across normally while the note text is dropped, which means the map looks complete when it is not. Before importing, move any note content you still need into child nodes in FreeMind, where it imports as ordinary node text. MindMap AI's own Notes feature is on the roadmap rather than shipped, which is why note text has nowhere to land today. If your FreeMind maps keep their real substance in notes, weigh that before migrating a whole library.
Yes, though no hand-built map will reach it. A .mm file must be under 20 MB, and MindMap AI's parser accepts up to 100,000 XML elements and 50 levels of nesting, which works out to roughly 100,000 nodes and around 48 levels deep. Nodes containing HTML formatting use up the element allowance faster than plain text ones, so a heavily formatted map reaches the ceiling sooner. For context, a large FreeMind map built over years is typically a few hundred kilobytes, so the practical answer is that any real file will import.
Yes. MindMap AI places no limit on imports, and its free plan includes unlimited imports, unlimited projects, and unlimited storage, so bringing across years of FreeMind files costs nothing and consumes no AI credits. Import them in batches rather than all at once, finishing each batch before starting the next, so you can tell what has already come across. If your older maps rely on note panels, do the note-moving step on a handful first to see how much of that content you still want to keep.
Yes, and this is usually why people move. In MindMap AI, AI expand grows any node into deeper subtopics, which is useful on the branches that were placeholders you never returned to. AI summaries condense a long branch into a single line, including the note text you moved into child nodes. AI relationships links ideas across branches on top of the arrow links your file already carried, and AI styling restyles the whole map from a plain-language prompt. The copilot works incrementally, so it builds around your existing structure rather than regenerating it.
It depends on what you value. FreeMind runs entirely on your own machine with no account, no connection, and no subscription, it is free under the GPL, and its per-node HTML notes are richer than anything MindMap AI offers today. Those are real reasons to stay. MindMap AI suits people whose maps have stopped growing because every new node has to be typed: an AI copilot that builds on your edits, inputs from documents and audio and video, three chart types, and a free plan with no node or map limits.
