Notes counted against iCloud storage limit

Notes back up regardless if you have iCloud backup enabled or not.

I always set my phones up as "new" & my notes, contacts & calendars are always present.

Just make sure you sign in with the same Apple ID.

 

I'm not sure why you'd expect that Notes wouldn't use space in iCloud, but they do, and that's completely normal behavior. If they didn't use iCloud space, how would the notes sync between devices?

 

Well notes are some form of media. It has to take up some space - even though it's barely a file they can accumulate overtime.