We study the stochastic cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation (SNLS) with an additive noise on the one-dimensional torus. In particular, we prove local well-posedness of the (renormalized) SNLS when the noise is almost space–time white noise. We also discuss a notion of criticality in this stochastic context, comparing the situation with the stochastic cubic heat equation (also known as the stochastic quantization equation).