The best AI note takers for meetings in 2026
The best AI note takers that record, transcribe and summarise Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, with free options compared.
- Best overall: Otter.ai. Accurate live transcription and summaries across Zoom, Meet and Teams, with a free plan.
- Best for sales teams: Fireflies.ai. Searchable call library, CRM sync and conversation insights.
- Best without a bot joining: Granola. Captures notes from your computer's audio, so no bot appears in the call.
A good AI notetaker joins your calls, writes accurate notes, pulls out action items and syncs them to your CRM or docs.
We compared accuracy, integrations, privacy controls and free plans.
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Quick picks
| # | Tool | Best for | Price | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fathom | Founders | From $15/mo | 8.9 |
| 2 | Granola | Founders | From $14/mo | 8.9 |
| 3 | Otter.ai | Students | From $8.33/mo | 8.7 |
| 4 | Fireflies.ai | Sales teams | From $10/mo | 8.7 |
| 5 | Wispr Flow | Developers | From $15/mo | 8.6 |
| 6 | AssemblyAI | Developers | Free plan | 8.6 |
| 7 | Deepgram | Developers | Free plan | 8.5 |
| 8 | Rev | Journalists | Free plan | 8.3 |
| 9 | tl;dv | Product teams | Free plan | 8.2 |
| 10 | MacWhisper | Journalists | Free plan | 8.1 |
Fathom
Free AI notetaker with instant summaries and highlights. Fathom records, transcribes and summarises Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, delivering notes seconds after the meeting ends. Its free plan is notably generous and paid plans add team and CRM features.
Why we like it: Very generous free plan. Fast, accurate summaries.
Watch out for: Advanced AI features on paid tiers.
Granola
Bot-free AI notepad that enhances your own meeting notes. Granola transcribes meetings from your device audio without a bot joining, then combines the transcript with your own jotted notes into polished summaries. It is popular with founders and investors.
Why we like it: No intrusive bot in calls. Notes feel personal and concise.
Watch out for: Desktop-first experience.
Otter.ai
AI meeting notes, transcription and meeting agents. Otter.ai records and transcribes meetings in real time, generating summaries, action items and searchable notes. It joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams automatically and offers Otter AI Chat across your meetings.
Why we like it: Pioneer with strong accuracy. Generous free tier.
Watch out for: Free plan minute caps.
Fireflies.ai
AI notetaker that records, transcribes and searches meetings. Fireflies.ai joins calls to record, transcribe and summarise conversations, with search, analytics and integrations into CRMs and project tools. It supports many languages and meeting platforms.
Why we like it: Huge integration list. Good multilingual support.
Watch out for: Bot presence can annoy guests.
Wispr Flow
AI voice dictation that writes polished text in any app. Wispr Flow lets you dictate into any app and automatically cleans up filler words, punctuation and formatting. It adapts to your vocabulary and style and is popular with developers and writers.
Why we like it: Much faster than typing. Very accurate clean-up.
Watch out for: Cloud processing raises privacy questions.
AssemblyAI
Speech-to-text and audio intelligence API for developers. AssemblyAI offers highly accurate speech-to-text models via API, including streaming transcription, speaker diarisation and speech understanding features. It powers many AI notetakers and voice products.
Why we like it: Top-tier accuracy. Excellent developer docs.
Watch out for: Requires coding.
Deepgram
Fast speech-to-text, TTS and voice agent APIs. Deepgram provides fast, cost-effective speech recognition, text-to-speech and voice agent APIs for developers. It is known for low latency and is widely used in contact centre and voice AI products.
Why we like it: Very low latency. Competitive pricing.
Watch out for: Developer-only product.
Rev
AI and human transcription, captions and subtitles. Rev offers fast AI transcription and human-verified transcription, captions and subtitles, plus an AI notetaker and legal-focused tools. It is trusted by journalists, legal teams and media companies.
Why we like it: Human accuracy option. Long-established reputation.
Watch out for: Human transcription costs more.
tl;dv
Meeting recorder with AI notes and multi-meeting insights. tl;dv records Google Meet, Zoom and Teams calls, creating transcripts, AI notes and timestamped highlights. It can analyse trends across many meetings and sync notes to CRMs.
Why we like it: Strong free tier. Cross-meeting insights.
Watch out for: Some features limited to paid plans.
MacWhisper
Private, on-device Whisper transcription for Mac. MacWhisper is a Mac app that transcribes audio and video locally using OpenAI's Whisper models, keeping files private. It supports meeting recording, subtitles export and batch transcription.
Why we like it: Fully private and offline. One-time purchase for Pro.
Watch out for: Mac only.
How we chose
We shortlisted tools by reputation, reader interest and real-world usefulness, then scored each on output quality, ease of use, features and value. Read how we review for details.
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