Best AI Meeting Note Taker in 2026

Why Your Meeting Note Taker Choice Matters

An AI note taker sounds like a simple tool: it listens to the call, writes a summary, lists action items, and sends the notes around. In practice the seven tools in this guide differ in ways that matter a lot once a whole team uses them.

The first split is how the tool gets the audio. Most tools send a bot into the call as an extra participant. Everyone can see it, which is good for transparency but annoys some clients and is blocked by some companies' Zoom or Teams settings. Other tools capture audio from your own computer, so nothing joins the call. That is quieter, but it moves the job of telling people they are being recorded onto you.

The second split is where the notes go. A tool that emails a summary is fine for internal standups. Sales and customer success teams usually need notes written into HubSpot or Salesforce, ideally into the right fields, not just pasted as an activity note. That is often the line between a mid-tier and a top-tier plan.

The third split is what the free plan really allows. Some free plans record every meeting forever. Others cut you off after 30 minutes per call, five meetings a month, or ten AI summaries in total. If you want to roll a tool out to a team without a budget request, this decides it.

This guide compares seven tools for teams that want automatic notes, summaries and action items from Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls:

• All-round team note takers: Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai
• Bot-free notes: Granola
• Sales-focused with deep CRM sync: Avoma
• Multilingual teams: tl;dv
• Meeting analytics and coaching: Read AI

How we chose: we compared each vendor's published pricing pages, plan limits and help documentation as of October 2026, focusing on recording method, consent and privacy controls, CRM integrations, free plan limits and what a team of 10 to 50 people would pay. We did not run hands-on tests for this guide. Prices change often in this category, so check the vendor's page before you buy.

Comparison Table

Bot vs Botless Recording

This is the decision most buyers underestimate, so it is worth a section of its own.

Bot recording means the note taker joins as a named participant. Fathom, Fireflies, Otter, Avoma, tl;dv and Read AI all work this way by default. The benefits: it can record video as well as audio, it can capture a meeting even if you leave, and everyone on the call sees that notes are being taken. The downsides: some external guests find bots off-putting, hosts can remove them, and some organizations block unknown participants or hold them in the lobby.

Botless recording captures audio from your own device. Granola only works this way. Fathom offers bot-free capture as a beta on Mac. Fireflies has a Chrome extension that records without its bot. tl;dv and Read AI have desktop apps that record from your computer. Avoma takes a different route: it can pull recordings from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex or Google Meet cloud recording, so its assistant never joins the call.

The trade-offs of botless capture are real. Read AI's own help docs note that desktop recordings are audio only and do not include all the coaching metrics. Granola does not keep audio at all, so there is nothing to replay. And because no one sees a bot, your team has to tell participants that notes are being taken.

Privacy and Consent

Recording laws differ by country and by US state, and some require every participant's consent. None of these tools removes that responsibility. What they offer are tools to make disclosure easier:

• Otter.ai can email every calendar guest 5 to 10 minutes before a meeting to say Otter Notetaker will record, posts a notice in the meeting chat, and lets admins set and lock auto-join defaults. For Microsoft Teams, an Outlook extension can ask participants to agree before they are recorded.
• Granola recommends you tell other participants. On Enterprise, admins can enforce a video badge or an automatic chat message that says Granola is transcribing.
• Read AI reminds you to get consent before each desktop recording and gives you a disclosure message with a link anyone can use to opt out and delete the recording.
• Avoma's assistant announces recording by audio and chat when it joins.

On data handling, check three things on each vendor's security page: whether audio and video are stored and for how long, whether your data is used to train models, and whether custom retention is available on your plan. Granola, for example, says it does not store meeting audio, trains on anonymized data unless you opt out, and does not let third-party model providers train on your data. Custom data retention is an Enterprise feature at Fathom, Fireflies and Granola, and an Enterprise+ feature at Read AI. HIPAA support is also an Enterprise-level feature across the board.

Fathom

Fathom records, transcribes and summarizes Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls on Mac and Windows. Its standout is the free plan: unlimited recordings and transcription, instant AI call summaries, clips and search. That makes it the easiest tool here to try with a whole team before anyone signs a purchase order.

Recording. You can choose bot capture or bot-free capture. Bot-free is currently a beta for Mac. Fathom's help center says it can only record a call if you are on it too.

Pricing in plain words. Free costs nothing and has no monthly meeting cap; advanced summaries and Ask Fathom are limited. Premium for individuals is $16/user/month billed annually or $20 monthly, and adds AI action items and a custom bot. For teams, the Team plan is $15/user/month billed annually or $19 monthly with a 2-user minimum, and adds team-wide search, shared highlight playlists, comments and folders. Business is $25/user/month billed annually or $34 monthly and adds CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics and custom summaries. Enterprise is quoted by sales and adds SSO, SCIM, custom data retention and a HIPAA BAA.

CRM sync. Fathom integrates with HubSpot and Salesforce. Its pricing table lists summary syncs to the CRM on the lower plans, capped at 3 users per domain, while syncing insights into specific CRM fields is a Business feature.

Who it is for. Teams of any size that want dependable notes on every call and a free way to start. Sales teams get a reasonable path up to Business without switching tools.

Where it falls short. Bot-free capture is still a Mac beta. AI action items are not on the free plan. For full CRM field sync you are on Business, which at $25/user/month billed annually is more than Fireflies Business.

Fireflies.ai

Fireflies is one of the most widely used note takers. Its bot joins Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting and other platforms, and it transcribes in more than 100 languages. A Chrome extension lets you record without the Fireflies bot.

Pricing in plain words. Free includes unlimited transcription but only limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage for the whole team, and 20 AI credits. Pro is $10/seat/month billed annually or $18 monthly, with unlimited AI summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording, downloads and integrations. Business is $19/seat/month billed annually or $29 monthly, with unlimited storage, conversation intelligence, team analytics and private channels. Enterprise is $39/seat/month on annual billing only and adds SSO, SCIM, HIPAA compliance, private storage and custom data retention. Fireflies says annual billing saves up to 44%.

CRM sync. Integrations include HubSpot, Salesforce, monday CRM, Odoo, folk and Intercom, plus many non-CRM apps.

Who it is for. Teams that want to pay a little for unlimited AI summaries and do not want to be boxed into one meeting platform. It is also a good fit if your calls span Zoom, Teams and Webex.

Where it falls short. The free plan's 400 minutes of storage per team runs out fast if more than one person records. Pro's 8,000-minute storage cap per seat matters for heavy users, so busy teams end up on Business. Monthly prices are close to double the annual ones.

Otter.ai

Otter is known for live transcription: the transcript builds on screen while people talk, with speaker identification. Otter Notetaker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, and there are iOS, Android and desktop apps for in-person meetings.

Pricing in plain words. Basic is free with 300 transcription minutes a month, a 30-minute cap per conversation and 3 file imports for the life of the account. Pro is $8.33/user/month billed annually or $16.99 monthly, with 1,200 minutes, meetings up to 90 minutes, 10 imports a month, and Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier. Business is $19.99/user/month billed annually or $30 monthly, with unlimited meetings, meetings up to 4 hours, up to 3 concurrent meetings, and admin activity logs and usage analytics. Enterprise is custom and adds SSO, SCIM, domain capture, the Otter API and HIPAA as an add-on.

Privacy controls. Otter's consent features are among the most complete here: pre-meeting notice emails to guests, an in-meeting chat notice, admin-locked auto-join settings, and a Teams permission flow through Outlook.

Who it is for. Individuals and small teams who want to read along live, and buyers who want the lowest annual Pro price.

Where it falls short. The free plan's 30-minute cap per conversation rules out most real meetings. Pro's 1,200-minute monthly cap and 90-minute meeting limit push regular users to Business. SSO is Enterprise only.

Granola

Granola is the clearest example of botless note taking. It captures your computer's audio, so it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Slack huddles and other call apps without any setup per platform, and nothing joins the call. You jot rough notes during the meeting and Granola fills them out from the transcript afterward.

Pricing in plain words. Basic is free, with AI meeting notes, templates and speaker tags, but only 30 days of meeting history. Business is $14/user/month with unlimited history, more capable AI models, Notion, Zapier, HubSpot and Affinity integrations, and API and MCP access. Enterprise is $35/user/month and adds SSO, SCIM, Salesforce, admin controls, HIPAA compliance and the option to enforce a transparency badge or chat message for everyone. The pricing page shows monthly prices and no annual discount.

Privacy. Granola says it does not store meeting audio: it transcribes in real time on Mac and Windows. It holds SOC 2 Type 2. It does train on anonymized customer data unless you opt out in settings, and that training is off by default for Enterprise.

Who it is for. People who run back-to-back external calls and do not want a bot showing up, plus anyone who needs notes from calls on apps that bots cannot join.

Where it falls short. No recording means no replay and no video clips to share. The free plan's 30-day history makes it a trial more than a long-term free tool. Salesforce sync and SSO need the $35 Enterprise plan. Because nobody sees a bot, disclosure is your job unless you are on Enterprise.

Avoma

Avoma is a meeting assistant built for revenue teams. Beyond notes and transcripts, it includes a meeting scheduler, CRM updates and optional conversation intelligence, revenue intelligence and lead routing.

Recording. The Avoma Assistant joins calls as a participant and announces recording. If you would rather not have a bot, Avoma can pull recordings from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Google Meet cloud recording instead.

Pricing in plain words. You pay only for people who record; viewers and collaborators are free. Startup is $19/recorder seat/month billed annually or $29 monthly, for up to 25 paid seats, with unlimited recording, transcription, AI notes, a 1:1 scheduler and auto-saving notes to CRM records. Organization is $29/seat/month billed annually or $39 monthly, for up to 100 seats, and adds custom AI templates, group and round-robin scheduling, translation and API access. Enterprise is $39/seat/month, annual only, with a 10-seat minimum, and adds SSO, data retention policies and HIPAA. Conversation Intelligence and Revenue Intelligence add-ons cost $29/seat/month each billed annually. There is a 14-day free trial of Organization with no card required, but no free recorder plan.

CRM sync. The deepest list here: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Copper, Zendesk Sell and Zoho CRM, plus dialers such as Aircall, Dialpad and RingCentral.

Who it is for. Sales and customer success teams that want notes, CRM hygiene, scheduling and coaching in one product.

Where it falls short. No free plan for recorders. Coaching and forecasting are add-ons, so the real per-seat cost for a sales team can be well above the headline price. It is more product than a team needs if it only wants meeting summaries.

tl;dv

tl;dv records and transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls in 30+ languages with automatic language detection. The bot is the default, and a desktop app records without adding a participant.

Pricing in plain words. Free gives unlimited recordings and transcripts, but only 10 meetings with AI notes, 10 Ask AI queries and 5 uploads, and data is kept up to three months. Pro is $18/seat/month billed annually or $29 monthly and removes the AI limits, adds templates, follow-up emails, global search, personal CRM integrations, Zapier, the API and an MCP server. Business is $29/seat/month billed annually or $39 monthly and adds premium multi-language transcription, custom vocabulary, unlimited Ask AI across meetings, playbooks, AI coaching and team-wide CRM field mapping. Enterprise is custom, with SCIM, custom SSO and privately hosted AI.

Who it is for. Teams that hold meetings in several languages and want to record everything for free while they decide whether AI notes are worth paying for.

Where it falls short. The free plan's 10 AI-note meetings are a lifetime total, not a monthly allowance. Free data is kept only up to three months. Pro at $18 billed annually costs more than Fathom Team, Fireflies Pro or Otter Pro.

Read AI

Read AI joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet and produces a meeting report with summary, topics, action items and key questions. What sets it apart is analytics: a personal meeting coach with talk time, speaking pace, filler words and engagement. It also searches across meetings, email and messages.

Recording. The Read Assistant bot is the default. The desktop apps for Windows and Mac can record audio from your computer without a bot, which also covers Slack huddles, Webex and dialer calls. Desktop recordings are audio only.

Pricing in plain words. Free covers 5 meetings a month, each up to 1 hour. Pro is $15/user/month billed annually or $19.75 monthly with unlimited transcripts, meetings up to 4 hours and premium integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Jira, Confluence and Zapier. The tier called Enterprise is $22.50/user/month billed annually or $29.75 monthly and adds audio and video playback and highlights. Enterprise+ is $29.75/user/month billed annually or $39.75 monthly, needs at least 5 licenses, and adds HIPAA, SAML, SCIM and custom data retention.

Who it is for. Managers and teams that want feedback on how meetings go, not just what was said, and teams that want one search box across meetings, email and chat.

Where it falls short. The free plan is the smallest here. Video playback is not on Pro, so teams that want recordings pay at least $22.50/user/month billed annually.

How to Choose by Use Case

You want one tool for the whole company, starting free. Fathom. Unlimited free recording lets everyone try it, and Team at $15/user/month billed annually covers shared libraries and search.

You want the lowest paid price with unlimited summaries. Fireflies Pro at $10/seat/month billed annually. Watch the storage cap per seat. Otter Pro is cheaper at $8.33, but its 1,200-minute cap and 90-minute meeting limit make it a light-use plan.

Your clients dislike bots, or your calls run on many apps. Granola. Nothing joins the call, and it works across call apps and in person. If you need recordings too, look at Fathom's bot-free beta on Mac, Fireflies' Chrome extension, or the desktop apps from tl;dv and Read AI.

You need notes written into your CRM. Avoma if CRM, scheduling and coaching should live in one tool, with the widest CRM list here. Fathom Business if your team uses HubSpot or Salesforce and you want field-level sync on a simpler product. tl;dv Business and Fireflies are also worth a look.

You work in several languages. tl;dv on Business for multi-language meetings and custom vocabulary, or Fireflies with 100+ transcription languages and a multi-language mode on Business.

You want coaching and meeting analytics. Read AI for meeting coach metrics on every plan, or Avoma and Fathom Business for sales-focused coaching and scorecards.

You are in a regulated industry. Every tool here puts HIPAA support at the top tier. Compare Fireflies Enterprise ($39/seat/month, annual), Granola Enterprise ($35/user/month), Read AI Enterprise+ ($29.75/user/month billed annually, 5-license minimum), Avoma Enterprise ($39/seat/month, 10-seat minimum), and the quoted Enterprise plans at Fathom and Otter.

Pricing Comparison

Here is what each tool costs per user per month on the cheapest plan that gives a team unlimited AI notes. Annual billing unless noted.

For a 20-person team on annual billing, that works out to roughly $3,600 a year on Fathom Team, $2,400 on Fireflies Pro, $4,798 on Otter Business, $4,560 on Avoma Startup (recorders only), $4,320 on tl;dv Pro and $3,600 on Read AI Pro. Granola Business is $14/user/month on its pricing page, or $3,360 a year for 20 people at that rate. Add CRM field sync and the picture changes: Fathom Business is $25, Fireflies Business $19, tl;dv Business $29, and Avoma includes CRM note sync from Startup.

Final Recommendation

For most teams that want automatic notes, summaries and action items from Zoom, Meet and Teams calls, Fathom is the best starting point. The free plan has no monthly meeting cap, you can pick a bot or bot-free capture, and the Team plan is inexpensive. When sales needs CRM field sync, Business adds it without a tool change.

Pick Fireflies.ai if you want the lowest paid price for unlimited AI summaries and support for more meeting platforms. Pick Otter.ai if live transcripts matter most and your meetings are short. Pick Granola if bots are a non-starter. Pick Avoma if you run a sales or success team that wants notes, CRM updates, scheduling and coaching in one place. Pick tl;dv for multilingual teams, and Read AI if you care about meeting analytics.

Whatever you choose, settle your consent approach first: decide whether a visible bot, pre-meeting emails or a chat message is your disclosure, and check that it fits the laws where your participants are.