Best AI Meeting Note Takers in 2026

Why would you want a meeting note taker?

Your next meeting might look very different. Yes. The AI note takers have landed and they want to transcribe your meeting for you and summarize all that happened. The amount of these AI note takers that have popped up in the last year is incredible, all with their own unique approaches to capturing your meeting notes.

The concept of administration is becoming drastically easier thanks to AI. Some reasons why you might want to consider embracing an AI tool for your meetings: Works in Background - They join as bots or background note takers, not making a sound & just work with little to no interruptions.

Faster & More Accurate - As they take the exact transcript with good accuracy, many of them take all the meeting notes verbatim.

Agentic Productivity - Many of the AI note takers can flag actions, begin follow-up and connect up with apps you already use to get jobs done for you.

What is an AI note-taker?

An AI note-taker helps you transcribe meetings, summarize them & produce insights. Many AI note-takers allow you to chat with your notes after the meeting and they can be used with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet or even in the background.

People use these AI note-taking tools to save time preparing, taking meeting minutes & after meetings.

You can also take meetings in person with AI note-takers.

Fellow

Best for Teams: Fellow

Fellow is designed for teams for meeting collaboration. One of the things that makes Fellow unique is the focus on the three areas of a meeting - the agenda, the meeting notes & the post meeting. It works with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams & Zoom to capture meeting notes.

Fellow offers a decent set of features that allow your team to not just collate AI notes, but extract action items from meetings, set-up automations, book meetings into your calendar & much more. Fellow tends to be a better option for teams that want the whole meeting experience to be captured.

Take your own notes or expand on the AI note taker recommendations. See the full video recording and skip to sections. Use action items to flag important items, or let AI do that for you. Redact meeting clips for quick redactions. Helps prepare agendas and briefings in advance based on web knowledge. Suitable for small to medium sized teams. A good all-rounder for those looking for something broader.

Best for

Teams wanting full meeting lifecycle management (pre, during, post). Engineering and product teams running recurring standups and retrospectives. Managers who need to track action items across multiple team meetings. Organizations wanting meeting analytics and insights for improving team productivity.

Not ideal if

You're a solo user who doesn't need collaboration features. Your meetings are primarily external client calls (Fellow shines internally). You need in-person meeting transcription (Fellow is virtual-only). Budget is tight since free tier is limited and team plans add up quickly.

Real-world example

A 20-person engineering team uses Fellow for sprint planning and daily standups. The engineering manager sets agendas with templated talking points. During standup, Fellow's AI captures blockers and action items automatically. After the meeting, action items sync to Jira tickets. The retrospective dashboard shows which action items from past weeks are still open, keeping the team accountable.

Team fit

Best for small to mid-sized teams (10-100 people) with recurring internal meetings. Product, engineering, and operations teams love it. Less suited for sales teams doing mostly external client calls, large enterprises needing advanced security, or solo consultants.

Onboarding reality

Moderate. Individual users can start immediately, but getting a team aligned on Fellow's workflow takes 2-3 weeks. The agenda templates help, but you'll need to train your team on the pre-meeting prep habits Fellow encourages. Worth the investment if your team commits.

Pricing friction

Free plan is very limited (basic note-taking only). Pro starts at $7/user/month (annual billing). Business tier ($10/user/month) unlocks the real power like analytics and advanced integrations. For a 20-person team, that's $200/month, which feels steep compared to pure transcription tools.

Integrations that matter

Google Calendar and Outlook (meeting sync), Zoom and Google Meet (recording), Slack (notifications and action items), Jira and Asana (task creation), Notion (note export).

Otter Notes AI

Best for Transcription: Otter Notes AI

Otter AI is a transcription tool that can be used for meeting notes. Many people use Otter AI for transcribing meetings as they have been a popular option for many years. The tool works by capturing your transcript in tools like Zoom, Google Meet & Microsoft Teams, turning it into notes, AI summarizes and allows you to use AI chat to communicate with the notes.

Otter is a well-known name in the transcription space and comes with many solid integrations for saving time after meetings. Accuracy of live transcription is genuinely impressive. Good for individuals and teams. Allows up to 300 minutes of monthly transcription. Around $8 per month to upgrade to premium subscriptions.

Easy to use and functional. One of the only live transcription tools. Otter AI chat is baked into free access. Translates to French and Spanish too. You can connect meeting slides in-line from PowerPoints. Very popular for sales with a dedicated sales experience. Otter AI had privacy concerns in October 2024. iOS, Android & web.

Otter has been around for many years, we used it many years before. These guys have cracked the quality of transcription. Having the Otter AI assistant to answer questions and use to better learn from your meetings is a good thing to have. With 300 minutes free, if you had 6 meetings per month at 45 minutes, you'd be fine to use.

Best for

Sales teams needing accurate client call transcriptions. Students recording lectures and study sessions. Journalists and researchers conducting interviews. Anyone wanting live transcription that appears in real-time during meetings. Teams needing multilingual support (French/Spanish).

Not ideal if

You need more than 300 minutes monthly on free plan (5 hours goes fast). Privacy is paramount since Otter had data breach concerns. You want deep meeting analytics beyond transcription. Your primary use is in-person meetings (Otter shines in virtual).

Real-world example

A sales team uses Otter for all client discovery calls. The sales rep focuses on the conversation while Otter captures every detail. After the call, the rep uses Otter AI chat to extract pain points, budget mentions, and competitor references. These insights go straight into Salesforce notes. The sales manager reviews transcripts to coach reps on better discovery questions.

Team fit

Works for individuals to mid-sized teams (1-50 people). Popular with sales teams, journalism, education, and research. Less suited for large enterprises needing strict compliance, or teams wanting more than basic transcription and summary.

Onboarding reality

Very easy. Connect your calendar, grant meeting permissions, and Otter starts joining automatically. The AI chat works immediately. Most users are productive within 30 minutes. The live transcription takes no training at all.

Pricing friction

300 minutes free monthly is generous for light users. Pro ($8.33/user/month annual) gets you 1200 minutes. Business ($20/user/month) unlocks team features and admin controls. The minute limits are the friction point - heavy meeting users burn through fast.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams (auto-join), Google Calendar and Outlook (scheduling), Salesforce and HubSpot (CRM sync), Slack and Teams (sharing).

Fireflies AI

Best for Freelancers: Fireflies AI

Fireflies AI is a good all-round free AI note-taker to consider for your notes. Many people like to use it for meeting transcriptions with helpful features like soundbites and AskFred, AI assistant to help ask questions about meetings. One of the good abilities in Fireflies is there is no video meeting recording, which is a feature for many that is just a bonus.

The application bakes in features like soundbites, AskFred and more features to help save time summarizing meetings. Freelancers, individuals, and smaller teams will find it perfect. Unlimited transcription with extension. Total storage limit is 800 minutes. $10 per user, per month (annual) to upgrade to full unlimited access.

Easy to use design and feel. Soundbites is a good feature for clipping audio. No video recordings as part of free (not needed for most people). You can upload past meetings using MP4 files. Use the "AskFred" AI feature in free pricing. Not as comprehensive meeting summaries as others. Action items are limited in the basic pricing. iOS, Android, Web.

Fireflies is a good all-round AI note-taker with good abilities. It serves the basic AI note-taker well with some AI chat abilities with AskFred that can be helpful for managing your discussions. It isn't too pricey either for those who want something that isn't going to blow you away.

Best for

Freelancers and solo consultants on tight budgets. Small teams (3-10 people) wanting unlimited transcription without enterprise pricing. Users who prefer audio-only recordings (no video). Anyone wanting to clip and share specific meeting moments with soundbites feature.

Not ideal if

You need robust action item tracking and task management. Video recordings are important to your workflow. You want the most advanced AI summaries and insights. Large teams needing admin controls and detailed analytics.

Real-world example

A freelance consultant uses Fireflies for client calls. The unlimited transcription means no worrying about minute limits. After each call, the consultant uses AskFred to pull out deliverable requests and deadline mentions. Soundbites feature lets them clip client approval quotes to protect against scope creep. The audio-only approach keeps file sizes manageable when storing hundreds of past calls.

Team fit

Best for individuals and micro-teams (1-10 people) on tight budgets. Freelancers, consultants, and small agencies love it. Less suited for enterprise teams, organizations needing compliance features, or teams wanting sophisticated meeting analytics.

Onboarding reality

Very easy. Add Fireflies bot to your calendar, and it joins meetings automatically. AskFred works immediately on your first transcript. The soundbites feature takes a few minutes to understand, but it's intuitive. Most users are fully productive within an hour.

Pricing friction

Free plan with unlimited transcription is incredible value, but 800 minutes total storage (not monthly) fills up fast. Pro ($10/user/month annual) gives unlimited storage and better features. Business ($19/user/month) adds team collaboration. The storage limit catches people off guard.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams (auto-join), Slack (sharing and notifications), Salesforce and HubSpot (CRM logging), Notion and Asana (note export).

Notta AI

Best for Multi-Language: Notta AI

Notta AI is one of the most used tools on the market with over 7M users worldwide. Being one of the most popular options doesn't mean you are always the best. Notta offers a range of abilities that allow you to modify transcripts, vocabulary, AI notes within your transcripts, download functions and much more.

As a Japanese based company, Notta does well to offer multi-language transcriptions for meetings with multi-speakers as part of their premium options. Notta lets itself down with aggressive pop-ups and pushes to become a premium subscriber, more so than many of the other options on the list.

Best for

Multilingual teams needing transcription in multiple languages. Global companies with international meetings across different languages. Users who need to edit and customize transcripts extensively. Teams working with non-English speakers who need accurate multi-language support.

Not ideal if

You're annoyed by aggressive upgrade prompts and pop-ups. Your meetings are English-only (other tools do this better). You want a clean, minimal interface without constant upsells. Budget is very tight since free tier is heavily limited.

Real-world example

A tech company with offices in US, Japan, and Germany uses Notta for quarterly all-hands meetings. The CEO speaks English, the Tokyo team lead presents in Japanese, and the Berlin manager uses German. Notta transcribes all three languages in real-time and provides translated summaries. The ability to edit custom vocabulary ensures company-specific terms transcribe correctly across all languages.

Team fit

Best for international teams (10-100+ people) needing multilingual support. Companies with global operations. Less suited for small English-only teams, or anyone who finds aggressive monetization tactics frustrating.

Onboarding reality

Moderate. The core transcription works immediately, but setting up custom vocabulary and language preferences takes time. The interface can be overwhelming with upsell prompts. Budget 1-2 hours to configure it properly for your team's needs.

Pricing friction

Free tier is very limited (120 minutes monthly). Pro ($14.99/month) is pricier than competitors. Business ($27.99/user/month) required for teams. The aggressive upselling in the interface creates constant friction even for paying users. Pricing is on the higher end.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams (recording), Google Calendar (scheduling), Slack (sharing). Integration list is shorter than competitors, focusing on core meeting platforms.

Fathom

Best for Free Unlimited: Fathom

Fathom offers a lot baked into their free transcription tool. As part of Fathom, you get unlimited transcriptions and for the budget conscious, this could be a perfect starting point. On top of that, you earn rewards or points, per meeting, earning points means prizes too. Fathom is easy to use, comes with some good sharing abilities and accurate transcription.

It isn't the most attractive option out there but it does serve as solid choice for those who want something reliable and happy to include a banner in their meetings, as an enforcement for unlimited use.

Budget conscious solo users will love this. Unlimited transcriptions on free plan. There are limitations for the free plan. The monthly upgrade to remove limits is $19 per month. Easy to install and use. Works with a wide range of tools. Good transcription and template building for adding context. Fathom points gained earn rewards. Good for the basic user. Not the most attractive option on the list. If you don't upgrade, you get in meeting banners. iOS, Android, macOS, Windows & web.

Best for

Budget-conscious users wanting unlimited free transcription. Solo professionals who don't mind in-meeting banners. Sales reps doing high volumes of calls who need unlimited transcription. Users who like gamification (Fathom points and rewards system).

Not ideal if

You need a polished, professional interface without banners. Your clients would be put off by Fathom branding in meetings. You want advanced AI features beyond basic transcription. Team collaboration features are important to your workflow.

Real-world example

A sales development rep does 20+ discovery calls weekly. Fathom's unlimited free transcription means no minute tracking or overage fees. The in-meeting banner doesn't bother prospects since it's normalized now. After each call, the rep reviews the transcript for pain points and objections. Fathom points accumulate toward Amazon gift cards, adding a fun incentive. When promoted to account executive, they upgrade to remove banners for enterprise client calls.

Team fit

Best for solo users and small teams (1-5 people) on zero budget. Individual contributors doing high call volumes. Less suited for teams needing shared workspaces, enterprises requiring polish and branding control, or users wanting sophisticated analytics.

Onboarding reality

Very easy. Install the extension, connect your calendar, and Fathom joins meetings automatically. The rewards system is self-explanatory. No learning curve at all - it just works. Most productive within 15 minutes of setup.

Pricing friction

Free with unlimited transcription (with banners) is unbeatable value. Pro ($19/month) removes banners and adds better features. The free tier is so generous that upgrading feels optional unless you need to remove branding. The gamification (points/rewards) softens any pricing friction.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams (recording), Salesforce and HubSpot (CRM sync), Slack (notifications). Solid integration list for core platforms but not as extensive as premium tools.

Granola AI

Best for Mac Users: Granola AI

For macOS users, Granola AI is one of the best choices. Unlike many of the other AI note-takers, it requires no plug-in into each meeting, working in the background to reduce the constant reminder for people joining the meeting about the AI note-taker joining.

Granola works nicely if you want to take notes during meetings and want to combine them with AI to make better notes. This allows you to have a bit more control, but also tailor the AI to be more contextual at what matters most. It lacks action items or more meeting collaboration abilities, but as a personal AI note-taker, it does well for macOS users who want to use it in the background.

Mac users and iOS users will appreciate the native feel. Free for up to 25 meetings. Costs $20 per month for unlimited access. Background AI note-taking, no plug-ins. Allowing you to take your own notes is very helpful. Create your own meeting templates. Works offline to take notes now. Only for macOS users. Much more basic than other options. macOS only.

Best for

Mac users who want invisible background transcription without meeting bots. People who prefer taking manual notes enhanced by AI rather than pure AI transcription. Privacy-conscious users who don't want bots joining their meetings. Users wanting offline note-taking that syncs later.

Not ideal if

You're on Windows, Linux, or need cross-platform access. Your team needs shared note access and collaboration. You want robust action item tracking and task management. You need transcription for phone calls or in-person meetings (Granola is Mac app + virtual meetings only).

Real-world example

A product manager at a startup uses Granola for customer research calls. Instead of having a Fireflies bot join and potentially make customers uncomfortable, Granola records silently in the background on their Mac. During the call, the PM jots down key insights manually. After, Granola's AI enhances those notes with full context from the transcript. The hybrid approach keeps customers comfortable while capturing everything.

Team fit

Best for individual Mac users (designers, PMs, executives) who value discretion. Apple-centric small teams (3-10 people). Less suited for cross-platform teams, large organizations needing centralized transcription, or anyone not on macOS.

Onboarding reality

Easy for Mac users. Install the app, grant permissions, and it runs in the background. The manual + AI notes workflow takes a meeting or two to get used to. Creating templates helps, but there's a learning curve to maximizing the hybrid approach. Budget a week to develop your workflow.

Pricing friction

25 free meetings is generous for trying it out. $20/month for unlimited feels steep compared to other tools, especially since features are more limited. But Mac users who value the invisible, native experience find it worth it. Annual billing would help soften the price.

Integrations that matter

Google Calendar and Apple Calendar (meeting sync), Notion and Obsidian (note export). Integration list is intentionally minimal since Granola is designed as a personal tool, not team collaboration platform.

Supernormal

Best for Task Management: Supernormal

Supernormal is a good all-rounder, much like Fireflies offers a similar set of features and a good offering for those wanting some help with task management alongside too. The tool is good to use and one of the strong tools in Supernormal is the tasks and agent abilities you can add to each of the meetings you do, or set-up automatically.

The features we liked the most were the tasks abilities allowing you to assign tasks to others, the insights for clipping the best bits of meetings for knowledge management and the transcription abilities. The AI search lacked in our tests in bringing together all the previous meetings and the insights from them.

Individuals and smaller teams will benefit most. 1,000 minutes of storage per user, total. Limited access for free pricing. Good meeting transcription abilities. For task management, they have Kanban modes. Great way to extend meetings with section creator (premium). Chatting with the AI search allows you to clip "insights". Not as good AI search - didn't find backdated meeting information in our tests. Enforces automatic sharing of notes post-meeting, not best for knowledge conscious. Web only.

Best for

Teams wanting task management integrated with meeting notes. Product and project managers who need to assign action items during meetings. Users who like Kanban boards for organizing meeting follow-ups. Teams wanting to build a searchable knowledge base from meeting insights.

Not ideal if

You need powerful cross-meeting AI search (it underperformed in our tests). Privacy and auto-sharing of notes concerns you (notes share automatically by default). You're a heavy user since 1,000 minute storage fills fast. You need mobile apps (web-only currently).

Real-world example

A project manager runs weekly client status meetings with Supernormal. During the meeting, they create tasks in the Kanban view and assign them to team members. After the meeting, tasks automatically sync to Asana. The insights feature clips key client feedback moments. However, when trying to search for a decision made 3 months ago across multiple meetings, the AI search struggled to surface it.

Team fit

Best for small teams (5-25 people) that like integrated task management. Project managers and team leads. Less suited for large enterprises, power users needing sophisticated search, or privacy-focused teams uncomfortable with auto-sharing.

Onboarding reality

Moderate. The transcription works immediately, but understanding the task management and Kanban features takes time. The insights clipping is powerful once you get it. Budget 1-2 weeks for your team to adopt the workflow fully. The auto-sharing default surprises some users.

Pricing friction

Free tier is limited (1,000 minutes total storage). Pro ($18/month) unlocks better features but still caps storage. Business plan required for teams wanting unlimited. The storage limits combined with pricing make it feel expensive for what you get compared to competitors.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams (recording), Slack (notifications), Asana, Jira, Monday (task sync). Strong integration list for task management platforms.

Sana AI

Best for Enterprise: Sana AI

Sana AI is an enterprise-ready AI note-taker with powerful abilities. It is recommended more for those that will use it for AI agents and task management, as this is the area it excels the most in. You get free access to up to 20 meetings a month, each transcript is accurate and you can use the AI chat feature to communicate with each of the meetings you have.

The real power comes with the abilities with AI agents. These AI agents can be set-up to help get teamwork done for you and one of the things that they are pushing towards as a company. Good for AI agents. Suitable more for enterprise level. Free to use for 20 meetings per month. Premium starts at $30 per month, a more premium tool.

One of the better AI transcription. Use AI chat with each meeting, with web search too. Great for meeting profiles before and after. Works well for tasks and AI agents to create processes after. More suitable for larger scale teams and businesses. Good for the everyday user with 20 meetings. Not for everyone, much more suitable to large teams. Web only.

Best for

Enterprises needing AI agents and workflow automation from meetings. Organizations wanting to build knowledge bases and processes from meeting data. Teams that need advanced AI capabilities like web-enhanced chat and meeting profiles. Companies with budget for premium tools that deliver sophisticated automation.

Not ideal if

You're a solo user or small team on a budget. You just need basic transcription without advanced AI agents. $30/month pricing is too steep for your use case. You need mobile apps or offline functionality.

Real-world example

An enterprise sales team uses Sana for deal reviews. Before each meeting, Sana's AI generates meeting profiles pulling in recent customer interactions and deal stage. During the call, transcription captures everything. After, AI agents automatically update Salesforce with next steps, flag at-risk deals, and create tasks for account executives. The web search feature pulls competitive intelligence when competitors are mentioned.

Team fit

Best for mid-market to enterprise teams (50-500+ people) with complex workflows. Sales operations, customer success, and executive teams. Less suited for small teams, solopreneurs, or anyone needing simple transcription without enterprise features.

Onboarding reality

Heavy. The basic transcription works immediately, but the AI agent setup requires significant configuration. You'll need a power user or admin to set up workflows. Budget 2-4 weeks for proper implementation. Once configured, it's powerful, but getting there takes effort.

Pricing friction

20 meetings free monthly is decent for testing. $30/user/month is enterprise pricing that's 3x competitors. The value is there if you use AI agents and automation, but casual users won't justify the cost. Enterprise plans require sales calls. This is premium pricing for premium features.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot (deep CRM integration), Slack, Teams (workflow automation). Enterprise-focused integration ecosystem.

Bluedot

Best for Google Meet: Bluedot

Only use Google Meet and want something more discrete? Bluedot is a good Google Meet AI note-taker with good for quick capture. The free plan will only get you 5 meetings, not monthly, but lifetime, so a premium plan will be required.

We were impressed with how it worked quickly, allowed you to jump right into the meeting transcript afterwards and worked in the background well. For those who might want to replace Loom, they have a screen recording tool baked into the Chrome extension that also works with Arc and Brave for quick explainer videos.

Only for Google Meet users. Screen recordings too. 5 meeting limit, lifetime. You can get access to the non-video plan for $14 per month. So not good for free, ongoing users. Works in Google Meet, but in the background. Easy to use with the Chrome extension. Opens up post-meeting to analyze and detail the meeting. Doubles up as a screen recording tool too as a Loom replacement. Really nice feel & look. Has a maximum limit of 1 hour per recording (in premium). Zoom importer only works in Business pricing plan. Chrome Extension, works with Arc & Brave too.

Best for

Google Meet exclusive users who want lightweight transcription. Teams wanting screen recording and meeting notes in one tool. Users who value design and clean interfaces. People needing a Loom alternative with transcription baked in.

Not ideal if

You use Zoom or Microsoft Teams (Google Meet only). You need more than 5 lifetime free meetings (essentially requires paid plan). Your meetings exceed 1 hour regularly. You need advanced features like AI agents or task management.

Real-world example

A customer success team on Google Workspace uses Bluedot for customer check-ins. The Chrome extension records calls discretely in the background. After each 30-minute call, the CS manager reviews the transcript and creates screen recordings highlighting new feature requests. These recordings go into Notion as product feedback. The dual-purpose tool replaces both Loom and a meeting note-taker.

Team fit

Best for small teams (3-20 people) on Google Workspace exclusively. Customer success, support, and product teams. Less suited for cross-platform teams, large enterprises needing advanced features, or heavy users with long meetings (1-hour limit is restrictive).

Onboarding reality

Very easy. Install Chrome extension, connect Google account, done. The interface is intuitive and well-designed. Screen recording feature is immediately accessible. Most users are productive within 15 minutes. Zero learning curve.

Pricing friction

5 lifetime free meetings is basically a trial. $14/month gets you going, but that's without video. The 1-hour meeting limit on paid plans catches people with longer calls. Pricing feels reasonable if you use both meeting notes and screen recording, steep if you only need one.

Integrations that matter

Google Meet (native), Google Calendar (scheduling), Slack (sharing), Notion and Google Drive (storage). Focused on Google ecosystem, which makes sense for a Google Meet tool.

tl;dv

Best for Sales Teams: tl;dv

You may have heard of these guys from their social media efforts. tl;dv creates a good, easy to use AI note-taker that has unlimited meetings for individuals and some unique features in the premium pricing that caught our attention. AI reports help you summarize meetings and extract the most important metrics for key objectives you might be working on.

The other feature that we liked was the monitoring of staff meetings for those teams. Looking like they are aiming to be more of a sales insight platform in the longer term, this app impressed us. Sales teams. Individuals or small teams. Free plan includes unlimited meetings & viewers. Some limitations on the density of AI summaries provided.

One of the better, easier looking to navigate and use. Unique AI reports feature that summarizes meetings & creates action points. Good for monitoring staff and performance by extracting key metrics from each meeting. Meeting templates were decent and impressive. Much more suited towards sales and business professionals. Web only.

Best for

Sales teams wanting conversation intelligence and deal insights. Managers needing to monitor team performance across multiple calls. Organizations wanting AI reports that extract metrics and KPIs from meetings. Users who value unlimited meetings on free tier.

Not ideal if

You're not in sales or business development roles. Privacy concerns about call monitoring make you uncomfortable. You need mobile apps (web-only). You want basic transcription without performance analytics layer.

Real-world example

A sales manager oversees 8 account executives doing 100+ calls weekly. tl;dv records all discovery calls and demo presentations. The AI reports surface patterns: which objections come up most, average talk-to-listen ratios, and which reps are missing key discovery questions. The manager uses these insights in weekly coaching sessions. Deal reviews pull highlights from multiple customer touchpoints automatically.

Team fit

Best for sales teams (5-50 people), business development, and revenue operations. Managers wanting team performance insights. Less suited for non-sales teams, privacy-focused organizations, or users needing collaboration beyond sales workflows.

Onboarding reality

Easy for basic use, moderate for advanced features. Recording calls works immediately. Understanding AI reports and setting up monitoring takes 1-2 weeks. Sales teams familiar with conversation intelligence tools adapt quickly. The templates and reports need configuration to maximize value.

Pricing friction

Free tier with unlimited meetings is generous. Pro ($25/user/month) unlocks AI reports and monitoring. Business tier for teams adds admin features. The pricing is fair for sales teams who see tl;dv as conversation intelligence, steep for casual users who just want transcription.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Salesforce, HubSpot (deep CRM integration with call logging), Slack. Strong integration ecosystem for sales tech stacks.

Grain

Best for Growing Teams: Grain

Grain is aiming to be the AI note-taker for growing teams and as one of the bonuses of this offer free, unlimited AI transcriptions for everyday folks with a single seat license. Using this one was good, there wasn't advanced task management, or detailed features in the free offering, but it served as a great-looking, easy to use AI note-taker.

Individuals who want free tool. Growing teams. Free for unlimited meetings. Premium comes with advanced AI notes & starts at $19 per month. Beautiful design and abilities. Great for free use and solo note-takers. Meeting summaries are well-done and easy to follow. Limit of 45 minutes per meeting. Doesn't include any task panels. No integrations for solo users. Tasks are good, but hidden in the meeting. macOS, web.

Best for

Individual users wanting unlimited free transcription with great design. Growing teams (10-30 people) looking for polished meeting note-taker. Users who value beautiful interfaces and user experience. Anyone whose meetings are typically under 45 minutes.

Not ideal if

Your meetings regularly exceed 45 minutes (hard limit on free). You need task management and action item tracking built-in. Integrations with your tool stack are critical. You want advanced AI features beyond solid transcription and summaries.

Real-world example

A startup with 15 people uses Grain for all internal meetings. Standups, 1-on-1s, and planning sessions all stay under 45 minutes, fitting the free tier perfectly. The beautiful interface makes reviewing meeting summaries actually pleasant. As the team grows, they plan to upgrade to Pro for longer meetings and team features. The design quality makes it feel premium even on the free tier.

Team fit

Best for individuals and small growing teams (1-30 people) who value design. Startups and agencies with shorter, focused meetings. Less suited for enterprises, teams with long meetings, or organizations needing deep integrations and task management.

Onboarding reality

Very easy. The interface is intuitive and beautifully designed. Connect calendar, grant permissions, done. The 45-minute limit is clear upfront. Meeting summaries are immediately useful. Most users are productive within 10 minutes. Smoothest onboarding we tested.

Pricing friction

Free unlimited meetings under 45 minutes is excellent for individuals. Pro ($19/month) removes time limits and adds features. Team plans scale reasonably. The 45-minute limit is the main friction - it works for many meetings but long sessions need paid plans. Overall pricing is fair.

Integrations that matter

Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack (sharing), HubSpot and Salesforce (on paid plans). Integration ecosystem is growing but lighter than competitors. Free tier has minimal integrations.

Final Thoughts on AI Meeting Note-Takers

Choosing an AI meeting note-taker depends on your specific needs, budget, and workflow. If you need full meeting lifecycle management for internal team meetings, Fellow covers pre-meeting agendas through post-meeting action items. For pure transcription accuracy and reliability, Otter AI has been the standard for years.

Budget-conscious users should look at Fireflies (unlimited transcription, audio-only) or Fathom (truly unlimited free with banners). Mac users wanting invisible background recording will love Granola. International teams needing multilingual support should try Notta AI.

For sales teams, tl;dv offers conversation intelligence and performance monitoring that goes beyond transcription. Enterprise teams wanting AI agents and workflow automation should explore Sana AI. Google Meet users might prefer Bluedot's clean, discrete approach with built-in screen recording.

The best approach is trying 2-3 options for a week each. AI note-takers improve as they learn your meeting patterns, so first impressions can be misleading. Most offer free tiers or trials. Don't just test with one meeting - use it for a full week of varied meeting types.

Honestly? For most people, the free tiers of Fireflies or Fathom are enough. But if you're doing 20+ meetings weekly or need specific features like task management or multilingual support, the paid options justify their cost through time saved.