Every AI meeting notetaker records your call, transcribes it, and produces a summary with action items. The differences that matter are where each one puts the meter - minutes, AI uses, seats, or storage - and whether a bot visibly joins your call.

Short answer: Fireflies.ai has the best free tier because transcription and summaries are both unlimited. Fathom is the best free option if you want unlimited recording and don't need many summaries. Granola is the pick if you don't want a bot appearing in the participant list. Circleback is the best at action items and charges accordingly.

Free tiers compared

This is where these products differ most, and where the marketing is least helpful.

The pattern: newer entrants give away recording and meter the AI; Otter.ai, the incumbent, still meters minutes.

Paid pricing compared

The best free option: Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai is the only tool here that gives you unlimited transcription and unlimited AI summaries on the free plan. What it meters instead is a one-time shared pool of AI credits for the more advanced features: 20 on free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise, with add-on bundles available.

For a small team that records a lot of calls and mainly wants searchable transcripts and standard summaries, this is hard to beat at $0. Pro is $10 a seat per month annually if you need more.

Fathom is the alternative if you'd rather have unlimited recording with a hard summary cap - five a month free, unlimited from $16 a user per month annually.

No bot on the call: Granola

Every other tool on this list works by sending a bot to join your meeting, which appears in the participant list and announces itself. In some contexts that's fine. In sales calls, therapy, interviews, and any conversation where the other side hasn't opted in, it's awkward at best.

Granola captures your machine's audio instead. Nothing joins the call. Free gives unlimited meetings with limited history; Business is $14 a user per month; Enterprise at $35 adds SSO and the ability to opt out of model training. macOS, Windows, and iOS.

The obvious point: capturing without a visible bot doesn't remove your obligation to tell people you're recording. It removes the tool's disclosure, not yours.

Best action items: Circleback

Circleback has no free tier, costs $20.83 a month annually for an individual, and is the most expensive per-person option among the general-purpose tools. Its case is narrow and strong: the action item extraction is the best in the category, and it bills per seat rather than per meeting or per credit, so heavy users don't get surprised.

If your problem is "we have summaries and nothing gets done," this is the tool. If your problem is "we want a searchable archive," it's overpriced.

Best for customer research: Grain

Grain's pricing model is the differentiator: recording seats cost money, viewer seats never do. Free gives one notetaker seat with unlimited viewers, unlimited recordings, AI summaries, and three hours a month of AI-highlighted moments.

For a research or sales team where two people run calls and fifteen people need to watch clips, that's dramatically cheaper than per-seat pricing everywhere else. Business starts at $19 a seat per month annually, though it's widely quoted higher at $33–39.

Best noise cancellation: Krisp

Krisp is primarily a noise cancellation product that added meeting notes, and the noise cancellation is genuinely best-in-class - on-device, bidirectional, real-time. Free gives 60 minutes a day of noise-free calls, unlimited transcription, and two AI summaries a day. Pro at $8 a month removes those limits and adds HIPAA and GDPR compliance.

Note the split: noise cancellation runs on-device, transcription is cloud. macOS and Windows only.

When you need an editable transcript, not a summary

Three tools solve a different problem - the transcript itself is the deliverable.

Descript lets you delete a word from the transcript and have it vanish from the video. Free covers about 60 media minutes a month; Hobbyist is $16 a user per month annually.

Sonix bills by the hour rather than by seat: $10 an hour pay-as-you-go, or $5 an hour plus $22 a user per month on Premium. Break-even is around 4.4 hours a month per user. Billing is prorated to the second, 54+ languages.

Trint is newsroom-grade and newsroom-priced: Starter at $52 a seat per month annually gets you seven files a month; Advanced at $60 a seat per month annually is unlimited for a single user.

See the best transcription services for interviews for that use case in full.

The consent problem

Otter.ai is the biggest name in this category and is facing a class action over recording consent. That case is about one company, but the underlying issue applies to every tool here.

Recording law varies. Some jurisdictions require all parties to consent, some only one. AI notetakers add a second question on top: even where recording is legal, is transcribing and processing the recording through a third-party service covered by the consent you obtained?

Practical steps: announce recording at the start of every call, prefer tools that make the bot visible rather than hiding it, check retention settings, and check whether your vendor trains models on your data. Granola Enterprise and Read AI Enterprise+ both offer explicit controls here.

What to check before you commit

• Where the meter is. Minutes, AI uses, seats, storage, or credits - every product picks a different one.
• The annual/monthly gap. tl;dv has run a 40% annual discount since 2025. Fireflies.ai saves up to 44%. Monthly pricing is often 25–45% worse.
• Seat minimums. Read AI's Enterprise tiers require 10+ licences.
• Conversation caps. Otter.ai free stops at 30 minutes per conversation; Business caps at four hours.
• Retention and training. Opting out of model training is often an Enterprise-only control.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI meeting notetaker?

Fireflies.ai for the best free tier, Fathom for unlimited free recording, Granola if you don't want a bot joining calls, and Circleback if action items are the point.

Which AI notetaker has the best free plan?

Fireflies.ai - unlimited transcription and unlimited AI summaries at $0, with only a small pool of advanced AI credits metered. Fathom is a close second with unlimited recording but five summaries a month.

Can I use an AI notetaker without a bot joining the meeting?

Yes. Granola captures your device's audio rather than joining as a participant. You still need to tell the other people on the call that you're recording.

Are AI meeting notetakers HIPAA compliant?

Krisp Pro states HIPAA and GDPR compliance. Most general meeting tools are not appropriate for protected health information - use a clinical scribe instead. See the best AI medical scribes and the HIPAA collection.

Is Otter.ai still worth using?

It works, and the Pro tier is cheap at $8.33 a month annually. But the free tier is now the weakest in the category, and there's an active class action over recording consent. See Otter.ai alternatives.

Last verified: 10 August 2026.