The short answer
For most people, Fathom is the place to start: its free plan records and transcribes unlimited Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls. If you would rather no bot joined the call, Granola takes notes from your computer's audio; its free plan keeps only the last 30 days of notes, and Business costs $14 a month. If you already pay for Zoom, Google AI Pro or Microsoft 365 Copilot, try their built-in notes first.
Which AI meeting note taker should you use?
Pick by how you meet and what you already pay for. Prices are as of October 2026.
- Most people, and anyone who wants it free: Fathom. The free plan records, transcribes and summarizes unlimited calls on Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Premium, $20 a month or $16 billed yearly, adds advanced summaries and action items.
- No bot in the call: Granola. It listens to your computer's audio, so nobody sees a note taker join, and it turns your rough notes into full ones. The free plan keeps the last 30 days; Business costs $14 per user a month.
- You already pay for Zoom, Google or Microsoft: use what you have. Zoom My Notes comes with paid Zoom plans (or $8.33 a month on its own, billed yearly), Gemini takes notes in Google Meet for Google AI Pro subscribers, and Microsoft 365 Copilot or Teams Premium adds recaps in Teams.
- Sales and support teams logging calls: Fireflies.ai. Transcripts in 100+ languages, CRM integrations and conversation analytics, from $10 per seat a month billed yearly.
- Live captions, lectures and in-person meetings: Otter.ai. It shows the transcript as people talk and records from its phone apps. The free plan stops each recording at 30 minutes.
- Finding what was said across meetings, email and chat: Read AI. Its search covers all three, but the free plan allows only 5 meetings a month.
What do the free plans actually cover?
Only Fathom and Granola cover every meeting of a normal week for free with no conditions; Otter.ai and Jamie cover no full one-hour meeting at all. "Free plan" means very different things here, because makers cap minutes a month, minutes per meeting, meetings a month or lifetime notes. The table applies each cap to the same example: eight one-hour meetings a month, two a week.
| Free plan | Limits on the pricing page | One-hour meetings covered in full, of 8 a month |
|---|---|---|
| Fathom Free | Unlimited recordings and transcripts; some AI features limited | 8 |
| Granola Basic | No meeting cap listed; only the last 30 days of history | 8 |
| tl;dv Free | No limits listed; the homepage says unlimited meetings and AI notes | Not published |
| Fireflies.ai Free | 3 meetings, or no cap if its bot auto-joins your calendar meetings (accounts opened since September 1, 2026); 20 AI credits for summaries; 400 minutes of storage per team | 6 with auto-join on (storage holds 400 minutes), 3 without |
| Read AI Free | 5 meetings a month, up to 1 hour each | 5 |
| MeetGeek Basic | 3 hours of transcription a month | 3 |
| Otter.ai Basic | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation | 0 (each is cut at 30 minutes) |
| Jamie Free | 10 notes a month, 30 minutes each | 0 |
| Zoom My Notes on Zoom Basic | My Notes 3 times a month on any meeting platform; Zoom-hosted meetings end at 40 minutes | 3, on Teams or Meet calls |
| Fellow Free | 5 AI notes per user, ever | 5 in total, then 0 |
| Bluedot Free | 5 meetings, ever | 5 in total, then 0 |
Limits come from each maker's pricing page, read on October 21, 2026: Fathom, Granola, tl;dv, Fireflies.ai (and its help article on free transcripts), Read AI, MeetGeek, Otter.ai, Jamie, Zoom, Fellow and Bluedot. Krisp has no free plan, only a 7-day trial.
Is there a free AI note taker for Zoom, Google Meet or Teams?
Yes: Fathom's and Granola's free plans work on all three, with no monthly meeting cap. The notes built into each platform are mostly not free:
- Zoom: the free Basic plan allows Zoom My Notes 3 times a month, and its own meetings end at 40 minutes. Unlimited notes need a paid Zoom plan.
- Google Meet: Gemini's "Take notes for me" needs Google AI Pro ($19.99 a month) or an eligible Workspace business plan, and on Google AI Pro it only takes notes in meetings you host.
- Microsoft Teams: intelligent recap needs a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot license on a work account. There is no free version.
So for free notes on any of the three, use Fathom if a bot joining is fine, or Granola if it isn't; Granola's free plan only keeps the last 30 days of notes.
What does a year of each cost?
For one person, the cheapest paid plans priced in dollars cost $96 to $240 a year. Paying yearly instead of monthly saves 44% to 51% on Otter.ai, Krisp and Fireflies.ai, and 20% to 24% on Fathom and Read AI. Most of these tools charge per user, so a team pays the per-seat price for everyone who records meetings.
| Tool | Cheapest paid plan | Paying monthly | Billed yearly | Joins as a bot? | In-person meetings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Krisp | Core | $16 a month ($192 a year) | $8 a month ($96) | No, or with a bot if you choose | Yes, from the phone app |
| Otter.ai | Pro | $16.99 a month ($203.88) | $8.33 a month ($99.96) | Yes | Yes, from the apps |
| Fireflies.ai | Pro | $18 a month ($216) | $10 a month ($120) | Yes, or no bot with its desktop app or Chrome extension | Has phone apps; in-person recording not stated |
| Granola | Business | $14 a month ($168) | No yearly price shown | No | Yes, from the phone and Apple Watch apps |
| Zoom My Notes | My Notes plan | Not shown | $8.33 a month ($99.96) | No | 3 a month on the My Notes plan |
| Read AI | Pro | $19.75 a month ($237) | $15 a month ($180) | Yes, or record from its desktop apps | Yes, from the phone apps |
| Fathom | Premium | $20 a month ($240) | $16 a month ($192) | Yes, or no bot in a Mac beta | Yes, from the iPhone app |
| tl;dv | Pro | €29 a month (€348) | €18 a month (€216) | Yes; the site also advertises no-bot recording | No mobile app |
| Gemini in Google Meet | Google AI Pro | $19.99 a month ($239.88) | Not checked | No (built into Meet) | No |
The paid plans have limits of their own. Otter.ai Pro stops a meeting at 90 minutes and includes 1,200 minutes a month; Fireflies.ai Pro records up to 2 hours per meeting; Read AI Pro records up to 4 hours. My Notes also comes with paid Zoom Workplace plans (Pro is $16.99 a month, or $14.16 billed yearly), so it costs nothing extra if you already pay for Zoom. The calculation and every input are in Magpie Index's test library.
Fathom: the best free meeting note taker
Fathom gives the most on a free plan: unlimited recordings, transcripts and instant summaries of Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, with clips, playlists and search across your calls. A bot joins the call by default; on a Mac you can try recording without one, which Fathom marks as a beta. Asking questions of a call (Ask Fathom) and advanced summaries are "limited use" on the free plan, according to Fathom's pricing page, and the iPhone app records in-person meetings.
Premium costs $20 a month, or $16 billed yearly, as of October 2026, and adds advanced summaries, AI action items, the full meeting assistant and a custom meeting bot. Teams need at least two seats at $19 each ($15 billed yearly), and Business plans at $34 ($25 billed yearly) sync fields to HubSpot and Salesforce.
Skip Fathom if a bot in the call is a problem for you or the people you meet and you are not on a Mac; Granola avoids the bot everywhere.
Granola: best if you don't want a bot in the call
Granola never joins the meeting. It transcribes your computer's audio in the background, so it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack huddles and anything else that plays through your speakers. You type rough notes as you go, and afterwards Granola combines them with the transcript into full notes, action items and a drafted follow-up. Apps run on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch, so it also works for meetings in a room.
The free Basic plan lists no meeting cap but only keeps the last 30 days of history. Business, $14 per user a month as of October 2026 on Granola's pricing page, keeps everything, adds pre-meeting briefs, follow-up emails, integrations with Notion, HubSpot, Attio and Zapier, and API access. Granola deletes the audio after transcribing it, so you keep text, not a recording you can play back.
Skip Granola if you need recordings or video clips to share; Fathom and Fireflies.ai keep them.
Already pay for Zoom, Google or Microsoft? Try the built-in notes first
If your company already pays for Zoom, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 with Copilot, you may have a meeting note taker at no extra cost. Try it before paying for a separate app.
- Zoom: paid Zoom Workplace plans include unlimited meeting summaries and Zoom My Notes, which takes notes without a bot on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet. Pro costs $16.99 per user a month or $14.16 billed yearly, as of October 2026, and My Notes is also sold on its own from $8.33 a month billed yearly. The free Basic plan allows My Notes 3 times a month, and its Zoom meetings end at 40 minutes (Zoom pricing, My Notes).
- Google Meet: Gemini's "Take notes for me" writes a summary and action items into a Google Doc and emails a recap. Since June 29, 2026 it works for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers on meetings they host, as well as for eligible Workspace business plans (Google's announcement). Google AI Pro costs $19.99 a month as of October 2026 (Google One plans).
- Microsoft Teams: intelligent recap, Teams' AI notes and summary, needs a Teams Premium license or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license on a work account, according to Microsoft's documentation.
- Notion: Notion AI's meeting notes transcribe without a bot and land in your workspace. Full use comes with the Business plan, $20 per member a month billed yearly; Free and Plus get a limited trial (Notion pricing).
Built-in notes only cover meetings on their own platform or plan. If you take calls on Zoom, Meet and Teams, an independent note taker such as Fathom or Granola keeps everything in one place.
Fireflies.ai: for sales and support teams logging calls
Fireflies.ai suits teams that want every customer call transcribed, searchable and pushed into a CRM. It transcribes in 100+ languages, its assistant AskFred answers questions across meetings, and Business adds conversation intelligence and team analytics. A bot joins by default, or you can record without one through the Chrome extension or desktop app.
The free plan is tighter than it looks. For accounts opened since September 1, 2026, it transcribes 3 meetings unless you let the bot auto-join your calendar meetings, which lifts the cap on transcripts but not on summaries: those use AI credits, 20 on the free plan (Fireflies.ai help). Storage is 400 minutes per team, under seven hours. Pro costs $10 per seat a month billed yearly, or $18 monthly, as of October 2026, with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat; Business is $19 billed yearly, or $29 monthly, with unlimited storage (Fireflies.ai pricing).
Skip Fireflies.ai if you only need notes for yourself; Fathom's free plan does that without the caps.
Otter.ai: live captions and in-person recordings
Otter.ai shows the transcript live as people talk, which helps in lectures, interviews and meetings where you want to follow along. It joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, and its iPhone and Android apps record conversations in a room. AI Chat answers questions within and across meetings.
The free plan is the tightest of the well-known tools: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, and only your 25 most recent conversations, according to Otter.ai's pricing page. Pro costs $16.99 a month, or $8.33 billed yearly, as of October 2026, and raises that to 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per meeting. Business, $19.99 billed yearly, removes the monthly cap and allows meetings up to 4 hours.
Skip Otter.ai's free plan for regular hour-long meetings, since it stops each one at 30 minutes.
Read AI: for searching across meetings, email and chat
Read AI joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls for transcripts, summaries and a meeting coach that scores things such as talking speed. Its search, Ask Read, looks across meetings, email and messages and answers with citations, and it has apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.
The free plan covers 5 meetings a month, each up to an hour. Pro costs $15 per user a month billed yearly, or $19.75 monthly, as of October 2026, removes the cap and allows meetings up to 4 hours; audio and video playback starts on the Enterprise plan (Read AI pricing).
Skip Read AI if you only want meeting notes: Fathom's free plan has no monthly cap.
Should a note taker join the call as a bot?
A bot is the simplest setup: it joins from your calendar, records everyone clearly and needs nothing installed. Bot-free tools such as Granola and Zoom My Notes record from your own computer or phone instead, so nobody sees an extra participant, and they work on any call app. Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Read AI, Krisp and tl;dv offer both.
Either way, the people in the meeting should know they are being recorded. Most of these tools announce themselves or offer a notice: Granola can tell participants it is in use, Google Meet notifies everyone when notes are on, and Jamie sends a consent email. Rules on recording conversations vary by country and, in the US, by state, so check what applies before recording calls with clients or the public.
Which note takers work for in-person meetings?
For a meeting in a room, you need a note taker with a phone app that records the room, since there is no call for a bot to join. Granola is the best free option; Otter.ai's free plan stops each recording at 30 minutes.
- Granola: the iPhone, Android and Apple Watch apps are on the free Basic plan, which keeps the last 30 days of notes.
- Otter.ai: the iPhone and Android apps show the transcript live, which helps in lectures and interviews. The free plan cuts each recording at 30 minutes; Pro allows 90.
- Fathom: the iPhone app records in-person meetings into the same history as your calls. There is no Android app listed.
- Krisp and Read AI: both record from their phone apps; Krisp has no free plan.
- Zoom My Notes: 3 in-person transcriptions a month on the $8.33 My Notes plan, from the Zoom mobile app.
Fireflies.ai has phone apps but doesn't say whether they record in-person meetings, and tl;dv has no mobile app.
What about tl;dv, Krisp, Fellow, Bluedot, MeetGeek and Jamie?
- tl;dv stores data in the EU and its site lists unlimited meetings and AI notes on the free plan, but the pricing page gives no free-plan limits to check. Pro costs €18 per seat a month billed yearly (€29 monthly) as of October 2026. It has no mobile app.
- Krisp is mainly noise cancellation for calls, with bot-free notes and in-person recording included. It has no free plan: Core costs $8 a month billed yearly, or $16 monthly, after a 7-day trial (Krisp pricing). Pick it if background noise is your bigger problem.
- Fellow (pricing) and Bluedot (pricing) allow only 5 meetings in total on their free plans, so they are paid tools in practice.
- MeetGeek (pricing) gives 3 hours of transcription a month for free, with bot or bot-free recording; the free plans above give more.
- Jamie (pricing) is bot-free and hosted in the EU, but its free plan stops each meeting at 30 minutes, and paid plans start at $24 a month (Plus: 20 notes a month, up to 2 hours each).
If you are transcribing a recording you already have, rather than a live meeting, that is a different job: the best AI transcription tools do it for less.
How to choose
Start with what you already pay for: if your Zoom, Google or Microsoft plan includes meeting notes, try them for a week. If it doesn't, or you meet on several platforms, install Fathom's free plan and see whether the notes are good enough. Move to Granola if the bot bothers you or the people you meet, and to Fireflies.ai when a team needs every call in its CRM. Pay yearly once you are sure: it saves 17% to 51%, depending on the tool.
How this guide was made
Magpie Index considered 15 meeting note takers, including the notes built into Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Notion, using the makers' pricing pages and documentation, and asked Perplexity how it currently answers the question. How many one-hour meetings each free plan covers, and what a year of each paid plan costs, was calculated from published limits and prices (script and inputs kept in the test library); no tool was signed up for or run for this guide. Research and writing were AI-assisted.
Built from the makers’ own documentation and pricing pages and from attributed outside sources. Magpie Index did not test these tools for this guide. Prices and plans were checked on the makers’ sites on October 21, 2026; they change often, so check before you buy. No tool paid to appear here, and links to tools carry no affiliate code. How Magpie Index works
