AI tools for meeting notes
You want a transcript, a summary and a list of action items after every call. Which note takers capture the meeting in a way your guests accept, and where does each free plan stop for an ordinary month of meetings?
Which tool fits, in short?
Pick by the first limit your meetings hit. Otter.ai drafts action items even on its free Basic plan but shows only the first 30 minutes of each conversation. Fathom records and transcribes without a cap on Free and keeps AI action items for Premium. Krisp and Notion AI capture from your own computer instead of sending a bot; Krisp becomes paid after a 7-day trial, and Notion AI needs the Business plan. Fireflies.ai suits teams that want an API on every plan, with action items listed on Pro.
This is a source-led shortlist, not a performance ranking. Open each profile for the provider source, check dates and plan conditions.
About this shortlist
What this page compares
- 5 published profiles
- Plans and access shown where documented
- Official source dates stay attached to each profile
- No invented score or hands-on result
How each option fits meeting notes
Each note comes from the tool's source-checked profile. The condition line is what to confirm before you rely on it for this task.
Otter.ai
Otter Notetaker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls from your calendar, or the Mac and Windows desktop app records without a bot. Every plan, Basic included, lists a summary, outline and action items for each conversation, and the mobile apps record in person.
Check first: A month of twelve one-hour calls and a 75-minute workshop is 795 minutes: Basic's 300 minutes and 30-minute cap per conversation fall short, while Pro's 1,200 shared minutes and 90-minute cap hold it with 405 to spare. Action items cannot be exported as files, and the privacy policy says transcripts can train Otter's AI.
Fireflies.ai
A notetaker bot joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, a Chrome extension records without the bot, and uploads and mobile apps cover recordings and in-person talks. The Pro plan card lists action items with a task manager, and API access is listed on every plan.
Check first: Storage is cumulative rather than monthly: 795 minutes pass Free's 400 in the first month, and Pro's 8,000 minutes per seat hold about ten months of that workload (8,000 / 795). Downloads start on Pro, and new recap links default to teammates and anyone with the link.
Fathom
Free records and transcribes calls without a cap, through a bot or a bot-free Mac beta, and keeps them searchable with clips and playlists. Premium adds AI action items and follow-up emails for people who want the commitments drafted for them.
Check first: Free advanced summaries cover 5 of the month's 13 meetings, and AI action items need Premium at $20/user monthly ($16/user/month on annual billing). In-person capture, file upload and export formats are not covered in the sources checked.
Krisp
The desktop app captures calls without a bot and drafts transcripts, summaries and action items, with noise cancellation in the same app. In-person meetings can be captured on desktop and mobile, and transcripts and summaries cover 16 languages.
Check first: There is no lasting free plan: a 7-day trial without a card, then Core at $8 per user per month, billed annually (or $16 billed monthly), with unlimited notes, so the 795 minutes are priced by seat, not by minutes. The terms make notifying guests your responsibility.
Notion AI
AI Meeting Notes listens through the Notion desktop app's system audio and microphone, or the microphone alone in a browser or on mobile, and writes summaries and action items onto a page beside your project work. It can play a consent message to the room before transcribing.
Check first: It needs Business, USD 20 per member per month billed yearly (USD 24 billed monthly), and every member of a paid workspace is billed; Free and Plus get only a limited AI trial. The 10-hour daily cap per user sits far above a one-meeting-a-day schedule.
Considered but not listed
- ParakeetAI: A real-time call assistant that transcribes a live call to suggest answers from your documents; its profile documents no meeting summary or action items, and the free sessions stop at 10 minutes each.
- Pluely: Its Listen mode transcribes microphone and system audio to suggest replies during a call, but the profile documents no meeting summary or action-item output.
- UniScribe: Turns uploaded audio, video and YouTube links into transcripts, summaries and mind maps, but its profile documents no live meeting capture and no action items.
- Riverside: A remote recording and editing studio whose transcripts serve the edit; its profile documents no meeting summary or action items.
- Descript: Edits audio and video through the transcript for podcasts, interviews and lessons; its profile documents no meeting summary or action-item output.
- Auphonic: Finishes recorded speech and can add transcripts, summaries and chapters as shownotes, but it processes finished files rather than capturing meetings and lists no action items.
- Adobe Podcast: Records, cleans up and edits spoken audio for podcasts and video; its profile documents no meeting summary or action items.
Compare tools for meeting notes
Use the profiles below to inspect the specific workflow, pricing and limits before making a choice.
Otter.ai
Audio & voiceOtter.ai is an AI meeting notetaker that joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls, transcribes them live and writes summaries and action items.
Fireflies.ai
Audio & voiceAI meeting notetaker that records or imports calls, writes transcripts and summaries and extracts action items, with a Free plan and per-seat paid plans.
Fathom
AutomationFor people who want every meeting recorded and searchable for free, and who pay only when they need AI action items or team-wide search.
Krisp
Audio & voiceKrisp is a desktop voice AI app that removes call background noise and takes bot-free meeting transcripts, notes and recordings.
Notion AI
Writing & contentNotion AI is the assistant built into Notion that drafts, edits and searches your workspace, included in Business and Enterprise plans rather than sold alone.
What to compare for this task
These questions keep the shortlist tied to the work instead of turning it into a generic feature list.
How it joins the call
A bot that appears as a participant, a desktop app recording your own audio, or a phone in the room: pick the route your guests and meeting platform accept.
Where free stops
Measure your month in the tool's own unit: monthly minutes, a cap per meeting, cumulative storage, a summary count or a trial end date.
Action items and their exit
Check which plan drafts action items and whether they leave the tool as a file, through an integration or only on screen.
Consent, sharing and training
Who is told before recording starts, who can open the notes link by default, and whether the vendor trains its AI on meeting data.
Compare the shortlist
Values come from the linked profile fields. Blank or unverified details stay visible rather than being filled by assumption.
| Documented detail | Otter.ai | Fireflies.ai | Fathom | Krisp | Notion AI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Free access available | Free access available | Free access available | Free trial only | Free trial only |
| Paid plans from | USD 8.33 per user per month, billed annually (USD 16.99 billed monthly) | $10 per seat a month, billed annually | $19/user monthly; $15/user/month on annual billing | $8 per user per month, billed annually (or $16 billed monthly) | USD 10 per member per month, billed yearly (USD 12 billed monthly) |
| Best starting point | Meeting transcripts, summaries and action items | Individuals and teams who want searchable meeting transcripts and action items | Meeting owners who verify commitments | Noise-free calls and bot-free notes for meetings | AI help inside a Notion team workspace |
| Source status | Source-checked: 26 Sep 2026Pricing checked: 26 Sep 2026 | Source-checked: 4 Oct 2026Pricing check incomplete | Source-checked: 5 Oct 2026Pricing checked: 5 Oct 2026 | Source-checked: 28 Sep 2026Pricing checked: 28 Sep 2026 | Source-checked: 26 Sep 2026Pricing checked: 26 Sep 2026 |
| Profile | Otter.ai profile | Fireflies.ai profile | Fathom profile | Krisp profile | Notion AI profile |
One fixed task to compare them
Proposed evaluation, not performed: run the same input through two or three shortlisted tools and judge each against the same acceptance line. We have not run it; results depend on your plan and account.
Sample input
A sizing sheet for one person's month: twelve 60-minute video calls on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams with two external guests each, plus one 75-minute in-person workshop in a meeting room, 795 minutes in all. Requirements: every meeting transcribed in full, AI action items drafted, a copy of the action items outside the tool, guests told before recording, and notes open only to attendees.
Steps
- Write down the plan you are pricing and the unit that limits it: monthly minutes, a cap per meeting, stored minutes, a count of advanced summaries, seats or a trial end date. Keep each tool in its own unit and do not convert storage gigabytes into minutes.
- For each meeting type, record the documented capture route: bot participant, desktop app, browser, mobile app or file upload. Mark a meeting type with no documented route as a gap instead of assuming one.
- Apply the 795 minutes to that unit. Otter Pro leaves 405 of its 1,200 monthly minutes; Fireflies Pro's 8,000 stored minutes last about ten such months. Check the 75-minute workshop against any cap per meeting.
- Find the plan on which action items appear and the documented way out of the tool: file download, integration, API or copying by hand.
- Before the first real call, set the notes link to attendees only, switch on any consent message or pre-recording email, and note what the vendor says about training on meeting data.
- Run one short call with consenting colleagues on the chosen plan and confirm only that the transcript is complete and an action-item list appears; summary quality is a separate judgement.
- Passes if
- All thirteen meetings fit one plan in that tool's own unit, the 75-minute workshop is transcribed in full, action items appear on the priced plan and leave the tool by a documented route, and link and consent settings are fixed before the first recording.
- Fails if
- A cap per meeting cuts the workshop short, minutes or storage run out before the month ends, action items sit on a higher plan than the one priced, or the only way out is retyping because an export route was assumed rather than documented.
Guides for this task
Browse by category
The categories of the shortlisted tools, with every profile in each.
Questions about meeting notes with AI
Which note taker works for meetings that are not in English?
Check the language list before the first call. Fireflies.ai lists transcription in 100+ languages, Fathom 38 and Krisp 16, while Otter.ai transcribes only English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified), so a Portuguese meeting is not transcribed there. The Notion AI profile does not list its languages, so confirm them in a sample note.
What happens to my notes if I stop paying?
Otter.ai archives older conversations instead of deleting them, and archived conversations can still be exported. A cancelled Fireflies.ai account drops to Free at the end of the billing cycle, where the 400-minute storage allowance and the no-download rule apply. Krisp access stops when the trial ends, with 90 days to export content. Export what you need before a paid period runs out.
Can several people share one plan?
Seat rules differ more than prices. Otter.ai Pro takes up to 5 billed users and Business up to 25. Fathom's Team and Business plans need at least two users. Notion bills every member of a paid workspace, including members who never record, and Krisp counts each teammate added to a paid team as a seat. Fireflies.ai prices every paid plan per seat.
Can I get notes from a recording made without the note taker?
Otter.ai imports audio and video files of up to 5 GB, with 3 imports for life on Basic and 10 a month on Pro. Fireflies.ai takes uploads and imports, capped at 3,000 minutes per source a month for individuals. File upload is not covered in the Fathom, Krisp and Notion AI sources checked, so plan on live capture with those three.
Can AI take meeting notes?
Yes. Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Krisp and Notion AI each turn a meeting into a transcript and summary, and action items appear on some plans only. They differ in how they capture the call: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai and Fathom can join as a bot, while Krisp and Notion AI record from your own computer. Pick the route your guests accept.
Is there a free AI tool for taking meeting notes?
Yes, with limits, and the limits differ by tool. Otter.ai's free Basic plan drafts action items but gives 300 minutes and shows only 30 minutes of each conversation. Fathom Free records and transcribes without a cap, but AI action items need Premium. Fireflies.ai Free stores 400 minutes in total with no downloads. Krisp is a 7-day trial and Notion AI needs Business.
Sources for this task
These checks cover the task conditions below. Each linked profile keeps its own feature and pricing evidence.
- Notion help: AI Meeting Notesnotion.com · Checked 2026-10-10
Capture through desktop system audio and mic, browser mic only and mobile mic; consent message; Business or Enterprise plan; 10-hour daily limit per user; notes inherit page permissions. Not a price check.
- Otter pricing: plan comparison tableotter.ai · Checked 2026-10-10
The row 'Automated summaries with action items and outlines' is checked for Basic, Pro, Business and Enterprise. Plan prices were not rechecked for this page; they come from the Otter.ai profile.
How to use this shortlist
Start with the task fit, then open the profile whose documented workflow matches your constraints. Check the source date, plan terms and limits on the provider site before you subscribe or publish an output.