AI Meeting Notes to Action Items: Pick a Notetaker, Then Check the Register

The five notetakers at a glance

In shortAll five transcribe a meeting and draft action items. They differ in how they join the call and which plan the action items sit on.

Tool	How it captures	AI action items	Free access	First paid plan	Catch to check
Fathom	A bot, or bot-free capture as a Mac beta	Premium, with follow-up emails	Unlimited recording and transcripts; advanced summaries for the first 5 calls a month	$20/user monthly; $16/user/month on annual billing (Premium)	Team and Business need at least two users
Fireflies.ai	A bot on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, a Chrome extension, file uploads and mobile apps	Listed on Pro, with a task manager	400 minutes of storage, limited AI summaries, 20 AI credits	$10 per seat a month, billed annually (Pro)	New recap links open to anyone with the link
Otter.ai	Otter Notetaker on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, or the desktop app without a bot	Every plan, Basic included	300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation	USD 8.33 per user per month, billed annually (USD 16.99 billed monthly) (Pro)	The outline and action items cannot be exported as files
Krisp	The desktop app, without a bot; in-person meetings on desktop and mobile	Core and Advanced	A 7-day trial with no card, not a lasting free plan	$8 per user per month, billed annually (or $16 billed monthly) (Core)	Access stops when the trial ends
Notion AI	Meetings from any call app, saved as Notion notes	Business and Enterprise	A limited trial on Free and Plus	USD 20 per member per month, billed yearly (USD 24 billed monthly) (Business)	Every member of a paid workspace is billed

Plan names and amounts from each tool’s profile, which shows the date its plan terms were checked. Fireflies’ profile lists annual billing only.

Sources: Fathom pricing, Fireflies pricing, Otter pricing, Krisp pricing, Notion pricing.

One row per accepted action

In shortAn action item is work someone accepted in the meeting, with an owner, a deliverable and, if one was spoken, a deadline. A suggestion nobody accepted is not one.

A notetaker lists action items under its summary. A register keeps one row per accepted action with a stable ID, so a later correction changes that row instead of adding a second task. An empty owner is information: filling it with the host’s name hides the question still to ask.

Keep the recording in a restricted place and attach only the reference. A task board can have a wider audience than the meeting, so check who sees it before copying client details, employee information or unpublished plans into a task.

A six-line practice meeting

This fictional source contains a condition, a changed date and a suggestion nobody accepts:

1. Alex: “The sample dimensions are still unconfirmed.”
2. Rin: “I’ll prepare the revised sample pack once Alex confirms them.”
3. Alex: “I can confirm the dimensions by 16:00 on 12 October, Istanbul time.”
4. Sam: “Could someone also create a translated brochure?”
5. Alex: “Correction: make my confirmation 13 October at 16:00, same time zone.”
6. Rin: “Keep the brochure out of this delivery. We have not assigned that work.”

The expected reading is two accepted actions. Alex’s confirmation uses the corrected date, and the earlier one stays in the correction history. Rin’s sample pack depends on Alex and has no promised date. The brochure is an unassigned proposal, not an action. These are authored expectations for the exercise, not any tool’s output.

Download the fictional meeting and blank action register. Keep the expected reading out of view while you review a tool’s list, so you check what the tool extracted rather than whether it copied your answer.

Step 1: Settle consent and sharing before the first recording

In shortEvery notetaker records other people and creates a link to the notes. Check who is told, who can open the link and what the vendor does with the audio.

Tool	Telling participants	Who can open the notes	Meeting data and AI training
Fathom	An optional “Auto Request Recording Consent” setting for scheduled external events you host; a decline turns off auto-record for that call	Anyone with the link, the same domain or only people added; auto-share sends to everyone on the invite only when switched on	Not covered in the sources checked
Fireflies.ai	The host chooses which meetings are recorded; recording others needs their consent	New recaps default to teammates and anyone with the link; the owner can limit them to participants, teammates or only the owner	Personal information is not used for AI model training
Otter.ai	Optional pre-recording emails to calendar guests; the notetaker joins as a named participant	Not covered in the sources checked	Otter trains its own AI on de-identified audio and on transcriptions that may contain personal information
Krisp	The terms make notifying guests your responsibility	Not covered in the sources checked	Meeting data is never used to train Krisp models
Notion AI	Not covered in the sources checked	Notes stay in the Notion workspace	No training on workspace data unless you opt in

Restrict the link setting before the first real call. Run the first trial with consenting colleagues and non-sensitive material, or skip the recording altogether and use the fictional transcript above.

Sources: Fathom recording consent, Fathom share links, Fathom auto-share, Fireflies recap privacy settings, Fireflies information safety, Fireflies privacy policy, Otter recording permissions, Otter privacy policy, Krisp terms of use, Notion AI FAQs.

Step 2: Capture the whole meeting on a plan that keeps it

In shortFree plans cut in different places: Otter by length per conversation, Fireflies by stored minutes, Fathom by summary depth.

Tool	Per meeting	Per month or in total	Transcript languages
Fathom	Not covered in the sources checked	Unlimited recording and transcription; advanced summaries for the first 5 calls a month on Free	38
Fireflies.ai	Live bot meetings are not capped; uploads stop at 3,000 minutes per source a month for individuals	400 minutes stored on Free and 8,000 per seat on Pro, cumulative rather than monthly	100+
Otter.ai	30 minutes on Basic, 90 on Pro, 4 hours on Business	300 minutes a month on Basic and 1,200 on Pro, shared with imports; no rollover	6
Krisp	Not covered in the sources checked	Unlimited notes on Core, with 10 GB of storage	16
Notion AI	About a minute of speech before it can summarise	10 hours a day per user	Not covered in the sources checked

On Otter Basic a longer recording continues, but only its first 30 minutes are shown until you upgrade, and deleted conversations still count against the 300 minutes. Fireflies’ 400 minutes hold six one-hour meetings plus 40 minutes in all; its pricing page words that allowance as per team, its help center as per user.

See the Otter.ai profile for plans, limits and sources. See the Fireflies.ai profile for plans, limits and sources.

Visit Otter.ai (opens in a new tab)Visit Fireflies.ai (opens in a new tab)

Sources: Fathom Free and Premium features, Fireflies storage and upload limits, Otter Basic plan limits, Otter desktop app, Krisp pricing, Notion AI Meeting Notes.

Step 3: Get the action items out, on the plan that has them

In shortDrafting action items and exporting them are separate rights, and they often sit on different plans.

Tool	AI action items	Ways out of the tool	What stays inside
Fathom	Premium	CRM sync with HubSpot, Salesforce or Close for up to 3 users per email domain	Export formats: not covered in the sources checked
Fireflies.ai	Pro, with a task manager	Downloads of transcripts, summaries and recordings from Pro; API access on every plan	Free has no downloads
Otter.ai	Every plan	TXT on Basic; DOCX, PDF and SRT on paid plans; Zapier from Pro; API and webhooks on Enterprise	The outline and action items cannot be exported as files
Krisp	Core and Advanced	An API for meetings, notes, transcripts, recordings and action items on Core and Advanced; Notion, Zapier, HubSpot and Pipedrive	Salesforce sync needs Advanced; after a trial, content can be exported for 90 days
Notion AI	Business and Enterprise	Notes are pages in the workspace	Free and Plus get only a limited trial

Where the export route cannot carry the action items, copy them into the register by hand and keep the tool’s original list unchanged as the raw extraction.

See the Fathom profile for plans, limits and sources. See the Krisp profile for plans, limits and sources. See the Notion AI profile for plans, limits and sources.

Visit Fathom (opens in a new tab)Visit Krisp (opens in a new tab)Visit Notion AI (opens in a new tab)

Sources: Fathom pricing, Fireflies pricing, Otter export, Otter pricing, Krisp meeting API, Krisp pricing, Notion pricing.

Step 4: Review each action against the line that created it

Compare the tool’s list with the practice meeting, or with the transcript of a real one. Record each edit and the source line that justified it: a fluent summary that needs many fixes costs more review time than a short list with honest blanks.

Step 5: Import with a stable ID, so a rerun cannot duplicate work

Use the action ID as the link between the register and the destination task, and import into a disposable project first. Running the same reviewed register again should update the matching task or leave it alone; it should not create a second assignment.

Then test the correction on its own: import the approved version, change only Alex’s deadline in a copy and run the update again. Check the owner, dependency and comments as well as the date. If the connector cannot update by a stable ID, keep the import manual. Leave notifications off during the rehearsal, so no owner, guest or client receives a message from test data. The general duplicate-and-retry pattern is covered in the form-to-spreadsheet workflow.

Step 6: Hand over the register with its evidence

Deliver the approved source, the reviewed register and the correction log together. Every accepted action needs an owner or an explicit “owner unresolved” state, a source reference and any condition on when it starts; a deadline may be absent. The owner confirms the reading before automation turns it into a commitment.

Reject the setup if reruns create duplicate tasks, corrections erase their history or source links reach the wrong audience. Fix that one failure and run the same practice meeting again.

One person, twelve one-hour meetings

In shortTwelve one-hour meetings a month is 720 minutes, plus one 75-minute workshop, for one person who wants AI action items.

Tool	What limits usage	Twelve one-hour meetings	One 75-minute workshop	Smallest plan with action items
Fathom	Seats; recording is unlimited	Recording and transcripts fit Free; advanced summaries cover 5 of the 12	No length limit listed	Premium, $20/user monthly ($16/user/month on annual billing)
Fireflies.ai	Stored minutes, cumulative	720 minutes pass Free’s 400 in the first month; Pro’s 8,000 hold about 11 months of them (8,000 / 720)	No cap listed for live bot meetings	Pro, $10 per seat a month, billed annually
Otter.ai	Monthly minutes and a cap per conversation	Basic shows the first 30 minutes of each; Pro’s 1,200 minutes cover the 720 with 480 to spare	Inside Pro’s 90-minute cap; Basic shows 30 minutes	Basic already lists action items; Pro, USD 16.99 per user billed monthly (USD 8.33 billed annually), keeps whole meetings
Krisp	Seats; notes are unlimited on Core	Inside Core	No length limit listed	Core, $16 per user billed monthly ($8 billed annually), after the 7-day trial
Notion AI	A daily cap of 10 hours per user	One hour a day at most, inside the cap	Inside the daily cap	Business, USD 24 per member billed monthly (USD 20 billed yearly)

For a team, every price above is per seat, and the seat rules differ. Otter Pro takes up to 5 billed users and Business up to 25. Fathom’s Team and Business plans need at least two users; Team, at $19/user monthly, adds shared team workflows, and whether it includes AI action items is not covered in the sources checked. Notion bills every member of a paid workspace, including people who never record a meeting. Krisp counts every teammate added to a paid team as a seat.

Arithmetic on the plan terms in each profile, not observed usage. Taxes are not included; Otter adds sales tax where local law requires it.

Sources: Fathom pricing, Fireflies pricing, Fireflies storage and upload limits, Otter pricing, Krisp pricing, Notion pricing, Notion AI Meeting Notes.

In shortTwelve capabilities marked from the five profiles. A dash means the sources checked do not cover it, not that the tool lacks it.

Capability	Fathom	Fireflies.ai	Otter.ai	Krisp	Notion AI
Capturing the meeting
Bot joins Zoom, Meet or Teams	Offeredbot capture	Offerednotetaker bot	OfferedOtter Notetaker	Not listedbot-free by design	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
Capture without a bot	PartlyMac beta	PartlyChrome extension	Offereddesktop app, Mac and Windows	Offereddesktop app	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
Upload a recorded file	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Offereduploads and imports	Offeredup to 5 GB; 3 lifetime on Basic	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
In-person meetings	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Offeredmobile apps	Offeredmobile apps	Offereddesktop and mobile	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
Drafting action items
AI action items	PartlyPremium	PartlyPro	Offeredevery plan	Partlypaid plans after trial	PartlyBusiness up
Ask questions across meetings	PartlyAsk Fathom, Premium	OfferedAskFred	OfferedAI Chat, 20 queries a month on Basic	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Partlysearchable workspace notes
Follow-up email draft	PartlyPremium	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Offereddrafts from AI Chat	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
Transcript languages listed	Offered38	Offered100+	Partly6	Offered16	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
Getting them out
Transcript download	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	PartlyPro up	OfferedTXT on Basic; DOCX, PDF, SRT paid	Partly90 days after a trial	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
Action items as a file	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Not listednot exportable as files	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
API	Not listednot covered in the sources checked	Offeredevery plan	PartlyEnterprise	OfferedCore and Advanced	Not listednot covered in the sources checked
CRM sync	Partly3 users per domain	OfferedCRM tools listed	Partly1 user on Pro, 5 on Business	PartlySalesforce on Advanced	Not listednot covered in the sources checked

offered partly or with limits not listed on the profile.

Cells come from each tool’s profile on this site, which cites the vendor pages and the date they were checked.

Common questions

What this guide does not judge

Transcript accuracy, how well each tool tells a suggestion from a commitment, summary quality and speed are what most notetaker pages lead with. None of the vendor pages behind this guide compare them on the same meeting, so no tool is ranked on them. Otter’s own help center says accuracy is generally higher when its notetaker takes the call’s audio stream than when a device microphone picks up the room; that is a vendor statement, not a comparison.

Sources: Otter transcription accuracy FAQ.

Read AI, Meeting.ai, Microsoft Word with Copilot, Granola and Fellow appear in search results for this task. They are left out until each has a profile with checked plan terms. Pasting a transcript into a general chat assistant is another route the results describe; the same review checklist applies to its output. See the TurboScribe profile for plans, limits and sources. has a profile but is not compared here: it works on files you upload afterwards, and no page checked describes joining calls or drafting action items, so it only fits when you already hold a recording.

How this guide was made

Capture routes, plans, limits, exports and data terms come from the Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai, Krisp and Notion AI profiles on this site, which cite the vendors’ pricing, help and policy pages and carry their own check dates. Sections follow the topics the top-ranking pages for this search cover, limited to what the vendors document. The practice meeting, register fields and diagrams are editorial material; no meeting was recorded for this guide and no rating is given. See our editorial policy.