Granola takes strong notes without putting a bot in the participant list, which is the thing most people in this category actually want. It needs the app running on the device playing the audio, so it cannot cover a meeting you do not attend. Where that matters, the bot-based tools below are the trade you have to make.
8 tools reviewedLast reviewed Ranked by us, not by votes
What counts as AI meeting notetakers
AI meeting notetakers capture what is said in a call or an in-person conversation and turn it into a transcript, a structured summary and a list of action items. Some capture audio by sending a bot that joins the meeting as a visible participant; others record locally from the device you are already on, and a few are built into the conferencing platform itself. The category also covers what happens to the recording afterwards: search, sharing, CRM sync and retention. Tools that only transcribe an uploaded audio file, with no meeting capture and no summary, fall outside it.
How we judged them
Entries were judged on transcription and summary quality, how audio is captured (a bot visibly joining the call versus local or in-platform capture), how recording is disclosed to other participants, and what a buyer can control about retention, deletion and model training. Compliance posture (SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, data residency) and which controls are gated behind higher tiers were weighted heavily, since these decide whether a tool clears a security review. Every claim here was checked against the vendor's own site during research; pricing is described by shape only, because published numbers change. Ranking reflects overall fit for a typical buyer, not any commercial relationship.
All 8 AI meeting notetakers in this guide, in ranked order.
Best for Individuals and small teams who want strong notes without a bot appearing in the participant list.
A desktop and mobile notepad that records meeting audio locally from your own device, then merges your typed notes with the transcript into a structured summary.
Strengths
No bot joins the call: audio is captured from the device you are already on, so the tool works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and any other app that produces sound.
Unaffected by the 2026 platform changes that flag or deny third party notetaker bots in Google Meet.
States that it does not store meeting audio: it transcribes in real time and keeps only transcripts and your notes.
SOC 2 Type 2 certified, GDPR compliant, encrypted at rest and in transit, with a DPA available on request.
Enterprise plan adds SSO, admin controls, organization wide auto deletion periods and a team wide model training opt out.
Blends your own typed shorthand with the transcript, which produces summaries closer to what you actually cared about.
Runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, plus an MCP connector for pulling notes into other AI tools.
Where it falls short
Requires the app running on the device playing the meeting audio, so it cannot cover a meeting you do not attend.
Because nothing joins the call, other participants receive no automatic recording notice; disclosure is left entirely to the user.
The free tier limits access to older meeting history.
SSO, admin sharing controls and organization wide auto deletion are gated to the Enterprise tier.
The security page states SOC 2 Type 2 and GDPR but does not claim HIPAA compliance.
Data is hosted in a US AWS environment, with no stated EU data residency option.
Granola states it trains on anonymized data to improve the service, with an opt out; training is off by default only for enterprise users.
fathom.ai · Per seat subscription with a free individual tier, paid individual and team tiers, and a custom enterprise tier; team plans have a seat minimum.
Best for Sales and customer facing teams that want a genuinely usable free tier plus CRM sync when they upgrade.
An AI notetaker that records, transcribes and summarizes calls, and can capture either with a bot that joins the meeting or bot free through a desktop app.
Strengths
Offers both capture models: a meeting bot or a bot free desktop app, so the same tool works whether or not a platform blocks notetaker bots.
States SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA compliance along with SSO and SCIM support.
The free tier includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions rather than a monthly meeting count.
Salesforce and HubSpot integrations, a public API and MCP support for connecting notes to other AI tools.
Enterprise tier includes custom data retention policies and organization wide security controls.
AI Scorecards and coaching metrics give sales managers structured call review rather than raw transcripts.
Where it falls short
The free tier applies limited use caps to advanced summaries, AI action items, account wide Ask Fathom and automation integrations.
CRM field sync, deal view, coaching metrics and custom summaries require a higher paid team tier.
Custom data retention, SSO and SCIM are Enterprise only.
Team plans require a minimum of two seats.
The free plan caps CRM syncs at three users per domain.
The site does not publish a supported language list or a default retention period.
Bot based capture is exposed to Google Meet's 2026 default of denying third party notetakers entry.
fireflies.ai · Per seat subscription with a free tier, paid tiers on annual commitment, and an annual only enterprise tier; AI usage is metered as credits.
Best for Teams that need the notes to land automatically in a CRM, ATS or project tracker.
An AI meeting assistant whose notetaker bot joins calls to record, transcribe and summarize them, with conversation intelligence and a wide integration catalogue.
Strengths
Broadest integration coverage of the tools here: CRM, project management, applicant tracking, Slack, dialers, a public API and an MCP server.
Claims support for 100+ languages with automatic language detection.
SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA compliance, with a BAA available to enterprise customers.
Vendor level zero retention agreements mean third party model providers do not store or train on meeting content.
Enterprise plan offers private storage, including a bring your own bucket option using your own S3 or Google Cloud Storage.
Multiple capture routes: bot, Chrome extension, desktop app, mobile app, dialer integrations and file upload.
Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, audit logs and custom data retention.
Where it falls short
The zero data retention language describes third party vendor processing and model training, not deletion of your data from Fireflies itself.
HIPAA BAA, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, private storage and custom retention are all restricted to the Enterprise tier.
The free tier caps stored transcription minutes per team, so older recordings age out quickly.
Paid tiers are billed per seat on an annual commitment, and Enterprise is annual only with no monthly option.
AI credits are metered on every tier, including Enterprise.
The bot joins as a visible named participant, which Google Meet now flags as a potential risk and denies by default.
The advertised 95 percent accuracy figure is a vendor claim with no published methodology.
Best for Organizations standardized on Teams that want meeting AI without sending audio to a third party.
Microsoft's meeting recap built into Teams, producing AI notes, follow up tasks, a speaker timeline and auto generated chapters from the meeting's own recording and transcript.
Strengths
Nothing joins the call as an extra participant: recap is built into Teams and reuses the recording and transcript Teams already produces.
Meeting content stays inside the Microsoft 365 tenant, so it inherits existing retention, eDiscovery and compliance policies.
Admins control availability through Teams admin center recording and transcription policies.
Supports an explicit consent policy that requires participants to agree before being included in recording and transcription.
Admins can customize the in meeting recording notification text and the privacy policy URL shown to participants.
Speaker timeline, chapters and timeline markers for name mentions, joins and screen shares make long recordings navigable.
No additional vendor to put through security review if you already run Microsoft 365.
Where it falls short
Requires a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot license on top of the base Microsoft 365 subscription.
Covers Teams meetings and calls only: it will not capture Zoom or Google Meet.
Depends on transcription being enabled by admin policy, and the full recap needs recording enabled as well.
By default Teams shows a notification banner rather than requiring participants to actively agree; explicit consent is a separate setting an admin must turn on.
Custom AI summary templates require a Copilot license and rolled out desktop first in English only.
Licensing entitlements shifted between Teams Premium and Teams Enterprise during 2026, so older guidance may be out of date.
Best for Zoom centric organizations that want summaries included in the plan they already pay for.
Zoom's native meeting summary, transcription and in meeting question features, included with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans; the AI Companion brand name was retired in June 2026.
Strengths
Built into Zoom Workplace, so no third party bot joins and no external vendor receives the audio.
Included at no extra cost with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans rather than sold as a separate notetaker.
Zoom states it does not use customer content such as audio, video or chat to train its own or third party AI models.
Admin controls exist at account, group, user and site level, with setting locks.
Offers a zero data retention option for meeting summary transcripts for organizations that want to minimize what is kept.
Participants see an on screen indicator and a notification describing which AI features are active.
Covers summaries, action items, in meeting questions, chat and email compose, and phone call summaries.
Where it falls short
The AI Companion brand was retired in June 2026 and the features now appear under descriptive names, so older documentation and comparison articles no longer match the interface.
Agentic capabilities moved to ZoomMate, a separate paid add on, so the included features are narrower than the older AI Companion marketing implied.
Requires an eligible paid Zoom Workplace plan.
Primarily covers Zoom meetings; joining third party meetings requires an admin to permit it plus a synced calendar.
An admin must enable the features before anyone can use them.
The in meeting indicator is a disclosure, not a consent request: a participant cannot switch the feature off, as control sits with the host and the account admin.
Choosing zero data retention means summaries cannot later be reprocessed or applied to a different template.
Best for EU based teams that need meeting data processed and stored inside the EEA.
A meeting recorder and notetaker that captures video, transcripts and summaries, with a desktop app that records system audio so no bot joins the call.
Strengths
All data centers are located in Europe, with personal data processed and stored in the EEA.
Offers both capture models: a bot via the Chrome extension, or bot free recording through the macOS and Windows desktop app.
States GDPR compliance, SOC 2, AES 256 encryption at rest and ISO 27001 certified data center providers.
States that customer data is never used to train AI, including by its model provider.
Keeps the video recording alongside the transcript, with clipping and timestamped highlights.
Customizable summary formats including sales frameworks such as MEDDIC.
Free tier includes unlimited recordings, transcriptions and AI summaries with no time limit.
Transcription and translation across 30+ languages.
Where it falls short
Bot free capture requires the macOS or Windows desktop app; there is no bot free path from mobile or a browser only device.
Transcription covers 30+ languages, fewer than competitors claiming 100+.
The interface itself is localized into a much smaller set of languages than it transcribes.
Hosting is EEA only, with no stated US or other regional residency option for buyers who need one.
Its ISO 27001 and related claims rest in part on the certifications of its underlying data center providers rather than tl;dv itself.
The site does not publish a default data retention period or deletion schedule.
Smaller vendor than the platform incumbents, with correspondingly fewer enterprise reference customers published.
otter.ai · Per seat subscription with a free tier, two paid tiers with monthly minute and conversation length limits, and a custom enterprise tier; annual billing is discounted.
Best for Buyers who want mature, searchable transcription with a large integration surface and a permanently free entry tier.
One of the longest running AI transcription services, offering an agent that joins meetings plus bot free desktop, mobile and browser recording.
Strengths
Long track record in speech to text, with real time transcription, speaker identification and multi language support.
Multiple capture routes: a meeting agent, bot free recording on Mac and Windows, a Chrome extension, mobile apps and file import.
Large integration catalogue spanning Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Asana, Jira, Google Drive and Dropbox, plus an MCP server.
SOC 2 Type 2 attestation, GDPR and CCPA alignment, security policies based on ISO 27001, and AES 256 encryption at rest.
Supports customer defined data retention policies, and deleted conversations are purged from trash after 30 days.
States that imported customer files are excluded from model training.
Permanently free tier and a channel structure for grouping meetings by team or project.
Where it falls short
Subject to consolidated federal privacy litigation in the Northern District of California (In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation) alleging that participants other than the host did not consent to being recorded; a motion to dismiss was heard in May 2026 and no class has been certified.
Otter states it de identifies user data before using it to train its own models, so buyers wanting no training at all need to check tier level controls.
The free tier caps monthly transcription minutes, limits conversations to 30 minutes and allows only three lifetime file imports.
AI chat queries are metered on every tier, including paid ones.
HIPAA compliance is available only as an Enterprise add on.
SSO, SCIM and domain capture are Enterprise only.
Concurrent meeting joins are capped even on the mid tier plan.
The agent joins as a visible named participant, which Google Meet now flags and denies by default.
read.ai · Per seat subscription with a metered free tier, paid individual and enterprise tiers, and a top tier for compliance controls; higher tiers carry a seat minimum.