The best AI meeting note takers compared

The best AI meeting notes tools in 2026 are Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and Granola for people who join many video calls, and a workspace such as nerix if you want the notes, decisions and action items to land directly in your tasks. Most offer a free plan, so you can test one in a week. This guide compares them on price, free limits and what to watch for, so you choose the one that fits how you meet.

Prices checked in October 2026. Official pages: Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and Granola.

The tools side by side

Otter

Otter is one of the best known transcription tools. Its free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, and a small number of AI chat questions. Pro raises that to 1,200 minutes and 90 minutes per meeting. Otter lists Pro at $16.99 a month, although its page also shows promotional prices, so check the checkout for what you will pay.

Good for: people with many meetings who want a live transcript and a quick summary.

Falls short: the free plan's 30 minute cap rules out most real meetings, and the promotional pricing makes the real cost harder to read.

Fireflies

Fireflies joins meetings, records and transcribes them, and keeps a searchable library of calls. Its pricing page lists Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise. In its own published guide, Fireflies puts Pro at about $10 per seat a month billed yearly, and Business at about $19, but its pages are not fully consistent on free limits, so read the live page.

Good for: sales and customer teams who search past calls for what was promised.

Falls short: with tiers, credits and storage rules, it takes care to see what your plan includes.

Fathom

Fathom is known for a generous free plan: unlimited recordings and transcriptions and instant AI summaries. Premium is $20 per user a month, or $16 billed yearly, and adds advanced summaries, action items and a conversational assistant. Team is $19 per user ($15 yearly) with two users minimum, and Business $34 ($25 yearly) adds CRM sync and coaching metrics.

Good for: individuals and small teams who want a free tool that works from the start.

Falls short: some AI features are limited on the free plan, and the more advanced tools are aimed at sales teams.

Granola

Granola takes a different approach: it captures audio on your own device and does not join the call as a bot, which Granola lists as included on all plans. You type your own notes and it enriches them. Basic is free with 30 days of history, Business is $14 per user a month and Enterprise $35.

Good for: people who do not want a visible bot in client calls.

Falls short: free history is short, and integrations with tools like Notion and HubSpot are on the Business tier. You still need consent from the people on the call.

nerix

We build nerix, so weigh this accordingly. nerix is a workspace where meetings sit next to tasks, documents and team chat. You schedule a meeting with an agenda, take live notes and record decisions during the call, and the transcript is made when Notes is on. Afterwards you press Make the minutes: nerix writes them from the transcript and the notes, you review and approve them, and the recap with action items is emailed to the guests. Action items become tasks in Work with an owner and a due date. You can also upload a recording from elsewhere to get a transcript and minutes.

When you start a call you choose Notes on, No notes or Private, so people know what is kept. A meeting takes any video link, and the live transcript is made when you run the call with notes on. If most of your calls take place in another tool, plan on uploading recordings. Plans are in euros, with a Free plan and Plus at 15 euros a month; the AI work is paid in credits. See meetings and pricing.

Falls short: its pages describe notes for calls run in nerix and uploaded recordings, not a note taking bot for every video tool, and it has no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 yet. It makes the most sense when meetings are part of how your team works, not when you just need a transcript of calls held elsewhere.

Getting better notes from any tool

The tool matters less than the meeting. A few habits make every summary better:

• Start with the purpose. Say the goal of the meeting out loud in the first minute. The summary will be built around it.
• Say decisions aloud. "We decided to move the launch to March" is easy to pick up. A nod is not.
• Name owners and dates. Action items without a person and a deadline are the first thing a summary gets wrong or drops.
• Spell names and numbers. Repeat figures and unusual names once, because they are the most common transcription errors.
• Review within a day. Read the summary while the meeting is fresh, fix it and send it. A correction after a week helps nobody.

Privacy and consent

Recording a meeting means handling other people's voices and words. Before you adopt any tool, answer these questions:

• Who gets told? Announce the transcription at the start, every time, and respect a no.
• Where is the audio processed, and for how long is it kept? Ask the vendor in writing.
• Is it used to train models? Check the plan's terms. Business plans usually say no.
• Who can read the notes? Limit sharing to the people who were in the meeting unless the group agrees otherwise.
• Can you delete it? You should be able to remove a recording and its transcript.

How to choose

If you want a free tool to start, begin with Fathom or Otter's free plan. If you do not want a bot on client calls, try Granola. If your team searches old calls, look at Fireflies. If you want decisions and actions to flow into tasks inside one workspace, try nerix. Then run it on three real meetings and compare the notes against what you remember.

The short version

AI meeting notes save time, but only if you check them. Otter, Fathom and Fireflies are strong dedicated tools, Granola is the bot-free choice, and nerix suits teams that want minutes and action items to turn into tasks. Test two on real meetings, tell people when you transcribe, and read every summary before it goes out.