8 best AI meeting assistants compared (2026)

The best AI meeting assistant depends on what you need the free plan and the first paid step to do, so this guide ranks eight tools on facts their vendors publish. Granola and Fathom come first, followed by Fellow, Krisp, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Read AI and tl;dv. Granola ranks first because it captures audio without a bot in the call, keeps AI notes on a free Basic plan and charges $14 per user per month for Business. Fathom ranks second: its free plan is the only one of the eight that lists unlimited recordings, transcription and storage, and its Premium plan is $20 per user per month. Prices and limits are as the vendors showed them on 23 September and 16 October 2026, and each section gives its own read date.

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The eight at a glance

Rank	Tool	Best for	Free plan	First paid plan	Tests met
1	Granola	Notes through back-to-back calls with no bot	Basic: AI meeting notes, 30-day history	Business, $14/user/month	3 of 4
2	Fathom	Recording client and sales calls, then syncing to a CRM	Unlimited recordings, transcription and storage	Premium, $20/user/month	3 of 4
3	Fellow	Recurring meetings run from shared agendas	5 lifetime AI notes and 5 lifetime AI recordings	Team, $11/user/month	2 of 4
4	Krisp	Noise-free calls plus notes in one app	None, 7-day free trial	Core, $16/user/month	2 of 4
5	Otter.ai	Searchable transcripts of team meetings	300 transcription minutes per month	Pro, $16.99/user/month	2 of 4
6	Fireflies.ai	A searchable archive of team and client calls	Unlimited auto-join transcription, 400 minutes of storage	Pro, $18/user/month	2 of 4
7	Read AI	Recaps of meetings, email and chat in one place	5 meeting transcripts per month	Pro, $19.75/user/month	1 of 4
8	tl;dv	Customer-call clips and sales coaching	Unlimited recordings, lifetime AI caps	Pro, $29/seat/month	1 of 4

Prices are for the first paid plan, per user per month, as each vendor shows them; Granola does not state a billing period. The annual prices and the tiers above are in the pricing table below.

How we chose these 8

The bar. A tool is on the list if its vendor describes meeting capture as the job (recording, transcribing or taking notes on meetings), if it lists Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams among the apps it covers, and if it publishes at least one paid price per user. Eight tools clear it. Four more, Loom, Notion, Motion and Lindy, record meetings as one feature of a larger product, and none has a list of supported meeting apps in the data we recorded. They are described after the ranked list and are not given a rank.

Where the facts come from. Every plan, price, limit and feature is taken from the vendor's own pricing and product pages, as recorded on 23 September 2026 for Fellow, Fireflies.ai, Granola, Otter.ai and Read AI, and on 16 October 2026 for Fathom, Krisp and tl;dv. Fireflies.ai's pricing page did not show prices when it was read, so its prices come from the Fireflies help centre. tl;dv's pricing page lists euro prices, and its own blog and help centre give the dollar figures used here; tl;dv says the euro and dollar prices are the same number. Prices are in US dollars, and where a page showed only a dollar sign we have taken it as dollars. Prices change, so confirm on the vendor's pricing page before you buy.

The four tests. Each tool gets one point for each yes, using only those recorded facts:

1. The free plan keeps going: a free plan exists and its AI allowance renews or has no meeting cap, rather than being a one-off lifetime sample.
2. The entry price is in the cheaper half: its first paid plan is one of the four lowest of the eight, on the monthly price per user the vendor publishes.
3. Free recording is unlimited: the free plan lists unlimited recording or transcription.
4. Bot-free capture: the vendor lists a way to capture a meeting without a bot joining the call.

Ties are broken by the lower first-paid price. Two of the four tests are about the free plan because it is the cheapest way to try a tool on real meetings.

Tool	1. Free plan keeps going	2. Cheaper half	3. Unlimited free recording	4. Bot-free capture	Tests met
Granola	Yes	Yes ($14)	No	Yes	3
Fathom	Yes	No ($20)	Yes	Yes	3
Fellow	No	Yes ($11)	No	Yes	2
Krisp	No	Yes ($16)	No	Yes	2
Otter.ai	Yes	Yes ($16.99)	No	No	2
Fireflies.ai	Yes	No ($18)	Yes	No	2
Read AI	Yes	No ($19.75)	No	No	1
tl;dv	No	No ($29)	Yes	No	1

Fathom also sells a Team plan at $19/user/month, but it needs two users or more, and $19 would still sit outside the cheaper half.

What the ranking does not measure. It ranks cost of entry, free-plan generosity and capture style. It says nothing about transcript accuracy, summary quality, language coverage or security reviews, because none of that is in the recorded facts. Pick two or three from the top of the list and run them on real meetings before you roll one out.

What the plans cost

First paid plan and the next tier up, per user per month, as recorded. A dash means no annual price was shown.

Tool	First paid plan	Billed monthly	Billed annually	Next tier up
Granola	Business	$14	-	Enterprise, $35
Fathom	Premium	$20	$16	Business, $34 monthly or $25 annually
Fellow	Team	$11	$7	Business, $23 monthly or $15 annually
Krisp	Core	$16	$8	Advanced, $30 monthly or $15 annually
Otter.ai	Pro	$16.99	$8.33	Business, $30 monthly or $19.99 annually
Fireflies.ai	Pro	$18	$10	Business, $29 monthly or $19 annually
Read AI	Pro	$19.75	$15	Enterprise, $29.75 monthly or $22.50 annually
tl;dv	Pro	$29	$18	Business, $39 monthly or $29 annually

The first paid plan is not always the plan that removes the limits. Fellow's Team plan caps AI notes, and Read AI's Pro plan is where premium integrations begin. Each section below names the plan that lifts the limit that matters for that tool.

The eight tools, ranked

1. Granola

What it is. Granola is an AI notepad that listens to the audio on your own computer, so no bot joins the call. It turns the conversation into AI-enhanced notes, action items and follow-ups, covers Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls as well as in-person and phone conversations, and can prepare a pre-meeting brief from your calendar. Notes can be shared in folders or questioned with its AI chat, and an MCP connector lets AI tools such as Claude read them. It runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android.

Best for. Taking notes in back-to-back calls without a bot joining, drafting follow-up emails and action lists after client meetings, and capturing in-person meetings on a phone. Tests met: 3 of 4 (free plan keeps going, cheaper half, bot-free).

What it costs (read 23 September 2026). Basic is free and includes AI meeting notes, AI chat with automatic model selection only, shared folders and note templates, with meeting history limited to 30 days. Business is $14/user/month and gives unlimited meeting notes and history. Enterprise is $35/user/month and adds security and admin controls. The pricing page states neither a billing period nor an annual discount.

Where it falls short. The free plan keeps only 30 days of history and limits AI chat to automatic model selection, and security and admin controls need the Enterprise plan. The platforms we recorded are macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, with no web app among them.

Source. Granola's home page and pricing page, read 23 September 2026.

2. Fathom

What it is. Fathom records and transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls and writes an AI summary after each one. You can choose a meeting bot or bot-free capture (a beta on Mac), ask Fathom questions about one call or across calls, and connect it to Slack, Claude and ChatGPT, with a public API and MCP. On 14 September 2026 Superhuman, the company formerly named Grammarly, announced that it had acquired Fathom; Fathom says nothing changes for users for now, with the same app, login and product experience.

Best for. Recording client or sales calls without taking manual notes, sending call summaries and action items to a CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce, and building playlists of call highlights for team training. Tests met: 3 of 4 (free plan keeps going, unlimited free recording, bot-free).

What it costs (read 16 October 2026). The free plan is free forever: unlimited recordings, transcription in 38 languages, storage, downloads and clips, with instant AI summaries and advanced summaries for the first 5 calls a month. Premium is $20/user/month, or $16/user/month billed annually, and adds advanced call summaries, AI action items, AI follow-up emails and a custom meeting bot. Team is $19/user/month, or $15/user/month billed annually, for two users or more, and adds search across team calls, team playlists and keyword alerts. Business is $34/user/month, or $25/user/month billed annually, and adds CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics and AI scorecards. Enterprise is contact sales, with SSO and SCIM. New sign-ups get a 30-day free preview of Premium features, or 60 days through a referral.

Where it falls short. The free plan has no AI action items or AI follow-up emails, and Ask Fathom is marked limited use on it. The Team plan needs at least 2 users, and CRM field sync and scorecards wait until the Business plan at $34/user/month. Bot-free capture is listed as a beta on Mac.

Source. Fathom's pricing page and Superhuman announcement, read 16 October and 23 September 2026.

3. Fellow

What it is. Fellow records and transcribes meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex and Slack Huddles, and in person, with an optional bot-free mode. It produces AI notes, action items, agendas and pre-meeting briefs, and its Ask Fellow search answers questions about past meetings. It positions itself for regulated industries that need privacy, security and data governance controls, and it connects to CRMs, project tools and compliance archiving systems. The company is based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and was founded in 2017.

Best for. Running recurring one-on-ones and team meetings from shared agendas, recording client meetings in firms with strict data governance rules, and tracking action items across a team's meetings. Tests met: 2 of 4 (cheaper half, bot-free).

What it costs (read 23 September 2026). Free gives 5 AI notes and 5 AI recordings per user, lifetime (not monthly). Team is $11/user/month billed monthly, or $7/user/month billed annually, with 10 AI notes per user per month and 10 AI recordings per user. Business is $23/user/month billed monthly, or $15/user/month billed annually, with unlimited AI notes and AI recordings. Enterprise is $25/user/month, billed annually, and starts at 10 users. Paid features come with a trial whose length is not stated on the pricing page.

Where it falls short. The free plan is a one-off sample, not an ongoing allowance. The cheapest paid plan caps AI notes at 10 per user per month, so a team that meets often needs the Business plan at $23/user/month billed monthly. Enterprise is billed annually and starts at 10 users.

Source. Fellow's home page, pricing page and about page, read 23 September 2026.

4. Krisp

What it is. Krisp removes background noise from calls in apps such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack. It also records and transcribes meetings, writes AI notes and action items, and offers accent conversion and voice translation. Separate plans exist for call centres and for developers. It runs on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android and as a Chrome extension. Krisp is based in Berkeley, California and was founded in 2017.

Best for. Removing background noise when taking calls from home or shared spaces, getting meeting notes and action items without a separate notetaker, and making calls easier to follow across accents. Tests met: 2 of 4 (cheaper half, bot-free).

What it costs (read 16 October 2026). There is no free plan. A 7-day free trial needs no credit card, and when it expires access ends unless you buy a plan, with 90 days to export your content. Core is $16/user/month, or $8/user/month billed annually, with unlimited bot-free AI notes and noise cancellation, 1 hour a day of accent conversion and 10 GB of storage. Advanced is $30/user/month, or $15/user/month billed annually, with 4 hours a day of speaker-side accent conversion, unlimited listener-side conversion, 60 GB of storage, and Salesforce and ConnectWise listed among its inclusions. Enterprise is custom pricing and adds SSO and SCIM, on-device private transcription and recordings, HIPAA and unlimited storage. A separate call-centre plan, CC Core, is $15/agent/month billed annually.

Where it falls short. There is no free plan, and the trial ends access. Accent conversion is limited to 1 hour a day on Core and 4 hours a day speaker side on Advanced, and storage is capped at 10 GB on Core and 60 GB on Advanced.

Source. Krisp's pricing page and home page, read 16 October and 23 September 2026.

5. Otter.ai

What it is. Otter.ai joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls to produce live transcripts with speaker labels, then writes summaries with decisions and action items. An AI chat answers questions across past meetings and connected apps, and conversations can be organised in shared channels. It runs on the web, iOS, Android, macOS and Windows, as a Chrome extension and through an API.

Best for. Keeping searchable transcripts and summaries of recurring team meetings, recording and transcribing in-person conversations with the mobile app, and logging sales call notes in Salesforce or HubSpot. Tests met: 2 of 4 (free plan keeps going, cheaper half).

What it costs (read 23 September 2026). Basic is free and gives 300 transcription minutes per month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime audio and video file imports, 20 AI Chat queries per user (3 per conversation), 1 meeting at a time, and access to the 25 most recent conversations. Pro is $16.99/user/month billed monthly, or $8.33/user/month billed annually, with 1,200 in-app recording minutes, up to 90 minutes per meeting, and Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations. Business is $30/user/month billed monthly, or $19.99/user/month billed annually, with unlimited meetings, up to 4 hours per meeting, 3 concurrent meetings and admin analytics. Enterprise is contact sales, with SSO and SCIM, a HIPAA add-on, and the Otter API and webhooks.

Where it falls short. The free Basic plan caps transcription at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation, and shows only the 25 most recent conversations. The Otter API and webhooks are listed only on the Enterprise plan.

Source. Otter.ai's pricing page and home page, read 23 September 2026.

6. Fireflies.ai

What it is. Fireflies.ai adds a notetaker to Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, or captures them through its Chrome extension and its desktop and mobile apps. It transcribes with speaker recognition, writes summaries with an overview, detailed notes and action items, and lets you question past meetings through its AskFred assistant. Comments, bookmarks and soundbites can be added to recordings. On the Business plan it adds video recording, conversation intelligence such as talk time, sentiment and topic trackers, and API access.

Best for. Keeping a searchable archive of team and client meetings, sharing summaries and action items with people who missed the call, and reviewing sales or support calls for recurring topics. Tests met: 2 of 4 (free plan keeps going, unlimited free recording).

What it costs (read 23 September 2026). The free plan gives unlimited transcription when the notetaker auto-joins meetings, 400 minutes of storage per seat, 20 AI credits per month, and a one-off allowance of 3 to 10 credits depending on where you signed up. Pro is $18/user/month billed monthly, or $10/user/month billed annually, with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat and transcript and recording downloads. Business is $29/user/month billed monthly, or $19/user/month billed annually, with unlimited storage, video recording, conversation intelligence and API access. Enterprise is $39/user/month, billed annually.

Where it falls short. Free storage is capped at 400 minutes per seat, and transcript downloads need a paid plan. Video recording, conversation intelligence and API access start on the Business plan at $29/user/month billed monthly. The recorded facts list no bot-free option.

Source. Fireflies.ai's pricing page, its help-centre article on pricing plans and its home page, read 23 September 2026.

7. Read AI

What it is. Read AI joins Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex calls to produce transcripts, recaps, action items and highlights. It also summarises email and chat messages and searches across meetings, documents and notes with cited answers. A personal meeting coach and topic readouts are part of the product. Read AI is based in Seattle, Washington and was founded in 2021.

Best for. Sending meeting recaps and action items to a team automatically, catching up on long email threads and message channels through summaries, and finding what was agreed in past meetings with search. Tests met: 1 of 4 (free plan keeps going).

What it costs (read 23 September 2026). The free plan gives 5 meeting transcripts per month, meetings up to 1 hour, summaries for meetings, email and messaging, unlimited enterprise search and basic integrations. Pro is $19.75/user/month billed monthly, or $15/user/month billed annually, with unlimited transcripts, 100 upload credits/month and premium integrations. Enterprise is $29.75/user/month billed monthly, or $22.50/user/month billed annually, with 200 upload credits/month, meetings up to 4 hours, and audio and video playback. Enterprise+ is $39.75/user/month billed monthly, or $29.75/user/month billed annually, and adds HIPAA compliance, SAML and SCIM, and meetings up to 8 hours.

Where it falls short. The free plan allows 5 meeting transcripts per month and meetings up to 1 hour. Premium integrations start on the Pro plan, and Enterprise+ requires 5 or more licences. The recorded facts list no bot-free option.

Source. Read AI's plans and pricing page, home page and about page, read 23 September 2026.

8. tl;dv

What it is. tl;dv records and transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings and writes AI notes with action items. Teams can pull insights and scheduled reports from many meetings, log notes to a CRM, draft follow-up emails and use sales coaching features, and clips can be cut from recordings. It runs on the web, macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. The company behind it, tldx Solutions GmbH, is registered in Aachen, Germany and was founded in 2021.

Best for. Recording customer calls and sharing short clips with colleagues, getting AI notes and action items from weekly team meetings, and reviewing sales calls for coaching. Tests met: 1 of 4 (unlimited free recording).

What it costs (read 16 October 2026). The free plan gives unlimited recordings and transcripts, with lifetime limits that do not renew monthly: full AI notes for the first 10 meetings, then only the first 10 minutes of each meeting, plus 10 AI prompts, 10 AI reports, 20 integration credits and 4 clips. Recordings are stored for 3 months. Pro is $29/seat/month, or $18/seat/month billed annually, with no AI limits, note templates, follow-up emails, transcript search, unlimited uploads and storage, and Zapier, MCP and API access. Business is $39/seat/month, or $29/seat/month billed annually, and adds multi-language transcription, custom vocabulary, multi-meeting Ask AI, coaching and scheduled reports. Enterprise is custom pricing, with SCIM, custom SSO, privately hosted AI and a success manager.

Where it falls short. The free plan's AI limits are lifetime, not monthly, so only the first 10 meetings get full AI notes, and free recordings are stored for 3 months. Recorded or uploaded meetings are capped at 3 hours on all plans. Its first paid plan is the highest of the eight at $29/seat/month billed monthly.

Source. tl;dv's pricing page, its review of its own plans and its imprint, read 16 October and 23 September 2026.

Four tools that take meeting notes as one feature

These four turn up in searches for meeting assistants. Their meeting features are real, but each vendor's own description puts something else first, so they are not ranked.

• Loom is a screen and camera recorder for sharing video messages, and Atlassian announced on 12 October 2023 that it was acquiring it. The free Starter plan allows 25 videos per person and 5-minute screen recordings, with unlimited meeting recording length. Business is $18/user/month, or $180/year for 1 user billed annually, and Business + AI at $24/user/month, or $240/year for 1 user billed annually, adds summaries, chapters, filler-word removal and meeting notes. Suits a team that would rather send a recorded walkthrough than hold a meeting. Read 23 September 2026 from Loom's pricing page.
• Notion is a workspace for documents, wikis and projects. AI Meeting Notes, with transcription and summaries, come with the Business plan at $24 per member/month billed monthly, or $20 billed yearly; Free and Plus get only a limited trial of Notion AI. Suits a team that already keeps its wiki and project tracker there. Read 23 September 2026 from Notion's pricing page.
• Motion is an AI calendar, task and project manager that lists an AI meeting notetaker among its features. Pro AI (Teams) is $29 per seat/month billed monthly, or $19 billed annually. There is no free plan, only a free trial whose length Motion does not state, and sign-up asks for card details. Suits a team that wants meeting notes inside its planning tool. Read 16 October 2026 from Motion's pricing page.
• Lindy is an AI assistant that works mainly in Slack, and it records and summarises meetings alongside inbox and scheduling work. Plus is $29.99/month per user with 3,000 credits per user per month. There is no free plan; the first week is free only for new teammates who join through Slack. Suits a team that wants one Slack-based assistant for notes, email and routines. Read 23 September 2026 from Lindy's pricing page.

Picks by need

• A free plan you can use every month. Fathom lists unlimited recordings, transcription and storage. Fireflies.ai lists unlimited auto-join transcription with 400 minutes of storage per seat, and Otter.ai gives 300 transcription minutes a month.
• The lowest first paid price. Fellow's Team plan is $11/user/month billed monthly and $7 billed annually, with a cap of 10 AI notes per user per month. Granola's Business plan is $14/user/month with unlimited meeting notes.
• No bot in the meeting. Granola, Fathom (a beta on Mac), Fellow (optional) and Krisp list a bot-free route.
• Sales calls and a CRM. Fathom's Business plan adds CRM field sync at $34/user/month billed monthly. Otter.ai's Pro plan lists Salesforce and HubSpot integrations at $16.99/user/month billed monthly, and Krisp's Advanced plan lists Salesforce and ConnectWise.
• Meetings run from shared agendas. Fellow lists collaborative agendas and pre-meeting briefs alongside its AI notes.
• Noise cancellation as well as notes. Krisp lists noise cancellation in its Core plan alongside unlimited bot-free AI notes.
• Summaries of email and chat too. Read AI summarises email and messages as well as meetings.
• A European vendor. tl;dv's maker is registered in Aachen, Germany.

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