Ever sat in a meeting frantically scribbling notes while trying to actually participate in the conversation? We know it’s nearly impossible to do well. That's where AI meeting assistants come to your rescue.
These digital note-takers write down everything while you focus on what matters: engaging with people. With professionals spending countless hours in meetings each week, finding the right AI note taking app can be a game-changer for your productivity and sanity.
In this guide, we'll walk through the top AI meeting assistants of 2025, highlight which free AI note takers actually deliver value, and help you choose the perfect solution for your specific needs. We'll also show how Zeeg's scheduling tools can complement these note takers to improve your entire meeting workflow.
How AI meeting note takers transform your workflow
Before diving into specific tools, let's first talk about how AI note taking apps can change your meeting experience:
- Turn passive listening into active participation: When an AI note taker handles documentation, you can focus entirely on the conversation.
- Create a reliable record: Capture every word without relying on memory or hurried notes.
- Extract actionable insights: The best AI meeting assistants identify next steps, deadlines, and commitments automatically.
- Make information accessible: Search through meeting content to find specific discussions instead of rewatching entire recordings.
- Improve team alignment: Share AI meeting notes with everyone, even those who couldn't attend.
Types of AI meeting note takers
AI note taking tools generally fall into two categories:
Bot-based assistants: These join your meetings as participants (usually with a bot account) to record and transcribe discussions. They're visible to all attendees and typically integrate directly with meeting platforms.
Local recording assistants: These work in the background on your device to capture audio and video without appearing as a meeting participant. They often give you more privacy but may have limited integration options.
The best AI meeting note takers in comparison
In-depth reviews of the best AI note takers
Let's dive into each of these AI note taking apps to see which one best fits your needs.
1. Fireflies: best for topic tracking and collaboration
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex, GoTo Meeting, Skype, Dialpad Meetings, Lifesize, Jitsi
Fireflies is known as one of the most extensive AI meeting notes solutions available. It can turn large volumes of meeting content into searchable, shareable knowledge.
Key features:
- Topic tracking with customizable categories
- Team collaboration with comments and reactions
- Sentiment analysis for emotional context
- Advanced search across all meeting content
- "AskFred" AI assistant for meeting questions
- Speaker analytics with talk time metrics
- Automatic meeting summaries and recaps
The platform automatically identifies key pieces of information like dates, metrics, questions, and tasks, which makes it easy for you to filter for specific details later. You can also create "soundbites" to clip important moments for sharing with teammates.
The collaboration features also come quite in handy. Your team can comment on meeting transcripts, react to important points, and build a shared understanding of what was discussed. The AskFred AI feature lets you query your meeting data conversationally, which makes information retrieval more natural.
Pricing: Free plan available with unlimited transcription and 800 minutes of storage; paid plans from $10/user/month (billed annually) or $18/user/month (billed monthly)
Source: Fireflies (9 May 2025)
2. Otter: best for conversational AI and question-answering
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams
If you want to have an actual conversation about your meetings, Otter's AI Chat feature makes it possible. This AI note taking app has evolved beyond simple transcription to offer an interactive experience with your meeting content.
Key features:
- AI Chat for asking questions about meetings
- Workspaces for team organization
- Automatic action item detection
- Integrated task assignment
- Real-time collaboration during meetings
- Slack and Microsoft Teams integration
- Audio and video file transcription
Otter's best feature is its conversational AI. After a meeting, you can ask natural language questions like "What action items were assigned to me?" or "What were the main decisions about the marketing campaign?" The AI analyzes your transcripts and provides relevant answers, which is pretty convenient.
The workspace features help teams collaborate around meeting content. Members can communicate within the platform, assign tasks directly from transcripts, and ensure everyone stays aligned on next steps. The Slack integration extends this functionality to your existing workflow.
Pricing: Free for up to 300 minutes per month; paid plans from $8.33/user/month (billed annually) or $10/user/month (billed monthly)
Source: Otter (9 May 2025)
3. Fathom: best free AI note taker
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams
For individuals and small teams looking for a free AI meeting assistant, Fathom is of great value. This tool provides a complete set of note-taking capabilities without the usual limitations of free plans.
Key features:
- Completely free for individual users
- One-click recording and transcription
- Highlight important moments during meetings
- AI-generated summaries and action items
- Video clips for sharing key moments
- Email notifications with meeting summaries
- CRM integration for customer meetings
Fathom makes the recording process simple with one-click activation. During meetings, you can mark important moments with a keystroke to revisit important discussions easier. After the meeting, Fathom creates a complete transcript with AI-generated summaries and action items.
What sets Fathom apart from other free AI note takers is the absence of big limitations. While many competitors restrict minutes, features, or users on their free plans, Fathom offers its core functionality at no cost for individual users. This makes it an excellent starting point for those new to AI meeting assistants.
Pricing: Free version available for individuals; paid plans from $15/user/month
Source: Fathom (9 May 2025)
4. Avoma: best for conversation analytics and coaching
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams, BlueJeans, GoTo Meeting, Highfive, UberConference, Lifesize, and more
Avoma focuses on helping teams improve their meeting effectiveness through detailed conversation analytics. It seems especially good for sales teams looking to refine their customer interactions.
Key features:
- Extensive conversation analytics dashboard
- Filler word and monologue tracking
- Talk-to-listen ratio analysis
- Competitive mention tracking
- AI scoring for coaching purposes
- Topic tracking with timing analysis
- Deep CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
Avoma goes beyond simple transcription to provide insights into conversation quality. The analytics dashboard shows metrics like filler word usage, monologue length, and talk-to-listen ratios, which helps teams identify areas for improvement. For sales calls, the competitive tracking tool monitors mentions of competitors and correlates them with deal outcomes.
The coaching tools make Avoma valuable for team development. Managers can use AI scoring to assess call quality objectively and provide targeted feedback to team members. The topic tracking feature helps optimize conversation flow by showing when different subjects typically enter discussions.
Pricing: From $19/user/month (billed annually) or $29/user/month (billed monthly)
Source: Avoma (9 May 2025)
5. CircleBack: best for premium transcription quality
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams, and major conferencing platforms
CircleBack has exceptional transcription accuracy and speaker recognition. When precise recording of meeting content is your priority, this AI meeting note taker delivers superior results.
Key features:
- Industry-leading transcription accuracy
- Excellent speaker recognition
- Detailed meeting summaries and action items
- Automatic note sharing with attendees
- Deep integration with calendars and CRMs
- AI-powered cross-meeting search
- Question-answering capability for past meetings
CircleBack's transcription engine consistently produces high-quality results, even in tough audio environments or meetings with multiple speakers talking over each other. The speaker recognition technology reliably attributes statements to the correct participants, creating a more useful record.
The summary and action item extraction is equally impressive as it tracks the essence of discussions and identifies commitments accurately. CircleBack also makes sharing easy by automatically distributing notes to all attendees to make sure everyone has access to the same information.
Pricing: $20.83/user/month, with enterprise options available
Source: CircleBack (9 May 2025)
6. Krisp: best for audio quality enhancement and note taking
Platforms: All (works independently of meeting platform)
Krisp stands out by combining noise cancellation with AI meeting notes capabilities. This dual approach makes sure both better real-time communication and detailed meeting documentation.
Key features:
- Background noise cancellation
- No meeting bot required (uses local recording)
- Accent localization for better understanding
- Automatic transcription with speaker recognition
- Meeting summaries and action items
- Convenient desktop widget for quick access
- Calendar integration for meeting management
Krisp's original claim to fame was its AI-powered noise cancellation, which filters out background sounds like keyboard typing, dogs barking, or construction noise. This core technology creates cleaner audio for both you and other meeting participants to improve the overall meeting experience.
The AI note taking functionality operates independently of your meeting platform. It captures audio directly from your computer without having a bot join the call. This provides a smoother experience and works across any communication tool. Despite running locally, Krisp uses minimal system resources, so it won't slow down your video calls.
Pricing: Free plan with 60 minutes of noise cancellation per day, 2 meeting notes per day, and unlimited transcriptions; paid plans from $8/user/month (billed annually) or $16/user/month (billed monthly)
Source: Krisp (9 May 2025)
7. tl;dv: best for AI-powered meeting search
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams
Finding specific information across numerous meeting recordings can be challenging. tl;dv (too long; didn't view) makes your meeting content searchable through advanced AI note taking technology.
Key features:
- AI-powered search across all meetings
- Recurring AI reports from multiple meetings
- Manual note-taking with timestamps
- Organized folder structure
- Video clip creation for sharing
- Speaker insights and analytics
- Multiple integrations (Notion, HubSpot, Slack)
tl;dv's search functionality is remarkably powerful. When you enter a search term, the system analyzes your entire meeting history and returns relevant transcript excerpts with links to the corresponding video moments. This makes finding specific discussions or decisions much faster than having to review your recordings manually.
The AI reporting feature aggregates information across multiple meetings, and identifies trends as well as recurring topics. You can schedule these reports to run weekly or monthly, and create an ongoing record of key discussions. For sharing specific moments, the clip feature lets you highlight transcript text and create short video segments that can be shared via link.
Pricing: Free plan available for unlimited Zoom and Meet transcription; Pro plan from $18/user/month (billed annually) or $29/user/month (billed monthly)
Source: tl;dv (9 May 2025)
8. Equal Time: best for tracking meeting participation
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams
Equal Time focuses on a unique aspect of meetings: making sure everyone has an opportunity to contribute. This AI meeting assistant helps identify participation imbalances and create more inclusive discussions.
Key features:
- Real-time speaking time tracking
- Inclusion score measurement
- Monologue counter
- Group speaking balance visualization
- Attendance and participation tracking
- Post-meeting summary and analysis
- Improvement recommendations
During meetings, Equal Time displays a sidebar showing speaking time percentages for each participant and an overall inclusion score indicating how well time is distributed. The monologue counter helps identify when conversations become one-sided, while the group balance feature lets you analyze participation across teams or roles.
After meetings, you receive detailed analytics on who spoke, who was late, and who tends to dominate conversations. The platform also provides you with specific recommendations for improving future meetings based on these patterns. For teams working to create more balanced discussions, these insights are quite strong.
Pricing: Free plan for 40 minutes of transcription per meeting; Premium from $15/month (billed annually) or $18/month (billed monthly)
Source: Equal Time (9 May 2025)
9. Fellow: best for data privacy and security
Platforms: Zoom, Meet, Teams
For organizations with strict security requirements, Fellow offers an AI note taker with enhanced privacy features. It combines meeting documentation with a broader meeting management platform.
Key features:
- Enhanced security and compliance features
- Pre-meeting agenda creation
- Collaborative note-taking
- Decision tracking and action items
- Integration with productivity tools
- One-on-one meeting templates
- Meeting analytics and feedback
Fellow takes a full-on approach to meeting management to cover the entire lifecycle from agenda creation through follow-up. The AI meeting note taker captures discussions and automatically identifies action items, decisions, and key points for the meeting summary.
What sets Fellow apart is its focus on security. The platform offers advanced data protection features, including customizable retention policies, access controls, and compliance with major security standards. For enterprises in regulated industries or those handling sensitive information, these protections provide important peace of mind.
Pricing: Free plan with 5 AI recordings per user; paid plans from $7/user/month
Source: Fellow (9 May 2925)
10. Granola: best for AI-enhanced manual note taking
Platforms: Compatible with most conferencing tools
Granola takes a hybrid approach to meeting documentation. Rather than fully automated transcription, it enhances manual notes with AI capabilities to create a more personalized record.
Key features:
- Manual note-taking with AI enhancement
- Live transcript for reference during meetings
- Calendar integration for automatic notepad creation
- AI reorganization of your notes
- Conversational interface for asking about meetings
- Topic and action item extraction
- Speaker identification and attribution
When you connect Granola to your calendar, it automatically opens a notepad for each scheduled meeting. As you take notes manually, the system simultaneously creates a transcript in the background. After the meeting, you can ask the AI to enhance your notes by adding missed points, reorganizing content for clarity, or identifying action items.
The "Ask Granola" chat interface lets you query your meeting content conversationally. You can ask about specific themes, request clarification on points, or find quotations from participants.
Pricing: Free with limitations; premium plans available from 14$
Source: Granola (9 May 2025)
What to look for in an AI meeting note takers
When choosing the best AI note taking app for your needs, make sure you think about these key factors:
1. Transcription accuracy
The foundation of any AI meeting assistant is its ability to accurately convert speech to text. Look for:
- Speaker recognition: Does the system reliably identify different voices?
- Technical terminology: Can it handle industry-specific jargon?
- Multilingual support: If your team speaks multiple languages, does the tool support them?
- Accent handling: Does it maintain accuracy with different accents?
2. Summary quality
Most AI meeting notes tools generate summaries, but their quality varies:
- Conciseness: Does it capture key points without unnecessary details?
- Action item extraction: How well does it identify tasks and assignments?
- Decision tracking: Does it highlight decisions made during the meeting?
- Context preservation: Do summaries maintain the nuance of discussions?
3. Integration capabilities
An AI meeting assistant should easily fit into your existing workflow:
- Calendar integration: Can it automatically join scheduled meetings?
- Video conferencing platforms: Does it work with your preferred meeting tools?
- Task management: Can it send action items to your task system?
- CRM integration: For sales teams, does it connect with your customer database?
- Team communication: Does it integrate with Slack, Teams, or other chat platforms?
4. Privacy and security
When recording and analyzing sensitive discussions, security matters:
- Data encryption: Is meeting content encrypted in transit and at rest?
- Access controls: Can you restrict who can view meeting recordings?
- Retention policies: Can you set automatic deletion timeframes?
- Compliance certifications: Does it meet standards like GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2?
5. Collaboration features
For team environments, think about how the AI note taker facilitates collaborations:
- Sharing options: How easily can you distribute meeting content?
- Commenting: Can team members add notes or reactions?
- Collaborative editing: Is it possible to refine summaries together?
- Permission management: Can you control who can edit or view content?
How to get the most from your AI note takers
Even the best AI note taking app can't replace thoughtful meeting practices. Here are tips for maximizing your AI assistant's effectiveness:
- Introduce the assistant: Let meeting participants know the AI is present and recording.
- Speak clearly: While AI transcription has improved dramatically, clear speech still produces better results.
- Identify speakers: Start by having everyone introduce themselves so the AI can learn voices.
- Review and refine: Quickly check AI-generated summaries before sharing to catch any errors.
- Create a knowledge base: Over time, organize meeting content into a searchable repository.
- Integrate with scheduling: Use tools like Zeeg to manage meeting invitations, then let your AI meeting note taker handle the documentation.
Scheduling and documentation: creating the perfect meeting workflow
While AI note-takers capture what happens during meetings, the beginning of an effective meeting process starts much earlier. That's where scheduling platforms like Zeeg transform the pre-meeting experience, completing your end-to-end meeting workflow.
Why scheduling matters as much as documentation
Even the best AI meeting notes are useless if your meetings are chaotic, poorly attended, or constantly rescheduled. Zeeg addresses these issues:
- End the email nightmare: Rather than sending 15 emails to find a time that works for everyone, Zeeg's booking pages display your real-time availability. Clients and colleagues select convenient slots without the back-and-forth hassle.
- Prevent scheduling conflicts: Zeeg syncs with Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Calendar (which many alternatives have discontinued support for) to make sure your availability is always up-to-date across all platforms.
- Protect your focus time: Create buffer zones between meetings, set daily meeting limits, and block out deep work periods that remain invisible to others trying to book time with you.
From scheduling to successful meetings
Zeeg helps maximize meeting effectiveness beyond just finding times:
- Smart routing ensures the right connections: Custom intake forms collect key information from participants before meetings, then automatically route them to the appropriate team members. Sales inquiries go to sales, support questions to support—no manual sorting required.
- Team coordination without the chaos: For teams handling high meeting volumes, Zeeg's round-robin scheduling distributes meetings evenly among team members. This prevents burnout while ensuring equitable workload distribution.
- Meeting preparation that actually happens: Automatically share agenda templates, pre-meeting questionnaires, and previous AI meeting notes from your connected note-taking app, ensuring everyone arrives prepared.
- Timezone intelligence for global teams: Working across continents? Zeeg handles timezone conversions automatically, displaying available times in each participant's local timezone to prevent confusion and missed meetings.
The privacy advantage
For organizations handling sensitive information or working with European clients, Zeeg has tons of advantages:
- Full GDPR compliance with European data hosting: Unlike many scheduling tools that simply claim compliance while storing data on US servers, Zeeg actually hosts all data in Europe with complete end-to-end encryption.
- No data sharing with third parties: Your meeting details, client information, and business data remain private and secure—never sold or shared.
- Custom data retention policies: Set automatic deletion timeframes for meeting data that align with your organization's privacy requirements.
Get started affordably
Zeeg offers flexible pricing that scales with your needs:
- Starter: Free forever for solo users getting started with scheduling
- Professional: €10/$10 per user monthly (billed annually) or €12/$12 (billed monthly) for those that need advanced scheduling features
- Business: €16/$16 per user monthly (billed annually) or €20/$20 (billed monthly) for teams requiring collaborative scheduling
⭐️ Each paid plan comes with a 14-day free trial for you to test the complete feature set before committing.
By combining Zeeg's intelligent scheduling with your chosen AI meeting assistant, you create the perfect workflow that handles everything from initial meeting requests through documentation and follow-up. This integrated approach saves hours weekly, reduces administrative overhead, and makes sure you never miss meeting insights.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about AI meeting note takers
What is the most accurate AI meeting note taker?
CircleBack consistently ranks as the most accurate AI meeting note taker, especially for complex discussions with multiple speakers. It excels at speaker recognition and handling technical terminology with 95%+ accuracy in optimal conditions. Fireflies and Otter also offer excellent accuracy, particularly after they've had time to learn your team's speaking patterns and industry terminology.
What is the best free AI note taker for team meetings?
Fathom stands out as the best free AI note taker for team meetings, offering unlimited recording for individual users without the typical restrictions of free plans. For teams needing more collaborative features, the free tiers of Fireflies (800 minutes of storage) and Otter (300 minutes per month) provide excellent value with team sharing capabilities, though with some usage limitations.
What is the best note-taking app with AI?
For overall AI note taking capabilities, Fireflies offers the most comprehensive solution with excellent transcription, topic tracking, speaker analytics, and collaboration features. For specific needs, Otter excels at conversational interaction with meeting content, while Avoma provides the best analytical insights for sales teams looking to improve their conversations.
Can AI listen to a meeting and take notes?
Yes, modern AI meeting assistants can listen to your meetings and automatically take detailed notes. These AI note takers can transcribe conversations with 85-95% accuracy, identify different speakers, extract action items and decisions, and generate concise summaries. Tools like Fireflies, Otter, and CircleBack can join your meetings automatically through calendar integration, while others like Krisp can capture audio from your computer without joining as a participant.
Do I need an AI meeting note taker if my video platform has built-in transcription?
While platforms like Zoom and Teams offer basic transcription, dedicated AI meeting assistants provide additional features like improved accuracy, better summaries, action item extraction, conversation analytics, and cross-meeting search capabilities. If you only need basic transcripts, your platform's built-in feature may suffice, but for more comprehensive meeting documentation, a specialized tool offers significant advantages.
Are AI meeting note takers accurate?
Modern AI note taking apps achieve 85-95% accuracy in ideal conditions. Factors affecting accuracy include audio quality, speaker clarity, technical terminology, accents, and overlapping voices. Leading tools like CircleBack and Fireflies offer the best accuracy, especially for complex discussions.
Can AI meeting assistants work with any video conferencing platform?
Most AI meeting assistants integrate with popular platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Some (like Krisp and Granola) can work with any platform by capturing audio directly from your computer. Check compatibility before choosing a tool if you use less common conferencing software.
Are free AI note takers worth using?
Free AI meeting assistants like Fathom and the free tiers of Fireflies and Otter offer surprising capability with limitations on storage, features, or meeting minutes. They're excellent starting points for individuals or small teams before upgrading to paid versions with more comprehensive features.
Conclusion: picking the best AI meeting note taker for your needs
The ideal AI note taking app depends on your specific requirements:
- For overall meeting documentation, Fireflies offers the most comprehensive feature set.
- If you need to interact with meeting content through questions, Otter provides the best conversational interface.
- Teams concerned with security should consider Fellow for its enhanced privacy features.
- For those on a tight budget, Fathom delivers impressive capability at no cost as a free AI note taker.
- Sales teams will benefit most from Avoma's specialized conversation analytics.
Remember that AI meeting assistants work best as part of a complete meeting strategy. Pairing your chosen tool with effective scheduling (through platforms like Zeeg), thoughtful agendas, and clear follow-up processes will create truly productive meetings that move your work forward.
By automating the documentation process, these AI meeting notes tools free you to be fully present and engaged—turning meetings from time-consuming obligations into valuable opportunities for collaboration and decision-making.
