AI Meeting Notes: Record, Transcribe and Summarise Calls

The person taking notes in a meeting is the person who isn't really in the meeting. AI note-takers fix that: they record the call, transcribe it, and hand you a summary with action items a few minutes after everyone hangs up.

There are now two ways to get AI meeting notes, and the right one depends on what you already pay for. Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams have built their own in, but mostly behind paid plans. Separate note-takers such as Otter.ai and Fireflies work across all three, and both have free plans that cover a surprising amount.

Two ways to get AI meeting notes

Built in. The meeting app itself takes the notes. Nothing extra joins the call, participants see a clear indicator, and the notes land in the tools you already use. The catch is that the good features usually need a specific paid plan.

A note-taker app. A bot joins the call as a participant, or the app records on your device, and the transcript and summary live in that app. These work with every meeting platform, which matters if your clients use Zoom while your team uses Meet.

Built-in notes: Meet, Zoom and Teams

Google Meet

Google's Take notes for me writes the notes into a Google Doc and shares them with the team, and can give a "summary so far" if you join late. It needs an eligible Google Workspace edition or a Google AI plan, so a personal Gmail account with a free Meet call won't have it. Google lists support for English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish; Hindi isn't on the list yet. Meet tells everyone that notes are being taken and shows a pencil icon on all participants' screens.

Zoom

Zoom's assistant, now branded ZoomMate, generates meeting summaries and next steps. Its product page says a limited set of ZoomMate features is included with the free Workplace Basic plan, with fuller plans sold on top. If you're on a free Zoom account, check your plan's settings page before assuming summaries are on.

Microsoft Teams

Teams splits the feature in two. According to Microsoft's Recap documentation, the basic recap, with the recording, transcript, shared files, notes, agenda and follow-up tasks, is available without an add-on. The AI-generated notes, task lists and speaker markers, which Microsoft calls intelligent recap, need Teams Premium or a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, which your IT admin has to assign.

Note-taker apps: Otter.ai and Fireflies

	Otter.ai	Fireflies
Free plan	300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation	Unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team
Paid plan	Pro, $16.99 per user a month, or about half that billed annually	Pro, $10 per seat a month billed annually
What paid adds	1,200 recording minutes a month, up to 90 minutes a meeting	Unlimited AI summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat
Joins	Zoom, Teams and Google Meet	Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and more

Otter.ai is the better-known of the two. Its pricing page gives the free Basic plan 300 transcription minutes a month with a 30-minute cap per conversation, which suits a few short calls a week. The Pro plan raises that to 1,200 minutes and 90-minute meetings, and its assistant joins Zoom, Teams and Meet to write and share notes automatically.

Fireflies takes the opposite approach on its pricing page: the free plan has unlimited transcription but limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team, so old recordings get pushed out. The $10-a-seat Pro plan makes summaries unlimited and expands storage to 8,000 minutes a seat. If you mainly want searchable transcripts and can live with fewer summaries, the free plan goes a long way.

If your notes need to end up in a wiki, our Notion AI vs Otter.ai comparison covers where each fits, and Notion AI can summarise transcripts you paste in.

Ask before you record

Whatever tool you use, say you're recording at the start of the call and ask if anyone objects. It's basic courtesy, it keeps you on the right side of your company's and your clients' policies, and recording rules differ between countries, so a quick sentence saves an argument later.

The tools help here. Meet announces note-taking to everyone, Teams shows when a meeting is being recorded, and a note-taker bot appears in the participant list with its own name. Don't try to hide it; an unexpected "Fireflies.ai Notetaker" joining a client call creates exactly the awkwardness you were trying to avoid.

Getting accurate notes

AI transcription is good, but it's only as good as the audio and the context you give it.

1. Use a headset or an external mic. Laptop mics pick up the room, and a noisy room produces a noisy transcript. Our guide to removing background noise covers tools such as Krisp that clean the audio before it's recorded.
2. Say names and numbers clearly. "Send it to Priya by the fifteenth" is the kind of line a summary gets wrong if two people talk over it.
3. Check the action items before you share them. A summary that assigns the wrong task to the wrong person causes more work than no summary.
4. Fix the vocabulary. Most note-takers let you add product names and jargon so they stop mis-hearing them.
5. Delete what you don't need. Recordings of candid conversations are a liability if they sit in a shared workspace forever.

Which should you use?

If your whole team is on a paid Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 plan that includes the AI notes, use the built-in feature: it's the least intrusive and needs no new accounts. If you meet people on several platforms, or you're on free plans, start with Fireflies' free tier for transcripts or Otter's for a few short calls a week, and upgrade the one you actually open. For more options, see our list of AI productivity tools.

FAQ

What is the best free AI meeting notes app?

Fireflies' free plan has unlimited transcription with limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team. Otter.ai's free plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month with a 30-minute limit per conversation. Pick Fireflies for transcripts, Otter for short calls with summaries.

Does Google Meet take notes automatically?

Yes, with "Take notes for me" on eligible Google Workspace editions and Google AI plans. It writes notes to a Google Doc, tells all participants that notes are being taken, and supports English and seven other languages, but not Hindi yet.

Does Zoom summarise meetings for free?

Zoom says limited features of its ZoomMate assistant are included with the free Workplace Basic plan. Check your account's AI settings to see whether meeting summaries are among them on your plan.

Do I need to tell people I'm using an AI note-taker?

Yes. Say it at the start of the call and ask if anyone objects. Meet announces note-taking automatically, and note-taker bots appear in the participant list, so people will see it anyway.

How much does Otter.ai cost?

Otter's Basic plan is free. Pro is $16.99 per user a month, or about half that when billed annually, according to Otter's pricing page.