9 Best Free AI Notetakers with Forever-Free Plans in 2025

This guide reviews the best free AI notetakers that provide AI meeting summaries, real-time transcription, and meeting intelligence with permanent free access - no trials, no payment, no features that disappear when you need them most.

How We Selected the Best Free AI Notetakers

We evaluated each free AI notetaker based on:

• Permanent free access: No expiration dates or artificial limitations that force paid upgrades
• Core functionality: Transcription quality, summarization capabilities, and meeting intelligence
• Platform compatibility: Support for major video conferencing tools and in-person meetings
• Privacy and security: Data handling practices and compliance considerations
• User experience: Interface design, reliability, and ease of use

Note: If you're interested in premium options or tools with free trials, check out our comprehensive guide on the best AI meeting assistants for taking notes that covers all available options.

Top 9 Truly Free AI Notetakers for Meetings

1. Char: Best for Local Processing and Data Control

Char processes everything on your device. While every other tool sends your conversations to the cloud, Char's custom HyperLLM-V1 model delivers superior AI meeting summaries without sending any bots to your meeting—it simply captures audio directly from your device.

This local processing approach reduces your compliance surface area by eliminating third-party vendor dependencies and keeping sensitive data on-device. No data leaves your machine, making it suitable for organizations with strict data policies and simplifying HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2 compliance requirements.

Best for: Anyone who wants enterprise-grade AI note-taking without vendor lock-in, cloud dependency, or data privacy compromises.

What's Free Forever

• Unlimited AI meeting summaries (most tools limit this heavily)
• Real-time transcription with Whisper models
• Connect your own AI models (OpenAI, Gemini, custom endpoints)
• Conversational search across all meeting history
• Customizable templates for any meeting type
• Universal platform compatibility (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, In-person Meetings) without bots
• Complete offline AI notetaker functionality
• Open-source transparency with full code access

When Will You Need to Pay?

Char's core features remain free. The Pro plan ($8/month) adds the ability to chat with your notes using AI, build custom summary templates, or use floating recording controls. Enterprise is relevant when your organization needs on-premises deployment, SSO integration, or custom branding for compliance requirements.

2. tl;dv: Best for Unlimited Recording

tl;dv is a cloud-based AI meeting assistant that automatically joins your video calls to record, transcribe, and summarize conversations.

It focuses heavily on video recording capabilities, creating shareable clips and reels from meetings, plus multi-meeting analytics to track trends across customer calls and team discussions.

Best for: Sales and customer success teams that want unlimited video recordings and transcriptions with AI-powered summaries.

What's Free Forever

• Unlimited meeting recordings and video storage
• Real-time transcription in 30+ languages with speaker identification
• 10 AI-generated meeting summaries (lifetime limit)
• Timestamping and highlighting of key moments
• Basic search functionality across transcripts
• Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams

When Will You Need to Pay?

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After 10 AI summaries (lifetime limit), you'll need the $29 Pro plan. This covers most regular users. The $98 Business tier adds coaching features, speaker insights, and API access, which is useful for sales teams focused on revenue operations.

3. Fathom: Best for Small Teams

Fathom is an AI meeting assistant that automatically joins your meetings as a bot participant to record, transcribe, and generate instant summaries.

It focuses on simplicity and ease of use, with a highlight feature that lets you bookmark important moments during meetings and jump directly to those sections later.

Best for: Individual professionals and small teams who want reliable meeting transcription with instant summaries and CRM integration.

What's Free Forever

• Unlimited meeting recordings and video storage with no time limits
• Real-time transcription in 28 languages with speaker identification
• First 5 AI-generated summaries per month (then basic chronological summaries)
• Highlight and bookmark feature for key meeting moments
• Basic integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams
• Instant access to fully transcribed recordings

When Will You Need to Pay?

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After your first 5 AI summaries each month, the $19 Premium plan is necessary for regular meeting attendees. The $29 Team Edition adds shared meeting access, playlists, and global search. The $39 Team Pro works for sales teams needing CRM syncing and coaching analytics.

4. Tactiq: Best for Chrome Users

Tactiq is a Chrome extension-based AI note taker that provides real-time transcription you can see during meetings, with no bots joining your calls.

It emphasizes live note-taking with the ability to highlight, tag, and comment on transcripts as conversations happen, plus custom AI workflow automation.

Best for: Chrome users who want to see transcripts live during meetings and need customizable AI prompts for generating specific types of summaries.

What's Free Forever

• 10 meeting transcriptions per month with unlimited recording length
• Real-time transcription in 30+ languages with speaker identification
• 5 AI credits monthly for summaries, action items, and custom prompts
• Live highlighting, tagging, and commenting during meetings
• Screenshot capture and visual moment saving
• Basic integrations with Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams
• Search functionality across all transcripts

When Will You Need to Pay?

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Most regular users reach the 10 monthly transcription limit quickly, requiring the $12 Pro plan. The $20 Team plan adds automatic transcript sharing and unlimited AI credits for summaries. The $40 Business tier is for mid-size companies (20+ users) needing SAML SSO and dedicated customer success support.

Check out other bot-free meeting assistants like Tactiq.

5. Fireflies.ai: Best for Team Analytics

Fireflies.ai is a bot-based notetaker that automatically joins meetings to record, transcribe, and analyze conversations with a focus on conversation intelligence and team analytics.

The "Fred" bot captures meetings and provides detailed speaker analytics, sentiment analysis, and topic tracking capabilities.

Best for: Teams and organizations that want comprehensive conversation analytics, speaker insights, and detailed team performance metrics alongside basic transcription and summaries.

What's Free Forever

• Unlimited transcription for meetings and audio files
• Limited AI summaries with basic meeting insights
• 800 minutes of storage per seat
• Integration with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and 20+ platforms
• Transcription in 100+ languages with speaker identification
• Real-time notes and live transcriptions
• Meeting search functionality
• AskFred AI assistant for querying meeting content
• Upload and transcribe audio/video files
• API access for developers

When Will You Need to Pay?

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You can use Fireflies.ai free indefinitely for basic transcription, but the $18 Pro plan becomes necessary when you hit the 800-minute storage limit or need to download recordings. The $29 Business plan adds conversation analytics, unlimited storage, and admin features. Enterprise applies to organizations requiring HIPAA compliance and dedicated account management.

Also check: Top Fireflies AI Alternatives

6. Otter.ai: Best for Collaboration Features

Otter.ai is an AI meeting assistant that automatically joins meetings as OtterPilot to record, transcribe, and summarize conversations in real-time.

It emphasizes collaboration and team features, with strong integration capabilities across popular meeting platforms and productivity tools, plus AI chat functionality for querying meeting content.

Best for: Individual professionals and small teams who want a well-established transcription service with solid collaboration features and don't mind the 300-minute monthly limit on the free plan.

What's Free Forever

• 300 monthly transcription minutes with a 30-minute limit per conversation
• Real-time transcription and meeting summaries in English, French, and Spanish
• 3 lifetime audio/video file imports for processing existing recordings
• OtterPilot automatically joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet
• AI Chat functionality to query meeting content and collaborate with teammates
• Basic sharing and collaboration features
• Mobile and desktop app access

When Will You Need to Pay?

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The 300-minute monthly limit is hit quickly by regular users, making the $16.99 Pro plan necessary for 1,200 minutes and additional file imports. The $30 Business plan adds 6,000 minutes, concurrent meeting support, and team admin features. Enterprise is for large organizations requiring SSO, compliance controls, and OtterPilot for Sales integration.

Also check: Top Otter AI's Alternatives

7. MeetGeek: Best for Automated Meeting Workflows

MeetGeek is an AI meeting companion that offers automated meeting workflows, intelligent meeting type detection, custom workflow triggers, and automated content distribution to specific team members based on meeting context.

Best for: Teams that want automated meeting workflows with smart templates that adapt to different meeting types, plus robust action item tracking and automated follow-up processes.

What's Free Forever

• 3 hours of transcription per month with a 2-hour limit per meeting
• Unlimited AI meeting summaries with automatic meeting type detection
• 3 months of transcript storage and 1 month of audio storage
• Automatic action item detection and next steps extraction
• Global search across meetings and meeting folders
• File upload functionality and basic integrations
• AI Chat for querying past meetings
• Mobile apps and Chrome extension for offline recording

When Will You Need to Pay?

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Regular meeting attendees may exceed 3 monthly hours of transcription, requiring the $19 Pro plan. The $39 Business plan adds 100 hours, unlimited storage, and collaborative features like comments. The $59 Enterprise tier is for organizations requiring custom speech models and private data storage for compliance.

8. Notta: Best for Multi-Langual Transcription and Summaries

Notta is an AI note taker that automatically joins meetings and generates AI-powered summaries with exceptional multi-language capabilities.

Notta excels at creating meeting notes from diverse accents and multiple languages within the same conversation, unlike tools that primarily serve English-speaking teams.

Best for: International teams, multilingual users, and professionals who need high-accuracy transcription with translation capabilities.

What's Free Forever

• 120 minutes of transcription per month (limited to 3 minutes per conversation)
• 50 uploaded files per month for processing existing recordings
• AI-generated meeting summaries and speaker identification
• Support for all 58 languages and translation features
• Integration with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Webex
• Basic export options and sharing capabilities
• Mobile and web app access with cross-device sync

When Will You Need to Pay?

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The 120 monthly minutes (3 minutes per conversation) means regular users need the $13.49 Pro plan, which provides 1,800 minutes and unlimited conversation length. The $27.99 Business plan adds collaborative editing, CRM integrations, and team workspace features. Enterprise applies to organizations requiring advanced security controls and dedicated support.

9. Sonnet AI: Best for Automatic CRM Updates

Sonnet AI is a bot-free AI meeting assistant that focuses on the complete meeting lifecycle—from pre-meeting participant research to automatic CRM updates after calls.

It records device audio without visible meeting bots and emphasizes relationship management with automatic contact enrichment and conversation history tracking.

Best for: Sales professionals who prioritize relationship management over just note-taking.

What's Free Forever

• 5 monthly meeting recordings with a 30-minute recording limit
• 2-month storage for recordings and transcripts
• 3 AI insight generations per meeting (summaries, action items)
• Automated personal relationship tracker and CRM functionality
• Pre-meeting participant background reports
• Customizable note templates and automated follow-ups
• Integration with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook

When Will You Need to Pay?

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Sales professionals typically exceed 5 monthly recordings quickly, requiring the $25 Plus plan. The $35 Pro plan adds 100 monthly recordings and unlimited storage for extensive client call history. Enterprise is necessary when your sales team needs custom integrations, team functionality, and dedicated account management for revenue operations.

Why Char May Be Your Best Choice

These 9 tools offer genuine value without upfront costs—unlimited transcription from Fireflies, solid team features from Otter, multilingual support from Notta, and reliable recording from tl;dv.

But there's a catch in every "free" offering: your privacy and data. Fireflies analyzes your conversation patterns. Fathom's bot joins sensitive client calls. Tactiq processes confidential discussions on remote servers. You're paying with access to your most private conversations.

Char operates entirely on your device. No cloud processing, no data collection, no privacy trade-offs. It delivers unlimited AI summaries, real-time transcription, and meeting intelligence on your hardware.

When "free" means no cost and no compromise, that's when you've found the right choice.

Download Char for macOS to experience meeting intelligence that costs nothing and compromises nothing (Windows and Linux versions coming soon!).