The best AI meeting assistants in 2026, compared on price, bots and privacy

Which AI meeting assistant should you pick?

Start with the column that matters most to you. For a lot of people it's the second one: does a bot show up in the participant list, or not?

How we compared them

We read each vendor's pricing and help pages on October 11, 2026. Two pages didn't cooperate: Fireflies' pricing page loaded without the dollar figures, and tl;dv's returned a 404. For those two we give the most consistent third-party numbers and say where they came from. Prices in this category move every few months, so treat every figure as "check before you buy".

We scored each tool on four things: how it gets the audio, what the free plan really includes, what you pay per person, and which platforms it runs on. One disclosure up front. We make AuraCloak, which is on this list but isn't a notetaker. We put it last and kept its section short, because it solves a different problem.

What are the main types of AI meeting assistant?

Lists like this one usually lump everything together, which is how people end up buying a recorder when they wanted a helper. There are four types, and they don't compete as directly as the marketing suggests.

• Built-in platform AI. Zoom, Teams and Meet each summarize meetings natively. No extra participant, no extra vendor, and your admin already controls it.
• Bot notetakers. Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv and Fathom (by default) send a participant into the call that records and transcribes. Everyone sees it in the participant list.
• Bot-free recorders. Granola, and Fathom's beta mode, capture the audio playing on your own computer. Nothing joins the call, but the conversation is still recorded and transcribed.
• Private assistants. An overlay such as AuraCloak doesn't hear the call at all. You type a question or press a key and speak into your mic, and it answers in a window only you can see.

The third type causes the most confusion. "No bot" describes what other people see. It says nothing about whether the conversation was recorded. We go deeper on that in meeting bots vs private AI.

1. Zoom AI: best if your calls already run on Zoom

If you pay for Zoom Workplace, you already own a meeting assistant. Zoom's pricing page lists Pro at $16.99 per user per month billed monthly, or $14.16 billed annually, and both Pro and Business include unlimited meeting summaries, in-meeting questions and AI note-taking. The free Basic plan gets a taste: summaries and in-meeting questions for 3 hosted meetings a month.

The naming changed this year. Trade press reported that Zoom retired the standalone "AI Companion" name in June 2026, splitting it into Zoom AI (the built-in features) and ZoomMate, a separately priced agentic tier that Zoom's pricing page links to on its own page. You don't need ZoomMate for summaries.

Drawbacks: it only covers Zoom meetings, and the host decides whether it runs. If half your calls happen on a client's Teams link, you'll need something else for those.

2. Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams: best for Microsoft shops

Copilot in Teams answers questions about the meeting while it's happening ("what did we decide about the budget?") and writes the recap afterward. It works from the meeting transcript, so transcription has to be on.

Microsoft's own pricing page (checked October 2026) lists the Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on at $18 per user per month paid yearly, discounted from $21 under an offer that runs July 1 to December 31, 2026, or $25.20 paid monthly. It needs an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan underneath. Bundles exist too: Business Standard with Copilot is $23.50 per user per month paid yearly. Free Copilot Chat comes with eligible plans, but it isn't the in-meeting Copilot.

Drawbacks: the price is per person on top of what you already pay, and it's useless on Zoom or Meet calls with outside companies.

3. Gemini in Google Meet: best for Google Workspace teams

Meet's "Take notes for me" writes notes into a Google Doc, emails the organizer a link afterward, and offers a "Summary so far" for anyone who joins late. Google's help page is clear about one catch: the meeting organizer must have a Workspace edition that includes the feature. Google's pricing page marks it unavailable on Business Starter and included from Business Standard up. Google served us local prices, so for the US figure we rely on several 2026 pricing guides that agree on about $14 per user per month annually for Business Standard.

Drawbacks: it's Meet-only, and if you're a guest in someone else's meeting, their plan decides whether notes happen.

4. Fathom: best free notetaker

Fathom's free plan is the most generous we found. Its pricing page says "free forever" with unlimited recordings and transcription, instant AI summaries, and a choice between bot capture and bot-free capture (still in beta). Premium is $20 per user per month, or $16 billed annually, and adds action items and a conversational assistant. Team is $19 or $15 annually with a 2-user minimum, and Business, which syncs fields to your CRM, is $34 or $25 annually.

Drawbacks: the bot-free mode is labeled beta, and the better summaries sit behind Premium. Still, if you want one free tool to try first, start here.

5. Otter: best for transcripts across every platform

Otter is the name most people already know. Its pricing page says it "joins Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet to automatically write and share notes", even on the free Basic plan. Basic gives 300 transcription minutes a month per user, caps each conversation at 30 minutes and keeps only your 25 most recent conversations. Pro lists at $16.99 per user per month, or $8.33 billed annually, and Business at $30 monthly or $19.99 annually. When we checked, the page also showed a 50% promotional price on Pro, so you may pay less.

One thing to know before you roll it out: Otter is the defendant in In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation (N.D. Cal., 5:25-cv-06911), consolidated from suits filed in August and September 2025 that claim the notetaker recorded people who never agreed to it. On August 13, 2026 the judge let the core wiretap and privacy claims proceed while dismissing others. Those are allegations, not findings. But legal teams have noticed.

Drawbacks: the 30-minute cap makes the free plan a trial for anyone with hour-long calls, and the bot is visible to everyone.

6. Fireflies: best for a searchable call library

Fireflies sends a bot called Fred into your Zoom, Meet or Teams calls; you can invite fred@fireflies.ai to a calendar event or set it to auto-join by rules such as "only meetings I own". Its strength is what happens afterward: search across calls, integrations and team analytics.

The pricing page wouldn't give us numbers, so we're using Castmagic's check of the official page on August 20, 2026: Pro at $10 per seat per month annually or $18 monthly, Business at $19 or $29, and Enterprise at $39, annual only. Third-party sources disagree on the free plan's storage cap (400 vs 800 minutes), so verify that one yourself.

Drawbacks: some company IT teams now hold external bots in the Teams lobby by default, which means Fred waits for someone to admit it.

7. Granola: best notes without a bot

Granola records the audio on your device instead of joining the call, then turns your rough notes plus the transcript into clean meeting notes. Its help center lists macOS, Windows and iOS. The free Basic plan keeps 30 days of history, Business is $14 per user per month with unlimited history and integrations, and Enterprise is $35.

Drawbacks: no bot doesn't mean no recording. The other people on the call aren't notified by a participant tile, so getting consent is on you.

8. tl;dv: best for clips and highlights

tl;dv records calls with a bot and is good at turning moments into shareable clips, which product and sales teams like. Its pricing page returned a 404 for us. tl;dv's own blog (early 2026) lists a forever-free plan with unlimited recordings, Pro at $18 per user per month and Business at $59, while some third-party sites put Business at $29. Ask for a quote if you're buying for a team.

Drawbacks: confusing public pricing, and the same bot-visibility question as Otter and Fireflies.

9. AuraCloak: best for private help during the call

AuraCloak is the odd one out, and we'd rather say so plainly. It doesn't join meetings, record them, transcribe them or listen to call audio. It's an always-on-top AI chat window for Windows. You press Ctrl + Alt + Space, type or push-to-talk a question with Alt + V, and get an answer from the model you picked (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI or a custom endpoint), or from your normal ChatGPT or Claude web login in browser mode. Windows excludes the window from screen capture, so it stays off your Zoom, Teams or Meet share.

Use it when you need to look something up mid-call, draft a reply to a question in the chat, or check a number before you say it. Pair it with any notetaker above if you also want minutes.

Drawbacks: Windows 10 version 2004 or later only, no transcript or summary, and a phone pointed at your screen still sees the window. $9 a month or $49 once; AI usage is billed by your provider. More on the setup in AuraCloak for meetings.

How do you choose the right AI meeting assistant?

Answer these in order and you'll usually land on one tool:

1. Do 80% of your meetings happen on one platform your company pays for? Use its built-in AI first. It's the cheapest option you have, because you've already paid for it.
2. Do other people need the notes? Then you want a recorder (bot or bot-free) with sharing. Fathom free, then Otter or Fireflies if you outgrow it.
3. Will clients object to a bot? Look at Granola or Fathom's bot-free mode, and still ask for consent.
4. Do you mainly need answers during the call, for yourself? A notetaker won't help much there. A private assistant will. Our ChatGPT prompts for meetings show what to ask.

We were surprised how often the honest answer is "the one you already have". Zoom Pro's unlimited summaries cost nothing extra if you're on Pro, and most people never switch them on.

FAQ

What is the best free AI meeting assistant?

Fathom has the most generous free plan we found in October 2026: unlimited recordings and transcription plus instant AI summaries. Otter's free plan is capped at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation, and Zoom Basic includes summaries for 3 hosted meetings a month.

Is there an AI meeting assistant that doesn't join as a bot?

Yes. Granola and Fathom's beta bot-free mode record the audio on your own computer instead of sending a participant. Built-in tools like Zoom AI, Copilot in Teams and Gemini in Meet also don't add a bot. AuraCloak doesn't record the meeting at all; you ask it questions privately.

Is Otter or Fireflies better?

Otter is simpler and has a free tier based on monthly minutes, which suits individuals who mostly want transcripts. Fireflies leans toward teams that want a searchable library of calls and integrations, with Pro from about $10 per seat per month billed annually. Both join meetings with a visible bot.

Do I need everyone's consent to use an AI notetaker?

Often, yes. Some US states, including California, require all parties to agree before a confidential conversation is recorded, and many companies require it by policy. Announce the notetaker at the start of the call. This is general information, not legal advice.

Can one AI meeting assistant work on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet?

Third-party tools like Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, tl;dv and Granola work across all three. The built-in options don't: Zoom AI only covers Zoom, Copilot only Teams, and Gemini only Meet. A private overlay like AuraCloak works with any of them because it never connects to the call.