You probably know that meetings are an absolute time suck. To stay on schedule and improve productivity, check out these great AI apps that record meetings, create transcripts, take meeting notes, and summarize hours of content into digestible paragraphs, often completely free of charge.
Content
- Otter.ai has the best transcriptions
- Fireflies.ai has the best free AI summaries
- Fathom is the easiest to use
- tl;dv is best for free transcripts
- Colibri is best for offline meetings
Otter.ai has the best transcriptions
Otter.ai is one of the most well-known meeting notes assistants, and for good reasons. It’s been one of the leading auto-transcription services since 2018, and once the company launched its AI-powered OtterPilot features in 2023, it’s become a truly powerful sidekick for work. It is so good that we featured it on our list of the best AI tools for productivity.
As expected, all of the meeting transcriptions in our testing were speedy and accurate. In the rare case it made a mistake, the machine learning algorithm went back and fixed it after the meeting was finished.
You also have the option to manually edit transcriptions, which is essential if you want the AI assistant to generate accurate summaries and meeting notes.
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In that regard, the summaries worked well enough for most meetings we tested, but it struggled to come up with a summary for shorter audio files. The AI chatbot, called Otter AI Chat, was still able to answer any questions about the meeting accurately.
Unfortunately, Otter.ai only works with English for the time being. If you have multilingual clients, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Like most of the AI meeting assistants we tested, Otter.ai’s OtterPilot bot can join, record, and transcribe meetings on its own – even if you don’t personally attend. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, with a Chrome extension to make things even more convenient.
On the free plan, you can record and transcribe up to 300 minutes a month, which is good for the occasional meeting but not as generous as other services below, which offer unlimited transcriptions. Another huge limitation is that you can only upload three audio files to transcribe over the life of your account. It does not reset every month.
Still, the quality of the transcription speaks for itself. The free plan should be enough for most freelancers to get started. The Pro plan, which includes up to 1200 transcription minutes, is very affordable at just $10 a month.
Fireflies.ai has the best free AI summaries
For unlimited transcriptions and excellent AI summaries, look no further than Fireflies.ai. The auto-generated meeting notes and action items were far better with this service than any other we tested, and they’re included in the free plan.
Like Otter, Fireflies.ai works with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. It also supports Webex, Skype, GoToMeeting, and a few other less popular meeting platforms. You can also upload as many audio files as you like.
Once it’s finished processing your meeting, Fireflies.ai will outline the meeting by chapter, create timestamps for key items, generate notes and action items, and more. We were impressed with the results; you can also manually edit transcriptions for better accuracy.
Granted, there are some limitations. Only the default auto-generated summary is included in the free plan. There is an AI chatbot that uses ChatGPT, but you have to pay for it. You can, however, choose newer versions of ChatGPT to (hopefully) improve results.
That said, the quality of the transcriptions from our tests was excellent, and you can always just paste them into ChatGPT to be able to ask questions about the content. It’s less convenient, but hey, it costs you nothing.
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If you have multilingual clients, Fireflies.ai supports 60+ languages, from Catalan to Welsh. However, each meeting can only support one language, and you should expect a drop in quality for non-English transcriptions.
The generous free plan makes Fireflies.ai a great option for freelancers, but note that the “unlimited” transcriptions will start to be deleted once you go over your 800-minute storage cap. If you want more storage or custom AI summaries, plans start at just $10 a month.
Fathom is the easiest to use
Most of these AI meeting note apps have the same basic features, but Fathom packages everything in a way that’s super easy to use.
When you first set up your account, you will need to download the desktop app. This might sound like a big step in today’s world of progressive web apps, but it’s non-intrusive and intuitive to use.
Essentially, when a scheduled meeting comes up, the app will prompt you to invite Fathom’s AI bot. You can use the simple UI to highlight key moments or talking points.
Once the meeting is finished, Fathom will create a transcript and AI-generated meeting notes. We were really impressed with how quickly the summary was made available, and we appreciate that Fathom’s meeting notes are color-coded based on importance.
Fathom also supports several languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and German.
The biggest downside of Fathom is that it only works with Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams meetings. There’s no option to upload audio files. That said, free accounts can enjoy unlimited recordings and transcriptions.
Paid plans start at $12 a month and include advanced summaries, Zapier integration, and a few other goodies. For freelancers who want easy meeting notes without getting technical, the free Fathom plan is more than enough.
tl;dv is best for free transcripts
If you need transcripts for a lot of meetings, you’ll quickly run into limitations with most free AI meeting notes apps. They either have monthly limits or delete your oldest files once you hit a cap.
tl;dv is different. The free plan is incredibly generous, offering unlimited recordings and unlimited meeting transcriptions. It also has support for many other languages, including regional accents like Australian English.
The only catch is that the platform deletes your meetings after six months.
For most freelance projects, six months is more than enough. The bigger limitation for tl;dv is the lack of AI features in the free plan. You need a paid subscription to access even basic features like AI summaries.
Still, the transcriptions themselves were great in our testing, and you can always drop them into other AI assistants like ChatGPT for additional functionality. That said, there’s no option to edit transcripts on the platform manually. You’ll need to move the text to another document for editing.
Freelancers with lots of meetings will benefit from tl;dv’s transcription services, but bear in mind the free plan only includes five uploads over the lifetime of your account.
Paid plans start at $20 and add lots of AI features and easy-to-use Zapier integrations – but at that point, there are cheaper options worth exploring.
Colibri is best for offline meetings
While a few other AI meeting notes apps work with offline meetings or audio recordings, Colibri has the least restrictive rules regarding its free plan.
Colibri only allows five hours of transcription time a month on the free plan, but those five hours can come from any source. You can upload as many files as you want. You can even start a live transcription of an offline meeting at the push of a button.
The transcriptions were accurate in our testing, and you can manually edit them on the platform.
While Colibri is the most generous with meeting sources, it’s also the least generous with AI features. Everything you see in the screenshot above (except the transcript) is locked behind a $40 Colibri Pro subscription, which is significantly higher than its competitors.
Still, if you regularly have offline meetings or need audio transcriptions for shorter files, Colibri is worth trying out.
That’s it for this list of AI meeting apps, but if you want to learn more, check out our guide to the best AI tools for productivity.
Image credit: All screenshots by Nick Fernandez. Featured Image by Fathom
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Nick Fernandez
Before writing about tech, Nick developed custom training programs for some of the largest companies in the world. When not geeking out about tech, he can be found interviewing creatives on his website Tiny Workshops.
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