Manual note-taking in meetings is a waste of attention. You either take notes and miss the conversation, or participate and forget the details. AI note-taking tools solve this completely. Here are the best ones.
1. Otter.ai — Best All-Rounder
Otter joins your Zoom, Teams, and Meet calls automatically, producing real-time transcripts with speaker identification, action items, and AI-generated summaries. The free tier includes 300 minutes per month — enough for most individuals. The search feature lets you find any moment across all your past meetings instantly.
Best for: Individuals and small teams, multi-platform meetings
Price: Free (300 min) / Pro $17/month
2. Fireflies.ai — Best for CRM Integration
Fireflies stands out for its deep integrations with CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot), project management tools (Asana, Monday), and communication platforms (Slack, Notion). After every meeting, it can automatically update your CRM with action items and log meeting summaries — eliminating one of the most tedious sales admin tasks.
Best for: Sales teams, CRM-heavy workflows
Price: Free tier / Pro $18/month per seat
3. Fathom — Best Free Option
Fathom offers unlimited AI meeting summaries for free with Zoom — genuinely unlimited, not a trial. The summaries are well-structured with highlights, action items, and key decisions. For Zoom-only users who want a no-cost solution, Fathom is unbeatable.
Best for: Zoom users, budget-conscious professionals
Price: Free (Zoom) / Premium $19/month (multi-platform)
4. Granola — Best for Personal Notes
Granola takes a different approach: instead of a bot joining your call, it runs locally on your Mac and enhances the notes you take during meetings. You jot down rough points, and Granola uses the meeting audio to flesh them out into detailed, structured notes. Your notes, enhanced by AI — not replaced by it.
Best for: Professionals who prefer personal note-taking, Mac users
Price: Free tier / Pro $10/month
5. Microsoft Copilot in Teams — Best for Microsoft Environments
If your organization uses Microsoft Teams, Copilot provides native meeting summaries, action items, and the ability to ask questions about past meetings. No additional tool needed — it is built into Teams. The downside is the cost, which requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Best for: Enterprise Microsoft environments
Price: Included with Microsoft 365 Copilot ($30/month)
6. tl;dv — Best for Async Teams
tl;dv creates timestamped video highlights alongside AI summaries, making it ideal for distributed teams where not everyone can attend every meeting. Team members can watch just the relevant 2-minute clip instead of sitting through an hour-long recording.
Best for: Remote teams, asynchronous workflows
Price: Free tier / Pro $20/month per user
Our Pick
Start with Fathom if you use Zoom — it is free and excellent. For multi-platform needs, Otter's free tier covers 300 minutes monthly. Upgrade when meeting volume exceeds the free limits.