How to transcribe and take meeting notes with AI
Stop typing notes by hand while you're actively on a call: these tools transcribe, summarize, and build the task list on their own.
Taking notes while you're actively part of a meeting means, at best, doing both things worse. An AI transcription tool solves this by connecting to the call (or to the device's audio) and later delivering a transcript, a summary with the key points, and in most cases a task list already assigned to each person.
Discretion or a visible participant
Decide whether you care about a bot joining the call.
- Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai connect to Zoom, Meet or Teams and show up as another attendee
- Granola captures audio straight from the device, without joining as a participant
Work out your real volume
Free plans cap monthly minutes.
- Several long meetings a week burn through a free plan fast
- You'll need the paid plan sooner than you'd think if your calendar is packed
Need more than notes?
Conversation analytics and reporting only live on team plans.
- Competitor-mention detection, conversation analytics
- Sales reporting: only on the team plans of tools like Fireflies.ai
“From this transcript, build a task list with an owner and a due date for every open item.”The legal note, first
Automatically recording a meeting requires, in most jurisdictions, telling participants the call is being recorded and, for people outside your organization, getting their explicit consent. This doesn't change between tools — it applies no matter which one you pick.
Recommended tools
Each one prioritizes something different: discretion, a generous free plan, or sales-focused analytics.
Granola
AI meeting notesTranscribes meetings and writes up clean notes automatically, with no visible bot joining the call.
Otter.ai
AI TranscriptionTranscribes meetings and conversations in real time and turns them into notes, summaries and actionable tasks.
Fireflies.ai
AI MeetingsAutomatically records, transcribes and summarizes meetings, and pulls out action items so nobody has to take notes.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to record a meeting with AI without telling anyone?
Generally no. Most jurisdictions require notifying participants that a meeting is being recorded, and in many cases getting their explicit consent — especially if people outside your organization are on the call.
Which one is best if I don't want a visible bot joining the call?
Granola: it captures audio straight from the device instead of joining as another participant, useful for interviews, client calls or informal meetings.
Which one is best to start without paying anything?
Otter.ai has the most generous free plan of the three: 300 minutes of transcription per month.