Yes, there is a free AI note taker, and each free tier limits something different: Otter Basic gives 300 minutes a month, Fireflies Free limits AI summaries and storage, Pocket Free limits chats, and Zoom's free plan allows 3 AI note-taking uses a month. Google Meet and Teams notes need a paid license (checked Nov 12, 2026). Comu has a free plan that comes with a device and a free account without one.
If you want free notes for a room, a phone call or an audio file instead of a video call, skip to how Comu AI transcribes free with or without a device. Comu makes Comu Note Pro and Comu Action Pro.
What free AI note takers can you use in 2026?
Nine options cover the common cases, and two of them, Google Meet and Teams, have no free tier on a personal account. The rest differ in monthly minutes, how long your notes stay, which features are switched on and who qualifies. Comu prices are euro prices from the EU store (Nov 6, 2026); competitor prices are US dollar prices from each company's own site.
| Free option | Free limits | What the free tier does | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comu Starter | Unlimited real-time transcription and unlimited basic summaries; real-time translation 1 time a month; Deep Dive analysis 3 times a month | Speaker recognition, 113 languages, 30+ summary templates, task extraction; you tap to transcribe and summarize | Owners of a Comu device: Comu Note Pro €139.99, Comu Action Pro €179.99 |
| Comu free account, no device | Transcript and summary of uploaded audio | Upload audio files for a transcript and a summary; MP4 files up to 500 MB | Anyone with the Comu app, no hardware needed |
| Zoom (My Notes on Workplace Basic) | AI note taking 3 uses a month; summaries for 3 hosted meetings a month; in-meeting questions for 3 hosted meetings a month; 20 AI queries a month | Captures Zoom, third-party platforms and in-person conversations; notes and transcripts live in Zoom Hub and Zoom Canvas | Zoom Basic users |
| Google Meet ("Take notes for me") | None on a free personal Google Account | Notes document in Drive with Quick notes and Full notes tabs | Eligible Google Workspace editions and Google AI Pro or Ultra |
| Microsoft Teams (intelligent recap) | None without a license; transcripts and recordings you have permission to view stay open | Meeting recap with recording, speakers, topics and chapters | Teams Premium or Microsoft Copilot license |
| Otter Basic | 300 minutes a month per user, shared by recordings and imports; 30 minutes per conversation; 3 lifetime file imports; 25 most recent conversations kept | Live transcription, speaker identification, AI Chat (20 queries a month, 3 per conversation), iOS and Android apps | Any Otter user |
| Fireflies Free | $0, free forever; limited AI summaries; 400 minutes of storage per team; 20 AI credits | Works with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams; 100+ languages; real-time notes and live transcription; meeting search; AskFred; audio and video upload | Any Fireflies user |
| Pocket Free | $0; unlimited transcription at standard accuracy; Ask Pocket 3 chats a day, up to 3 messages per chat; summaries saved for 30 days | Unlimited summaries, unlimited to-dos, task app integrations, text export, audio download | Pocket users |
| Plaud Starter | 300 transcription minutes a month; unused minutes do not carry over | Transcription in 112+ languages with speaker labels, summaries with 10,000+ templates, Ask Plaud, AutoFlow | Owners of a Plaud device: Plaud Note $159, Plaud Note Pro $189 |
Competitor prices checked Nov 12, 2026. Comu device prices checked Nov 6, 2026.
What do free AI note taker plans usually limit?
Free plans limit minutes, meeting length, history, imports, AI questions and who qualifies. The first five are numbers you can compare. Who qualifies decides whether a tool is free for you at all.
Minutes and meeting length
Otter Basic and Plaud Starter each give 300 minutes a month. Minutes do not roll over: Plaud resets them at the start of each billing month.
Meeting length is a separate cap. Otter Basic allows up to 30 minutes per conversation, and Otter Pro raises that to 90 minutes. Zoom Basic allows 40 minutes per meeting and 100 participants.
Plaud deducts minutes when transcription starts. Transferring a file from the device to the app does not use minutes, and deleting the audio afterward does not restore them. When a Plaud account reaches zero minutes, only transcription pauses. Recording, playback and file management keep working, and transcription resumes at the next reset or when minutes are added.
History and storage
Free plans cap what you keep. Otter Basic keeps your 25 most recent conversations. Pocket Free saves summaries for 30 days, and its paid plan saves them forever. Fireflies Free stores 400 minutes per team, and its Pro plan stores 8,000 minutes per seat.
AI questions and extra features
Several free tiers cap AI questions. Otter Basic allows 20 AI Chat queries a month and 3 per conversation. Zoom's free tier allows 20 AI queries a month. Pocket Free allows 3 Ask Pocket chats a day. Comu Starter gives Deep Dive analysis 3 times a month and real-time translation 1 time a month.
Who qualifies
Qualifying decides whether an option is free for you. Otter and Fireflies free plans are open to any account. Google Meet and Teams notes need a paid license. Plaud Starter and Comu Starter come with a device, and the Comu app has a free account that needs none.
Is there a free AI note taker for Zoom?
Yes, three free routes work with Zoom: Zoom's own My Notes, Otter Basic and Fireflies Free. Each has a different limit, so match the limit to how often you meet.
Zoom My Notes on Workplace Basic allows AI note taking 3 times a month, summaries for 3 hosted meetings a month, in-meeting questions for 3 hosted meetings a month and 20 AI queries a month. My Notes captures conversations on Zoom, on third-party platforms and in person. Zoom offers it in a limited capacity for Basic plans. Meeting summary covers over 30 languages, and My Notes covers 9.
Zoom's Meeting Summary with AI is a separate feature with a different license. It needs a licensed user on Zoom Workplace Pro, Pro Plus, Business, Business Plus, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus or an Enterprise Bundle account, and the feature has to be enabled. Only the host or a co-host can start or stop it in the meeting, it does not run in breakout rooms, and participants need to be signed in to receive the summary automatically.
Otter Basic works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. It gives live transcription and speaker identification, with a cap of 30 minutes per conversation. Fireflies Free works with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, gives real-time notes and live transcription, transcribes in 100+ languages and keeps 400 minutes of storage per team. For paid plans and pricing, read Zoom AI Companion pricing, Otter AI pricing and Fireflies AI pricing.
Can you get free AI meeting notes in Meet and Teams?
Not on a free personal account. Google Meet and Microsoft Teams both tie AI notes to a paid license, and the free route for those two platforms is a third-party tool such as Otter Basic or Fireflies Free.
Google Meet
"Take notes for me" requires an eligible Google Workspace edition or a Google AI plan. Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Frontline Plus include it, and Business Starter and Enterprise Starter are outside that set. For personal accounts, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra include it. A Google Account that was not set up through work or school and has no eligible Google AI plan cannot use the feature.
The feature works in eight languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. The meeting must be spoken in one of them, one language at a time. Notes suit meetings of 15 minutes to 8 hours, and a summary can fail when a meeting is shorter than 15 minutes. The organizer can turn it on from Google Calendar or in the call, and so can participants inside the host's organization.
The output is a notes document saved to the organizer's Drive in a Google Meet folder and attached to the Calendar event, with a Quick notes tab (short summary and action items) and a Full notes tab (summary, decisions, action items, details). The feature also works for in-person meetings. The full walk-through is in does Google Meet take notes automatically.
Microsoft Teams
Intelligent recap in Teams needs a Teams Premium license or a Microsoft Copilot license, and a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes Teams. Audio recap needs a Copilot license. Without a Copilot license you can still open meeting transcripts or recordings that you have permission to view.
Transcription has to be on for intelligent recap, and recording has to be allowed for the full recap. Without recording, the recap omits the recording, speakers, topics and chapters. Video recap needs a meeting of at least 10 minutes. Phone calls through the PSTN also need a Teams Phone license and a calling plan. The Meeting Recaps app lists scheduled meetings from the past 30 days that were recorded or transcribed, and it is not supported on Teams for mobile.
Which free option fits a video call or an in-person meeting?
For a scheduled video call, use the free tool that works with your platform: Otter Basic, Fireflies Free or Zoom My Notes. For an in-person meeting, a phone call or a file you already have, use a recorder plan or an upload route.
| Your situation | Free options that fit | Limit to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Zoom, Meet or Teams call | Otter Basic and Fireflies Free work with all three; Zoom My Notes works inside Zoom | Otter 30 minutes per conversation; Fireflies 400 minutes of storage per team; Zoom 3 uses a month |
| In-person meeting | Comu Starter and Plaud Starter with their recorders; Zoom My Notes captures in-person conversations; Google Meet notes work in person on a licensed account | Comu Starter and Plaud Starter need the device first |
| Phone call | Comu Action Pro with Starter records a call with its bone-conduction microphone attached to the phone; Plaud Note Pro detects a phone call versus an in-person conversation | Plaud Starter's 300 minutes a month |
| Recording you already have | Comu free account uploads audio; Otter Basic imports files; Fireflies Free uploads audio and video | Otter Basic allows 3 lifetime imports |
| Live text while people talk | Comu Starter, Otter Basic and Fireflies Free transcribe in real time | Plaud does not support real-time transcription |
Comu Starter, Otter Basic and Fireflies Free show text while people speak. Plaud processes a recording after it ends and does not support real-time transcription. If you want to glance at a decision mid-meeting, pick a real-time tool. If you read notes afterward, either kind works. For in-person meeting tools in more depth, read AI notetaker for in-person meetings.
Which free AI note taker records without a bot?
Recorder plans, upload routes and the notes features built into Zoom and Google Meet all work without a bot. Comu Starter and Plaud Starter record the room with the device itself. Zoom My Notes and Google Meet "Take notes for me" are built into their own platforms. Plaud Desktop, which is free, captures online meetings without a bot joining.
Not joining as a bot does not mean unannounced. Google Meet informs all participants that notes are being taken and shows a pencil icon on their screens. An administrator can require explicit participant consent for "Take notes for me", Record and Transcribe. A recorder on a table needs the same courtesy from you: say it out loud before you start. For the difference between meeting bots, apps and recorders, read AI note taker: what it is, types and how to choose and in-room recorder vs meeting bot.
Are free AI note takers private?
Free AI note takers differ on privacy, and the points you can check are notice to participants, administrator control, retention and what each vendor states about your data.
- Notice and control in Google Meet. Meet informs participants and shows a pencil icon. Administrators can stop users from letting Google AI take notes in meetings. Notes documents follow the organization's Meet retention policy.
- Comu. Comu is GDPR, HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant, encrypts files, does not sell data to third parties and does not use data to train AI. You can delete a single recording in the app and its text goes with it, or delete your account to remove all your data.
Tell people before you record. This is not legal advice. For the law, read is an AI note taker legal, and for what vendors do with recordings, read do AI note takers train on your recordings and how to opt out.
How do you choose a free AI note taker?
Start with the number of minutes you record in a month, then match the tool to where you record.
- Add up your monthly recording minutes. Three hours of meetings is 180 minutes. A 300-minute pool covers ten 30-minute meetings.
- Check your longest meeting against the per-conversation cap. Otter Basic stops at 30 minutes per conversation, and Zoom Basic allows 40 minutes per meeting.
- Decide where you record: a video call, a room, a phone call or an existing file.
- Check whether you qualify. Google Meet and Teams need a license, and Plaud Starter and Comu Starter come with a recorder.
- Check what you keep. Otter Basic holds 25 conversations, Pocket Free saves summaries for 30 days and Fireflies Free stores 400 minutes per team.
| If you... | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hold a few Zoom meetings a month | Zoom My Notes | 3 uses a month inside Zoom |
| Record many short calls on Zoom, Teams or Meet | Otter Basic or Fireflies Free | Both work with all three platforms and transcribe live |
| Have a Google Workspace edition that includes it | Google Meet "Take notes for me" | The notes document lands in Drive and on the Calendar event |
| Meet in rooms or take phone calls | A recorder with a free plan | The recorder's own microphones capture the room |
| Have audio files and no recorder | Comu free account or Otter Basic imports | Upload and transcribe, with 3 lifetime imports on Otter Basic |
Which free AI note taking app needs no hardware?
Otter Basic, Fireflies Free and the Comu app need no device. Otter Basic has iOS and Android apps. Fireflies Free has a desktop app, a mobile app and a Chrome extension. The Comu app gives a free account that transcribes and summarizes uploaded audio.
Let Comu AI transcribe free, with or without a device
Comu has two free routes: the Starter plan that comes with a Comu device, and a free account in the Comu app with no device at all.
Free with a device: the Starter plan
Comu Note Pro and Comu Action Pro share one app, and Starter comes with either one. Starter includes:
- Unlimited real-time transcription in 113 languages
- Speaker recognition
- Unlimited basic summaries, with 30+ templates for jobs such as sales, insurance, legal, medical and journalism
- Actions, which pull tasks out of a recording with the owner, the decision and the deadline
- Real-time translation 1 time a month and Deep Dive analysis 3 times a month
On Starter you tap to transcribe and summarize a recording. Premium and Elite do it automatically, and they add a custom vocabulary, Meeting Prep and unlimited translation. You subscribe inside the Comu app.
Comu Action Pro also records phone calls. Its bone-conduction microphone records the call when the device is attached to the phone. Comu Note Pro costs €139.99 and Comu Action Pro costs €179.99 (Nov 6, 2026).
Free without a device: the Comu app
Comu also works as software only. You can subscribe in the Comu app without buying hardware and upload audio files, which Comu transcribes and summarizes. Comu accepts MP4 files up to 500 MB.
Which Comu features do the free numbers cover?
Comu Starter's free numbers cover real-time transcription with speaker recognition, summaries by template, task extraction, translation once a month and Deep Dive analysis three times a month, all in 113 languages. They cover phone-call recording only when you own Comu Action Pro. Automatic transcription and summaries, a custom vocabulary and Meeting Prep belong to Premium and Elite, so none of the free figures depend on them.
What do the other free tiers lack that Comu's cover?
Comu Starter has no monthly minute cap on real-time transcription. Compare that with the other free tiers:
- Otter Basic caps a conversation at 30 minutes, allows 3 lifetime imports and keeps 25 conversations.
- Zoom's free tier allows 3 AI note-taking uses a month.
- Fireflies Free limits AI summaries and stores 400 minutes per team.
- Pocket Free saves summaries for 30 days and allows 3 Ask Pocket chats a day.
- Plaud Starter gives 300 minutes a month, with no real-time transcription and no translation between languages. Comu includes real-time translation 1 time a month on Starter.
- Google Meet and Teams notes need a paid license.
On price, Comu Action Pro costs €179.99 and Comu Note Pro costs €139.99 (Nov 6, 2026).
Plaud Note Pro costs $189 and Plaud Note costs $159 (Nov 12, 2026). Plaud Starter's minutes unlock after you bind a Plaud device.
You can read the specs on the Comu Action Pro page and the Comu Note Pro page. For a card-sized comparison of the two brands, read credit-card-sized AI voice recorders with free transcription: Comu vs Plaud.
Frequently asked questions about free AI note takers
Is there a free AI note taker?
Yes. Otter Basic, Fireflies Free, Pocket Free, Zoom's My Notes on a free plan, Plaud Starter and Comu Starter are free (checked Nov 12, 2026), and a Comu app account is free without a device. Google Meet and Teams AI notes need a paid license. Plaud Starter and Comu Starter come with a device.
Does Zoom have a free AI note taker?
Yes. Zoom My Notes on Workplace Basic allows AI note taking 3 times a month, and Otter Basic and Fireflies Free both work with Zoom. Zoom's Meeting Summary with AI needs a paid Workplace license.
Can Google Meet take AI notes for free?
Not on a free personal Google Account. "Take notes for me" requires an eligible Google Workspace edition such as Business Standard, or a Google AI Pro or Ultra plan. The guide does Google Meet take notes automatically covers the steps.
Is Otter's free plan enough?
It is enough for calls under 30 minutes. Otter Basic gives 300 transcription minutes a month per user, up to 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports and your 25 most recent conversations. A weekly hour-long meeting exceeds the 30-minute cap, and Otter Pro allows up to 90 minutes per meeting.
Is there a free AI note taking app without a device?
Yes. Otter Basic, Fireflies Free and the Comu app all work without a device. The Comu app transcribes and summarizes uploaded audio on a free account.
Does Fireflies have a free plan?
Yes. Fireflies Free costs $0 and is free forever, with limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team and 20 AI credits. It works with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams.
Is Plaud free to use?
Plaud Starter is free and gives 300 transcription minutes a month, and it comes with every Plaud device at no extra cost. The minutes unlock after you bind a device. The guide can you use Plaud without a subscription covers what happens at zero minutes.
Can a free AI note taker record phone calls?
Yes, through a recorder. Comu Action Pro records a phone call with its bone-conduction microphone when it is attached to the phone, and Comu Starter transcribes and summarizes the recording. Plaud Note Pro detects a phone call versus an in-person conversation.
Related reading
- Does Google Meet take notes automatically?: the full Meet walk-through.
- Can you use Plaud without a subscription?: what Plaud Starter gives and what happens at zero minutes.
- Is Plaud Note Pro worth it?: the price and specs behind a Plaud device.
- Credit-card-sized AI voice recorders with free transcription: Comu vs Plaud: two card recorders side by side.
- AI note taker: what it is, types and how to choose: bots, apps and recorders explained.
Sources
Checked Nov 12, 2026 unless noted.
- Zoom: My Notes and AI note taking and Meeting Summary with AI
- Google Meet Help: Take notes for me and Google Workspace edition comparison
- Microsoft: Intelligent recap in Teams and Meeting Recaps app
- Otter pricing
- Fireflies pricing
- Pocket home page pricing section
- Plaud: plans and pricing, Plaud Note Pro; Plaud Help Center: Comparison, Membership FAQ, What are the transcription minutes for, Does Plaud support real-time transcription, Does Plaud support translation
- Comu: Comu Action Pro and Comu Note Pro store product feeds (prices, Nov 6, 2026); Comu product knowledge base, Oct 27, 2026 edition (Starter, privacy and security)
