Best AI Note-Taking Apps for Meetings in 2026

How I Tested These Tools

Over the past month, I ran six AI note-taking tools through the same set of meetings. Not sequentially — simultaneously. I'd fire up all the tools I could before each meeting and compare the outputs side by side afterward. Over 32 meetings (a mix of sales calls, internal syncs, 1-on-1s, and large team meetings), I've got a pretty clear picture of what works and what doesn't.

Here's what I was evaluating: transcription accuracy, summary quality, action item detection, ease of setup, pricing, and whatever unique features each tool brings to the table. Let's get into it.

1. Craqly Auto Notes — Best All-in-One

Craqly isn't just a note-taking tool. It's a desktop overlay that acts as a real-time meeting copilot with note-taking built in. But since we're focused on notes here, let me talk about Auto Notes specifically.

What the notes look like

Craqly produces structured summaries with clear sections: key decisions, action items (assigned to specific speakers), discussion topics, and questions that were raised. The speaker identification is solid — it correctly attributed remarks to the right people in 28 of 32 meetings, even when speakers had similar voices.

What sets Craqly apart from pure note-takers is the searchable knowledge base. Every meeting's notes feed into a single, searchable repository. Three weeks in, I could search "Q4 budget" and pull up references from five different meetings. That cross-meeting search is something most competitors don't offer.

The real-time bonus

While other tools silently transcribe, Craqly actively helps during the meeting. Live suggestions, talking points, even objection handling for sales calls. The notes are almost a bonus feature on top of the real-time assistance. No other tool on this list does this.

Pros

• Works on any meeting platform (Zoom, Teams, Meet, phone calls, anything)
• Invisible to other participants — no bot, no notification
• Searchable knowledge base across all meetings
• Real-time copilot features beyond just notes
• Good speaker identification

Cons

• Free tier has limited minutes
• No recording playback or clips
• CRM integrations still developing

Pricing: Free tier (limited). Paid from ~$15/mo.
Best for: People who want notes + real-time help, across any platform.

2. Otter.ai — Most Feature-Rich (With Caveats)

Otter.ai has been around the longest and has the most polished feature set. Real-time transcription, AI summaries, action items, and a clean web and mobile experience. The live captioning during meetings is particularly useful for accessibility.

The caveat

OtterPilot. It joins your meeting as a visible bot. Participants see it in the attendee list. Some people don't mind. Others — especially in client-facing roles — find it embarrassing and unprofessional. If that bothers you, Otter drops to the bottom of this list regardless of its other qualities.

Pros

• Mature product with reliable transcription
• Real-time captions during meetings
• Good mobile app for on-the-go review
• Integrates with Zoom, Teams, and Meet

Cons

• OtterPilot bot visible to all participants
• Free tier limited to 300 min/month (about 6-7 meetings)
• Accuracy drops noticeably with accents or overlapping speakers
• Storage limits on lower tiers

Pricing: Free (300 min/mo). Pro $16.99/mo. Business $30/user/mo.
Best for: People who don't mind the bot and want a mature, full-featured transcription tool.

3. Fireflies.ai — Best for CRM Integration

If your workflow revolves around your CRM, Fireflies.ai deserves serious consideration. It connects to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and a dozen other platforms, automatically pushing meeting notes, action items, and conversation summaries to the right contact records.

I tested the HubSpot integration specifically. After each sales call, Fireflies created a note on the contact record with the summary, key topics discussed, and next steps. My CRM was updated without me touching it. That's a genuine time-saver that compounds — 15 minutes saved per call, 10 calls a week, that's 2.5 hours back.

The Fred problem

Like Otter, Fireflies uses a bot ("Fred") that joins your meeting. Fred sits in the participant list. Same awkwardness, same client confusion. It's less intrusive than OtterPilot in my experience, but it's still there.

Pros

• Deep CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, and more)
• Topic tracking and conversation intelligence
• Reasonable pricing for the feature set
• Web, Chrome extension, and mobile app

Cons

• "Fred" bot joins meetings visibly
• Storage limits on lower tiers
• Transcription accuracy varies with accents
• Free tier is quite limited

Pricing: Free (limited). Pro $18/mo. Business $29/mo.
Best for: Sales teams that need automatic CRM updates after every call.

4. Fathom — Best Free Option

Fathom's value proposition is almost too good to be true: unlimited meetings, unlimited transcription, automatic summaries and action items — all free for individual users. No trial period. No "upgrade to unlock." Just free.

The catch? It's best on Zoom. Fathom uses Zoom's native API for a seamless, bot-free experience. On Google Meet and Teams, it falls back to a less elegant bot-based approach. If you live on Zoom, Fathom is the obvious choice for meeting notes.

Pros

• Free for individuals — unlimited, genuinely free
• No bot on Zoom (native integration)
• Clean, well-structured summaries
• Highlight clips on Zoom

Cons

• Best experience limited to Zoom
• Uses bot on non-Zoom platforms
• Team features require expensive $32/user/mo plan
• No real-time coaching or live assistance

Pricing: Free (individual, unlimited). Team $32/user/mo.
Best for: Individuals who primarily use Zoom and want quality notes at zero cost.

5. tl;dv — Best for Clips and Sharing

If your main use case is sharing meeting moments with people who weren't there, tl;dv is your tool. Its clip feature lets you highlight any segment of a recording and share it as a standalone, timestamped video with transcript overlay.

I used this heavily for sharing customer feedback with our product team. Instead of writing "the customer said they want feature X," I'd send a 60-second clip of the customer explaining it in their own words. The impact is completely different. Product decisions changed because of clips I shared.

Pros

• Excellent clip and highlight system
• Unlimited free recordings on Zoom and Meet
• Timestamped transcripts for easy navigation
• Good CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Notion, Slack)

Cons

• Chrome extension can be noticed by participants
• Limited to Zoom, Meet, and Teams
• No real-time assistance during meetings
• Pro features require $25/mo subscription

Pricing: Free (unlimited recordings). Pro $25/mo. Business $59/mo.
Best for: Teams that need to share meeting moments — customer feedback, training examples, decision records.

6. Microsoft Copilot — Best for Enterprise Microsoft Shops

If your company runs on Microsoft 365, Copilot for Microsoft Teams is the path of least resistance. It's built directly into Teams, uses the same AI infrastructure as the rest of the Microsoft Copilot suite, and integrates natively with Outlook, OneNote, and the broader Microsoft ecosystem.

The summaries are solid. During large team meetings (15+ participants), Copilot actually performed the best at tracking who said what, probably because Teams has the deepest speaker identification data available. Action items get pushed to your Outlook tasks automatically. Meeting recaps show up in the Teams chat after the meeting ends.

Pros

• Native Teams integration — nothing to install
• Best speaker identification for large meetings
• Action items flow to Outlook tasks
• Enterprise security and compliance built in
• Part of the broader Copilot AI suite

Cons

• Only works in Microsoft Teams
• Requires Microsoft 365 Copilot license ($30/user/mo on top of M365)
• Summaries can be verbose — less concise than dedicated tools
• No real-time coaching or live suggestions
• Doesn't work on Zoom, Meet, or other platforms

Pricing: Included with Microsoft 365 Copilot ($30/user/mo, requires M365 subscription).
Best for: Enterprise teams already fully invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Overall Comparison Table

Tool	Free Tier	Paid From	Bot?	Real-Time Help	Best Platform	Best For
Craqly Auto Notes	Limited min	~$15/mo	No	Yes	Any	All-in-one
Otter.ai	300 min/mo	$16.99/mo	Yes	No	Zoom/Meet/Teams	Mature transcription
Fireflies.ai	Limited	$18/mo	Yes	No	Zoom/Meet/Teams	CRM integration
Fathom	Unlimited	$32/user/mo	No (Zoom)	No	Zoom	Free Zoom notes
tl;dv	Unlimited	$25/mo	Partial	No	Zoom/Meet/Teams	Clips & sharing
MS Copilot	None	$30/user/mo	No	No	Teams only	Microsoft shops

My Category Winners

• Best free: Fathom — unlimited Zoom notes at zero cost is unmatched
• Best for Zoom: Fathom — native integration, no bot, free
• Best for CRM integration: Fireflies.ai — automatic HubSpot/Salesforce updates save hours weekly
• Best all-in-one: Craqly — notes + real-time copilot + works on any platform
• Best for clips: tl;dv — the clip-and-share workflow is unmatched
• Best enterprise: Microsoft Copilot — if you're already on M365, it just works

Which One Should You Actually Use?

After a month with all six tools, here's my honest recommendation framework:

Start with Fathom if you're on Zoom. It's free, it works, and you've got nothing to lose. If you find yourself wanting more — real-time help, non-Zoom support, or a searchable knowledge base — then explore Craqly.

Go with Craqly if you need versatility. Any platform, real-time coaching, invisible operation, plus solid notes. It's the Swiss Army knife of this category. The free tier lets you test everything before committing.

Choose Fireflies if CRM is king. The automatic pipeline updates save measurable time. Worth the bot trade-off if your CRM is the center of your workflow.

Pick tl;dv for team sharing. Nothing clips and shares meeting moments as effectively. If "sharing customer voice" is part of your job, this is your tool.

Stick with Microsoft Copilot if you're all-in on Teams. It's the lowest-friction option for Microsoft shops, even if it's not the most capable standalone tool.

And Otter.ai? It's still a solid product with the best mobile app of the bunch. Just be ready for the bot conversation.

Want to start with the all-in-one approach? Download Craqly and try it in your next meeting — any platform, any call, completely invisible.