AI Note-Takers Like Otter and Fathom Now Sit in on Your Meetings

AI meeting note-takers are apps that sit in on your video calls, write down what everyone said, and hand you a short summary plus a list of who agreed to do what. TechRepublic compared six of them for 2026 — Fathom, Fireflies.ai, Otter.ai, Granola, Fellow, and Notta — looking at price, free-plan limits, which platforms they work with, and how they capture a meeting.

The biggest difference is how they get into the room. Some send a visible bot into Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams — a little participant that everyone can see. Others, like Granola and a beta option from Fathom, record straight from your own laptop, which feels less intrusive and also works for in-person chats. Free plans vary wildly too. Fathom gives unlimited recordings and transcription free. Granola offers unlimited notes but keeps little history. Otter allows 300 minutes a month. Notta gives 120 minutes, and Fellow offers just five notes total, ever. Paid plans run roughly $7 to $15 per person per month.

The honest catch: the reviewers did not rank which tool transcribes most accurately, because none of the six have been tested under the same independent standard. That matters, since a summary built on misheard words can send you into the wrong meeting prepared. There's also a privacy question you should raise with your team — a bot that joins and records a call captures whatever colleagues say, so you need consent rules, and probably a policy about where those recordings live.

So what should you do? If you work alone or just want to stop typing during calls, a free plan is genuinely enough — start with Fathom or Otter. If you're picking for a team, look past the price tag at history storage, search, admin controls, and whether the tool works with the platforms you already use. Try one free for a week on real meetings before you pay for anything.