How it works · updated October 9, 2026

The best AI note takers in 2026, compared

The best AI note taker depends on your meetings: Konvo for multilingual meetings and notes kept on your computer, Granola for bot-free English notes, Otter for a team archive, Fireflies for sales, Fathom for a free plan. We make Konvo. Every price links to a dated source on our comparison pages.

The short answer

Konvo is the pick if your meetings aren’t always in your language, or you want transcripts and recordings on your own computer. It’s bot-free, translates live into 40+ languages, summarizes during the meeting in the language you read, and costs $9 a month or $69 a year.

Granola is the pick for clean bot-free notes in English, with phone apps and team folders. Otter suits teams that want one searchable archive. Fireflies suits sales teams that live in a CRM. Fathom has the most generous free plan. tl;dv is built around video clips and highlights. Tactiq is the lightest option if every meeting happens in a browser.

Bot or no bot

Otter, Fireflies and Fathom join your call as a participant, and tl;dv does by default. In 2026 Google Meet and Microsoft Teams both made bots harder to get into meetings, so that choice matters more than it used to.

Konvo, Granola and Tactiq never join. Konvo and Granola listen to your computer’s audio, so they work in any app. Tactiq is a browser extension and works from the meeting’s captions.

Language is where they split

Only two of the seven translate while people are talking: Konvo, which runs speech recognition on the audio itself and covers 40+ languages, and Tactiq, with translated captions. The others transcribe in the meeting’s language and offer translation afterwards, if at all.

Meetings that switch languages are harder still. Konvo’s Mixed mode follows ten languages at once, even mid-sentence, and Ultra mode recognises the language of each sentence. Granola’s desktop app can also switch languages mid-meeting, but writes notes in English or the main language. Konvo writes them in the language you choose.

Where your notes end up

Every tool here except Konvo keeps your transcripts in its own cloud. That’s what makes team search and sharing work, and it’s a fair trade for many teams.

Konvo saves transcripts, summaries and screen recordings on your computer. Audio and text pass through speech and AI providers to be processed, and our servers don’t keep what was said. If your company is strict about meeting data, that difference may decide it.

Seven AI note takers side by side (checked October 2026)

	Konvo	Granola	Otter.ai	Fireflies	Fathom	tl;dv	Tactiq
Joins the call as a bot	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	By default	No
Live translation	40+ languages	No	No	No	No	No	Translated captions
Works outside Zoom, Meet, Teams	Any app, phone calls	Any app	Bot platforms	Bot platforms	Bot platforms	Desktop mode	Browser meetings
Where notes are kept	Your computer	Granola cloud	Otter cloud	Fireflies cloud	Fathom cloud	tl;dv cloud	Tactiq cloud
Recording	Screen, saved locally	No	Audio	Audio and video	Video	Video (bot mode)	No
Paid plan, monthly	$9	$14/user	$16.99/user	$18/user	$20/user	€29/seat	$12/user
Paid plan, billed annually	$5.75/mo ($69/yr)	Not listed	$8.33/user	$10/user	$16/user	€18/seat	$8/user
Free tier	~30 minutes	Notes kept 30 days	300 min/month	Limited	Unlimited recordings	Limited	10 transcripts/month

What it does not do

Konvo is desktop only, with no phone app.
No shared team workspace or CRM integration yet.
The free tier is a 30-minute trial, not a permanent free plan.
Prices change. Each comparison page lists its sources and the date we checked.

Questions we get

What is the best AI note taker in 2026?

It depends on the meeting. For meetings in more than one language, or when notes must stay on your own computer, Konvo, a bot-free desktop app. For bot-free notes in English with phone apps, Granola. For a team archive, Otter. For sales and CRM, Fireflies. For a free plan you can use every day, Fathom.

Which AI note taker works without a bot?

Konvo, Granola and Tactiq never join the call. tl;dv has an optional bot-free desktop mode. Otter, Fireflies and Fathom join as a participant.

Which AI note taker translates meetings in real time?

Konvo streams translation into 40+ languages while people are speaking, and can read your reply aloud in theirs. Tactiq shows translated captions in browser meetings. The rest here translate transcripts after the meeting, if at all.

What is the cheapest paid AI note taker?

Of the seven, Konvo’s annual plan is the lowest at $69 a year, about $5.75 a month for roughly 25 hours of meetings each month. If you only need a free plan, Fathom and Granola give you more free use than Konvo’s 30-minute trial.

Is it legal to use an AI note taker in a meeting?

Usually yes, but many places require that participants know or agree when a conversation is recorded or transcribed. A bot-free tool doesn’t change that. Tell people at the start of the meeting.

Try it on your next call

About 30 minutes free, no card needed. Then $9/month, or $69/year.

Start free Download for desktop