Best Free AI Meeting Assistants in 2026
Every tool on this list has a free tier. Some are genuinely free with no time tricks. Others start free and push you toward a paid plan fast. This guide tells you which is which.
A note upfront: we built ScreenApp, so we know this space well. We’ve included it first because it fits the topic, but we’ve tried to be honest about every tool’s limits.
Quick Picks
| Tool | Free plan | Best for | Paid starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScreenApp | Yes, limited AI credits | All-in-one recording + notes | $19/mo |
| Otter.ai | 300 min/month | Live transcription | $8.33/mo |
| Fathom | Unlimited recordings | Zoom-heavy teams | $19/mo |
| Fireflies.ai | 800 min storage | Sales and CRM users | $10/mo |
| tl;dv | Unlimited recordings | Google Meet and Zoom | $20/mo |
| Krisp | 60 min/day transcription | Noise cancellation + notes | $8/mo |
| Granola | 25 meetings free | No-bot note-taking | $18/mo |
What Makes a Good Free AI Meeting Assistant
Free plans vary widely. Some cap minutes per month. Others cap storage, seats, or AI summaries. Before you commit to anything, check three things:
- Does the free plan cover your meeting volume?
- Does it work with your video platform (Zoom, Google Meet, Teams)?
- Does it send a bot into calls, or record silently?
The bot question matters more than it used to. Many companies now have policies about AI bots joining calls. If you need bot-free recording, Granola and ScreenApp both work without sending a visible bot into the meeting.
ScreenApp
Free plan: Yes, limited AI credits per month. Recordings and transcriptions are included.
ScreenApp records meetings through a browser extension or desktop app without joining as a bot. It captures audio, video, and screen content at the same time, which matters for product demos or design reviews where what’s on screen is part of the conversation.
The AI layer generates structured summaries, pulls out action items, and lets you search across transcripts. Calendar integration connects to Google Calendar and Outlook to auto-detect upcoming meetings.
The free plan gives you full access to the platform but caps how many AI summaries you can generate each month. Transcription itself is not capped.
Pros:
- Records audio, video, and screen simultaneously
- No bot joins your call, so no notification to other participants
- Searchable transcripts across all past recordings
- Works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and in-person meetings
Cons:
- AI summaries are limited on the free plan
- More features than some users need
- Storage fills up faster than text-only tools
Pricing: Free with limited AI credits. Growth plan at $19/month for 50 recordings with full AI summaries. Business at $27/month for unlimited recordings.
Otter.ai
Free plan: 300 minutes per month, 3 imports.
Otter.ai is one of the oldest tools in this category and still one of the most accurate for English transcription. It works in real time, showing text on screen as people speak. Team members can highlight sentences, add comments, and assign action items directly in the live transcript.
The 300-minute free plan works out to about 5 hours per month. That covers a few meetings a week for solo users. Teams hit the limit faster.
Speaker identification is one of Otter’s strongest features. It learns voices over time and labels each speaker automatically, which makes transcripts much easier to read back later.
Pros:
- Excellent transcription accuracy for English
- Real-time live transcript visible during the meeting
- Strong speaker identification
- Team collaboration built into the transcript view
Cons:
- 300 minutes per month runs out fast for heavy users
- Limited to audio transcription, no screen recording
- AI summaries are basic on the free plan
- Works best for English, struggles with accents and technical terms
Pricing: Free at 300 min/month. Pro at $8.33/month for 1,200 minutes. Business at $20/month for admin controls and custom vocabulary.
Fathom
Free plan: Unlimited recording and transcription.
Fathom’s free tier is the most generous on this list. Unlimited recordings, unlimited transcription, no monthly caps. The catch: it only works with Zoom on the free plan. Google Meet and Teams require a paid subscription.
The tool joins your Zoom calls as a bot, records everything, and delivers a transcript and summary within a few minutes of the call ending. During the meeting, you can click a button to mark important moments, and Fathom clips those sections automatically.
If your team runs almost entirely on Zoom, Fathom is a strong free option. If you use multiple platforms, the limitation becomes a real problem.
Pros:
- Truly unlimited free recordings for Zoom
- Clean, simple interface
- Moment-marking during live calls
- Fast post-meeting summaries
Cons:
- Free plan is Zoom-only
- A bot joins the call, visible to all participants
- Limited analytics compared to sales-focused tools
- No screen recording
Pricing: Free for Zoom. Team plan at $19/month per seat for Google Meet, Teams, and advanced features.
Fireflies.ai
Free plan: 800 minutes of storage, unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries.
Fireflies joins meetings as a bot named “Fred.” It transcribes everything and then runs it through a set of AI analysis tools: sentiment analysis, talk-time ratios, topic tracking, and action item extraction. The CRM integrations are strong, pushing summaries directly to Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive.
The free plan gives 800 minutes of storage total, not per month. Once you fill that up, you either delete old recordings or upgrade. For light users this lasts a while. For teams with daily standups and weekly all-hands, it fills up within a couple months.
Pros:
- Good free tier for getting started
- Strong CRM integrations for sales teams
- Automated action item extraction
- Custom topic tracking
Cons:
- 800-minute storage limit is not per month, it fills up permanently
- Bot joins calls visibly as “Fred”
- AI features are limited on free plan
- Can be overwhelming for simple note-taking
Pricing: Free with 800 min storage. Pro at $10/month for unlimited storage and advanced search. Business at $19/month for team analytics.
tl;dv
Free plan: Unlimited recordings and transcripts for Google Meet and Zoom.
tl;dv (short for “too long; didn’t view”) focuses on video first. The core pitch: you shouldn’t have to watch an hour-long recording to find the five minutes that matter. The tool records meetings, transcribes them, and makes it easy to clip specific moments and share them with people who weren’t there.
The free plan covers unlimited recordings and transcription. AI summaries are limited to a set number per month. If you need to send highlights to stakeholders who skip meetings, tl;dv is well-suited to that workflow.
Pros:
- Unlimited free recordings and transcription
- Good video clipping and sharing tools
- Supports Google Meet and Zoom
- Clean interface with good search
Cons:
- AI summaries capped on free plan
- Bot joins calls visibly
- Less useful if your team watches full recordings anyway
- Fewer integrations than Fireflies
Pricing: Free with limited AI summaries. Pro at $20/month per seat for unlimited AI features and integrations.
Krisp
Free plan: 60 minutes of AI transcription per day.
Krisp started as a noise-cancellation tool and added meeting transcription and notes later. The combination is useful: it removes background noise from your audio while simultaneously transcribing what everyone says.
The 60-minute daily limit is per day, which resets every 24 hours. That works for people who have one or two meetings a day. If you have a full day of back-to-back calls, you hit the cap fast.
The notes Krisp generates are more structured than raw transcripts. It pulls out action items and decisions automatically. The noise-cancellation quality is the best of any tool on this list, which matters if you work from a noisy environment.
Pros:
- Best noise cancellation of any tool here
- Daily limit resets, so consistent for moderate users
- Structured notes with action items
- Works across all meeting platforms
Cons:
- 60 minutes per day is limiting for heavy meeting days
- Transcription accuracy is below Otter.ai and ScreenApp
- No video recording
- Primarily a desktop app
Pricing: Free at 60 min/day. Pro at $8/month for unlimited noise cancellation and 6,000 minutes of transcription per year.
Granola
Free plan: 25 meetings included, then paid.
Granola works differently from every other tool here. It does not join your meeting as a bot. Instead, it captures the audio from your computer’s microphone directly, so no one else sees it in the call. It also lets you take rough notes during the meeting, and then the AI expands them into a full, structured summary afterward.
The no-bot approach means it works for any platform, any call, without anyone knowing you’re recording. That matters for certain professional contexts where bots are banned or unwelcome.
The 25-meeting free tier is enough to test it properly. After that, you need to pay.
Pros:
- No bot visible to other participants
- Works on any platform, including phone calls
- AI expands rough notes into full summaries
- Good for people who like to stay engaged during calls
Cons:
- Free plan is a trial, not ongoing
- Requires you to take some notes yourself
- Mac-only (Windows support limited as of 2026)
- No screen recording or video
Pricing: 25 meetings free. Personal plan at $18/month for unlimited meetings.
Comparison Table
| Tool | Free recordings | Bot-free | Screen recording | Platforms | AI summaries free |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ScreenApp | Yes (storage limits) | Yes | Yes | All | Limited |
| Otter.ai | 300 min/month | No | No | All | Limited |
| Fathom | Unlimited | No | No | Zoom only | Yes |
| Fireflies.ai | 800 min total | No | No | All | Limited |
| tl;dv | Unlimited | No | No | Meet, Zoom | Limited |
| Krisp | 60 min/day | No | No | All | Yes |
| Granola | 25 meetings | Yes | No | All | Yes |
How to Choose
If you use Zoom almost exclusively: Fathom’s free plan is the best deal. Unlimited recordings, no catches for Zoom users.
If transcription accuracy is the priority: Otter.ai. It has the most accurate English transcription of any free tool, with good speaker identification.
If you work in sales and need CRM sync: Fireflies.ai. The free plan lets you test the CRM integrations before committing.
If you don’t want a bot joining your calls: ScreenApp or Granola. Both record locally without a visible bot. ScreenApp continues free beyond 25 meetings; Granola does not.
If background noise is your main problem: Krisp. The noise cancellation is meaningfully better than the competition, and the 60-minute daily reset works for most moderate users.
If you need to share meeting highlights with stakeholders: tl;dv. The video clipping and sharing tools are designed specifically for that workflow.
If you want everything in one place: ScreenApp covers recording, transcription, AI summaries, screen capture, and in-person note-taking under one free plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do free AI meeting assistants work with Google Meet, Zoom, and Teams?
Most do. Otter.ai, Fireflies, tl;dv, Krisp, ScreenApp, and Granola all work across platforms. Fathom’s free plan is limited to Zoom. If you need cross-platform support on a free plan, Fathom is the one to avoid.
Will other people on the call know I’m using an AI assistant?
It depends on the tool. Most tools join as a visible bot, which all participants can see. ScreenApp and Granola both record locally without sending a bot into the call. Krisp also runs locally through your computer’s audio, so it is not visible to other participants.
How accurate are free AI transcription tools?
Accuracy ranges from around 80% to 95% depending on audio quality, accents, and how much jargon is used. Otter.ai and ScreenApp consistently score at the higher end for clear English audio. Background noise, heavy accents, and overlapping speakers reduce accuracy for all tools.
Are there privacy risks with AI meeting assistants?
Yes. Most cloud-based tools send your meeting audio to their servers for processing. Read each tool’s privacy policy before using it for sensitive conversations. Tools that process locally (or give you on-premise options) reduce that risk. For a deeper look at this topic, see our guide on AI notetaker privacy risks.
What happens to my recordings if I downgrade from paid to free?
It varies. Some tools delete recordings above the free plan storage limit. Others keep them but restrict access. Check the specific tool’s policy before upgrading if you plan to downgrade later.
Can I use a free AI meeting assistant for in-person meetings?
Yes. ScreenApp, Otter.ai, Krisp, and Granola all support in-person recording through your phone or laptop microphone. You don’t need a video conferencing platform. Quality depends on the microphone and how far it is from speakers.
Do any free plans include speaker identification?
Otter.ai has the best free speaker identification. It learns to distinguish voices over time and labels each speaker in the transcript. Fireflies and tl;dv also include some speaker identification on free plans, though accuracy is lower.
How many free minutes do I actually need per month?
A typical 30-minute meeting uses 30 minutes of transcription. If you have one hour of meetings per day and 20 working days per month, that’s 1,200 minutes per month. Otter.ai’s 300-minute free plan covers about 5 hours total. Fathom’s unlimited Zoom plan covers all of it.
For a broader comparison beyond free tools, see our full review of AI meeting notetakers and our breakdown of the best AI tools for meeting notes.
FAQ
Most do. Otter.ai, Fireflies, tl;dv, Krisp, ScreenApp, and Granola all work across platforms. Fathom's free plan is limited to Zoom. If you need cross-platform support on a free plan, Fathom is the one to avoid.
It depends on the tool. Most tools join as a visible bot, which all participants can see. ScreenApp and Granola both record locally without sending a bot into the call. Krisp also runs locally through your computer's audio, so it is not visible to other participants.
Accuracy ranges from around 80% to 95% depending on audio quality, accents, and how much jargon is used. Otter.ai and ScreenApp consistently score at the higher end for clear English audio. Background noise, heavy accents, and overlapping speakers reduce accuracy for all tools.
Yes. Most cloud-based tools send your meeting audio to their servers for processing. Read each tool's privacy policy before using it for sensitive conversations. Tools that process locally (or give you on-premise options) reduce that risk. For a deeper look at this topic, see our guide on AI notetaker privacy risks.
It varies. Some tools delete recordings above the free plan storage limit. Others keep them but restrict access. Check the specific tool's policy before upgrading if you plan to downgrade later.
Yes. ScreenApp, Otter.ai, Krisp, and Granola all support in-person recording through your phone or laptop microphone. You don't need a video conferencing platform. Quality depends on the microphone and how far it is from speakers.
Otter.ai has the best free speaker identification. It learns to distinguish voices over time and labels each speaker in the transcript. Fireflies and tl;dv also include some speaker identification on free plans, though accuracy is lower.
A typical 30-minute meeting uses 30 minutes of transcription. If you have one hour of meetings per day and 20 working days per month, that's 1,200 minutes per month. Otter.ai's 300-minute free plan covers about 5 hours total. Fathom's unlimited Zoom plan covers all of it. --- For a broader comparison beyond free tools, see our full review of AI meeting notetakers and our breakdown of the best AI tools for meeting notes.
