Updated October 30, 2026 · 8 min read
An honest comparison of four AI note takers people often shortlist — what each is good at, how each one captures a meeting, and how to pick the right one for the way you actually work.
In 2026, most big note takers offer some way to record without a visible bot. Otter, Fireflies and Read AI each have a desktop app that captures audio from your own computer. Tactiq, a Chrome extension, shows a live transcript without a bot and says it does not record audio. So the useful question isn't “bot or no bot?” but “what do I have to install, and what do I get?”
AI Meeting Companion is different in one specific way: it has no bot mode at all and works in a web browser, including on phones, with no desktop app. The trade-off is that it records through your device's microphone, so check that remote voices come through clearly before an important call.
| Tool | Default | Without a bot | What you need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter | Bot joins from your calendar | Desktop app records from your computer | Mac (macOS 12.3+) or Windows app |
| Fireflies | Bot joins the call | Desktop app captures system audio; no audio or video file is saved | Mac or Windows app |
| Read AI | Bot joins the call | Desktop app records audio from your computer | Mac (macOS 14+) or 64-bit Windows 10/11 app |
| Tactiq | No bot | Live text transcript in the browser; no audio saved | Chrome extension |
| AI Meeting Companion | No bot (there is no bot mode) | Records with your device's microphone | A web browser on phone, tablet or computer |
| Feature | Otter | Fireflies | Read AI | AI Meeting Companion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live transcription | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting bot by default | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bot-free recording option | Yes (desktop app) | Yes (desktop app) | Yes (desktop app) | Yes (always, in the browser) |
| Works on a phone without installing an app | No | No | No | Yes |
| AI summaries & action items | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CRM / Slack integrations | Some | Extensive | Moderate | Lightweight |
| Meeting analytics (talk time, sentiment) | Basic | Yes | Yes (focus) | No |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — 600 min/month, 45 min per meeting |
| Starting price (paid, monthly) | ~$17/mo | ~$18/mo | ~$19.75/mo | $9.99/mo |
| Best for | Searchable transcripts | Sales teams | Meeting-heavy managers | Private 1:1s & client calls |
“Works on a phone without installing an app” means recording from a mobile web browser; the other tools offer their own phone apps. Prices are each vendor's published monthly starter tier at the time of writing — check their sites for current rates.
Otter is the veteran. Its Notetaker can join Zoom, Google Meet and Teams from your calendar, produce a live transcript, and add a summary at the end. Search over past meetings is a real strength.
If you don't want the Notetaker in the call, Otter's desktop app for Mac and Windows can record from your computer instead. The trade-off: Otter is a transcription product first, so you may spend time shaping the output into decisions and action items.
Pick it if you need verbatim transcripts and a searchable archive of everything said.
Fireflies is built for revenue teams. It connects to many tools — CRMs, Slack, Notion and more — and its summaries are tuned for sales conversations.
Its desktop app can record without a bot by capturing system audio; Fireflies notes that this mode produces a transcript and summary but does not save audio or video files. For a single user or small team, the setup can be more than you need.
Pick it if you're a sales team that wants every call logged into a CRM automatically.
Read AI focuses on meeting analytics: on top of summaries and action items, it reports on talk time, engagement and similar signals across your calendar.
Its assistant joins calls by default, and its desktop app can record audio from your computer instead. Some teams find the analytics very useful; others find sentiment-style scoring uncomfortable.
Pick it if you want to measure how your team runs meetings, not just remember what was said.
AI Meeting Companion has no bot at all. You record and transcribe from the browser on your own phone or computer (or paste notes), then one tap turns it into a summary with decisions, open questions and action items.
Because it runs in the browser, there's nothing to install before your next call. The free plan includes up to 600 transcription minutes a month and up to 45 minutes of active recording per meeting; paid plans start at $9.99/month.
The trade-offs: it records through your device's microphone rather than capturing system audio, there's no calendar-wide analytics, and it has fewer integrations than Fireflies.
Pick it if you want structured notes for private or client meetings with no bot and nothing to install.