The best free AI note taker: every free plan and its limits
All nine tools in our comparison have a free plan, but the limit sits in a different place each time. Otter gives 300 transcription minutes a month with 30 minutes per conversation, Notta 120 minutes with 3 minutes per conversation, Read AI 5 meetings of up to an hour, jamie 10 notes of up to 30 minutes. tl;dv records without limit but writes AI notes for 10 meetings, Fireflies caps storage at 400 minutes per team, Granola keeps 30 days of history, Fathom offers unlimited recordings for individuals, and meetergo transcribes on your device without a limit.
Our pick as publisher: if you record many calls on your own and US storage is acceptable, Fathom's free plan has the fewest published limits among the cloud recorders. If recordings must stay in the EU or on your own machine, compare meetergo (local, unlimited), tl;dv (EU, 10 AI-noted meetings) and jamie (EEA, 10 notes). Pay when the limit you hit is one you hit every week.
This comparison is published by meetergo GmbH, a German software company that sells an AI note taker and is one of the tools described here. Every fact about other vendors comes from their official websites as of 9 November 2026. We did not run long-term tests; “pick” is our editorial judgment for the use case named. How this guide is made.
Free plans compared
What each vendor lists for its free plan on its official pricing page, checked 9 November 2026. “Not stated” means we found no figure, not that there is no limit.
| Tool | Volume per month | Per meeting | History and storage | Other limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| meetergo AI Notes | recording and transcription on your device, unlimited | no cap stated | local mode keeps audio and transcripts on your device | 5 AI questions a month; dictation up to 2 minutes; cloud recaps start on Light (10 a month) |
| Otter.ai | 300 transcription minutes | 30 minutes per conversation | 25 most recent conversations | 3 audio or video file imports per lifetime; up to 5 workspace members |
| Fireflies.ai | unlimited transcription for shared bot meetings, the Chrome extension and the mobile app | 2-hour recording limit | 400 minutes of storage per team | limited AI summaries; 20 AI credits |
| Fathom | unlimited recordings and transcriptions (individuals) | no cap stated | no history cap stated | instant AI summaries; some AI features marked “Limited use” without a number; AI action items listed on Premium |
| tl;dv | unlimited recordings and transcription | not stated | recordings kept up to 3 months | AI notes for 10 meetings; 10 Ask AI queries |
| Granola | no meeting cap stated | not stated | 30 days of meeting history | no Notion, Zapier or HubSpot integrations and no API; MCP limited to personal notes from the last 30 days |
| Read AI | 5 meeting transcripts | up to 1 hour | not stated | no audio or video uploads; basic integrations only |
| Notta | 120 transcription minutes | up to 3 minutes per conversation | not stated | 10 AI summaries and 50 file uploads a month; transcript export starts on Pro |
| jamie | 10 AI notes | up to 30 minutes | not stated | Ask Jamie chat included |
meetergo's AI Notes page lists summaries among the free features but also says the AI meeting summary, tasks and follow-up emails unlock when you connect a meetergo account; we report both statements. Sources for each row are listed at the end of this page.
What you give up on a free plan
Free plans are built to show you the product, so they trim the parts you notice after a few weeks. Four limits come up again and again:
- Meeting length. Notta stops at 3 minutes per conversation, jamie at 30 minutes, Otter at 30 minutes, Read AI at one hour. A one-hour client call does not fit into most of them.
- History. Granola shows 30 days, tl;dv keeps recordings up to 3 months, Otter shows your 25 most recent conversations. If you need to find what a client said last quarter, check this first.
- AI output. Transcripts are often unlimited while summaries are counted: 10 AI-noted meetings on tl;dv, 10 AI summaries on Notta, 20 AI credits on Fireflies, 5 AI questions on meetergo.
- Integrations. CRM sync, Zapier and API access are usually on paid plans. Granola, Read AI and Fireflies say so on their pricing pages.
One limit is easy to miss: where the free plan stores your data. Free plans use the same hosting as paid ones, so a free tool hosted in the US is still hosted in the US. See GDPR and EU data residency if you meet with European clients.
When to pay, and what the first step costs
You have outgrown the free plan when
- You hit the monthly minute or meeting cap before the third week of the month.
- Your normal meeting is longer than the per-meeting cap.
- You search for notes older than the history window.
- You copy summaries into your CRM by hand because sync is a paid feature.
- A colleague needs the same notes and the free plan has one seat.
First paid plan per user and month
Annual billing, as listed by each vendor: Notta Pro $8.17, Otter Pro $8.33, meetergo Light €9.90 excl. VAT with 10 cloud recaps, Fireflies Pro $10, Granola Business $14 (billing period not stated), Read AI Pro $15, Fathom Premium $16, tl;dv Pro €18, jamie Plus €21. Monthly billing costs more where offered. Full details are in the tool directory.
Make a free plan last
- Turn off auto-join for internal meetings that need no notes.
- Use the free plan for the meeting type with the most value, for example first client calls.
- Export or copy important notes before the history window closes, where export is included.
- Test two free plans in parallel for a week before you pay for either.
Questions and answers
Which AI note taker is completely free?
None of the free plans is free of limits. Fathom lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions for individuals, and meetergo lists unlimited transcription on your device. Both still limit some AI features: Fathom marks some as “Limited use”, meetergo includes 5 AI questions a month and starts cloud recaps on the Light plan.
Which free note taker works for meetings longer than an hour?
Fireflies allows recordings up to 2 hours on the free plan. Fathom, tl;dv, Granola and meetergo state no per-meeting cap on their free plans. Otter (30 minutes), jamie (30 minutes), Notta (3 minutes) and Read AI (1 hour) cut longer meetings.
Is there a free AI note taker that stores data in the EU?
By the vendors' statements, tl;dv hosts and stores data in the EU, and jamie keeps storage and processing within the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. meetergo's free plan runs on your device, so audio and transcripts stay on your computer.
Do free plans include CRM sync?
Mostly not. Granola lists HubSpot and other integrations from the Business plan, Read AI keeps premium integrations such as Salesforce and HubSpot for paid tiers, and Fireflies lists app and CRM integrations on its premium tiers.
What happens to my notes if I stop paying?
It depends on the vendor. Notta, for example, keeps your transcripts after you cancel but shows Free users only the first 3 minutes of each, and suggests exporting before you downgrade. Check the vendor's FAQ before you switch plans.
Continue reading
Sources
- meetergo AI Notes: free plan, AI questions, trial recaps
- meetergo pricing: Free and Light plan
- Otter pricing
- Fireflies pricing: free plan limits and footnote, recording limit
- Fathom pricing
- tl;dv pricing
- Granola pricing
- Read AI pricing
- Notta pricing: free limits and downgrade FAQ
- jamie pricing
All pages accessed 9 November 2026. Prices exclude tax where the vendor says so; Fireflies, Fathom and Granola show “$” without naming the currency.
Cite this entry
Best AI Meeting Note Taker. “The best free AI note taker: every free plan and its limits”. meetergo GmbH. Content reviewed 9 November 2026. https://bestaimeetingnotetaker.com/free/