TL;DR: The best free AI meeting assistant in 2026 is Fathom, with unlimited recording and transcription for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. But every free plan hides its limit somewhere, and several limits repeated across the web are out of date. Checked against the vendors’ own pricing pages on 23 October 2026: Fathom caps advanced summaries at five calls a month, tl;dv caps full AI notes at ten meetings, Granola now limits your history rather than your meetings, and Notta caps free conversations at three minutes each.
Published: 27 October 2026. Last checked: 23 October 2026. Every free-tier limit below was checked against the vendor’s own pricing page or official plan guide on this date, because free plans change often and older articles repeat older numbers.
What does an AI meeting assistant actually do?
An AI meeting assistant records your calls, transcribes who said what, and turns the transcript into a summary with decisions and action items. Most join the call as a visible bot participant; a few record from your own device instead. The free plans differ mainly in minutes, storage and how much AI analysis you get.
That makes the choice a limits question, not a features question, because the core job is identical everywhere. Before you pick, check four things: how many minutes or meetings the free plan covers, how long recordings are kept, whether a bot joins your calls, and which of your meeting apps is supported. If you also keep written notes alongside calls, our guide to the best free note-taking apps pairs well with any tool here.
How do the seven free plans compare side by side?
Three of the seven are generous enough for daily use: Fathom and tl;dv record without a minute cap, and Fireflies transcribes without one. The rest ration something smaller: Otter rations minutes, Notta rations conversation length, MeetGeek rations hours, and Granola rations how far back your notes stay visible.
| Tool | Free plan limit (checked 23 Oct 2026) | Bot joins the call? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Unlimited recording and transcription; advanced AI summaries on 5 calls a month | Yes (bot-free capture in beta, Mac only) | Most people |
| Otter.ai | 300 minutes a month; 30 minutes per conversation; 25 most recent conversations kept | Yes | Searchable transcripts |
| Fireflies.ai | Unlimited transcription; 400 minutes of storage per team; limited AI summaries | Yes | Teams and CRM users |
| tl;dv | Unlimited recordings; full AI notes on 10 meetings; recordings kept 3 months | Yes (desktop app can record bot-free, audio only) | Sharing clips |
| Granola | Unlimited meetings; only the last 30 days of notes visible; no audio is kept | No | Bot-free notes |
| Notta | 120 minutes a month; 3 minutes per conversation; 10 AI summaries a month | Yes | Testing multilingual transcription |
| MeetGeek | 3 hours a month; transcripts kept 3 months; analytics included | Yes (bot-free options too) | Meeting analytics |
The paid tiers matter only when a free limit bites. The cheapest paid plans here start at about $8 to $10 per user a month on annual billing, so a free plan that covers your real meeting load saves roughly $100 a year per person. Count your weekly meeting hours before deciding that any cap matters to you.
Which free AI meeting assistant is best overall?
Fathom, for most people. Its free plan records and transcribes unlimited meetings on Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, with a summary after every call and search across your own calls. No rival matches that combination at $0, which is why it stays the default recommendation for individuals and small teams in 2026.
The catch sits in the AI layer, and most articles miss it. Fathom’s own plan guidance says advanced summaries and AI action items cover your first five calls each month; after that, you get a standard summary until the month resets. Fathom also added bot-free capture in 2026, currently in beta and for Mac only, so Windows users still meet the visible bot. Paid plans start at $16 per user a month on annual billing.
Which is best if you need to search everything ever said?
Otter.ai. Its transcripts are the most usable as a searchable record: you can search across meetings, highlight passages, add comments and export. The free Basic plan includes live transcription for Zoom, Meet and Teams plus the mobile apps, which also makes Otter the easiest way here to capture in-person conversations on your phone.
The limits are tight, though. Basic gives 300 transcription minutes a month, caps each conversation at 30 minutes, allows three file imports for the life of the account, and keeps only your 25 most recent conversations in view. One weekly hour-long meeting breaks both the per-call cap and the monthly minutes, so treat free Otter as a short-meeting tool. Otter sets out its own plan breakdown on the Otter blog.
Which is best for a team that shares call knowledge?
Fireflies.ai. It is built around a shared, searchable library of the whole team’s calls, with topic trackers for things like pricing or competitor mentions, comments on specific moments, and integrations with Slack, Notion and the major CRMs. Its free plan transcribes without a minute cap, which suits teams with heavy meeting loads.
Storage is where free Fireflies ends. Fireflies’ current pricing page lists 400 minutes of storage for the free plan, while some of Fireflies’ own older pages still show 800 minutes, so plan around 400 and check the Fireflies plan details before a rollout. AI summaries are also limited on free. A busy team fills 400 minutes quickly, so free works best as a pilot; Pro at $10 per seat a month is the realistic team tier.
Which is best for catching up on meetings you missed?
tl;dv. It records Google Meet, Zoom and Teams calls without a cap and is built around clips: highlight a moment and share a link, so a colleague watches two minutes instead of the full hour. For async teams spread across time zones, that clip habit is worth more than a longer transcript.
Two limits matter. Full AI notes cover only your first ten meetings on the free plan; after that, the notes shrink to the opening minutes of each call, and Ask AI questions are capped at ten as well. Recordings are kept for three months and then deleted, so free tl;dv is a working tool, not an archive. A desktop app can record without the bot, though it captures audio only.
Which is best if you do not want a bot in the call?
Granola. It never joins your meeting as a participant. The app runs on your computer or phone, captures the audio from your device, and merges the transcript with the rough notes you type during the call into polished notes afterwards. Clients see no notetaker bot arrive, which is why freelancers and founders prefer it for sensitive calls.
Older articles, and many current ones, say the free plan stops at 25 meetings. That figure is out of date: Granola’s own pricing guide says the free Basic plan now allows unlimited meetings, and the real limit is history, with only your last 30 days of notes visible unless you upgrade. Also know that Granola keeps no audio on any plan, so there is never a playback to settle a dispute about what was said.
Which is best for meetings that are not in English?
Notta, with a serious warning attached. It transcribes in dozens of languages, handles uploaded audio and video files as well as live meetings, and is the natural pick for multilingual teams. But its free plan is a test drive rather than a working tool, so use it to judge transcription quality in your language first.
The free plan includes 120 transcription minutes a month and ten AI summaries, yet caps each conversation at three minutes. Three minutes cannot hold a real meeting, so the common claim that free Notta covers four half-hour meetings a month is wrong. Pro, from $8.17 a month on annual billing, lifts the recording cap to five hours. If your calls run through Google Meet, our Gemini tips and tricks guide also covers Meet’s built-in AI notes.
Which is best if you want analytics about your meetings?
MeetGeek. Alongside transcripts and summaries it reports talk ratios, participation balance and meeting trends, and unusually, the analytics are included on the free plan rather than held back for paid tiers. It auto-joins scheduled Zoom, Meet and Teams calls from your calendar, and can also record without a bot through its browser extension.
The free allowance has shrunk: MeetGeek’s current plan pages list three hours of transcription a month, down from the five hours older articles still quote, with transcripts kept for three months. Three hours covers a light meeting load, roughly six half-hour calls. MeetGeek’s own plan overview sets out what each tier adds, and Pro at $9.99 per user a month on annual billing raises the allowance to 20 hours a month.
Do you need permission to record a meeting?
Often, yes. Recording law depends on where you and the other participants are: some places allow one participant to record, others require everyone’s consent. Every tool here shows a recording indicator or joins visibly, but the professional standard is simple: say at the start that you are recording for notes, and get a clear yes on client, legal or medical calls.
Also check where transcripts are stored and how long they are kept, especially for client work, and read your company’s policy before sending sensitive calls to any third-party service. Our online privacy guide for beginners covers the wider habits that keep accounts and data safer.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI meeting assistant is completely free?
None is completely unlimited, but Fathom comes closest: recording and transcription have no cap, and only its advanced summaries are limited to five calls a month. tl;dv also records without a cap. Every other tool here limits minutes, storage, history or conversation length on its free plan.
Can these tools record a meeting I am not hosting?
Usually yes. Most join from your calendar invite or a meeting link as a guest participant, and MeetGeek and tl;dv state they can join calls you attend rather than host. The host and other participants will still see the bot or the recording notice, so announce it either way.
What happens when I hit a free limit?
It depends on the tool. Otter and Notta stop transcribing when minutes run out, Fireflies stops saving new recordings when storage fills, tl;dv keeps recording but shrinks its AI notes, and Granola hides older notes rather than deleting them. Paid upgrades start at about $8 to $10 per user a month.
Are AI meeting summaries accurate enough to rely on?
For decisions and action items, mostly yes, but verify names, numbers and dates against the transcript, because summaries can flatten nuance or misattribute a point. Treat the summary as a first draft of the record and the transcript as the source of truth, especially for anything a client will act on.
Should my whole team use the same assistant?
Yes. One tool per team keeps transcripts in one searchable place, avoids two or three bots joining the same call, and makes consent announcements consistent. Pick the free plan that fits your heaviest user’s load, because the team usually upgrades around the person who hits the limit first.
Which one should you start with today?
Start with Fathom for notes from every call without watching a meter, and add Granola if your calls are client-facing and a bot would feel awkward. Run both free for two weeks on real meetings, then keep the one whose summaries you trust. More roundups live in our best free AI tools guide and the full free tools hub.
