Best AI Transcription Tools 2026: Meeting Notes Compared
We rank AI transcription services and meeting note-takers using only facts from their own sites: the monthly price of the cheapest paid plan for one user, whether there is a permanent free plan, how many languages the vendor says it transcribes, whether it records Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings, speaker identification, subtitle export, a public API, whether your recordings are used to train AI models by default, SOC 2, HIPAA, a GDPR data processing agreement, single sign-on, the year the company started and a public status page. Every fact links to an official page with a check date. We do not test accuracy ourselves and do not use reviews or user scores, and paid placements never change the Score.
| # | Company | Who it serves | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MeetGeek | 77 | $15.99 | Yes | 180 | 100 | Yes | Yes | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams No AI training HIPAA |
| 2 | Fireflies.ai | 75 | $18.00 | Yes | Not verified | 100 | Yes | Yes | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams SRT export No AI training HIPAA |
| 3 | Read AI | 73 | $19.75 | Yes | Not verified | 20 | Yes | Yes | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams No AI training HIPAA |
| 4 | Transkriptor | 71 | $9.99 | Yes | Not verified | 100 | Yes | Yes | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams SRT export No AI training |
| 5 | Fathom | 68 | $20.00 | Yes | Unlimited | 38 | Yes | No | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams HIPAA |
| 6 | Sonix | 65 | $25.00 | No | Not verified | 54 | Yes | Yes | Zoom/Meet/Teams SRT export No AI training HIPAA |
| 7 | Rev | 58 | $29.99 | Yes | 45 | 37 | Yes | Not verified | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams HIPAA |
| 8 | Avoma | 54 | $29.00 | No | Not verified | 70 | Yes | Yes | Zoom/Meet/Teams No AI training HIPAA |
| 9 | Otter.ai | 54 | $16.99 | Yes | 300 | Not verified | Yes | No | Free plan Zoom/Meet/Teams SRT export |
| 10 | Descript | 48 | $24.00 | Yes | 60 | 25 | Not verified | No | Free plan |
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $15.99
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- 180
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 100
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Yes
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Transcribes many languages
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Your recordings are not used to train AI by default
Details Visit site ↗ 86% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $18.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- Not verified
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 100
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Yes
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Transcribes many languages
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Your recordings are not used to train AI by default
Details Visit site ↗ 86% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $19.75
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- Not verified
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 20
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Yes
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Your recordings are not used to train AI by default
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
Details Visit site ↗ 91% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $9.99
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- Not verified
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 100
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Yes
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Transcribes many languages
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Your recordings are not used to train AI by default
Cons
- No HIPAA compliance stated
Details Visit site ↗ 81% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $20.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- Unlimited
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 38
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- No
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
- Public status page
Cons
- Recordings may be used to train AI unless you opt out
Details Visit site ↗ 91% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $25.00
- Free plan
- No
- Free transcription minutes per month
- Not verified
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 54
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Yes
Pros
- Transcribes many languages
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Your recordings are not used to train AI by default
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
Cons
- High monthly price
- No permanent free plan
Details Visit site ↗ 95% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $29.99
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- 45
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 37
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Not verified
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
- Documented public API
Cons
- High monthly price
Details Visit site ↗ 78% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $29.00
- Free plan
- No
- Free transcription minutes per month
- Not verified
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 70
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- Yes
Pros
- Transcribes many languages
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Your recordings are not used to train AI by default
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
Cons
- High monthly price
- No permanent free plan
Details Visit site ↗ 86% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $16.99
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- 300
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- Not verified
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Yes
- Not used for AI training by default
- No
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
- Identifies who is speaking
Cons
- Recordings may be used to train AI unless you opt out
Details Visit site ↗ 73% backed by facts
-
- Cheapest paid plan, monthly billing
- $24.00
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free transcription minutes per month
- 60
- Transcription languages (vendor's count)
- 25
- Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings
- Not verified
- Not used for AI training by default
- No
Pros
- Has a permanent free plan
- Vendor states a SOC 2 audit
- Public status page
- Identifies who is speaking
Cons
- High monthly price
- Recordings may be used to train AI unless you opt out
Details Visit site ↗ 74% backed by facts
Not ranked yet: not enough verified data
These services are known to us, but we haven't verified enough facts to rank them fairly.
- Grain (42% backed by facts)
- Happy Scribe (site closed to automated checks, )
- Notta (51% backed by facts)
- Tactiq (38% backed by facts)
Sites marked as closed refuse automated reading (403 error, captcha or a robots.txt ban). We don't bypass such protection, so we can't verify their facts and they are not ranked. This says nothing about their quality. A company can send links to its official pages to [email protected].
How we calculate the Score
30%
Price
Monthly list price in USD of the cheapest paid plan that one person can buy, with monthly billing: $0 scores 100, $30 or more scores 0 (weight 3). Annual-billing prices, first-months promotions and student discounts are ignored; plans that require two or more seats and pay-per-hour pricing are not used. If the official pricing page shows the monthly price only after a script runs, the fact stays empty. Also a permanent free plan (weight 2); a free trial does not count.
30%
Features
How many languages the vendor says it can transcribe, on a logarithmic scale up to 100 (weight 2); whether it records and transcribes meetings in all three of Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, with a bot or without (weight 2); automatic speaker identification (weight 1); subtitle export in SRT or VTT (weight 1) and a documented public API (weight 1). A fact shows that the feature exists on some plan, not that the cheapest plan has it.
30%
Privacy and security
Whether the vendor says your recordings and transcripts are not used to train its AI models by default — no training at all, or only if you opt in (weight 2); a SOC 2 audit stated on an official page (weight 2); HIPAA compliance or a business associate agreement (weight 1); a GDPR data processing agreement for customers (weight 1) and single sign-on (weight 1). Training with an opt-out counts as training by default. We record the vendor's statement; we do not audit it.
10%
Track record
How long the company has been running: 15 years or more scores 100 (weight 1), and whether it publishes a public status page with incidents (weight 1).
How to choose an AI transcription tool
Count your minutes and meetings
Free and cheap plans limit transcription minutes, meeting length or the number of meetings per month. Estimate how many hours you record each month and check the limit on the plan, not just the price.
Check languages and platforms
Make sure the tool transcribes every language your meetings use and works with the meeting platforms you and your clients use, with a bot or as a desktop recorder.
Ask everyone before you record
Tell participants that the meeting is being recorded and transcribed, and get consent where it is required. Rules on recording differ by country and by organisation.
Decide where your recordings may go
Read whether the vendor trains AI on your data and how to switch it off, how long recordings are kept and whether you can delete them. For health or legal work, check for a BAA, a DPA and SSO before you start.
Frequently asked questions
Which AI transcription tool is best?
The service in first place has the highest Score under our open method, but the Score does not measure transcription accuracy or how well a tool fits your meetings. Check the languages you need, the platforms you meet on and the monthly minutes, then try the free plan or trial on your own recordings.
How do you compare prices?
We take the cheapest paid plan that one person can buy, with monthly billing, in US dollars, as shown on the vendor's official pricing page. Annual billing is usually much cheaper; the note on each service's page shows the annual price when we saw it. Team plans with a minimum number of seats and pay-per-hour pricing are not used.
Why is the price empty for some services?
Some pricing pages show the monthly price only after a script runs in the browser, or show only the annual price. We record only what is readable on the official page, so the fact stays empty and lowers data completeness. A few sites also refused our automated check; those services are listed outside the ranking.
Do you measure transcription accuracy?
No. Accuracy depends on audio quality, accents, jargon and language, and a fair test is hard to repeat. We use only facts that anyone can check on the vendor's own pages.
What does "not used for AI training by default" mean?
The vendor's official page says your recordings and transcripts are not used to train its AI models, or only with your explicit opt-in. If a vendor trains on your data — even de-identified — unless you switch it off, the fact is "no". Statements that only cover third-party AI providers are not enough.