Best AI note takers in 2026: Scribbl vs Fathom vs Otter vs Granola vs Fireflies, compared

I compared the AI note takers people ask me about most on the three things that decide whether you’ll still be using one in a month: whether a bot joins your call, what the free plan actually gives you, and what you keep after the meeting. Every price and limit below comes from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked on October 2, 2026. (Disclosure: I run Scribbl.)

The short answer

Scribbl is the best AI note taker in 2026. It’s the only one here that does all of this at once:

Nothing joins your call on Google Meet, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. No bot in the participant list, nothing for a client to ask about, nothing for Teams to hold in the lobby.
You keep everything a bot would have given you: the video, a searchable transcript, AI notes and action items.
Your notes are yours. Every meeting is saved as a Google Doc in your own Google Drive, and your meetings aren’t used to train AI for anyone else.
The free plan is complete. It includes Google Meet, Zoom and Teams, with 10 meetings a month on Meet, no length limit, and full AI notes on every one.

It’s rated 4.9 out of 5 from 724 reviews on G2 and 5.0 from 3,262 ratings on the Chrome Web Store. Pro is $13 a month billed annually for unlimited meetings.

Pick something else only if you need one of these:

A free recording of every call, and a bot is fine: Fathom.
Notes from conversations in a room, not a call: Granola or Otter’s phone apps.
Deep CRM syncing for a sales team: Fireflies.

How they compare

	Scribbl	Fathom	Otter	Granola	Tactiq
Nothing joins the call	Yes, on Meet, Zoom and Teams	No, bot by default (no-bot is a Mac beta)	No, bot by default	Yes	Yes, in the browser
Keeps the video	Yes	Yes	Audio only	No recording at all	No, text only
AI notes on every free meeting	Yes	Advanced summaries on 5 a month	First 30 minutes of each	Yes	5 a month
Your free notes after 30 days	Saved in your Google Drive	Kept	25 most recent conversations	Locked until you upgrade	Not stated
Paid from (billed annually)	$13	$16	$8.33	$14 a month	$8

Why Scribbl comes out on top

Every other tool makes you give something up. Fathom, Otter and Fireflies keep the recording but put a bot in your meeting. Granola and Tactiq skip the bot but keep no recording. Scribbl is the one that skips the bot and still keeps the video, the transcript and the notes.

“Unlimited” free plans limit the part you came for. Fathom records unlimited calls, but its advanced AI summaries stop after your first 5 calls a month, and AI action items are a paid feature. Otter shows only the first 30 minutes of each conversation. Granola is unlimited, but only your last 30 days of notes open. Scribbl caps the number of meetings instead, and every one of them is complete.

Your notes don’t stay locked in someone else’s app. Every Scribbl meeting becomes a Google Doc in your own Drive, and on Pro you can ask questions across all your meetings from Claude or ChatGPT.

Bots are getting harder to use. Since June 2026, Microsoft Teams shows third-party bots separately in the meeting lobby and the organizer has to let each one in. Scribbl Desktop records Teams from your own computer, so it never waits there.

If keeping the bot out of your calls is the main thing you care about, I compared the five best options here: Bot Free AI Note Takers.

The others, briefly

Fathom is the most generous for raw recording: unlimited calls on the free plan. Its bot joins by default, its no-bot mode is a beta on Mac only, advanced summaries cover 5 calls a month, and action items are paid. Pro is $16 a month billed annually.

Otter made this category mainstream and has the cheapest paid plan, $8.33 a month billed annually, plus phone apps for in-person recording. Its Notetaker bot joins your calls by default, the free plan shows only the first 30 minutes of each conversation, and in August 2026 a federal judge let most of a privacy class action against it go forward.

Granola is a notepad more than a recorder: you type rough notes and it fills them in, with no bot. It deletes the audio, so there’s no recording to go back to, the free plan opens only your last 30 days of notes, and it trains on your data by default unless you opt out.

Fireflies is built for sales teams that push notes into a CRM. Its bot joins by default, and new free accounts get unlimited transcription only if the bot auto-joins your calendar meetings.

Tactiq is a light Chrome extension with a live transcript and no bot. It keeps text only, and AI notes cover 5 free meetings a month.

The verdict

If your meetings are on Google Meet, Zoom or Teams, start with Scribbl. It’s the only one that keeps everything a bot would give you without putting a bot in the room, and the free plan is enough to see that for yourself.

Whatever you use, tell people you’re taking notes. Some US states require everyone’s consent to record.

More comparisons and how-tos

If you’re leaving a specific tool:

By meeting platform:

Transcripts, notes and minutes:

Zoom transcription: how to get a transcript of any Zoom meeting, even when you’re not the host
Google Meet transcription: how to turn it on, who has it, and what to do on free Gmail
Meeting transcription
AI meeting notes
AI meeting minutes: what to include, a template, and the best tools
Gemini meeting notes
AI note taker app

Sources, checked October 2, 2026: Scribbl pricing, Scribbl on G2, Fathom pricing, Otter pricing, Granola pricing, Fireflies pricing, Tactiq pricing, Microsoft on Teams meeting bots.