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The best meeting transcription apps in 2026, by how you meet

Meeting transcription apps ranked by how you meet: in a room, on video calls, or from recordings you already have. Free tiers compared, October 2026.

Updated 6 min read

On this page
  1. AI Transcribe: best for in-person meetings, Mac calls and existing recordings
  2. Otter: best for scheduled video calls with a team
  3. Fireflies: best for CRM and workflow integrations
  4. Notta: best for bilingual teams on the web
  5. Apple Voice Memos: best free option for a short memo
  6. The comparison table
  7. How to choose in one question
  8. Frequently asked questions
  9. Check these for yourself

"Meeting transcription app" covers two different products. One sends a bot into your Zoom, Meet or Teams call. The other records the room from your phone, or takes a recording you already have, and gives you the transcript and the notes. Most rankings mix them up. This one sorts by how you actually meet. AI Transcribe is our app; each section says where another app is the better choice.

TL;DR

For meetings in a room, recordings you already have, or video calls you want to record without a bot, use AI Transcribe on iPhone and Mac. For scheduled video calls with a team workspace, Otter or Fireflies with their bots. For a free transcript of a short memo, Apple Voice Memos on a newer iPhone. Check the free tiers carefully: Otter's free plan allows three file imports for the life of the account.

1. AI Transcribe: best for in-person meetings, Mac calls and existing recordings

AI Transcribe is an AI note taker for iPhone and Mac. On iPhone it records the room for up to two hours, or imports any audio or video file up to three hours. On a Mac it records video calls by capturing the call's audio and your microphone together, so both sides are in the transcript and nothing joins the call. Either way you get a transcript with speaker labels and timestamps in 32 languages, and then the 20+ AI tools do the part that matters: meeting notes, action items by owner, a decisions log, a follow-up email, a summary, a translation.

Sign in with your email and recordings sync between iPhone and Mac, open in a web library, and can be shared with a link that needs no account.

  • Best for: meetings in a room, video calls recorded on a Mac, interviews, lectures, and recordings you already have, up to three hours
  • Free tier: a 3-day free trial of Pro on iPhone or Mac; no ongoing free plan
  • Paid: Pro subscription, weekly or annual, one purchase for iPhone and Mac
  • Watch out for: there is no bot, so a call is only captured if you record it on your Mac (the app offers to when Zoom, Teams or Meet starts a call) or import the platform's recording. No team workspace or CRM integration.

2. Otter: best for scheduled video calls with a team

Otter's bot joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, transcribes live and shares the notes with a workspace. It also has a Mac and Windows desktop app that can record meetings without the bot. It is the established choice for teams whose week is a calendar of video calls.

  • Best for: recurring team calls with shared notes
  • Free tier: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, and 3 audio or video file imports for the life of the account (as of October 2026)
  • Paid: Pro at $8.33 a month billed annually or $16.99 monthly, with 1,200 recording minutes and 10 file imports a month
  • Watch out for: the cap of three file imports for the life of the free account. Meetings recorded directly in Otter instead count against the monthly and per-conversation limits.

3. Fireflies: best for CRM and workflow integrations

Fireflies' notetaker joins calls and the transcript feeds into Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack and dozens of other tools. It can also capture without a bot through its desktop app and Chrome extension. Strongest when the transcript is the start of a workflow rather than the end product.

  • Best for: sales and customer teams that push notes into a CRM
  • Free tier: three meeting transcriptions by default, or unlimited eligible transcripts with Auto-join turned on; AI features and storage have their own limits (as of October 2026)
  • Watch out for: the integrations are built around calls, and speaker labels are not available when recording without the bot on desktop.

4. Notta: best for bilingual teams on the web

Notta transcribes uploads and live audio in a large number of languages, on the web, in its mobile app, and in a Mac and Windows desktop app that records meetings without a bot. See AI Transcribe vs Notta for the detail.

  • Best for: desk-based work in Japanese, Chinese and other non-English languages
  • Watch out for: the free plan allows 120 minutes a month but only three minutes per recording (as of October 2026); longer meetings need a paid plan.

5. Apple Voice Memos: best free option for a short memo

Since iOS 18, Voice Memos transcribes recordings on iPhone 12 or later, in 10 languages, including older recordings when you open them, and supported Macs do the same. No speaker labels, no action items, no file imports. On Apple Intelligence iPhones you can summarize a transcript with Writing Tools. For a five-minute memo it is enough. For a one-hour meeting you will be reading a wall of text.

  • Best for: a quick memo you want as text
  • Free tier: fully free
  • Watch out for: no meeting notes or action items, and nothing for recordings made elsewhere. See AI Transcribe vs Apple Voice Memos.

The comparison table

Records in the room Joins video calls Imports files Speaker labels Meeting notes and action items Free tier
AI Transcribe Yes, 2 h No bot; records calls on Mac Yes, 3 h Yes Yes, 20+ tools Free trial only
Otter Yes, in app Yes, bot 3 lifetime on free Yes Yes 300 min/month
Fireflies Mobile app Yes, bot; botless on desktop Yes Yes (not in botless desktop mode) Yes 3 meetings, more with Auto-join
Notta Yes Yes, bot; botless on desktop Yes Yes Summary 120 min/month, 3 min per recording
Apple Voice Memos Yes No No No Summary via Writing Tools Fully free

How to choose in one question

Where does the audio come from? If a bot can be in the call and your team lives in a shared workspace, the bot tools are convenient. If the meeting is in a room, or the recording already exists, weigh how well each app records in person and imports files, and what its plan limits allow. Several apps here do both; compare their capture options and limits rather than the category they started in.

Frequently asked questions

Which meeting transcription app is free? Otter, Fireflies, Notta and Voice Memos have free plans; AI Transcribe has a free trial instead. The honest differences are the limits: Otter caps file imports at three for the life of the free account, Voice Memos is free but produces no meeting notes, and AI Transcribe lets you record and transcribe without subscribing, with two free AI actions and one chat answer before Pro.

What is the most accurate meeting transcription app? Accuracy varies with audio quality, the number of speakers and the language, and we have not run a controlled test across these apps. Test a recording that is typical for you before choosing. Recording conditions matter a lot: see how to record a meeting on iPhone for placement.

Do I need a bot to transcribe a meeting? No. A bot is one way to capture a video call. For a meeting in a room, the phone on the table is the recorder. For a call, a Mac app that records the call's audio (AI Transcribe, or Otter's desktop app) captures both sides without anyone joining, or you can record on the platform and import the file.

Can these apps tell who said what? Otter, Fireflies, Notta and AI Transcribe all label speakers. Voice Memos does not.

Check these for yourself

Limits and pricing in this category change often. These are the primary sources for every app named above, so you can check the numbers rather than take our word for them: