Best AI Notetaker for Zoom in 2026: 6 Tools Compared (Bot vs Bot-Free)

The best AI notetaker for Zoom for most people in 2026 is Scribbl, because it captures your Zoom call without ever sending a bot into the meeting, also works on Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, and connects each call to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up work actually gets done. The single biggest decision is whether a bot joins your call, so we lead with that: Fathom, Fireflies, Otter, and tl;dv all send a visible bot into the meeting by default, and Zoom AI Companion is native but Zoom-only.

Quick answer: the best Zoom AI notetaker for each use case

If you only read one section, read this. Each pick links to its full breakdown below.

• Best overall and best bot-free: Scribbl. No bot on Zoom, Meet, or Teams, free for 10 meetings a month, turns the call into finished work through ChatGPT or Claude and Automations.
• Best native option (no extra tool): Zoom AI Companion. Built into Zoom, included on most paid plans, admin-enabled, Zoom-only.
• Free recording with a bot: Fathom. Free recording, but advanced AI summaries cover only your first 5 calls a month and a visible bot joins every call.
• Best for CRM and call search: Fireflies. Deep CRM push and a searchable archive, bot-based.
• Best for live captions and accessibility: Otter.ai. Fast live transcript, bot by default.
• Best for clip sharing and highlights: tl;dv. Excellent moment-sharing, bot-based.
• Best for solo live note-takers: Granola. Bot-free, but it deletes the audio after transcribing, so there is no recording.

How we compared these Zoom AI notetakers

We compared every tool on the same factors.

• Six factors. We compared each tool on (1) capture method (bot vs bot-free on Zoom), (2) transcription and summary quality, (3) Zoom-plus-other-platform coverage, (4) integrations and security, (5) what happens after the meeting (does it turn notes into work), and (6) pricing and free-plan honesty.
• Consent on every external call. A tool being bot-free does not remove your obligation to tell people when the law or your policy requires it.

6 tools

Plus Zoom AI Companion as the native baseline

6 factors

Capture, quality, coverage, integrations, follow-up, price

Zoom AI notetaker comparison table

Here are the leading Zoom AI notetakers in one place. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page on October 7, 2026; they change often and vary by region and currency, so confirm the current number on each vendor's pricing page before you buy.

Tool	Bot or bot-free on Zoom	Platforms	Free plan	Starting paid price	Key integrations	Languages
Scribbl	Bot-free, nothing joins	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, 10 meetings a month, no credit card	$13/user/mo billed annually, $20 monthly	ChatGPT, Claude, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Slack, Teams, Notion, Jira, Asana	More than 85
Zoom AI Companion	Native, no separate bot	Zoom only	3 hosted meetings a month on free Zoom; included on paid Zoom	Bundled with paid Zoom	Zoom apps; ChatGPT and Claude on paid Zoom plans	Many (via Zoom)
Fathom	Bot joins the call	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes; advanced AI summaries on your first 5 calls a month	$16/user/mo billed annually, $20 monthly	ChatGPT, Claude, CRM, Slack, task tools	Many
Fireflies	Bot ("Fred") joins	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, limited storage	$10/seat/mo billed annually, $18 monthly	ChatGPT, Claude, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack	Many
Otter.ai	Bot by default	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, 300 min/mo	$8.33/user/mo billed annually, $16.99 monthly	ChatGPT, Claude, Salesforce, Slack	Fewer
tl;dv	Bot joins the call	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, 10 AI notes in total	Paid tiers (check site)	ChatGPT and Claude (Pro), CRM, Slack, Notion	Many
Granola	Bot-free, deletes the audio	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android	Yes, notes from the last 30 days	$14/user/mo (Business, billed monthly)	ChatGPT, Claude (MCP)	Fewer

Bot vs bot-free on Zoom: the decision that comes first

Feature lists for Zoom notetakers all start to look the same: transcript, summary, action items, search. Those are table stakes now. The real fork in the road is mechanical, and it shapes every call you take: does the tool join your Zoom meeting as a participant, or not?

A bot notetaker shows up in the Zoom gallery, adds to the participant count, often triggers a join notification, may need admitting through the waiting room, and can be removed by anyone on the call. A bot-free notetaker does none of that. Nothing joins the call, and the notes are ready after it ends.

For internal standups, the difference is minor. For client calls, sales calls, interviews, and any external conversation, it is the whole game. An obvious vendor-named "notetaker" participant can make people guarded, and an unknown attendee on a sensitive call reads as a risk.

Bot-free

• How it works: nothing joins the Zoom call
• What others see: nothing new in the participant list
• Consent posture: you control when and how you disclose
• Examples: Scribbl, Granola (Zoom AI Companion is native)
• Best for: client, candidate, and external Zoom calls where a bot looks intrusive

Bot-based

• How it captures: a named attendee joins your Zoom call and records
• What others see: an extra tile next to the real people
• Consent posture: the bot announces itself, sometimes by surprise
• Examples: Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, tl;dv by default
• Best for: async coverage when you are not in the call yourself

A bot is convenient because it can attend for you, but it shows up as a tile next to the real people and starts recording. On external Zoom calls that can feel intrusive and it raises a consent question, because the other side did not agree to a recording assistant. The takeaway is not that bots are forbidden, it is that you should choose one on purpose. For the deeper category breakdown, see our botless AI notetaker and private AI notetaker guides.

Zoom AI Companion: the native baseline

Before you add a third-party tool, it is worth knowing what Zoom gives you out of the box. Zoom AI Companion is built into Zoom and can produce a meeting summary and a list of next steps with no separate app. Because it is native, there is no extra bot in the participant list, and on most paid Zoom plans (Pro, Business, and higher) it is included at no additional cost.

The catch is scope. AI Companion only works inside Zoom, so it does nothing for your Google Meet or Teams calls. It has to be enabled by your account admin, and a host has to start it for a given meeting, so it is not guaranteed to be on for every call you join. Its summary is solid for internal recaps but does not push notes into a CRM or draft your follow-up email for you. If your week spans Meet and Teams, or you want the meeting to turn into finished work, Scribbl is the better fit.

The 7 Zoom AI notetakers, ranked by who they suit

We grouped the field by capture method first, then ranked within each group on summary quality, follow-through, integrations, and price. Scribbl ranks first because nothing joins the call and the follow-up gets done.

1. Scribbl: best overall and best bot-free

What it is. A desktop app for Mac and Windows (Scribbl Desktop) that records, transcribes, and summarizes Zoom and Microsoft Teams, plus a Chrome extension that does the same on Google Meet, with no bot on any of them. Nothing joins the participant list.

Best for. People who take client, candidate, or sales calls on Zoom and do not want a stranger tile in the room, and anyone who wants the meeting to turn into finished work instead of a stored transcript.

What to know. Scribbl captures the Zoom call without adding a participant, so an external client call looks like a normal call. Smart Collections sort each meeting into groups you describe, so you can ask ChatGPT or Claude about just one group ("What were the main objections in my sales calls this week?"), and Automations draft the follow-up rather than leaving raw notes to rework. You can also tell it the job in plain words, and it runs with your own Claude.

Key features. Bot-free capture across Zoom, Meet, and Teams; the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes, and action items for every meeting; search across meetings; connects each meeting to ChatGPT or Claude so the work gets done; Automations that draft the follow-up email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Teams, and open Jira or Asana tickets, asking before they change anything by default; Smart Collections that sort meetings by themselves into groups you describe in one sentence; Scribbl Desktop for Zoom and Teams, Chrome extension for Google Meet; free plan, no credit card.

Pricing. Free plan with 10 meetings a month, no credit card. Pro is $13 per user per month billed annually, or $20 monthly, and lifts the meeting limits. Team adds Smart Collections and Automations that include teammates' meetings once each person says yes, plus seats, admins and one bill. See the pricing page.

Pros. Truly bot-free on Zoom, Meet, and Teams, so it is invisible in external calls. Turns the meeting into the next step (follow-up email, summary, CRM note), not just a transcript. Free plan with no credit card. Rated 5.0 from 3,000 reviews on the Chrome Web Store and 4.9 from 725 reviews on G2, across 10,000+ organizations.

2. Zoom AI Companion: best native option

What it is. Zoom's own built-in AI, which summarizes the meeting and lists next steps with no separate tool or bot.

Best for. People who live entirely in Zoom, already pay for an eligible plan, and mainly need internal recaps.

What to know. Because it is native, there is no extra participant, and on paid Zoom plans it connects to ChatGPT and Claude. But it is Zoom-only, has to be admin-enabled and host-started, and does not connect to a CRM or draft follow-up for you.

Pricing. Included at no extra cost on most paid Zoom plans. A free Zoom account gets summaries for 3 meetings you host each month.

Pros. No extra tool, no separate bot, bundled with paid Zoom.

Cons. Zoom-only, depends on admin and host enabling it, limited follow-up and integrations.

3. Fathom: free recording, with a bot in the call

What it is. A popular notetaker that joins your Zoom call as a recording participant.

Best for. Individuals who do not mind a bot in the room.

What to know. The default capture is a bot, so it appears in the participant list (bot-free capture is a beta on Mac). The free plan records without a cap, but advanced AI summaries cover only your first 5 calls each month, and AI action items, AI follow-up emails, and Ask Fathom need Premium ($16 per user per month billed annually, or $20 monthly). Compare in Scribbl vs Fathom and the Fathom alternative guide.

Pros. Free recording with no cap. Clean interface.

Cons. Bot-based by default, so it is visible to everyone on the call. Advanced AI summaries are capped on the free plan.

4. Fireflies: best for CRM and search

What it is. A notetaker whose "Fred" bot joins from your calendar on Zoom, Meet, and Teams. Heavy on CRM integrations and conversation search.

Best for. Sales and revenue teams that want notes pushed into a CRM and a searchable archive of calls.

What to know. The CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot) and search are the reason to pick Fireflies, but it is a visible bot in every call. Compare in Scribbl vs Fireflies and the Fireflies alternative guide.

Pros. Deep CRM integrations. Strong search across past calls.

Cons. A named bot joins every meeting.

5. Otter.ai: best for live captions and accessibility

What it is. A long-standing transcription tool whose Notetaker bot auto-joins from your calendar. It offers a no-bot mode on some platforms, but the bot is the default.

Best for. People who want live captions and a fast transcript, especially for accessibility.

What to know. Otter's live transcript is its strength, but the default experience is a bot in the room. Choose an auto-joining bot on purpose rather than by default. See Scribbl vs Otter and the Otter alternative guide.

Pros. Fast, accurate live captions. Good for accessibility.

Cons. Bot by default on Zoom. The no-bot mode is not the default.

6. tl;dv: best for clip sharing

What it is. A bot-based notetaker with good highlight and clip-sharing features across Zoom, Meet, and Teams. The free plan includes 10 AI notes in total.

Best for. Teams that share meeting moments, like product or research clips, with people who were not on the call.

What to know. The clip and highlight workflow is the standout. Capture is a bot by default. See Scribbl vs tl;dv and the tl;dv alternative guide.

Pros. Excellent clip sharing.

Cons. Bot-based by default. AI notes on the free plan run out after 10.

7. Granola: best for solo live note-takers

What it is. An app for Mac and Windows (with iOS and Android apps) that captures meeting audio and blends your own typed notes with an AI summary. No bot joins the call. It transcribes and then deletes the audio, so there is no recording.

Best for. Founders, PMs, and knowledge workers who like to jot a few notes live and have the AI clean them up afterward.

What to know. Granola shines when you type during the call: it merges your shorthand with the transcript so the summary feels like notes you would have written. It is solo by design, so it is less suited to shared team libraries, and with no recording there is no video to go back to.

Pros. Genuinely bot-free. Great if you take notes by hand and want them upgraded.

Cons. No recording or video, because it deletes the audio. Less of a team or CRM tool.

Integrations: where your Zoom notes end up

A transcript that sits in a separate app is half-useless. The point is getting the notes into the tools you already work in. Here is how the field breaks down.

• CRM. Scribbl's Automations log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive. Fireflies and Otter push call notes into Salesforce and HubSpot, and Fathom and tl;dv offer CRM connections on paid tiers.
• Chat (Slack, Teams). Scribbl's Automations post the recap to Slack or Microsoft Teams. Fireflies and tl;dv can post a summary to Slack.
• Task and docs tools. Scribbl's Automations open Linear, Jira, Asana, or Monday tickets, save notes to Notion, Google Drive, or Confluence, and add a Google Sheet row, and by default they ask before changing anything. tl;dv connects to Notion.
• The AI you already use (ChatGPT, Claude). Scribbl, Fathom, Fireflies, Otter, tl;dv (on Pro), Granola, and Zoom AI Companion (on paid Zoom plans) all connect to ChatGPT or Claude. Scribbl's difference is what sits around that connection: Smart Collections sort each meeting into groups you describe in one sentence, so you can ask about just one group ("What were the main objections in my sales calls this week?"), and you can tell it the job in plain words and it runs with your own Claude. The notes are not the finish line; getting the work done is.

Zoom AI notetaker privacy: how buyers screen

If you record client or candidate calls, check these before you buy.

• Who joins the call. A bot-based tool adds a named outside participant and account to every meeting, which security teams have to vet and clients notice. Scribbl adds nothing to the participant list and sends no attendee email.
• AI-training policy and data residency. Ask whether your meeting data is used to train models and where it is stored. Scribbl recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you.
• Consent and disclosure. A bot-free tool you control gives you a tighter consent and disclosure posture than a bot that auto-joins and auto-records.

How to take AI notes on a Zoom call without a bot

Setting up bot-free capture takes a few minutes. Here is the path for an individual, then for a Zoom workspace admin.

For an individual user

1. Install Scribbl Desktop for Mac or Windows and create a free account. Download it from scribbl.co/desktop. No credit card is needed to start.
2. Join your Zoom call in the Zoom app as you normally would. Scribbl Desktop records from your own computer. The Scribbl Chrome extension is for Google Meet only, so it does not record Zoom, even in a browser tab.
3. Let the conversation happen. Nothing joins, nothing is announced, and the participant list stays human.
4. Get your notes after the call. You receive a transcript, an AI summary, and action items, ready to review or share.
5. Send the work to the AI you already use. Scribbl connects the meeting to ChatGPT or Claude, so you can draft the follow-up email, pull decisions, or update your CRM from the transcript instead of retyping it.

For a Zoom workspace admin

1. Decide your default capture posture. If you want a clean participant list on external calls, standardize on a bot-free tool rather than letting bots auto-join from calendars.
2. Review Zoom AI Companion settings. In the Zoom admin console you can enable or disable AI Companion org-wide and control whether hosts can start it. Decide whether it covers your needs or whether you also need a cross-platform tool.
3. Roll out Scribbl Desktop to your team. Have team members install Scribbl Desktop for Mac or Windows and sign in. Add the Chrome extension for anyone who also meets on Google Meet.
4. Set a consent norm. Standardize how your team discloses recording on external calls so it is consistent and compliant, not improvised per rep.
5. Connect your downstream tools. Point notes at the CRM, Slack, or AI assistant your team already uses so the follow-up lands where work happens.

How accurate are AI notetakers on Zoom?

Accuracy is the factor people underestimate. On clear English audio with a decent mic, good tools land roughly 90 to 95 percent word accuracy. That number drops fast with crosstalk, strong accents, heavy jargon, and poor audio. Two practical notes:

• Words are more reliable than speaker labels. Even when the transcript is accurate, who-said-what attribution slips, especially with similar voices or when someone joins late. Spot-check names before you share notes.
• Clean capture beats noisy capture. Tools that capture clean audio transcribe more reliably than tools fighting background noise.

No tool is perfect, so treat the summary as a strong draft, not gospel, and skim the transcript for anything load-bearing (a number, a commitment, a date) before you act on it.

Which Zoom AI notetaker should you pick?

Use this decision framework to self-select.

• You take client, candidate, or sales calls on Zoom. Go bot-free so nothing intrudes on an external relationship. Scribbl.
• You live across Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. Pick one bot-free tool that covers all three. Scribbl does, on every platform.
• You want notes to turn into finished work. Scribbl's Smart Collections sort each meeting by itself, so you can ask ChatGPT or Claude about just one group of meetings, and you can tell it the job in plain words and it runs with your own Claude.
• You want your CRM and task tools updated after the call. Scribbl's Automations log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Teams, and open Jira or Asana tickets, and you can search across every meeting.
• You want to start free. Scribbl's free plan covers 10 meetings a month on Zoom, Meet, and Teams, with AI notes and action items on every one, no credit card.
• You live entirely in Zoom and just need internal recaps. Zoom AI Companion suits that, if your admin has it on.

Our pick for an AI notetaker for Zoom without a bot: Scribbl

For most people who want Zoom notes without a bot, Scribbl is the cleanest answer. It records, transcribes, and summarizes Zoom and Microsoft Teams with Scribbl Desktop for Mac and Windows, and Google Meet with a Chrome extension, and it never adds a participant to any of them. You get the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes, and action items after the call, and Automations draft the follow-up email, log the CRM note, and post the summary instead of leaving it in a transcript. The free plan covers 10 meetings a month and needs no credit card, Pro is $13 per user per month billed annually and lifts the meeting limits, and Team adds Smart Collections and Automations that include teammates' meetings once each person says yes, plus seats, admins and one bill. Sales teams can route notes into their workflow from Scribbl for sales.

Related AI notetaker guides

• Best Zoom AI notetaker
• Best AI notetaker with no bot
• Zoom meeting transcription and get a transcript from a recorded Zoom meeting
• Microsoft Teams AI notetaker and Google Meet AI notetaker
• Scribbl for sales, Scribbl for teams, and Scribbl for agencies

AI notetaker for Zoom FAQ

What is the best AI notetaker for Zoom in 2026?

Scribbl is our top pick for most people on Zoom. No bot ever joins the call, the same account covers Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, every meeting gets the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes, and action items, and each meeting connects to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up work gets done. The free plan covers 10 meetings a month with no credit card. Fathom, Fireflies, Otter, and tl;dv all send a visible bot into the Zoom call by default.

Does Zoom have a built-in AI note taker?

Yes. Zoom AI Companion is built into Zoom and can generate a meeting summary and next steps with no extra tool. It is included at no added cost on most paid Zoom plans, but it has to be enabled by your account admin, it works inside the Zoom ecosystem rather than across Meet and Teams, and a host has to start it for the meeting. Third-party notetakers add cross-platform support, deeper integrations, and follow-up automation that the native Companion does not.

Can I record a Zoom meeting without a bot?

Yes. A bot-free notetaker takes notes with nothing joining the call, so nothing appears in the participant list, nothing is announced to the room, and no email is sent to attendees. Scribbl is bot-free on Zoom and Teams with Scribbl Desktop, and on Google Meet with its Chrome extension. Recording-consent laws still apply, so disclose recording where your jurisdiction or company policy requires it.

Is the Zoom AI Companion free?

Zoom AI Companion is included at no additional cost with most paid Zoom plans (Pro, Business, and higher), so there is no separate AI fee, and an admin has to turn it on. A free Zoom account gets summaries for only 3 meetings you host each month, so if you want a free AI notetaker for every call without a paid Zoom plan, a third-party tool like Scribbl with a free plan is the simpler path.

Which Zoom AI notetakers are bot-free?

Scribbl is bot-free on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. Granola transcribes local audio with no bot, then deletes the audio, so there is no recording. Zoom's own AI Companion is native rather than a separate bot. Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and tl;dv send a visible named bot into the Zoom call by default, which everyone in the room can see.

Are AI notetakers accurate on Zoom?

Good ones reach roughly 90 to 95 percent word accuracy on clear English audio with a decent microphone. Accuracy drops with crosstalk, strong accents, heavy jargon, and poor audio. Speaker labels are less reliable than the words themselves, so spot-check who-said-what before sharing notes. Treat the AI summary as a strong draft and skim the transcript for anything load-bearing, like a number, a commitment, or a date.