Best Zoom AI Notetaker in 2026: 6 Tools Compared and Ranked

The best Zoom AI notetaker 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, has a free plan with no credit card, and connects each call to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up work actually gets done. The rest of this guide ranks the leading tools against it, from Zoom's own AI Companion (Zoom-only, and an admin has to enable it) to Fathom, Fireflies, and Otter, which send a bot into your call by default. The single decision that shapes every call is whether a bot joins it, so we lead with that.

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 to start, turns the call into finished work through ChatGPT or Claude.
• Best free plan without a bot: Scribbl. 10 meetings a month on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, no credit card, nothing joins the call.
• Best for follow-up that gets done: Scribbl. Automations draft the email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, and post to Slack or Teams, asking before they change anything by default.
• Best native option (no extra tool): Zoom AI Companion. Built into Zoom, included on most paid plans, admin-enabled, Zoom-only.
• Best free plan if a bot is fine: Fathom. Capture is a visible participant in the call, and advanced AI summaries cover only your first 5 calls a month.
• Best for CRM and call search: Fireflies. 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. Moment-sharing, bot-based.
• Best for solo 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.

• Seven factors. We compared each tool on (1) capture method (bot vs bot-free, and how it attaches to Zoom), (2) transcription accuracy, (3) summary and action-item quality, (4) speaker identification, (5) Zoom-plus-other-platform coverage, (6) integrations, security, and pricing honesty, and (7) what happens after the meeting, meaning whether it turns notes into work.
• 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

7 factors

Capture, accuracy, summary, speaker ID, coverage, security, follow-up

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	Best for	Bot or bot-free on Zoom	How it attaches to Zoom	Platforms	Free plan	Starting paid price	Languages
Scribbl	Best overall, bot-free	Bot-free, nothing joins	Scribbl Desktop on your own computer	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, 10 meetings/mo, no credit card	$13/user/mo billed annually, $20 monthly (pricing)	More than 85
Zoom AI Companion	Native baseline	Native, no separate bot	Built into Zoom, admin-enabled	Zoom only	Summaries for 3 hosted meetings a month on free Zoom	Bundled with paid Zoom	Many (via Zoom)
Fathom	Free plan, bot is fine	Bot joins the call	Named bot joins from calendar	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes; advanced AI summaries on your first 5 calls a month	$16/user/mo billed annually, $20 monthly	Many
Fireflies	CRM and search	Bot ("Fred") joins	Named bot joins from calendar	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, limited storage	$10/seat/mo billed annually, $18 monthly	Many
Otter.ai	Live captions	Bot by default	Named bot auto-joins from calendar	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, 300 min/mo	$8.33/user/mo billed annually, $16.99 monthly	Fewer
tl;dv	Clip sharing	Bot joins the call	Named bot joins from calendar	Zoom, Meet, Teams	Yes, strong	Paid tiers (check site)	Many
Granola	Solo note-takers	Bot-free, deletes the audio	App captures local audio	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android	Yes, notes from the last 30 days	$14/user/mo (Business, billed monthly)	Fewer

The Zoom-specific question: Marketplace app vs bot-in-the-room vs native

Zoom note-taking is not quite like Google Meet or Teams, because there are three different ways a tool can attach to your call, and they feel very different in the room.

1. A bot joins as a participant. The most common model. The tool connects to your calendar, and at meeting time a named bot ("Fireflies Notetaker," "Otter," and so on) joins your Zoom call as a visible tile, raises the participant count, may need admitting through the waiting room, and records. This is convenient (it can attend for you) but unmistakable to everyone on the call.
2. A bot-free tool adds nothing to the call. Tools like Scribbl Desktop and Granola run as a desktop app on your computer. Nothing joins the participant list, nothing is announced, and no email goes to attendees. On external calls this is the difference between a normal-looking meeting and one with a stranger tile in it.
3. Zoom AI Companion is native. Zoom's own AI is built into the client, so it is neither a third-party Marketplace bot nor an extension. There is no extra participant, but it only works inside Zoom and depends on an admin enabling it and a host starting it.

Bot vs bot-free Zoom notetakers: 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?

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 guide and AI notetaker for Zoom without a bot.

Zoom AI Companion: the native baseline to compare against

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. Scribbl covers Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams in one account, gives you the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes, and action items for every meeting, and turns the meeting into finished work.

The 7 Zoom AI notetakers, ranked by who they suit

We grouped the field by capture method first, then ranked within each group on accuracy, summary quality, follow-through, integrations, and price. Scribbl comes out first; for the rest, each entry says who it suits.

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; Scribbl Desktop for Zoom and Teams, Chrome extension for Google Meet; free plan, no credit card.

Pricing. Free plan with 10 meetings a month and no credit card. Pro is $13 per user per month billed annually, or $20 monthly, and lifts the meeting limit. Team adds shared access and admin controls. 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.
• Automations do the follow-up: draft the email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Teams, or open a Jira or Asana ticket, asking before they change anything by default.
• Smart Collections sort meetings by themselves into groups you describe in one sentence.
• Free to start 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.

Choose if: you want bot-free Zoom notes that also cover Meet and Teams and turn into finished work.

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.

Skip if: you also use Meet or Teams, or you want CRM, integrations, or drafted follow-up.

3. Fathom: best free plan if a bot is fine

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

Best for. Individuals who want a strong free plan and 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. Unlimited recording on the free plan. 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.

Skip if: you take external calls where a visible bot is a problem.

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.

Skip if: you want a clean participant list on external calls.

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. Free plan with limited monthly minutes.

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

Skip if: you need bot-free capture by default.

6. tl;dv: best for clip sharing

What it is. A bot-based notetaker with a strong free plan and good highlight and clip-sharing features across Zoom, Meet, and Teams.

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. Strong free plan. Excellent clip sharing.

Cons. Bot-based by default.

Skip if: you want nothing visible in the call.

7. Granola: best for solo 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.

Skip if: you need a recording, a shared team library, or CRM push.

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.

• 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.
• Scribbl Automations. They do the follow-up for you: draft the email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Teams, save to Notion, Google Drive, or Confluence, open Linear, Jira, Asana, or Monday tickets, or add a Google Sheet row. By default they ask before they change anything.
• CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot). Fireflies and Otter push call notes into a CRM. Fathom and tl;dv offer CRM connections on paid tiers.
• Chat (Slack). Most tools here can post a summary to Slack, including Fireflies and tl;dv.
• Task and docs tools (Jira, Asana, Notion). tl;dv connects to Notion.

Zoom AI notetaker privacy: what to check before you record client calls

If you record client or candidate calls, check how each tool handles the call and your data before you buy, and confirm the current terms on each vendor's privacy page, since they change.

• Who is in the call. A bot-based tool adds an outside participant to every meeting. A bot-free tool like Scribbl adds nothing to the participant list on Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams, and sends no email to attendees.
• Data retention and AI-training policy. Ask whether your meeting data is used to train models and how long transcripts are retained. Scribbl recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you. A bot-free tool you control gives you a tighter consent and disclosure posture than a bot that auto-joins and auto-records.

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 to check the fit against your own meetings.

• You take client, candidate, or sales calls on Zoom. Go bot-free so nothing intrudes on an external relationship. Scribbl adds nothing to the participant list.
• You live across Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. Pick one bot-free tool that covers all three. Scribbl does, on every platform, in one account.
• 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 its Automations draft the follow-up, not just store it.
• You only use Zoom today. Scribbl gives you more than a recap: the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes, and action items for every meeting, with Google Meet and Teams in the same account when you need them.
• You want a free plan without a bot in the call. Scribbl gives you 10 meetings a month with no credit card.
• You need notes in your CRM and search across calls. Scribbl Automations log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, and you can search across every meeting.

Our pick for the best Zoom AI notetaker: 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 needs no credit card and covers 10 meetings a month, Pro lifts the meeting limit for $13 per user per month billed annually, Team adds shared access and admin controls, and sales teams can route notes into their workflow from Scribbl for sales.

Related AI notetaker guides

• AI notetaker for Zoom without a bot
• 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
• What botless actually means
• Scribbl for sales, Scribbl for teams

Zoom AI notetaker FAQ

What is the best Zoom AI notetaker in 2026?

Our top pick for most Zoom users is Scribbl, because it captures your call without sending any bot into the meeting, also works on Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, has a free plan with no credit card, and connects each call to ChatGPT or Claude so the follow-up work gets done. Zoom AI Companion is built in but works only inside Zoom and needs an admin to enable it, and Fathom, Fireflies, and Otter send a visible bot into the call by default.

Does Zoom have its own built-in AI notetaker?

Yes. Zoom AI Companion is built into Zoom and can produce a meeting summary and next steps with no extra tool. It is included at no added cost on most paid Zoom plans (Pro, Business, and higher), but it has to be enabled by your account admin, a host has to start it for each meeting, and it only works inside Zoom, not on Google Meet or Teams. Third-party notetakers add cross-platform coverage, deeper integrations, and follow-up automation the native Companion does not.

How does a Zoom AI notetaker actually attach to a call: a Marketplace app or a bot?

There are three ways. A bot joins your Zoom call as a visible named participant and records, which is how Fireflies, Otter, Fathom, and tl;dv work by default. A bot-free tool runs as a desktop app on your computer, so nothing joins the participant list, which is how Scribbl Desktop and Granola work. Zoom AI Companion is native to Zoom, so it is neither a separate bot nor a third-party Marketplace app. The decisive question for external calls is whether a stranger tile shows up in the room.

Is there a free Zoom AI notetaker?

Yes. Scribbl has a free plan with 10 meetings a month on Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams and no credit card required. Fathom (advanced AI summaries on only your first 5 calls a month), tl;dv, and Otter (300 monthly transcription minutes) also have free plans, but those capture with a visible bot. Zoom AI Companion is included with paid Zoom plans, and a free Zoom account gets meeting summaries for only 3 meetings you host each month, so if you want free AI notes on every call without paying for Zoom, a third-party tool 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, so nothing joins the call. Granola transcribes local audio with no bot, then deletes the audio, so there is no recording. Zoom AI Companion is native rather than a separate bot. Fireflies, Otter, Fathom, and tl;dv send a visible named bot into the Zoom call by default.

Do I need Zoom cloud recording turned on to use an AI notetaker?

It depends on the tool. Bot-based tools record the call themselves once they join, so they generally do not need your Zoom cloud-recording entitlement, though your account admin can still restrict who may admit bots or record. Zoom AI Companion's meeting summary can run without full cloud recording, but it must be enabled by an admin. Bot-free tools like Scribbl do not need it either (on Zoom, Scribbl uses Scribbl Desktop for Mac and Windows), so you do not need a paid Zoom recording plan at all. Always check your org's Zoom recording and consent policy first.

How accurate are AI notetakers on Zoom?

Good tools 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, and skim the transcript for anything load-bearing like a number, a commitment, or a date. Treat the AI summary as a strong draft, not gospel.

Are Zoom AI notetakers safe for client calls?

For client calls, check the vendor's data-retention and AI-training policy on its privacy page, since those change. Scribbl recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you. A bot-free tool you control also gives you a tighter consent posture, because nothing joins the call and you disclose recording in your own words instead of a vendor bot announcing itself by surprise. Recording-consent laws still apply either way, so disclose where your jurisdiction or company policy requires it.