The 5 best AI notetakers in 2026, compared and ranked

The best AI notetaker in 2026 is Runa. It takes notes in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and in person without a bot, puts a name on a speaker only when it can check, remembers every meeting and drafts the follow-up for you to approve. The other four each fit a particular kind of week: Granola suits people who type their own notes, Fireflies suits sales teams that want every update automated, Fathom suits teams that share clips of their calls, and Otter suits anyone who wants a live transcript on their phone, desktop or the web.

The ranking at a glance

1. Runa: best overall. No bot in any meeting, careful speaker names, answers from every past meeting, and the follow-up drafted when the call ends.
2. Granola: best for typing your own notes. You write during the call and it fills in the rest, on desktop and phone.
3. Fireflies: best for sales teams that automate everything. CRM and task updates across a whole team, without anyone clicking.
4. Fathom: best for sharing clips from calls. Recordings you can cut into clips and highlight playlists.
5. Otter: best for live transcripts on any device. Desktop, phone and web apps, with the transcript appearing as people talk.

How we ranked them

We read each product’s own website and help center in October 2026 and asked six questions that decide whether a notetaker earns a place in your week:

1. Does it need a bot? A bot sits in the attendee list, can’t hear a meeting room and is blocked by some IT teams.
2. Does it get the names right? Who said what, and what it does when it isn’t sure.
3. Does it work everywhere you meet? Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, browser calls and the conference room.
4. What happens after the call? The follow-up email, the CRM update and the tasks, and whether anything goes out without you.
5. Does it remember? Questions across all your meetings, with the sources shown.
6. What happens to your data? Whether the recording is kept, and who can open the notes.

Compared side by side

Runa and Granola are the two that never send a bot and, by default, send nothing without you. Runa ranks first because it also drafts follow-ups in Outlook, transcribes recordings you upload, and leaves a speaker unnamed rather than guessing.

1. Runa: best overall

Runa is an AI notepad for Mac and Windows. It records the call from your own computer, so nothing joins the meeting, and it works the same way in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, browser calls and meetings around a table. When a call app starts using your microphone, Runa offers to take notes, so an unscheduled call still gets written up. Type a few words as you go and Runa builds the write-up around them.

Names are where notetakers most often go wrong. Runa puts a name on a voice only when it has evidence it can check: who was invited, and who the meeting app showed as speaking. Otherwise it keeps a label like Speaker A. Rename a speaker once and every line from that person updates, along with their to-dos.

Before a meeting, Runa’s brief sums up where things stood after your last conversations, and each point links to its source. Afterward you can ask a question across all your meetings and see which meetings the answer came from, or open the page Runa keeps for every person and company you’ve met. The same meetings are available in ChatGPT and Claude through Runa’s read-only connector.

When the call ends, the follow-up email is drafted from what was said, ready to send from Gmail or Outlook, along with the HubSpot or Salesforce update, the to-dos with owners and a calendar invite if you agreed to meet again. Nothing is sent, and nothing is written to your CRM or calendar, until you approve it. Runa keeps the transcript and the notes, not the audio or video. Notes stay private until you share them, you choose how long they’re kept, and Runa doesn’t train AI models on your meetings.

Pick it if your week moves between Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and the meeting room, and you want each call to end with the follow-up done: founders, sales and customer teams, and anyone who runs a lot of external meetings.

Watch out for: Runa is a desktop app for Mac and Windows, with no phone or web app yet. To capture a conversation away from your laptop, record it on your phone and upload it by scanning a QR code. It only takes notes in meetings you attend, so it can’t stand in for you at one you skip.

2. Granola: best for typing your own notes

Granola is built around the notes you type. You write during the call, and afterward it fills in what you missed from the transcript. It records from your device without a bot, on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and its web app lets you read and edit notes. After meetings with outside guests it drafts a follow-up email that you send through Gmail, and it shares notes to HubSpot, Attio or Affinity.

Speaker names depend on setup. Granola’s speaker tags read participant names from Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams once you’ve turned them on. Without them, the transcript shows Me and Them, and its AI works out who said what from context. Granola doesn’t keep your audio.

Pick it if you already take notes in every meeting, work in Gmail, and want those notes tidied and completed.

Watch out for: follow-up emails work with Gmail only, not Outlook. Granola transcribes only once you open a meeting’s note, it can’t transcribe a recording you upload, and calls held back to back can merge into one transcript unless you stop it between them.

3. Fireflies: best for sales teams that automate everything

Fireflies sends its notetaker into Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and more than ten other platforms, or records without a bot from its Mac and Windows app, which also covers Slack huddles. It transcribes more than 100 languages and keeps the recording for playback. It automates more of the follow-up than anyone else here: an AI Skill can draft a follow-up email after every meeting, and it logs notes and tasks to HubSpot, Salesforce and other CRMs, and to Asana, Jira and Linear.

Pick it if you run a sales or operations team and want CRM and task updates to happen across everyone’s calls without anyone pressing a button.

Watch out for: much of that happens without a review. By default Fireflies emails its recap to everyone on the invite, outside guests included, and anyone with the recap link can open it. It also joins with a visible bot unless you record from the desktop app. Change the recap setting before you roll it out to customer calls.

4. Fathom: best for sharing clips from calls

Fathom records your calls and makes moments in them easy to pass around: clip a stretch of a call, collect highlights into playlists and search across calls. After each call it writes a summary and action items and turns them into a follow-up email for you to copy into your own mail app. Notes sync to HubSpot, Salesforce or Close after meetings with outside guests.

Fathom joins as a bot by default. Recording without a bot is in beta and only on Macs running macOS 14.2 or later; on Windows it’s limited to an early Microsoft Teams test. There’s an iPhone app for conversations in person, and no Android app.

Pick it if your team reviews and shares call moments, for sales coaching, hiring or customer research.

Watch out for: the CRM sync runs without a review step, and outside a Mac beta, Fathom records with a bot.

5. Otter: best for live transcripts on any device

Otter runs almost everywhere: Mac and Windows apps, iPhone and Android apps and a web app, with a transcript that appears as people talk. Its notetaker can join Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls on its own, or its desktop app records without a bot. It names speakers, keeps the audio for playback (and video for Zoom and Google Meet), and syncs notes from outside meetings to Salesforce or HubSpot.

Pick it if you record interviews, lectures and calls on your phone as well as your computer, and want everything in one searchable place.

Watch out for: Otter transcribes six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. It writes a follow-up email only when you ask its AI chat, and its CRM sync runs without a review step.

Which one should you choose?

• Your calls span Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and the meeting room, and you want the follow-up drafted for you: Runa.
• You type notes in every meeting and live in Gmail: Granola.
• You run a sales team and want the CRM updated without anyone clicking: Fireflies, after you change its recap setting.
• You share call clips for coaching or research: Fathom.
• You need transcripts on your phone and the web, in one of six languages: Otter.

How to test two notetakers in a week

Feature lists blur together. A week of real meetings shows the differences quickly.

1. Pick three real meetings. One call with five or more people, one customer or candidate conversation full of names and jargon, and one meeting in a room.
2. Run both tools on each. Tell everyone an AI is taking notes.
3. Check every name. Compare each transcript with who actually spoke. A generic label you can fix beats a confident wrong name.
4. Look for anything that went out on its own. Check your sent mail, your CRM and your team’s Slack channels for recaps or updates you didn’t approve.
5. Send one real follow-up from each. Notice which draft needed fewer fixes before it was safe to send.
6. Ask a question a week later. Try “What did the customer say about onboarding?” and see whether the answer shows which meeting it came from.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI notetaker in 2026?

For most people it’s Runa: it works in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and in person without a bot, names speakers only when it can check, and drafts the follow-up email and CRM update for you to approve. Granola is the better fit for people who write their own notes, and Fireflies if you want a sales team’s CRM updated automatically. For a wider comparison of 13 notetakers, see the best AI notetaker in 2026.

Which AI notetakers record without a bot?

Runa and Granola record from your computer and never send a bot. Fireflies and Otter join with a bot by default but also have desktop apps that record without one, and Fathom’s bot-free recording is a Mac beta. Whichever you use, tell people an AI is taking notes.

Which AI notetaker is best for Microsoft Teams?

Runa. It records Teams calls from your computer, so there’s no bot to admit from the lobby, and it drafts the follow-up in Outlook as well as Gmail. Granola also works in Teams without a bot, but its follow-up emails go through Gmail only.

Which AI notetakers keep a recording of the meeting?

Fireflies, Fathom and Otter keep the recording so you can play it back. Runa and Granola keep the transcript and the notes, not the audio.

Can an AI notetaker take notes in an in-person meeting?

Yes. Runa records the room through your laptop’s microphone, and Granola, Fireflies, Fathom and Otter have phone apps for conversations away from your desk.

Do these notetakers work with ChatGPT and Claude?

Yes. All five connect to ChatGPT and Claude, so you can ask about your meetings from either assistant. Runa’s connector is read-only: it can search and read your meetings but can’t change them.

Sources

We read each product’s own website and help center in October 2026. Features change often, so check the vendor’s site before you decide.

• Granola: speaker tags, how transcription works, follow-up emails
• Fireflies: desktop app, AI Skills, recap emails, CRM integrations
• Fathom: bot-free recording, follow-up emails, HubSpot sync, iPhone app
• Otter: notetaker, desktop app, supported languages, Salesforce