Best Meeting Recording Software (2026): 8 Options Compared
HypeScribe is our pick for teams that record both online calls and meetings in a room, and need transcripts and action items from them. Its notetaker records Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, Live Record uses your browser's microphone for in-person meetings, and uploads cover recordings you already have. If you only need a copy of a call, the recording built into Zoom, Meet or Teams is enough. Below are eight options: seven apps and the platforms' own recording.
- Calls and in-person meetings, with notes and tasks: HypeScribe.
- A copy of the call, nothing to add: Zoom, Google Meet or Teams recording.
- Video recordings of calls on a free plan: Fathom or tl;dv.
- Recording without a bot, with audio to replay: Otter's desktop app.
- Notes with no stored audio: Granola.
Meeting recording software compared
Facts are from each vendor's own pages in October 2026. "Not listed" means the pages don't say, not that the feature is missing.
HypeScribe: calls, rooms and uploaded recordings
HypeScribe records calls and in-person meetings itself, and takes the files from everything else, including Zoom, Meet and Teams recordings. Each recording gets a transcript with speakers, an overview and action items. It works in the browser and needs an internet connection.
- Notetaker for calls. Paste a Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams link, or pick the meeting from Google Calendar. The notetaker joins as its own participant, usually shown with your first name and Hypescribe Notetaker, posts in the meeting chat that the call is being recorded, and records audio and video with its camera off. Participants' real names appear in the transcript when the platform passes them.
- Live Record for the room. Record an in-person meeting in the browser on a laptop or a phone, with nothing to install.
- Upload recordings you already have. A file of any length, a link from Zoom, Google Drive, YouTube or Loom, or a recording forwarded by email.
After the meeting you get:
- The transcript split by speaker with timestamps, in 99+ languages, and how long each person spoke. Select a line and press Play from here to hear it.
- Notes: an overview, an outline of the topics and action items as a checklist.
- Answers: ask the AI assistant "What did we decide about pricing?" on the model you choose (GPT, Claude, Grok or DeepSeek), then check the answer in the recording.
- Sharing and export: download PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT or Markdown, save to Google Docs, share a view-only link or invite people by email.
- 18 integrations: the recap goes to Slack, Telegram or Gmail, and action items become tasks in Linear, Jira, GitHub, Asana, Trello, Todoist, Monday.com, Motion or Notion. Log calls in HubSpot, Airtable or Google Sheets. Press Send, ask the AI chat to send it (nothing goes out until you confirm), or let new meetings go out automatically.
- Privacy: files are encrypted in transit and never used to train AI. A meeting stays private until you share it; a shared link is view-only, and anyone who has it can read the transcript and play the recording.
- MCP and API, if you work in AI tools or write code: search and read your meetings from Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor through the MCP server, and use API keys in your own scripts.
Four ways to record a meeting
1. A notetaker joins the call
You paste the meeting link or connect your calendar, and a recorder joins as an extra participant. Nobody else installs anything, everyone can see it, and it can keep the video. The host may have to let it in, and some companies block outside bots. In Google Meet, if the host turns off "Anyone can ask to join", bots such as note takers that ask to join are denied automatically. HypeScribe, Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and tl;dv all offer a bot.
2. Record without a bot
An app on your computer or phone records instead of a bot, so nothing appears in the participant list and telling people is up to you. There are three kinds:
- Your microphone, for a meeting in a room. HypeScribe's Live Record uses the microphone of your laptop or phone. Put it in the middle of the table and record ten seconds as a test before you start. It doesn't capture the sound inside a video call, so for a remote meeting use the notetaker or upload the call's recording.
- Your computer's audio, during calls. Desktop apps from Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv and Granola do this. Check what they keep: Fireflies' no-bot mode leaves only the transcript, and Granola deletes the audio after transcription.
- The call's live captions. Tactiq's browser extension turns them into a transcript, with no sound recorded at all.
Fathom is testing a bot-free mode on Mac.
3. Use the platform's own recording
Zoom, Google Meet and Teams record their own calls. Zoom records to your computer even on the free plan, but without a transcript; the transcript comes with cloud recording on paid plans, as a VTT file without punctuation. Google Meet records on Business Standard and higher Workspace plans, or with a Google One plan of 2 TB or more, and saves to the organizer's Drive. In Teams, transcription starts when you record, if your licence allows recording.
Tip: upload the platform's recording to HypeScribe afterwards to get a punctuated transcript, a summary and action items from it.
4. Upload a recording you already have
If the meeting was recorded by Zoom, a phone or a dictaphone, you can transcribe it afterwards. It's the easiest option for meetings you didn't host, meetings where a bot isn't welcome, and anything recorded before you had a notetaker. In HypeScribe, choose Transcribe file to pick the file, or Transcribe by URL to paste a link. Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv and Tactiq take uploads too; Fathom and Granola don't.
The other tools in one line each
- Otter.ai: a bot or a desktop app, with audio you can replay on every plan. Free plan: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation.
- Fireflies.ai: the longest list of meeting platforms for its bot. Free plan: unlimited transcription with 400 minutes of storage.
- Fathom: video recordings of calls, unlimited on the free plan. It can't import recordings you already have.
- tl;dv: unlimited video recordings on the free plan, kept for up to 3 months, with AI notes for 10 meetings.
- Granola: no bot and no recording to replay: audio is deleted after transcription, so you keep text only. The free plan keeps 30 days of history.
- Tactiq: a browser extension that turns live captions into a transcript; nothing to replay. Free plan: 10 transcripts a month.
Tell people before you record
Recording laws differ by country and, in the US, by state: some require one participant's consent, others require everyone's. A notetaker that announces itself in the chat helps, but it doesn't replace asking. With a recorder that runs silently on your computer, nobody sees a sign of it, so tell people at the start and check your company's rules. For the details, see whether it's legal to record someone without permission and when you need consent to use an AI notetaker.
Before you pick one, check
- Does your company, or your client's, let outside bots in? If not, use built-in recording, a no-bot app or an upload.
- Do you need the recording itself? To check a quote or a decision later, pick a tool that keeps audio or video, not only notes.
- Do you need the screen share? To keep slides and demos, pick a tool that records video of the shared screen.
Your next meeting
See what one meeting turns into
You get the recording, the transcript with timestamps, an overview and the task list, ready to send to Slack, Linear or Asana. Try HypeScribe for a week before you pick a plan.
FAQ
Does Zoom make a transcript of the recording?
Only for cloud recordings on paid plans. For a recording saved to your computer, upload the file to HypeScribe to get the transcript and notes.
How do I record a Microsoft Teams meeting?
Use Teams' own recording if your licence and the organizer allow it, or send a notetaker by pasting the meeting link. Our guide to Teams meeting transcription covers both.
Can I record a meeting without a bot?
Yes. Use the platform's own recording, a desktop app such as Otter or Granola, or, for a meeting in a room, HypeScribe's Live Record in the browser. For a video call recorded without a bot, upload the recording to HypeScribe afterwards.
Which meeting recorder is free?
Zoom records to your computer on its free plan, and Fathom and tl;dv record calls with free plans. HypeScribe is a paid service with a 7-day trial.
