Best AI Meeting Assistants (2026): 11 Tools Reviewed Against Seven Selection Criteria

TL;DR

• The best AI meeting assistants in 2026, by job: Sentra for meeting memory joined to email, chat and business systems; Granola for bot-free personal notes; Otter and Fireflies for low-cost transcription with search across meetings; Fathom for the strongest free plan; Read AI for search across meetings, email and messages; tl;dv for EU-hosted teams; Krisp for bot-free notes with noise cancellation; and the assistants built into Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet when everyone uses one platform.
• We judged each AI meeting assistant on seven criteria: capture method, memory beyond one meeting, AI tool and agent access, integrations, admin and security controls, data residency, and price per seat.
• This comparison is based on vendor documentation and published pricing checked on 26 October 2026. We did not run hands-on tests, so we do not rank transcription accuracy.
• Sentra is not a notetaker. It turns meetings into decisions, owners and follow-ups that stay connected to what happens next in email, chat, CRM and ERP, across every meeting, for people and AI tools.

What an AI meeting assistant is

An AI meeting assistant records or listens to a meeting, transcribes it and writes a summary with action items, so attendees can focus on the conversation instead of taking notes. Most also let you search or chat across past meetings. The better ones connect to your CRM, Slack or task tools so the notes go somewhere useful.

The category splits on one question: does the record stop at the meeting, or does it carry forward? A notetaker gives you a good recap of each call. A meeting memory keeps track of what was decided, who owns it and whether it happened, across meetings and the email and chat that follow. Executive teams usually need the second, because the expensive failures are follow-ups that slip between calls, not missing notes.

How we selected and compared these tools

We started from the tools buyers shortlist most often and kept those with public documentation and pricing. Each tool was assessed on the same seven criteria.

1. Capture method. A bot that joins the call, bot-free capture from the device, or native capture inside Zoom, Teams or Meet. Bots are visible to external guests; some companies block them.

2. Memory beyond one meeting. Whether you can ask questions across meetings, and whether decisions and commitments connect to what happens afterwards.

3. AI tool and agent access. An API or MCP server so ChatGPT, Claude or internal agents can use meeting context.

4. Integrations. CRM sync, Slack, task tools.

5. Admin and security. SSO, SCIM, audit logs, retention controls and certifications such as SOC 2.

6. Data residency. Where recordings are stored, which matters for EU and regulated teams.

7. Price per seat. Published price for a team plan, billed annually unless stated.

Methodology

This comparison is based on vendor documentation and published pricing checked on 26 October 2026. We read each vendor's pricing page and product or help documentation and cite them inline. We did not run hands-on tests, so we make no claims about transcription accuracy or summary quality. Prices are per user per month, billed annually, in US dollars unless the vendor prices in another currency. Vendors change plans often; confirm on the linked page before you buy.

The best AI meeting assistants compared

AI meeting assistants reviewed

Sentra: meeting memory joined to email, chat and systems

Sentra treats meetings as one source among many. It connects to email, chat, meetings, documents, CRM, ERP and HRIS, and turns what was said into facts with an owner, a source and a time range. A decision made on Tuesday's call is linked to the email that confirmed it and the CRM record it changed. When a later meeting reverses it, Sentra records when the old decision stopped being true and serves the current one.

That is what makes follow-through work. Sentra tracks commitments across meetings, notices when one is slipping, works out who should act and tells them, and a named person approves anything it raises before it reaches anyone else. Before a call, it prepares a brief from prior meetings, open commitments and the account record, as covered in our guide to AI meeting brief tools. Any AI tool can use the same memory over REST and MCP, including ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini, and every answer respects each source's existing permissions. Sentra is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, and runs in the cloud, in an isolated VPC or air-gapped on-prem.

Granola

Granola is an AI notepad that captures device audio with no bot joining the call. Basic is free with 30 days of history; Business is $14 and Enterprise $35 per user per month, with unlimited history, API access and MCP on paid plans, and SOC 2 Type II on all tiers (granola.ai).

Otter.ai

Otter's free Basic plan includes 300 transcription minutes a month and AI Chat across meetings, and lists the Otter MCP server. Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually ($16.99 monthly) with 1,200 recording minutes, and Business is $19.99 annually with unlimited meetings, the Otter API and webhooks. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM and a HIPAA add-on (otter.ai).

Fireflies.ai

Fireflies offers a free plan, Pro at $10, Business at $19 and Enterprise at $39 per seat per month billed annually (fireflies.ai). Its pricing page lists global search, the AskFred assistant, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 42001, with HIPAA on Enterprise. Its official MCP server gives tools such as Claude and Cursor access to transcripts, summaries and action items.

Fathom

Fathom's free plan includes unlimited recordings and transcription. Team is $15 per user per month billed annually with a two-user minimum and adds global search across the team's calls; Business is $25 and adds CRM field sync and coaching scorecards; Enterprise adds SSO and SCIM (fathom.ai). A public API and MCP are available, and bot-free capture is in beta on Mac.

Read AI

Read AI's Pro plan is $15 per user per month billed annually ($19.75 monthly), with unlimited transcripts, Ask Read search across meetings, email and messages, and integrations with Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira and Confluence. Enterprise is $22.50 and Enterprise+ $29.75 with HIPAA, SAML and SCIM. The page also lists an MCP server and API (read.ai).

tl;dv

tl;dv records Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, produces reports across multiple meetings, logs call notes to CRMs, and states that recordings are hosted and stored in the EU with SOC 2 certified security (tldv.io). Pro is 18 euros and Business 29 euros per seat per month billed annually (tldv.io).

Krisp

Krisp combines bot-free transcription and AI notes with its noise cancellation. Core is $8 per user per month billed annually ($16 monthly) with unlimited transcription, SOC 2 and MCP integration with Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor; Advanced is $15 and adds Salesforce (krisp.ai).

Zoom's built-in AI (formerly AI Companion)

In June 2026 Zoom folded AI Companion's features, including meeting summaries and transcription, into Zoom Workplace under their functional names, and says eligible paid plans "continue to include core AI features at no additional cost" (zoom.com). Its new agentic add-on, ZoomMate, is $16.67 per user per month billed annually or $20 monthly (zoom.us).

Microsoft Copilot in Teams

Intelligent recap gives AI meeting notes, recommended tasks, chapters and speaker timelines for Teams meetings with a Teams Premium or Microsoft Copilot licence; audio recap, in preview, summarises up to eight meetings (learn.microsoft.com). Microsoft Copilot is $30 per user per month paid yearly on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 licence.

Gemini in Google Meet

"Take notes for me" writes notes into a Google Doc saved in the organizer's Drive and attached to the Calendar event, and the organizer needs an eligible edition (support.google.com). Google's pricing page lists Gemini in Meet on Standard and higher plans, not Starter (workspace.google.com).

Where Sentra fits with your meeting assistant

Most companies already have a notetaker, often more than one. The gap is what happens after the recap is sent. Atlassian's survey of 5,000 knowledge workers found 54% frequently leave meetings without knowing the next steps or who owns them (atlassian.com). A better summary of each meeting does not fix that, because the follow-up lives in the email, the Slack thread and the CRM update that come after.

Sentra closes that loop. It joins the meeting record to the rest of the work, so a commitment made on a call is tracked until the email, ticket or system change shows it was done. It also catches contradictions: when this week's decision reverses last month's, Sentra records when the earlier one stopped being true, so people and AI tools quote the current version. For the mechanics, see AI meeting memory.

It works with the assistant you choose. Keep Granola, Otter, Fireflies or the Zoom, Teams or Meet features for capture; Sentra adds the memory across meetings and systems, and makes it available to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Gemini and your own agents over REST and MCP. For an assistant that acts on that memory, see AI executive assistant.

To see it on your own meetings and systems, book a demo.

How to choose an AI meeting assistant

• Decisions and follow-ups slip between meetings, and leadership needs them tracked: Sentra, alongside any capture tool.
• You want private notes with no bot: Granola or Krisp, or Fathom's Mac beta.
• You want the lowest cost per seat for transcription: Otter or Fireflies.
• You want a capable free plan: Fathom.
• Your team meets on one platform and wants nothing new: Zoom's built-in AI, Copilot in Teams or Gemini in Meet.
• You are in the EU and care where recordings live: tl;dv.
• Your sales team lives in the CRM: Fathom Business, tl;dv or Read AI.

Before you buy, run a two-week pilot on real meetings and check three things: whether summaries name the right owners, whether external guests accept the capture method, and whether the notes reach the systems where follow-up actually happens.

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