I want to know about a free AI tools which can take notes, give summaries, key takeaways, AI chatbot. Something like Otter.ai but which is free.
What’s the best AI note-taking app right now for students/meetings? One with both recording and uploading capabilities for transcription and with AI “chat”?
Maybe something that uses GPT-4, since that seems to be the best working LLM.
I’ve used Otter; the transcription was pretty good, but its chat was absolute trash.
Videos
I struggle a lot with taking notes during lectures and it's not the best way I learn cause I don't end up actually absorbing anything. I learn best when I can focus entirely on the lecture though still need to review the notes later to study.
ChatGPT record would be great, but I don't have a Mac so I need something that will work on Windows. My lectures are 50 - an hour and twenty minutes long. Are there any affordable AI note takers where I can have to record to lecture then have it create bullet pointed notes in the format and level of detail that I need?
I have 11 hours of lectures a week so I'd need something that can handle 2,700 transcription minutes a month so Otter.ai doesn't work unfortunately.
I’m looking to try a note taking AI because I’m behind my classes and my teachers are story tellers. I don’t really want to go through videos of them story telling when I just need important information to pass the exams.
I been looking at so many options and there’s so many types and for me to fully try and test them I would have to pay. I don’t mind paying but I don’t want to pay for something that isn’t that great for me. Honestly I’m just looking for an AI that can take notes of my classes and/or during my classes.
What’s the best AI note-taking app right now for students/meetings? One with both recording and uploading capabilities for transcription and with AI “chat”?
Maybe something that uses GPT-4 or similarly advanced models. A plus if it has an AI text humanizer like Phrasly AI or UnAIMyText plugin or similar features built in. I’ve used Otter and it’s great for transcription but I didn’t like the chat feature.
first day back in school today! havent been in 5 yearsssss
I am trying to figure out what the best AI note taking system for my class lectures. I am doing a remote class but there are so many different ai note takers. I tried Know Notes and it takes way to long to generate the notes after recording.
Any other suggestions? I am on zoom for class, so it cannot be the one in Zoom. I'm trying to be discrete.
I cant use one on my phone because it keeps auto locking. It needs to be an app on my Mac or extension for google.
Please help lol
Hi guys and girls,
I just wanted to hear from you guys what your experience is with the apps on zoom for taking notes and summaries?
I tried FireFlies whhich was nice but my boss dooesn't want to spend 10 dollars a month : /.... so we're looking for the best free or close to free options on the zoom apps marketplace for taking notes and making summaries of meetings.
Please let me know what's been working for you guys! Thanks!
I'm a university student, and to be frank, I'm terrible when it comes to writing down notes, in ill just copy slides word for word, or record the lecture and take decent notes but it takes me 4 hours to do so for an hour and a half lecture. So I was thinking about using one of those AI notetakers (turbolearn) tools to make my notes, and then I can write them down to understand them more. But I am looking for other people's opinions what is the best way to use an AI notetaker without making it make you become lazy and use it to help you.
Basically a professor created 4 1.5h “supplementary videos” and I’d like to skim through them. Watching at x1.5 or x2 didn’t work.
Hey everyone.
I'm really grateful for any suggestions you might have. I'm looking for alternatives to a website that's going to be discontinued soon, and I'd love to hear about other options that might work just as well.
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Being a student in a foreign language program, I've always struggled with effectively taking notes during my lectures. That is, until I stumbled upon this incredible and FREE AI-powered note-taking tool, strut.so that completely transformed my study process. Having an intelligent assistant integrated right into my workspace was an absolute game-changer. It allowed me to seamlessly move between my notes, rewrite them in a more understandable way, summarize key points, and even generate quizzes.
What really set this platform apart was how it was designed specifically with note-takers like myself in mind; with a wide range of features to help organize the writing process. It was cloud-based, making it easy to collaborate with friends and share notes. I quickly became attached to this site, using it daily and loving every aspect of it.
However, my perfect note-taking experience came to an unexpected end when I received a notification that the developers had decided to shut down the project. This was quite surprising, considering they had just released a new update a couple of weeks prior.
As I searched for alternatives, I realized that this tool had been largely underrated and barely mentioned anywhere. There were no Reddit posts about it, and the only online presence was a Product Hunt page and a Twitter account.
I'm really bummed about this, because it was just perfect for my needs (and now I've got to go back to relying on the free Microsoft 365). I've tried searching for alternatives, but haven't found anything remotely similar.
If you have any recommendations, I would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you in advance...
I don't want something that joins my calls. I just want a notetaker that saves AI notes and/or transcription locally for me to review later. Any recommendations? Happy to pay
I’ve tested quite a few tools recently for summarizing, organizing, and reviewing content, from class notes to podcasts. Here’s what stood out, starting with the one I’ve been using most:
getrecall.ai: It handles YouTube, PDFs, Spotify/Apple Podcasts, and web pages. Summarizes into bite-sized cards, lets you chat with your notes, and builds a self-organizing knowledge base. Been super helpful for studying and content review.
Mindgrasp: Good at summarizing lectures and answering questions from uploaded material. Feels geared toward students, especially for exams and dense PDFs.
Obsidian: Not AI-first, but ideal for linking concepts and building a knowledge graph. Works great with community plugins.
Evernote: Still decent for basic note organization and sync, but hasn’t really kept pace with newer AI-powered tools.
Notion: Flexible for team or solo use. Notion AI helps with summaries and generation, though it’s more assistant-style than research deep dive.
Eightify: If you want a quick hit of what a video’s about, it’s fast and reliable. But lacks deeper interaction with the content.
NotebookLM: Google’s experimental tool lets you upload docs and chat with them. Promising for research-heavy tasks, but still in beta.
NoteGPT: Handles both YouTube and PDFs with a nice UI. Helps with creating study notes fast, though less interactive than Recall.
Let me know what else is worth trying, especially anything that handles long-form stuff without breaking.
Hey everyone, and welcome to the brand new r/AINoteTaker
I created this space because, let’s be real—the world of AI note-taking apps is exploding. It’s getting hard to keep track of what’s good, what’s just hype, and what actually helps us get stuff done.
From meeting summaries to organizing thoughts with AI magic, there’s a ton to explore.
The goal for this community: Share experiences, reviews, tips, workflows, and maybe even a few warnings about all these tools.
To kick things off, I went deep down the rabbit hole—testing everything from the biggest names to the niche underdogs. Here’s the brutally honest version: frustrations, features, and whether they’re worth the cash.
Let’s go.
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First up: The OG Note Apps Getting AI Smarts
These are the familiar apps adding AI features. The AI often feels like an afterthought—but sometimes it’s worth it.
Evernote (General Notes w/ AI)
The Good: The old reliable. Decent AI search/editing, strong organization tools, and great web clipper—if you’re already invested.
Frustrations: Syncing is a disaster. Notes vanished or reverted more than once, which is unforgivable. The free plan is now basically useless.
Wish List: Fix sync. Make the free tier valuable again so people can try before they buy.
Value for Money: 3/10. Too pricey for something this unstable.
2. Microsoft OneNote (General Notes w/ AI)
The Good: Great free-form canvas. Syncs well, free to use, integrates beautifully if you’re in the Microsoft ecosystem. Copilot AI is actually helpful.
Frustrations: The ribbon UI is a chaotic mess. So many features buried in menus.
Wish List: Cleaner UI and better OCR in the free version.
Value for Money: 8/10. Free, powerful, and flexible.
3. Apple Notes (General Notes w/ AI)
The Good: Clean, seamless, and totally free for Apple users. Live Text and Apple Intelligence (on supported devices) are handy.
Frustrations: Too simple. Limited formatting and layout options. And obviously useless if you’re not in the Apple ecosystem.
Wish List: Better formatting, especially tables.
Value for Money: 9/10 (for Apple users). Can’t beat the integration and reliability.
4. Obsidian (General Notes w/ AI)
The Good: Markdown-based, totally local, incredibly customizable with plugins. Amazing for PKM nerds.
Frustrations: Huge learning curve. Sync setup is either paid or janky. Plugin management can be overwhelming.
Wish List: A “simple mode” or starter guide. Maybe a free sync tier?
Value for Money: 7/10. Great if you’re a power user. Less so for casuals.
5. Google Keep (General Notes w/ AI)
The Good: Fast, simple, and voice transcription is solid. Integrates perfectly with Google services.
Frustrations: No folders = chaos. Not great for more than quick jots.
Wish List: Folders. Just folders.
Value for Money: 8/10. A fantastic second-brain app.
6. Notion AI (General Notes w/ AI)
The Good: Ultimate digital workspace. AI features are actually useful and well-integrated.
Frustrations: The “build your setup” trap is real. And AI costs extra on top of premium plans.
Wish List: Better starter templates. AI should be included in at least some paid plans.
Value for Money: 6/10. Base Notion is great. The AI pricing hurts.
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Next: AI Meeting Assistants (The Note-Taking Robots)
These are amazing time-savers—when they work well. Free tiers are hit or miss.
7. Notta (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Real-time transcription, summaries, speaker ID, and translation. Decent language support and platform integration.
Frustrations: Free minutes vanish fast. Sometimes missed major points in the summary.
Wish List: More free minutes + better AI accuracy with accents and jargon.
Value for Money: 6/10. Average performer in a competitive space.
8. Otter. ai (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Strong accuracy, real-time summaries, and a good UI. AI chat is a cool extra.
Frustrations: 30-minute meeting cap on free plan is painful. English-only is a big miss.
Wish List: More languages and higher free caps. A cheaper light-use plan would help.
Value for Money: 7/10. Great if you stick to English and have a steady meeting load.
9. Fathom (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Shockingly good free plan. Unlimited recording, storage, and transcription. Fast summaries + CRM integration.
Frustrations: The bot is loud—joins/leaves with announcements. Timestamps sometimes off.
Wish List: Quieter bot. More accurate timestamps.
Value for Money: 8/10. One of the best free offerings out there—minor annoyances aside.
10. Fireflies. ai (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Supports Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and more. Offers solid transcription, speaker detection, and meeting insights. Searchable database of all your meetings is a nice touch.
Frustrations: Free plan is very limited, and the UI can feel a bit clunky. Occasionally slow to process long meetings.
Wish List: Faster turnaround on transcriptions and more generous free plan features.
Value for Money: 6.5/10. Good mid-tier option, especially if your company pays for the team plan.
11. Sembly AI (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Offers action items, sentiment analysis, and even generates meeting “smart minutes.” Works across major meeting platforms.
Frustrations: The summaries sometimes felt generic or missed context. UI looks outdated compared to newer apps.
Wish List: Better contextual understanding in summaries. More modern and intuitive interface.
Value for Money: 5.5/10. Unique features, but execution needs polish.
12. Avoma (AI Meeting Assistant + Sales Tool)
The Good: Tailored for sales and customer success teams. Auto-records meetings, summarizes, and helps coach reps. Integrates with CRMs.
Frustrations: Very business-focused—might be overkill for individuals or casual users. Not cheap, either.
Wish List: More accessible pricing tiers for individuals or small teams. Less aggressive upselling.
Value for Money: 6/10. If you’re in sales, it might be gold. Otherwise, probably too much.
13. tl;dv (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Super handy timestamps and highlights for Zoom/Google Meet. You can tag moments during live meetings, which is clutch for fast recaps.
Frustrations: Free plan got more limited recently. AI summaries are hit-or-miss depending on clarity of speakers.
Wish List: Bring back more free features! Improve summary quality a notch.
Value for Money: 7/10. Excellent for fast-paced teams who want timestamped video + highlights.
14. Supernormal (AI Meeting Assistant)
The Good: Lightweight and clean interface. Great for auto-summarizing and formatting notes into professional-looking recaps. Integrates with calendars and CRMs.
Frustrations: Limited features in the free tier. Summaries sometimes feel overly templated or robotic.
Wish List: Smarter summarization that feels more “human.” Better export options would be helpful too.
Value for Money: 6.5/10. Has potential—especially if they improve personalization in summaries.
Perfect! Let’s roll into the next category:
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All-In-One Workspaces with Built-In AI
These tools try to be your second brain—not just for notes, but tasks, projects, and knowledge bases. AI helps tie it all together (when done right).
15. Mem. ai (AI-First Workspace)
The Good: Designed from the ground up around AI. Automatically links related notes, surfaces context, and feels like your digital brain. Natural language search is excellent.
Frustrations: Still feels beta-ish. Features come and go, and the UI can feel a bit disjointed. Mobile app is weak.
Wish List: More stability. Better mobile app. Keep core features consistent!
Value for Money: 6/10. Cool concept, but not reliable enough (yet) to fully trust with everything.
16. Reflect (PKM Workspace w/ AI)
The Good: A beautiful, clean daily notes system with backlinking and graph view. AI summaries and autofill are helpful without being overbearing. Feels like Obsidian + Apple Notes had a baby.
Frustrations: Still very new—some parts feel underbaked. Limited formatting options. Mobile app isn’t as smooth as the desktop experience.
Wish List: Better table support. More power-user features while keeping the minimalist charm.
Value for Money: 7.5/10. A fantastic choice if you want a simple-but-smart daily journal with AI boost.
17. Tana (AI-Enhanced Knowledge Graph)
The Good: Super structured. Everything is a node. AI helps automate tagging, structure, and workflows. Great for long-term knowledge building. Live queries are powerful.
Frustrations: Learning curve is real. It’s powerful, but definitely not plug-and-play. Invite-only for a while (though now public).
Wish List: Better onboarding for non-technical users. Simplified “starter templates” would help people get started faster.
Value for Money: 7/10. A future-proof tool for the PKM pros. Might be too much for casual users.
18. Scrintal (Visual Thinking + AI)
The Good: Combines mind-mapping with notes. Everything’s visual—great if you think in diagrams or flows. AI can summarize and help with writing on each card.
Frustrations: Can get cluttered fast. Sync performance on big boards wasn’t great in testing.
Wish List: Cleaner zoom/organization tools. Ability to collapse parts of the visual board would be amazing.
Value for Money: 6.5/10. Great for creative workflows, less ideal for traditional note-taking.
19. Heptabase (Visual PKM + AI)
The Good: Think Obsidian meets Miro. Whiteboard-style interface for connecting notes visually. AI assistant can generate summaries and do concept explanation.
Frustrations: Still early days. Mobile support is basic. Visual organization can get messy.
Wish List: More stable mobile app. Better zoom/navigation controls for big boards.
Value for Money: 7/10. If you’re a visual thinker, this could be your dream tool. Otherwise, might feel like too much effort.
Awesome—let’s dive into the final stretch: the niche, experimental, or hyper-specific AI note-taking apps. These ones tend to be hit-or-miss depending on your needs.
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Specialty / Niche Note-Takers with AI
These apps do one thing very well—or weirdly—but aren’t for everyone.
20. Rewind (AI Memory for Your Mac)
The Good: Records everything you do on your Mac, then lets you “rewind” and ask questions about it using AI. Great for catching details you missed in meetings or deep work.
Frustrations: Massive privacy and performance trade-offs. Constant background recording feels… weird. Also, Mac-only.
Wish List: Granular privacy controls (per app). Option to pause recording more easily.
Value for Money: 7/10. If you’re OK with the always-on nature, it’s like having a time machine. But it’s not for the privacy-conscious.
21. Dex (Relationship-Centric Note Tool)
The Good: Designed to help you remember people—notes tied to contacts, social updates, and follow-ups. AI helps summarize key details and surface reminders.
Frustrations: More of a CRM-lite than a traditional note app. Not great if you’re not tracking lots of people.
Wish List: Better calendar and email integrations. A more natural way to capture notes outside contact cards.
Value for Money: 6/10. Super useful if your life revolves around networking. Otherwise, skip.
22. Bear + AI (Bear Notes with GPT)
The Good: Bear’s always had a gorgeous design and markdown simplicity. Now with AI text generation and rewriting built in, it stays minimalist but smart.
Frustrations: iOS/macOS only. AI tools feel a bit buried unless you’re already a Bear power user.
Wish List: Expose the AI tools more clearly. A Windows/web version would broaden its appeal a ton.
Value for Money: 7.5/10. If you’re already in the Bear ecosystem, the AI additions are a great little boost.
23. Kosmik (Visual Note Space + AI)
The Good: Let’s you drop images, text, PDFs, and more into an infinite canvas—like a note-taking scrapbook. AI helps extract summaries and text from files.
Frustrations: Still buggy. Syncing issues and random crashes happened in my tests. Editing tools feel basic for such a visual-first app.
Wish List: More robust editing features. Major stability improvements.
Value for Money: 5.5/10. Fun for brainstorming or visual research, but too unstable right now for everyday use.
24. Bardeen (Note-Taking via Automation + AI)
The Good: Not a traditional note-taker—more of a no-code automation tool that pulls info from websites, emails, meetings, etc., and drops it into Notion, Docs, etc. AI helps process and organize that data.
Frustrations: Takes time to set up your automations. Can feel like overkill for simple workflows.
Wish List: More templates for beginners. A “note-first” dashboard for casual users.
Value for Money: 7/10. If you want AI-powered workflows feeding into your note system, this is worth a look.
25. Reflectr (AI Journal + Mood Tracker)
The Good: Focuses on emotional journaling and self-reflection. Prompts you, analyzes mood, and gives insights over time. AI helps make sense of your thoughts.
Frustrations: Very limited export/share options. The mood detection felt slightly off sometimes.
Wish List: Better data portability. Smarter mood/context recognition.
Value for Money: 6.5/10. Great niche app for mental health journaling, not a general-purpose note tool.
⸻
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of tools in this space—and no true “one-size-fits-all” app. Some are built around AI, others are just starting to experiment with it. But the real question is: What do you need most? • Want a second brain? Try Obsidian, Tana, or Reflect. • Need meeting help? Fathom, Otter, or Supernormal are solid. • Prefer clean and simple? Apple Notes, Bear, or Reflectr might do it. • Want full control and tinkering? Obsidian or Heptabase is your jam. • Love visuals? Scrintal, Kosmik, or Heptabase again.
Now it’s your turn! What apps are you using? Which ones should I check out next? Drop your faves (or horror stories) below. Let’s build a smarter, more honest space to compare notes—literally.
[context for those who needs it. Otherwise, skip to the end]
After trying many note-taking apps, I decided to stick with Obsidian frankly because of the level of configurability and efficiency it offers. I use it for nearly everything -- capturing lecture notes, schedules, journals, and sometimes even for coding (thanks to the plugins it offers that allow me to run the code inside of obsidian).
However, I have noticed that everyone is shifting towards using AI-based solutions for note-taking. We now have AI-based image generators, text transcription, essay writers, essay shorteners, essay elongaters, writing letters for your valentine; you name it.
And, as not as big of a surprise, we have AI solutions for note-taking as well.
When AI features were introduced to popular note-taking apps -- like Notion, EverNote, etc. -- it created a huge hype. Obsidian too have many plugins that leverage AI capabilities directly (or indirectly) to 'enhance' note-taking.
But AI has its own problems. It hallucinates, as in it tends to make up data on its own. It has privacy issues, as in these data-heavy machines that use every bit of your information to make itself better.
For small vaults, consisting of around 10-100 notes, AI can be useful since you can find and make out if your AI has made any errors. However, what about the case when you have nearly thousands of notes?
It becomes practically challenging to detect any errors that your AI made.
-x-
Hence, keeping the problem I mentioned as a base, I want to get a reality check.
How many of you actually use AI to 'enhance' your note-taking workflows?
How did it go for you?
I have a student who has an accommodations for recording in class but the app that the disability office set her up with is glitchy. It stops halfway through class and immediately starts playing in the middle of class. Does anyone have a good recording or transcribing app that I can tell her to try?
I recently seen online a website called Unstuck study. I tried it out and I've found it so helpful! Has anyone used anything like this? I believe tools like this are great for us.
It records then I ask it to summarise the lecture. It doesn't replace taking notes but it's good when you lose your distraction. It's been so far excellent in terms of the voice transcript.
I’m a college student who benefits mostly from reading a textbook and then condensing it into notes, but the notes have been taking me too long. My textbooks are also online, so I’m unable to add my own notes there. I’m looking for an AI note taking app that I will be able to read aloud and make my own notes and condense it into a simple list of notes that I can then read through. To be clear, I want to be able to almost teach what I’m learning aloud and want a tool to jot down my thoughts without taking extra hours. I’d like an app that isn’t expensive (I’m a broke college student) and is accurate (at least somewhat, I can go through and edit it later). Any suggestions??
(Ik the opinions on AI are mixed; my goal is not to cheat, but to shorten my time spent studying and relieve some of the pressure I’ve felt)
I'm looking for an app that I can talk my thoughts and notes into and it will transcribe what I am saying and put some basic structure or summary on.
I write articles and often I work better when I think out loud, so Iwa not a notes app I speak my thoughts for the article and I want it to turn what I am saying into the text. I do not need it to re-write it completely just some basic corrections if I,n saying umm and ahh etc to remove.
Does such an app exist?
Edit: I now use www.ramblefix.com and love it.
Hi, so as the title says, I will be taking a bunch of video courses soon. The kind where I log into a website, and then select a course, and then there are a bunch of videos I need to watch, followed by quizzes.
I need an AI app that would be able to record the screen and audio and then summarize, make notes out of it, etc. and potentially even give me flash cards and quizzes.
I know Otter AI is kind of mainstream, but I think that only records via microphone and is built for live lectures such as college classes.
Do any such apps exist? I use a macbook pro for my computer if that is necessary.