AI at work

Which meeting notetaker can you bring into a client call?

An AI notetaker is often the first AI tool an owner tries, and one a client may ask about. Before you bring one into a call, you should be able to answer three questions: does it join as a visible bot, does it tell people it is recording, and where does the recording go.

Checked against each vendor's own pages on October 14, 2026. Every cell links to its source. Prices and plans change often, so click through before you buy.

	GranolaGranola	Otter.aiOtter.ai	Fireflies.aiFireflies.ai	Gemini in Google MeetGoogle	Copilot in TeamsMicrosoft
Joins the call as a visible bot?	No bot. Captures device audio, so no extra attendee appears.Vendor says no bot joins and no extra attendee shows up. Pricing page lists "Bot-free, device-audio capture" as included on all three plans.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola pricing	Joins Zoom, Teams and Meet as a named notetakerPricing page lists the join feature and a custom notetaker name.Otter pricing page	Yes. The Notetaker joins as a named participant others can see. The desktop app's Take Notes mode does not join as a bot.Take Notes captures system audio with no visible bot, confirmed on the vendor guide page.Fireflies guide: Recording Consent and Meetin... Fireflies guide: Does the Desktop App Save an...	Not publishedThe help page does not say whether notes are built in or use a bot. It says only that a pencil icon appears on all participants' screens once notes are being taken.Google Meet Help: Take notes with Gemini in Meet	Built into Teams meeting controls; no separate bot named on the pageSupport page quote confirmed. The Learn admin page says Copilot runs for licensed users once the Copilot button is selected, which also reads as built in. Neither page explicitly says 'no bot participant', so the 'no' rests on how the vendor describes it.Get started with Copilot in Teams meetings Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings an...
Tells other people it is recording	Vendor puts consent on you. Granola has a "Let people know you're using Granola" setting, per user on Basic and Business, admin-enforceable on Enterprise.FAQ says the user is responsible for consent and recommends telling participants. Pricing page lists the notice feature as "Per user" on Basic and Business and "Admin-enforceable" on Enterprise.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola pricing	Privacy policy puts consent on the user; it does not say Otter notifies participantsPolicy says recordings may contain third-party personal information and asks users to get permissions from others. It does not state that Otter notifies participants. Pricing page also lists a recording disclaimer email feature (plan availability unclear). The permission wording appears in the context of sharing.Otter privacy policy Otter pricing page	Yes, if enabled: email one hour before, plus a pinned in-call chat message. If you turn those off, you are responsible for informing participants.These are account settings. Guide says participants in opt-out meetings must remove the bot or reject recording if they disagree.Fireflies guide: Recording Consent and Meetin...	Yes: Meet tells all participants when notes startAdmins can require explicit consent before notes are taken. That setting is off by default.Google Meet Help: Take notes with Gemini in Meet	Teams shows a notification banner when recording or transcription starts; admins can require explicit participant agreementBanner covers implicit notice or explicit consent. Explicit consent is an admin meeting policy, off by default per the pages. Pages do not say whether the banner shows in Copilot 'Only during the meeting' mode.Custom in-meeting notification for recording... Manage Microsoft Teams meeting recording and...
Where the audio and transcript go	Audio not kept. Transcripts on AWS in the US, kept indefinitely by default.Audio is cached only during the meeting for transcription. Notes and transcripts are retained indefinitely unless you or an admin set a retention policy. No specific AWS region is named.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola Privacy Policy	Amazon Web Services cloud (US); no fixed retention period statedPolicy keeps personal information as long as necessary for the policy's purposes, or longer if law requires. No fixed period given.Otter privacy policy	Notetaker saves audio and video recordings. Location and default retention not published; Enterprise offers private storage at a location you choose.Security page: Enterprise 'Private Storage ... at your preferred location' and 'Custom Data Retention' (unexplained). The 0-day retention claim refers to vendors and partners, not Fireflies' own default. Take Notes saves no separate audio or video file.Fireflies guide: Does the Desktop App Save an... Fireflies security page	Notes doc is saved in the meeting organizer's Google Drive ("Google Meet" folder); it follows your organization's Meet retention policyThe page states the retention policy applies but gives no default number of days. It does not describe audio or transcript storage for this feature.Google Meet Help: Take notes with Gemini in Meet	Organizer's OneDrive, or the channel's SharePoint site for channel meetings; deleted after 120 days by defaultCopilot prompts and responses are encrypted and stored per Microsoft 365 contractual commitments, with retention set in Purview. 'Only during the meeting' mode relies on speech-to-text data not saved after the meeting. The 120-day default is the Teams recording and transcript expiry setting.Manage Microsoft Teams meeting recording and... Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Cop...
Trains on your meetings?	Yes by default on Free and Business, anonymised data. Opt out in settings.FAQ: opt-out at Settings, Preferences, Data & sharing. Enterprise has training off by default. Privacy policy says third parties such as OpenAI or Anthropic may not train on Personal Data, and only de-identified data is used for training.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola Privacy Policy	Trains AI on de-identified audio and transcripts; no opt-out statedTraining is listed as a purpose with legal basis 'Consent' or 'Legitimate interests'. The policy describes no specific training opt-out; its 'Right to opt out' covers only sale of data and targeted ads. A general right to withdraw consent exists.Otter privacy policy	No. Does not train on customer data by default.No opt-out described since training is off by default. Privacy policy says meeting content under Zero Data Retention is not used to train internal or external models, but the policy states it does not cover User Content processed for business customers.Fireflies security page Fireflies privacy policy	No: Google states it does not use Workspace data to train its modelsThis is a general Workspace commitment on the Gemini in Meet data protection page. No opt-out is described because none is stated as needed.Gemini in Meet data protection	No. Microsoft says prompts, responses and Microsoft Graph data are not used to train foundation LLMsOptional customer feedback is not used to train these models either, and admins can manage feedback. Page dated July 2026, updated Oct 8, 2026.Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Cop...
Free plan	Basic: $0, 30-day meeting history. No meeting or minute cap published.Pricing page shows Basic at $0 per user per month with limited meeting history (30 days in the comparison table). No meeting-count or minutes cap appears on the page.Granola pricing	Basic free forever: 300 min/user/month, 30-min max per conversationAlso 1 concurrent meeting and 3 lifetime file imports. Minutes are a shared pool across transcription types.Otter pricing page	Yes, $0. Pricing blog says 400 minutes of meeting storage per team, with unlimited transcription and AI summaries.The pricing page shows no figures on the page. Cap is stated as storage, not meetings per month. Other Fireflies pages may cite different caps; not confirmed.Fireflies pricing blog	No free plan includes Gemini meeting notesMeet's free plan caps group meetings at 60 minutes. The notes feature requires an eligible Workspace edition or Google AI plan, and no free tier is listed.Google Meet Help: Requirements and time limits Gemini plans and editions	No $0 meeting notes plan; Copilot in Teams needs a paid add-on licenseCopilot Chat is included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, but that is not Copilot in Teams meetings. Paid plans offer a one-month free trial that needs a credit card; a trial is not a free plan.Microsoft Copilot Plans and Pricing Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings an...
Paid plan for one person	$14 per user per month (Business plan).Page shows only the "per user per month" label with no monthly or annual billing wording. Enterprise is $35 per user per month.Granola pricing	Pro: $8.33 per user per month, billed annuallyBusiness is $19.99 per user per month on the same basis. Monthly billing costs more.Otter pricing	Pro: $10 per seat per month billed annually ($18 monthly).Annual-billing price is the lower rate. The pricing page itself shows no numbers on the page, so price comes from the vendor blog.Fireflies pricing blog	$14/user/mo, Business Standard, billed monthly (from Jan 28, 2027)Introductory $9.80/user/mo from Oct 28, 2026 to Jan 28, 2027 for new customers. The badge says 3 months and the footnote says 12 months, first 20 users. The page also offers a 16% saving with a 1-year commitment. Google AI Pro also includes Meet notes for personal accounts, but its price was not checked.Google Workspace pricing Gemini plans and editions	$21.00 user/month, billed yearly (Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on); $18.00 promo price through Dec 31, 2026Corrected to lead with list price. Monthly billing is $25.20. Needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan and a Teams license. Bundles: Business Standard with Copilot $23.50 yearly, Business Premium with Copilot $32.00 yearly.Microsoft Copilot Plans and Pricing
Our pickOpinion, not a vendor claim	The pick for client calls: no bot in the room. Turn off model training in settings on day one, and still tell people.	Generous free minutes, but it joins as a bot and trains on de-identified data with no opt-out stated.	The visible bot that announces itself and does not train on your data. Right when transparency matters more than quiet.	If you already pay for Workspace Business Standard, notes land in Drive and stay inside your rules.	Same idea for Microsoft shops, at $21 a user on top of 365. No separate bot, no training on your data.

Granola

Joins the call as a visible bot?: No bot. Captures device audio, so no extra attendee appears.Vendor says no bot joins and no extra attendee shows up. Pricing page lists "Bot-free, device-audio capture" as included on all three plans.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola pricing
Tells other people it is recording: Vendor puts consent on you. Granola has a "Let people know you're using Granola" setting, per user on Basic and Business, admin-enforceable on Enterprise.FAQ says the user is responsible for consent and recommends telling participants. Pricing page lists the notice feature as "Per user" on Basic and Business and "Admin-enforceable" on Enterprise.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola pricing
Where the audio and transcript go: Audio not kept. Transcripts on AWS in the US, kept indefinitely by default.Audio is cached only during the meeting for transcription. Notes and transcripts are retained indefinitely unless you or an admin set a retention policy. No specific AWS region is named.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola Privacy Policy
Trains on your meetings?: Yes by default on Free and Business, anonymised data. Opt out in settings.FAQ: opt-out at Settings, Preferences, Data & sharing. Enterprise has training off by default. Privacy policy says third parties such as OpenAI or Anthropic may not train on Personal Data, and only de-identified data is used for training.Granola Security, Privacy & Data FAQ Granola Privacy Policy
Free plan: Basic: $0, 30-day meeting history. No meeting or minute cap published.Pricing page shows Basic at $0 per user per month with limited meeting history (30 days in the comparison table). No meeting-count or minutes cap appears on the page.Granola pricing
Paid plan for one person: $14 per user per month (Business plan).Page shows only the "per user per month" label with no monthly or annual billing wording. Enterprise is $35 per user per month.Granola pricing
Our pick: The pick for client calls: no bot in the room. Turn off model training in settings on day one, and still tell people.

Otter.ai

Joins the call as a visible bot?: Joins Zoom, Teams and Meet as a named notetakerPricing page lists the join feature and a custom notetaker name.Otter pricing page
Tells other people it is recording: Privacy policy puts consent on the user; it does not say Otter notifies participantsPolicy says recordings may contain third-party personal information and asks users to get permissions from others. It does not state that Otter notifies participants. Pricing page also lists a recording disclaimer email feature (plan availability unclear). The permission wording appears in the context of sharing.Otter privacy policy Otter pricing page
Where the audio and transcript go: Amazon Web Services cloud (US); no fixed retention period statedPolicy keeps personal information as long as necessary for the policy's purposes, or longer if law requires. No fixed period given.Otter privacy policy
Trains on your meetings?: Trains AI on de-identified audio and transcripts; no opt-out statedTraining is listed as a purpose with legal basis 'Consent' or 'Legitimate interests'. The policy describes no specific training opt-out; its 'Right to opt out' covers only sale of data and targeted ads. A general right to withdraw consent exists.Otter privacy policy
Free plan: Basic free forever: 300 min/user/month, 30-min max per conversationAlso 1 concurrent meeting and 3 lifetime file imports. Minutes are a shared pool across transcription types.Otter pricing page
Paid plan for one person: Pro: $8.33 per user per month, billed annuallyBusiness is $19.99 per user per month on the same basis. Monthly billing costs more.Otter pricing
Our pick: Generous free minutes, but it joins as a bot and trains on de-identified data with no opt-out stated.

Fireflies.ai

Joins the call as a visible bot?: Yes. The Notetaker joins as a named participant others can see. The desktop app's Take Notes mode does not join as a bot.Take Notes captures system audio with no visible bot, confirmed on the vendor guide page.Fireflies guide: Recording Consent and Meetin... Fireflies guide: Does the Desktop App Save an...
Tells other people it is recording: Yes, if enabled: email one hour before, plus a pinned in-call chat message. If you turn those off, you are responsible for informing participants.These are account settings. Guide says participants in opt-out meetings must remove the bot or reject recording if they disagree.Fireflies guide: Recording Consent and Meetin...
Where the audio and transcript go: Notetaker saves audio and video recordings. Location and default retention not published; Enterprise offers private storage at a location you choose.Security page: Enterprise 'Private Storage ... at your preferred location' and 'Custom Data Retention' (unexplained). The 0-day retention claim refers to vendors and partners, not Fireflies' own default. Take Notes saves no separate audio or video file.Fireflies guide: Does the Desktop App Save an... Fireflies security page
Trains on your meetings?: No. Does not train on customer data by default.No opt-out described since training is off by default. Privacy policy says meeting content under Zero Data Retention is not used to train internal or external models, but the policy states it does not cover User Content processed for business customers.Fireflies security page Fireflies privacy policy
Free plan: Yes, $0. Pricing blog says 400 minutes of meeting storage per team, with unlimited transcription and AI summaries.The pricing page shows no figures on the page. Cap is stated as storage, not meetings per month. Other Fireflies pages may cite different caps; not confirmed.Fireflies pricing blog
Paid plan for one person: Pro: $10 per seat per month billed annually ($18 monthly).Annual-billing price is the lower rate. The pricing page itself shows no numbers on the page, so price comes from the vendor blog.Fireflies pricing blog
Our pick: The visible bot that announces itself and does not train on your data. Right when transparency matters more than quiet.

Gemini in Google Meet

Google

Joins the call as a visible bot?: Not publishedThe help page does not say whether notes are built in or use a bot. It says only that a pencil icon appears on all participants' screens once notes are being taken.Google Meet Help: Take notes with Gemini in Meet
Tells other people it is recording: Yes: Meet tells all participants when notes startAdmins can require explicit consent before notes are taken. That setting is off by default.Google Meet Help: Take notes with Gemini in Meet
Where the audio and transcript go: Notes doc is saved in the meeting organizer's Google Drive ("Google Meet" folder); it follows your organization's Meet retention policyThe page states the retention policy applies but gives no default number of days. It does not describe audio or transcript storage for this feature.Google Meet Help: Take notes with Gemini in Meet
Trains on your meetings?: No: Google states it does not use Workspace data to train its modelsThis is a general Workspace commitment on the Gemini in Meet data protection page. No opt-out is described because none is stated as needed.Gemini in Meet data protection
Free plan: No free plan includes Gemini meeting notesMeet's free plan caps group meetings at 60 minutes. The notes feature requires an eligible Workspace edition or Google AI plan, and no free tier is listed.Google Meet Help: Requirements and time limits Gemini plans and editions
Paid plan for one person: $14/user/mo, Business Standard, billed monthly (from Jan 28, 2027)Introductory $9.80/user/mo from Oct 28, 2026 to Jan 28, 2027 for new customers. The badge says 3 months and the footnote says 12 months, first 20 users. The page also offers a 16% saving with a 1-year commitment. Google AI Pro also includes Meet notes for personal accounts, but its price was not checked.Google Workspace pricing Gemini plans and editions
Our pick: If you already pay for Workspace Business Standard, notes land in Drive and stay inside your rules.

Copilot in Teams

Microsoft

Joins the call as a visible bot?: Built into Teams meeting controls; no separate bot named on the pageSupport page quote confirmed. The Learn admin page says Copilot runs for licensed users once the Copilot button is selected, which also reads as built in. Neither page explicitly says 'no bot participant', so the 'no' rests on how the vendor describes it.Get started with Copilot in Teams meetings Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings an...
Tells other people it is recording: Teams shows a notification banner when recording or transcription starts; admins can require explicit participant agreementBanner covers implicit notice or explicit consent. Explicit consent is an admin meeting policy, off by default per the pages. Pages do not say whether the banner shows in Copilot 'Only during the meeting' mode.Custom in-meeting notification for recording... Manage Microsoft Teams meeting recording and...
Where the audio and transcript go: Organizer's OneDrive, or the channel's SharePoint site for channel meetings; deleted after 120 days by defaultCopilot prompts and responses are encrypted and stored per Microsoft 365 contractual commitments, with retention set in Purview. 'Only during the meeting' mode relies on speech-to-text data not saved after the meeting. The 120-day default is the Teams recording and transcript expiry setting.Manage Microsoft Teams meeting recording and... Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Cop...
Trains on your meetings?: No. Microsoft says prompts, responses and Microsoft Graph data are not used to train foundation LLMsOptional customer feedback is not used to train these models either, and admins can manage feedback. Page dated July 2026, updated Oct 8, 2026.Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Cop...
Free plan: No $0 meeting notes plan; Copilot in Teams needs a paid add-on licenseCopilot Chat is included at no extra cost with eligible Microsoft 365 plans, but that is not Copilot in Teams meetings. Paid plans offer a one-month free trial that needs a credit card; a trial is not a free plan.Microsoft Copilot Plans and Pricing Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings an...
Paid plan for one person: $21.00 user/month, billed yearly (Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on); $18.00 promo price through Dec 31, 2026Corrected to lead with list price. Monthly billing is $25.20. Needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan and a Teams license. Bundles: Business Standard with Copilot $23.50 yearly, Business Premium with Copilot $32.00 yearly.Microsoft Copilot Plans and Pricing
Our pick: Same idea for Microsoft shops, at $21 a user on top of 365. No separate bot, no training on your data.

Yes
With conditions
Not yet
Not confirmed

Before the first client call with a notetaker

The habit around the tool matters more than the tool. Three habits keep clients comfortable.

01Ask out loudSay you use a notetaker and ask if that is OK, every time, even when the tool posts its own notice. Recording rules vary by state and by whether it is a call or an in-person meeting. Asking first is the safe habit. This is not legal advice.
02Know where it livesIf the recording sits in a vendor's cloud, know for how long and who at the vendor can see it. If it stays in your Workspace or tenant, your existing rules apply.
03Turn off trainingFind the setting that stops your meetings from training the vendor's models, or pick a vendor that does not train on them by default.

A notetaker that captures audio on your own machine is the quietest option. Quiet is not secret: tell people, then let the tool stay out of the way.

Spearworks AI

Want AI in your meetings without the awkward part?

I help small teams pick a notetaker, set the privacy settings once, and write the two sentences you say at the start of a call. One short session.

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Nathan Spear · spearworksai.com

Spearworks Labs · All comparisons · Checked October 14, 2026. Not affiliated with any vendor listed.