Best AI Note Taking Apps to Help You Work Smarter and Faster

AI note-taking apps can be game-changers for boosting productivity, especially when you’re juggling the demands of running a business. Whether you’re looking to collect and archive your personal thoughts, record meeting notes, or connect key insights across project materials, AI note-takers can make the task more efficient and the outcome more useful.

From meeting assistants that transcribe calls to smart notepads that connect related ideas, AI note-taking apps address different workflow needs across industries. The right app can give any business owner a significant edge in staying organized and making informed decisions. Here’s what to look for in an AI note-taking app, along with today’s top picks.

What does an AI note-taking app do?

AI note-taking apps fall into three main categories, each designed to solve different productivity challenges:

• AI meeting assistants. These take meeting notes for you by automatically transcribing voice or video calls, then summarizing the transcription and highlighting key takeaways. Many store your meeting notes for easy access and review, making them perfect for busy entrepreneurs who attend multiple client calls or team meetings.

• Notepad apps with AI. These platforms let you type or write notes manually, then use AI to help with writing and organization. They’re ideal for brainstorming sessions, project planning, or capturing ideas on the go.

• Second brain apps. This emerging category combines note-taking with project management, allowing you to collect and store knowledge across multiple projects. These comprehensive tools often include notepads, voice transcription, calendars, goal tracking, and mind maps—especially valuable for personal knowledge management.

Each type serves different needs, so the best choice depends on how you work and what you’re trying to accomplish.

What to look for in an AI note-taking app

• Accuracy
• Organization
• Integrations
• User-friendliness
• Cost
• Cross-device access/syncing
• Security and privacy
• Legacy

Since everyone has unique workflow preferences, there’s no universal solution—and that’s actually beneficial. What feels revolutionary to one person might be distracting to another. As you evaluate different AI note-taking options, focus on these key features:

Accuracy

AI note-taking apps rely on natural language processing (NLP) to understand human speech and generative AI to create summaries and insights. However, not all AI systems perform equally. Look for apps that produce reliable meeting transcripts with minimal errors and generate key insights and summaries that actually make sense. If the tool includes a search chatbot, test it to ensure it returns accurate results from your archived notes.

Organization

Some AI note-taking apps are basic, focusing on simple note-taking. These tools are easy to pick up and use but can become unwieldy as your note library grows. More sophisticated apps offer organizational features like folders, tagging systems, automatic cross-linking between notes, and advanced search capabilities. While these require more setup time, they’ll save you hours when you need to find specific information quickly.

Integrations

To maintain smooth workflows, choose an AI note-taking app that integrates with tools you already use. Many AI meeting assistants integrate seamlessly with Zoom and Google Meet. Others connect to your calendar, automatically creating notes when meetings start and pulling relevant information from the calendar invites. Popular integrations include project management tools like Asana, communication platforms like Slack, and automation tools like Zapier—all designed to boost your team’s productivity.

User-friendliness

To simplify note-taking, your chosen app should have an intuitive interface and be fast, stable, and easy to navigate. Your definition of “user-friendly” will depend on your preferences—you might prefer a clean, minimal interface or gravitate toward apps with familiar layouts. For example, if you’re comfortable with Microsoft Office, you’ll likely find OneNote very intuitive.

Cost

Many AI note-taking apps offer free trials or basic free versions with limited features like fewer notes, restricted transcription minutes, or no cross-device syncing. Full-featured apps with unlimited use, extensive integrations, and advanced AI capabilities typically start around $10 per month and scale with team size and desired features.

Cross-device access/syncing

Some apps are web-based, while others only have a desktop app. Do you want to be able to access all your notes on a mobile app when you’re on the go, or do you only need access when you’re working on your computer? If your chosen app does have cross-device access, look for one where the notes sync with few bugs or interruptions.

Security and privacy

Meeting notes can be sensitive, so you’ll want to know who can and can’t see your data. Look for apps with transparent security and privacy protocols such as end-to-end encryption, clear data policies, and/or local storage capabilities.

Legacy

New AI note-taking tools pop up all the time. Although this injects exciting innovation into the field, it can also lead to a fair amount of turnover, especially in newer categories like PKM or second brain apps. Choose apps with established user bases and positive reviews, or if you prefer newer tools, have a backup plan for data migration.

Best AI note-taking apps

• Otter.ai
• Fathom
• Fireflies.ai
• Granola
• Evernote
• Microsoft OneNote + Copilot
• Notion
• Mem
• Obsidian

The “best” app is completely subjective and depends on your specific note-taking needs, preferred AI features, and workflow requirements.

Otter.ai

Type: AI meeting assistant

Otter.ai can help you:

• Automatically transcribe voice and video calls in real-time

• Generate 30-second summaries with action items from every recording

• Find things in your library of transcriptions with the help of a chatbot

• Use AI to create follow-up emails, project status updates, and blog posts

Otter’s simple interface and direct integration with 27 apps and software platforms set it apart. While it has long worked seamlessly with Zoom and Google Meet to record meetings, it now also connects with Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zapier, and more. You can have Otter automatically start transcribing a call by inviting its bot to your meeting, or you can start the app manually. The app also transcribes pre-recorded audio files.

While some users dislike that Otter.ai loudly announces itself when it starts recording, this feature helps keep everyone compliant with local conversation recording laws. 

Cost: Otter.ai’s free plan includes 300 monthly transcription minutes and the AI chatbot. Paid plans with more transcription minutes and advanced search capabilities start at $8.33 per month with annual billing.

Fathom

Type: AI meeting assistant

Fathom can help you:

• Automatically transcribe voice and video calls in real time in 38 languages

• Generate accurate meeting summaries and action items

• Organize a searchable library of auto-saved transcriptions

• Pull insights from past meetings using an AI-powered chatbot

• Share audio and video clips from a meeting

Fathom’s algorithm produces highly accurate transcripts with correct speaker identification in 38 languages, making it particularly helpful to international teams. It also allows you to choose from 17 meeting templates, such as sales, Q&A, or project kick-off, to more accurately and helpfully tailor your summaries. It was developed with team collaboration in mind and integrates directly with three different CRMs—Hubspot, Salesforce, and Close. It also supports integration with Zapier, allowing you to connect to thousands of other apps.

While the transcript timestamps aren’t always perfect, one standout feature is the ability to highlight crucial points in a conversation as they happen and easily jump straight to these key moments later.

Cost: As far as AI meeting assistants go, Fathom has one of the most generous free plans, which includes unlimited recordings, transcriptions, storage, and basic AI meeting summaries. Advanced AI features like action items and customizable summaries are free for the first five calls each month. Paid plans start at $15 per month per user with annual billing.

Fireflies.ai

Type: AI meeting assistant

Fireflies.ai can help you:

• Automatically transcribe meetings and audio files in 116 languages

• Get real-time answers to meeting questions during calls

• Track important topics and keywords within a meeting using AI

• Analyze emotional tone through sentiment analysis

• Automatically transcribe audio files from Dropbox, Box, or Onedrive

Fireflies stands out with detailed analytics powered by natural language processing. It analyzes speaker talk-time and classifies statements as positive, negative, or neutral, helping you monitor team, supplier, or client relationships. It categorizes dates, times, tasks, questions, and other information within conversations, allowing you to filter key parts across multiple meetings.

Fireflies.ai recently integrated AskFred, an AI chatbot for real-time meeting questions and transcript searches. The app integrates with more than 60 calendar, CRM, video-conferencing, storage, and workflow tools. However, its extensive options and analytics require time to master, and while it supports many languages, users generally find transcription accuracy slightly lower than other AI meeting assistants.

Cost: A limited free version includes unlimited transcription but restricts AI-generated summaries and storage. Advanced features come with paid plans, starting at $10 per person per month when billed annually.

Granola

Type: AI-enhanced digital notepad for meetings

Granola can help you:

• Fill any memory gaps in your manual notes with the help of an automatically created transcript

• Avoid intrusive meeting bots

• Stay organized with generated post-meeting tasks

• Access call content across teams with shared folders

With Granola, you take your own meeting notes but get AI assistance afterward. The tool can reorganize, polish, and fill information gaps or highlight key points using the meeting transcript. This workflow appeals to people who prefer manual note-taking for better engagement and memory retention.

Granola transcribes your device’s audio directly during meetings, so no bots join your calls. This allows you to use Granola offline on any platform or even for in-person meetings. Since Granola isn’t visible to other call participants, you’ll need to ask for recording consent separately.

Currently, Granola supports only Apple devices and tends to be less accurate than other transcription tools, though it still produces high-quality notes.

Cost: Granola’s free trial covers 25 meetings. Its paid version offers individual plans starting at $18 per month and business plans for $14 per person per month.

Evernote

Type: AI-enhanced digital notepad

Evernote can help you:

• Create a searchable repository for notes, scanned documents, task lists, and emails

• Customize your app’s layout and organization

• Quickly jot down digital notes

• Save parts of webpages with Evernote’s webclipper

• Sync your repository across devices and work offline

Launched in 2008, Evernote was among the first digital note-taking apps and maintains its core mission: storing every note, thought, task, and important piece of information in your digital life. Today, it integrates with Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook to streamline workflows

Evernote was one of the first apps to use optical character recognition (OCR), an early application of AI, to recognize text in digital images, making scanned handwritten notes searchable. Current AI features include natural language processing for advanced search capabilities and AI editing that suggests phrases, fixes typos, and adjusts tone when prompted.

Cost: A limited free plan is available; a personal plan costs $129.99 per year. More powerful AI features are introduced at the Professional level, which costs $169.99 per year.

Microsoft OneNote + Copilot

Type: AI-enhanced digital notepad

Microsoft OneNote can help you:

• Create and organize mixed-media notes into “notebooks”

• Transcribe audio files and voice recordings

• Share notebooks with anyone, regardless of Microsoft account status

• Access notes offline and sync across devices

• Generate content quickly using Copilot prompts

OneNote is the digital notebook within Microsoft Office, designed for mind-mapping and research. Its large canvas allows you to drag and drop text notes, images, handwriting, audio files, and tables anywhere on the same page. Users like its simple interface—without excessive features, it’s easy to start and organize.

OneNote doesn’t include native AI tools; instead, you can integrate Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot, for AI-powered productivity. Copilot can help draft content based on your prompts.

Cost: OneNote is free to download and use. To access Copilot and AI features, you need a paid Microsoft Office subscription starting at $99.99 per year, plus the Copilot add-on for an additional $20 per month.

Notion

Type: Second brain app

Notion can help you:

• Create custom databases, wikis, notes, and to-do lists

• Streamline digital notepads, project management tools, and collaboration tools into one platform

• Generate note summaries, extract action items, or rewrite texts with AI

Notion is a collaborative digital workspace with note-taking capabilities. While you can use it for personal organization, the experience is primarily designed for workplace use. Teams can create shared databases and libraries of notes and task lists. AI features are integrated throughout the platform—you can highlight stream-of-consciousness notes and ask AI to create summaries, extract actionable items, change tone, or create flowcharts. An AI-powered chatbot that answers questions by searching through your workspace data.

Beyond core workspace elements, Notion also integrates with more than 145 other productivity tools, including Slack, Google Drive, Miro, Zapier, and GitHub. For meeting transcriptions, you can integrate Otter.ai or Fireflies via Zapier. Shopify merchants can even use Notion to draft and publish blog posts directly to their site via an integration. The tradeoff for this robust productivity ecosystem? It requires significant time and effort to set up and master all functionalities.

Cost: Notion offers a free app with limited features; the paid version costs $10 per person per month with annual billing. The Notion AI add-on costs an additional $8 per person per month with annual billing.

Mem

Type: Second brain app

Mem can help you:

• Create and store notes

• Automatically organize notes by tag or events

• Use AI to reorganize and surface relevant content when needed

• Automatically link related notes

• Collaborate on individual notes or entire workspaces

• Work offline and sync across devices

While other note-taking apps use AI as a helpful feature, Mem built its entire self-organizing workspace around AI functionality. It uses natural language processing to understand note content and surface related notes when requested. The app suggests tags and filters notes accordingly, connects to your contacts and calendar to organize notes based on upcoming events.

When drafting notes, Mem’s AI provides context from other database information in a sidebar and automatically links related notes. Beyond standard AI note-taking features like text generation assistance, Mem learns and matches your voice and writing style. You can integrate Mem with productivity tools like Google Docs, Outlook, and Slack.

Cost: As of May 2025, Mem has released Mem 2.0 in alpha testing phase. Mem will be free to everyone during alpha and beta testing phases.

Obsidian

Type: Second brain app

Obsidian can help you:

• Save personal notes, mind maps, and multimedia content (images, PDFs, videos, audio, and interactive web) in a digital knowledge base or “vault”

• Interlink notes and concepts to uncover insights and connections

• Create notes in many formats using plug-ins

• Store notes privately on your device

Obsidian aims to help you do more with your notes. As you add content, it looks for connections and patterns between notes. Obsidian has developed a following among journalists, bloggers, and Reddit reviewers thanks to its customizability—numerous plug-ins allow note-taking in any format, from audio notes to outlines to kanban boards to image galleries. Obsidian supports Markdown, a text-to-HTML conversion tool, allowing you to format and connect notes and workspace exactly how you want them.

You’ll find Obsidian’s AI features in plug-ins like Smart Connections, which uses generative AI and large language models (LLMs) to answer questions about the content in your vault, much like a chatbot. The tradeoff for this variability is that it can require lots of time to set up and learn.

Obsidian offers robust security, with all content stored locally on your device. However, this makes collaboration challenging, so it works best as an individual brainstorming tool.

Cost: Obsidian is free to use. Optional add-ons for syncing, end-to-end encryption, and limited collaboration start at $4 per month when billed annually.