The AI note taker for Zoom that never joins the call
Zoom's own AI Companion and every bot notetaker send your meeting to a server to be summarised. Private Notetaker captures the call on your Mac or PC and writes the notes there, so nothing about the conversation leaves the machine.
macOS (Apple Silicon) & Windows (64-bit) · Free 7-day trial · No card required.
| Private Notetaker | Zoom AI Companion | Bot notetakers (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the meeting is processed | 100% on your device | On Zoom's servers | On the vendor's servers |
| Bot in the participant list | Nothing. It runs on your computer, not in the meeting | No, it is built into Zoom | Yes, a bot participant joins |
| Needs a paid plan | No Zoom plan needed. Works for meetings you host and ones you join | Free Basic plan: 3 meeting summaries a month. Unlimited on Pro ($14.16/user/mo billed annually) | Free tiers with monthly caps; paid seats for full use |
| Works offline | Yes, fully | No | No |
| Where your notes live | Only on your own disk | Zoom's cloud, on the host's account | The vendor's cloud |
| Who can use it | Anyone on the call, from their own computer | Only for meetings you host on an eligible plan | Anyone with a vendor account, host or not |
| Price | $15/mo or $149 once, yours forever | See each vendor's pricing page | |
Platform and vendor facts as published on their own pages, checked 16 September 2026.
Their privacy is a policy.
Ours is architecture.
Privacy by policy
Every cloud note taker
- Hosted in a chosen region, so you trust where the servers are
- Encrypted in transit and at rest, so you trust the keys are handled well
- Deleted on request, so you trust the deletion actually happens
- “We don’t train on your data”, so you trust the pledge outlives the roadmap
Privacy by architecture
Private Notetaker
- ✓Audio is captured, transcribed, and summarized on your hardware
- ✓There is no server holding your meetings to breach or subpoena
- ✓Nothing to delete, because nothing was ever collected
- ✓No pledge required. The data simply is not there
Don't take our word for it. Turn WiFi off and watch it keep working.
How it works with Zoom
Private Notetaker records the audio your computer is already playing and picking up, so it works on any Zoom call you can hear, whether you host it or not, and with no Zoom plan of any kind.
Hit record
Open Private Notetaker before the call and press record. No bot joins, nothing appears in the participant list, and no Zoom setting is involved.
Local AI transcribes
A Whisper-class model turns speech into text and a local language model writes the summary. All of it on your hardware, so it works offline and nothing is uploaded.
Notes, done
Summary, key decisions, action items, and the full transcript, ready the moment you stop recording. Searchable forever, stored only on your machine.
I built this for myself. I live in back-to-back client calls, and I was never comfortable piping confidential conversations about clients' revenue, ad accounts, and contracts through someone else's cloud just to get a summary. So I made a note taker where everything stays on my machine. I have used it every working day since. Now I am opening it up.
Simple pricing. Either way, it is all yours.
Available for Mac & Windows. Pay once or monthly, whichever suits you.
Monthly
Cancel anytime. The notes you took stay yours.
- ✓Unlimited meetings and recording time
- ✓Local transcription and AI summaries
- ✓Full-history search on your device
- ✓Light and dark mode, Mac + Windows
- ✓No account required to take notes
Lifetime
Pay once, yours forever. Includes updates.
- ✓Unlimited meetings and recording time
- ✓Local transcription and AI summaries
- ✓Full-history search on your device
- ✓Light and dark mode, Mac + Windows
- ✓No account required to take notes
- ✓Never a subscription
Prefer to try first? Download the app and use it free for 7 days, no card needed. Buying charges right away and is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Zoom questions, answered
Can I transcribe a Zoom meeting without recording it? +
Yes, if the transcription happens on your own machine. Zoom's built-in transcript is a feature of cloud recording, and its AI Companion summary is generated on Zoom's servers, so both involve Zoom keeping a copy. A local app like Private Notetaker transcribes the audio as it plays on your computer and keeps nothing on any server. Whether you record or transcribe, the people in the call still deserve to know: our guide to meeting recording consent laws covers where that is a legal requirement.
How do I turn on transcription in a Zoom meeting? +
For Zoom's own transcript, the host records to the cloud on a paid plan and the transcript appears alongside the recording afterwards. For a local transcript, open Private Notetaker before the call and press record; the transcript is built on your device and no Zoom setting is involved.
How do I disable the AI Notetaker feature in Zoom meetings? +
Hosts can turn AI Companion off in the meeting controls or in their account settings. Third-party bots such as Otter or Fireflies join as participants: remove them from the participant list, and to stop them returning revoke the tool's calendar access or block it in your admin meeting settings. Private Notetaker never appears in the meeting, so there is nothing for other participants to disable.
What is the best way to transcribe a Zoom meeting? +
It depends on where you are willing to send the audio. If Zoom's cloud is acceptable, its built-in transcript is the least effort. If the meeting is confidential, a local transcription app is the only route that keeps the audio on your computer, and it also works for calls you do not host.
Recording law is real: read which states need everyone's consent before you rely on any of this.
Further reading
Your meetings are nobody else's business.
Download the AI note taker that keeps everything on your device. Free for 7 days, no account, no card.
Mac & Windows.