The 5 best meeting recorder apps for Mac (2026)
Some send a bot into your call, some upload the audio, and some never let it leave your Mac. Here’s which is which, what each costs, and what macOS already does for free.
The best meeting recorder apps for Mac in 2026 are Granola (best for AI notes shared with a team, free to start), Quill (best for bot-free recording transcribed on your Mac, one-time purchase), MacWhisper (best for transcription with local models), Otter.ai (best for a notetaker bot and a shared online archive) and Koi (best for dictation, an assistant and call notes in one app). All five can record without a bot joining. To record a voice note or a phone call, macOS’s built-in Notes and Phone apps are free.
Disclosure: We make Quill, one of the apps on this list. We’ve tried to place it where it genuinely fits and to describe every app fairly, using each developer’s own site. Prices and features checked 28 October 2026.
“Meeting recorder” means different things to different people. Some want polished AI notes to share the moment a call ends. Some want a transcript and nothing else. Some want a notetaker that joins every call automatically. Others want the opposite: no bot in the participant list and no audio on anyone’s server. The real differences are how the call is captured and where your audio goes, so we spell that out for each app.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Price model | Runs locally? | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granola | AI meeting notes for teams | Free; Business $14 per user per month | No: transcribed by cloud providers, audio not stored | macOS 14+ |
| Quill | Private, bot-free call notes | One-time purchase | Yes (AI summaries optional, with your own key) | macOS 14+ |
| MacWhisper | Transcription with local models | Free; Pro €64 one-time | Yes with local models; cloud models optional | Not stated (App Store version: macOS 15+) |
| Otter.ai | A notetaker bot and shared archive | Free; Pro from $8.33 per month billed yearly | No: recordings and transcripts in Otter’s cloud | macOS 12.3+ (desktop app) |
| Koi | Dictation, assistant and calls in one | Subscription or $199 lifetime | Recordings yes; summaries and assistant online | macOS 14+ |
Prices and features checked 28 October 2026 on each developer’s website. Check the official site before you buy.
1. Granola: best for AI meeting notes you share with a team
Granola calls itself an AI notepad for back-to-back meetings. It doesn’t join the call; it uses your computer’s audio to transcribe in the background while you jot rough notes, then turns both into notes with action items. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles and in-person conversations, and reads your calendar to match notes to meetings.
Standout features
- Your rough notes steer the summary, so it reflects what you thought mattered.
- AI chat across meetings, note templates and shared folders.
- A brief before external calls, Slack integration, and apps for Windows, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch.
Limits
- It needs the internet. Granola’s security page names Deepgram and Assembly for transcription, and OpenAI and Anthropic for summaries.
- It doesn’t keep the audio, so you can’t replay a moment, only read the transcript.
- Granola trains on anonymized data unless you opt out in Settings (Enterprise is opted out by default).
Price: Basic is free. Business is $14 and Enterprise $35 per user per month.
Who it’s for: people with a calendar full of calls, and teams who want to share notes without a bot in every meeting.
2. Quill: best for recording any call privately, with no bot
Quill is our app. It records your microphone and your Mac’s sound as two separate tracks, so it works with Zoom, Meet, Teams, Slack or a call in your browser, and nobody sees a recorder join. Apple’s on-device speech recognition writes the transcript, and Quill then makes a summary, a to-do list with who owes what by when, and a follow-up email, all offline.
Standout features
- Two tracks, “You” and “Them”, so speakers are never mixed up, and echo is dropped when you aren’t wearing headphones.
- A live transcript; click any line later to replay that moment.
- Optional AI summaries with your own key (Claude or any OpenAI-compatible server), or Ollama and LM Studio on your Mac.
- A notes editor with to-dos, tables and flashcards; export to Markdown, PDF, RTF or Word.
- A consent reminder with a heads-up message for the chat, and a red menu-bar icon while recording.
What it doesn’t do
- No meeting bot, calendar integration or automatic start. You press Record every time.
- Several people on the other side all appear as “Them”.
- It records everything your Mac plays while recording, so mute music and notification sounds during a call.
- The built-in summary picks key sentences rather than rewriting them; AI summaries need your own key or local server.
- Only languages Apple can recognise on your Mac. No Windows, iPhone or team sharing.
Price: one-time purchase, no subscription, no account: ₹1,499 for 1 Mac, ₹2,499 for 3, ₹3,499 for 5. Free updates and a 14-day refund.
Who it’s for: anyone who records client or interview calls and wants no bot and no audio on someone else’s server.
3. MacWhisper: best for transcription power users
MacWhisper from Good Snooze is a broad speech-to-text toolkit, and meeting recording is one part of it. It runs Whisper, Parakeet and other models on your Mac, so meetings can be transcribed without the audio leaving it. It records calls in Zoom, Teams, Webex, Slack, Discord, Chime and browsers such as Safari and Chrome, with no bot.
Standout features
- Optional meeting detection: a “Meeting Detected” prompt appears when a call starts in an app you’ve chosen.
- Summaries and chat with your own API keys (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others) or local models through Ollama and LM Studio.
- Much more than meetings: file and YouTube transcription, subtitles, dictation and a command-line tool.
Limits
- Automatic meeting recording is in beta, per MacWhisper’s help page.
- Other participants are grouped as one speaker for now, and FaceTime calls aren’t supported.
- The site doesn’t clearly mark which meeting features need Pro.
Price: free version available; Pro is €64 one-time direct. The App Store version (Whisper Transcription, macOS 15+) offers Pro as a subscription or a $99.99 lifetime purchase.
Who it’s for: people who transcribe a lot of audio, not just meetings, and want to pick the model.
4. Otter.ai: best for teams who want a notetaker in every call
Otter.ai is an AI notetaker that works two ways. Its Meeting Agent can join Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls as a participant, automatically from your Google Calendar if you like. Or the Otter desktop app for Mac records without a bot. Either way, the transcript, summary and action items end up in your Otter account online.
Standout features
- Live transcription in several languages, with speaker recognition.
- Summaries with decisions and action items assigned automatically.
- Otter AI Chat to search across meetings and draft follow-ups.
Limits
- Everything is stored online; Otter’s security page says on AWS, encrypted.
- Otter says it trains its own models on de-identified recordings and transcripts.
- The free plan allows 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation; Pro raises that to 1,200 minutes and 90 minutes.
- A bot in the participant list is visible to everyone.
Price: Basic is free. Pro is $16.99 a month or $8.33 a month billed yearly; Business is $30 or $19.99. Enterprise is priced on request.
Who it’s for: teams who want one shared archive of every meeting and are happy for it to live in the cloud.
5. Koi: best for dictation, an assistant and call notes in one app
Koi bundles a dictation key, an AI assistant on a second key and a call recorder, run from the notch at the top of the screen. It records Zoom, Meet, Teams and other call apps without a bot, and its site says it writes down who said what on your Mac, then gives you a summary, to-dos and a follow-up email.
Standout features
- No bot, and unlimited recorded calls on every plan.
- Recordings and documents are local files with no cloud copy.
- Offline dictation in 100 languages, with Parakeet built in and other models as free downloads.
Limits
- A call’s transcript leaves your Mac if you ask for a summary; the site doesn’t say where summaries are generated.
- The assistant sends your words, and by default a picture of your screen, to the AI.
- Every plan is paid from day one, and heavy assistant use needs extra credit.
Price: $20 a month (first week $7), $144 a year or $199 lifetime. Extra assistant credit costs more.
Who it’s for: people who would otherwise buy a dictation app, an AI assistant and a meeting recorder separately.
The built-in option: Notes, Phone, QuickTime and Live Captions
macOS can record and transcribe audio, but none of its tools is a full recorder for Zoom or Teams calls. Here’s what Apple’s support guides say each one does.
Notes: record and transcribe audio
On macOS Sequoia 15 and later, you can record audio inside a note and see a live transcript. Transcription needs a Mac with M1 or later and a supported language, and with Apple Intelligence turned on you can summarise the recording.
Notes › open a note › Attachment button › Record AudioApple’s guide doesn’t say it captures other apps’ sound, so with headphones on a video call, expect only your side.
Phone app: record phone calls
On macOS Tahoe 26 and later, the Phone app can record calls made through your iPhone. Both people hear an audio notice, and the recording goes to a Call Recordings folder in Notes. Phone calls only, not Zoom or Teams.
Phone › during a call, click More › Call RecordingQuickTime Player: a plain audio recording
QuickTime records from the microphone you pick and saves a file. There’s no transcript.
QuickTime Player › File › New Audio RecordingLive Captions: on-device captions of any audio
On Apple silicon Macs with macOS Ventura 13 or later, Live Captions captions computer audio or your microphone, processed on device. Apple doesn’t describe a way to save them as a transcript.
Apple menu › System Settings › Accessibility › Live CaptionsA word on consent
Recording laws vary by country and state, and many places require everyone on the call to agree. A bot-free recorder is invisible, so tell people at the start. This isn’t legal advice.
How we picked
- Records calls on a Mac in 2026. Each has a current Mac app that records meetings from the Mac itself.
- Clear about where audio goes. We checked each developer’s site and security pages for uploads, storage and on-device transcription, and say where a site doesn’t state it.
- A distinct job. Each pick suits a different person, so you can choose by what matters to you.
- Clear pricing stated by the developer. Where a price is only shown in euros, we say so instead of converting.
- No scores or ratings. We describe what each app does and doesn’t do.
We make Quill. We ranked it second because Granola does more for teams (sharing, apps on every platform, AI summaries with no key to set up), while Quill fits better if you want everything to stay on your Mac and to pay once.
FAQ
What is the best meeting recorder app for Mac?
It depends on where you want your audio to go. Granola is best for team AI notes, Quill for private bot-free recording, MacWhisper for local transcription models, Otter.ai for a notetaker bot and Koi for dictation and call notes in one app.
How do I record a meeting on Mac without a bot joining?
Use an app that captures your Mac’s microphone and system audio instead of joining the call, such as Granola, Quill, MacWhisper, Koi or the Otter desktop app. The other people only see you, so tell them you’re recording.
Which meeting recorders transcribe on the Mac instead of in the cloud?
Quill uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition, MacWhisper runs local models such as Whisper and Parakeet, and Koi says it writes the transcript on your Mac. Granola and Otter.ai transcribe in the cloud.
Is there a free meeting recorder for Mac?
Yes. Granola’s Basic plan is free with 30 days of history, Otter.ai’s Basic plan gives 300 minutes a month, and MacWhisper has a free version. On macOS Sequoia 15 and later, Notes can record and transcribe audio for free.
Why does a meeting recorder need Screen Recording permission?
macOS groups system audio capture under Screen & System Audio Recording in Privacy & Security. A meeting recorder needs it to hear the other side of the call, even if it never captures your screen.
Is it legal to record meetings on a Mac?
It depends on where you and the other people are. Many places require everyone on the call to agree, and bot-free recorders don’t announce themselves, so tell people at the start.
Key takeaways
- Pick by where your audio goes: cloud notes (Granola, Otter.ai) or on your Mac (Quill, MacWhisper, Koi’s recordings).
- Granola, Quill, MacWhisper and Koi record without a bot; Otter can send one or record bot-free from its desktop app.
- Notes on macOS Sequoia 15 and later records and transcribes audio for free, but isn’t built for Zoom or Teams calls.
- Bot-free means invisible, so getting consent is up to you.