MEMORY NOTCH BLOG

AI note taker, no subscription: 3-year costs

Most AI note takers with no subscription are free tiers or betas. Over three years, US$79 once costs less than any plan here, minus AI summaries.

Published September 28, 2026 · The Memory Notch team

Is there an AI note taker with no subscription?

Yes, but “no subscription” covers four different deals. On September 23, 2026, Goodnotes’ parent company launched Goodmeet as a free beta for Apple silicon Macs. It hasn’t said what it will cost after the beta. Memory Notch, a Mac app, costs $79 once. Over three years, the cheapest paid plans of the four subscription note takers compared below cost one person about $300 to $720.

The four deals work like this:

Free tier: free while you stay inside the vendor’s limits.
Free beta: free today, with the price still to come. Goodmeet is one.
One-time purchase: you pay once and keep the version you bought. Memory Notch is one.
Hardware recorder: you buy a device, and a transcription plan is sold on top. Plaud is one.

Prices below are in American dollars, taken from each vendor’s own pricing page. Checked September 28, 2026.

What changed this week: Goodmeet’s free beta

Goodmeet launched on September 23, 2026, reported by Finwire. Its site answers the price question in one line: “Goodmeet beta is currently free to try.” Neither the site nor the launch coverage gives a price for after the beta.

Its strength is the privacy design. Goodmeet says recording and transcription happen on your Mac, and the audio is never uploaded. Summaries work differently. When you ask for one, the transcript is summarized “inside confidential computing”, which is an isolated server environment. The app runs in English on Apple silicon Macs.

So treat a free beta as a trial with no end date yet. It’s worth trying, as long as you don’t plan three years of meeting notes around a price nobody has announced yet.

What do the subscription tools cost over three years?

At list prices, one person pays about $300 to $720 over three years for the cheapest paid plan of each tool below. A Memory Notch licence costs $79 once for the same period.

Tool	Cheapest paid individual plan	Billed monthly	Billed annually	3 years, monthly	3 years, annual
Memory Notch	One-time licence	—	—	$79 once	$79 once
Granola	Business	$14 per user per month	Not listed separately	$504	see vendor
Otter	Pro	$16.99 per user per month	$8.33 per user per month	$611.64	$299.88
Fireflies	Pro	$18 per seat per month	$10 per seat per month	$648	$360
Fathom	Premium	$20 per user per month	$16 per user per month	$720	$576

Each three-year figure is the listed monthly rate times 36, assuming the price doesn’t change. Otter’s page also shows starred promotional prices, and the table uses its standard rates. Granola lists one rate per user per month and no separate annual rate.

The subscription tools do more than a transcript. Each paid plan writes AI summaries, and Granola adds chat across your meetings. If you’d use that every week, the subscription pays for real work.

The comparison pages for Granola, Otter, Fireflies and Fathom go feature by feature. The Granola alternatives post covers who should stay put.

Is a free tier the same as no subscription?

A free tier costs nothing while you stay inside its limits. The vendor sets those limits and can change them. Here is what each free plan allows today:

Fathom Free gives unlimited recordings and transcriptions, plus instant AI call summaries. It’s the most generous free plan here.
Otter Basic gives 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation.
Fireflies Free gives unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage.
Granola Basic gives AI meeting notes with a limited meeting history.

If your meetings fit inside one of these, a free tier can serve you for years. Check the limit you care about first, whether that’s minutes, history or storage. Moving years of notes out later is harder than choosing well now.

Do hardware recorders need a subscription?

The recorder is a one-time purchase, but the transcription behind it usually comes with plans. Plaud lays this out on its own plan page.

The Plaud Note recorder costs $159.
Each Plaud device comes with a free Starter plan of 300 transcription minutes a month.
The Pro plan costs $99.99 a year for 1,200 minutes a month. Paid monthly, it’s $17.99.
The Unlimited plan costs $239.99 a year, or $29.99 a month.

If 300 minutes a month is enough, a Plaud Note costs $159 in total. With Pro billed yearly, three years comes to $458.97. That’s a fair price for a device that records in person, away from your laptop. It’s still a plan.

What does a one-time licence give you, and what does it leave out?

A Memory Notch licence removes the five-minute recording limit for $79. It covers up to five devices you own and one year of updates, with a 30-day refund. Every version released in that year stays unlimited after the year ends, even if you never renew.

The licence agreement spells out the catch. Versions released after your update year closes run with the five-minute cap, like the trial, unless you renew. Renewing extends the window, and it never takes away a version you already have.

What the app doesn’t do:

It writes no automatic summaries. You get a transcript and the audio, not a recap.
Speakers are numbered, not named.
Library search covers titles and metadata, not every spoken word.
Overlapping voices can be difficult to separate.
System audio needs macOS Screen Recording permission.
It needs an Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 26 or later.

For summaries, use the files. Your notes are plain files in ~/memory, so you can open them with Claude Code, Codex or Cursor, or paste a transcript into a chat app. The AI tools guide shows each workflow. Once you do, that AI company processes the transcript under its own terms.

Recording, transcription and speaker labels run on the Mac. The app makes three network requests, and none of them carries a recording. It fetches a signed list of revoked licences and checks for updates once a day, which you can turn off. It downloads an update only when you choose one. The privacy policy lists each request.

Keeping audio on your Mac doesn’t replace the consent of the people you record, so ask first.

Which kind of “no subscription” fits you?

The answer turns on whether you need summaries written for you. If you do, Fathom’s free tier or a paid plan is the honest pick. If you want private transcripts and a price that ends, a one-time app fits. If you record in person away from your computer, a hardware recorder earns its plan.

The bot-free note takers guide covers the wider field, and the comparison hub lines up each tool. You can try Memory Notch without an account. Each recording runs up to five minutes and saves what it captured, and the trial never expires. The five-minute trial post explains it, and the download page has the app.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an AI note taker with no monthly fee?

Yes. Memory Notch is a Mac app that costs $79 once and transcribes on your Mac. Several subscription tools also have free tiers. Fathom’s includes unlimited recordings and AI summaries, and Otter Basic gives 300 minutes a month. Goodmeet is free while it’s in beta, and its later price hasn’t been announced.

Will Goodmeet stay free?

Goodmeet hasn’t announced a price for after the beta. Its site states that “Goodmeet beta is currently free to try”, and the September 23, 2026 launch coverage doesn’t mention one. Treat it as a free trial of unknown length, not a permanent free plan.

How much does an AI note taker cost over three years?

For one person on the cheapest paid plan, it’s about $300 to $720 at list prices, checked on September 28. The low end is Otter Pro billed annually, and the high end is Fathom Premium billed monthly. A one-time app such as Memory Notch costs $79 once for the same three years.

What happens when the Memory Notch update year ends?

Every version released during your update year stays unlimited for good, offline too. Versions released after the year ends run with the five-minute trial cap unless you renew, which extends the window. You never lose a version you already have.

Does a one-time note taker write AI summaries?

Memory Notch doesn’t. It gives you a live transcript with numbered speakers, plus the audio and a Markdown note, saved as files in ~/memory. You can open those files with an AI tool of your choice to get a summary. That tool then processes the transcript under its own terms.

Sources

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