Is there a completely free AI note taker?

Yes. Cereal is free with no meeting limit and no account, and the AI runs on your computer. Meetily and Anarlog are free open-source options too. Cloud note takers usually have free plans with limits on meetings or history.

How can an AI take notes without joining the meeting?

It records on your computer instead: your microphone for your voice, and the computer's sound output for everyone else. It works with any call app because it never connects to the call itself.

Do I need to tell people I'm recording?

Usually, yes. In many places everyone on a call must agree to be recorded. Cereal reminds you the first time and gives you a message to paste in the chat.

Free AI meeting notes, without a bot in your call

By the Toolbay team · Updated October 26, 2026

Meeting bots announce themselves, need admitting, and put your audio on someone else's server. The bot-free kind records on your own computer and writes notes when the call ends. Here are the free ones, and the catch with each.

Free, bot-free note takers compared

From each product's pricing page or GitHub README, checked October 26, 2026.
Feature	Cereal	Meetily	Anarlog	Granola Basic
Price	Free	Free (paid PRO edition exists)	Free (enterprise parts are commercial)	Free plan
Limit	None	None stated	None stated	30-day meeting history
Bot joins call	No	No	No	No
AI runs on your computer	Yes, transcript and notes	Yes	On supported Macs, or with local AI providers	No, cloud providers
Platforms	Windows, macOS 13+	macOS, Windows	See its README	See granola.ai
Account	Not needed	Not stated	Not stated	Required
Source	MIT	MIT, ~32,200 stars	MIT, ~9,600 stars	Closed

Cereal: Granola's notepad, free and local

Cereal notices when a call starts in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack, Discord, Webex or a browser, and starts taking notes with a small floating indicator. You jot rough notes; when the call ends it re-transcribes at full quality, tells speakers apart, removes echo, and writes notes with your template. Your own points stay dark, what the AI added is grey, and every line links back to the moment in the transcript.

Then you can chat with one meeting, a folder, a person or everything, with citations; export to Markdown, Word or PDF; or post a folder to Slack. Short calls with no talking are thrown away automatically.

The other free options

Meetily is the most-starred open-source meeting note taker on GitHub, local-first, for macOS and Windows; a paid PRO edition adds extras. Anarlog(formerly Hyprnote) is an MIT Granola alternative that keeps data in local SQLite and can transcribe on device on supported Macs. Granola's free Basic plan is polished but keeps only 30 days of history; see Cereal vs Granola.

Zoom, Teams or Google Meet?

Bot-free note takers work the same in every call app because they record your computer, not the call. Tips for each are in free AI notes for Zoom, Teams and Meet.

Questions people ask

Is there a completely free AI note taker?: Yes. Cereal is free with no meeting limit and no account, and the AI runs on your computer. Meetily and Anarlog are free open-source options too. Cloud note takers usually have free plans with limits on meetings or history.
How can an AI take notes without joining the meeting?: It records on your computer instead: your microphone for your voice, and the computer's sound output for everyone else. It works with any call app because it never connects to the call itself.
Do I need to tell people I'm recording?: Usually, yes. In many places everyone on a call must agree to be recorded. Cereal reminds you the first time and gives you a message to paste in the chat.

Granola is a trademark of Granola. Toolbay's tools are independent open-source projects, inspired by Granola, and are not affiliated with or endorsed by Granola.