Mac meeting recorder

What a meeting recorder does

There are two ways to record a meeting, and it helps to know which one each tool uses:

• With a bot. It joins the call as one more participant and everyone sees it in the list.
• From the computer. An app records system audio and your microphone. Nobody joins the call.
• Inside the platform. Zoom, Teams and Meet have their own AI notes.

Some tools offer the first two. Even with no bot, we recommend telling people, and the app reminds you. We cover that, with the official sources, in how to tell people you are recording.

Mac meeting recorders

This table shows what each tool publishes on its website as of 2 November 2026. Some websites change the currency by country. Only the PolarParrot row says whether tax is included.

Mac meeting recorders, according to each website as of 2 November 2026

Tool	Who it is for	Published price	What it does
PolarParrotpricing	Anyone who has video meetings on a Mac and wants the notes done without taking any. Mac only.	Free for 3 meetings per Mac, up to 1 hour each, no card. Pro: €15 a month or €150 a year, with 20 hours of meetings a month, VAT included and no minimum term.	Records your Mac's audio and your microphone, with no bot on the call and with the macOS permissions. Keeps your voice apart from everyone else's and leaves notes with a summary, decisions, actions and questions. Your AI reads them over MCP on every plan, read-only.
Granolasource, 2 November 2026	People who go from meeting to meeting and want an AI notepad with no bot.	Basic is free, with 30 days of history. Business: $14 per user a month. Enterprise: $35 per user a month.	From the device, with no bot, on every plan. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Apple Watch.
MacWhispersource, 2 November 2026	People who want to transcribe audio, video and meetings locally on their Mac.	Free version with no time limit. Pro: €64, a one-off payment per licence with lifetime updates.	From the Mac, with no bot and automatic meeting detection. It transcribes locally. Mac. There is no Windows version.
Jamiesource, 2 November 2026	Venture capital, banking, M&A, law and consulting firms with sensitive conversations.	Free: 10 AI notes a month, 30 minutes per meeting. Plus: €21, with 20 notes a month and 2 hours per meeting. Pro: €39 a month paid yearly, with unlimited notes and 5 hours per meeting. Team: €33 per seat a month paid yearly. Enterprise is custom.	From the device, with no bot. Mac, Windows, web and iOS.
Ottersource, 2 November 2026	Teams that want live transcription, a summary and actions from each meeting.	Basic is free: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation. Pro: $16.99 per user a month, or $8.33 paid yearly. Business: $30, or $19.99 paid yearly. Enterprise by demo.	Both: an assistant that joins the meeting and a desktop app that records without a bot. Mac, Windows, web, iOS, Android and a Chrome extension.
Firefliessource, 2 November 2026	Teams that want meetings, email, chat and CRM in one knowledge base.	Free plan. Pro: $18 per seat a month, or $10 paid yearly. Business: $29, or $19 paid yearly. Enterprise: $39, yearly only.	Both: the Fireflies Notetaker bot, a Chrome extension with no bot and a desktop app that records system audio. Without the bot, labels stay as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and a Chrome extension.
Fathomsource, 2 November 2026	People who want free notes from Zoom, Meet and Teams, and teams that want the CRM kept up to date.	Free forever, with unlimited recordings and transcripts. Premium: $20 per user a month, or $16 paid yearly. Team: $19, or $15 paid yearly, 2 users minimum. Business: $34, or $25 paid yearly, 2 users minimum.	Both: a bot by default, and bot-free device recording, in beta and only on Mac. Mac and Windows. Without the bot, Mac only.
tl;dvsource, 2 November 2026	Teams that want to record and summarise Zoom, Meet and Teams.	Free plan. Pro: €29 per seat a month, or €216 a year (€18 a month). Business: €39, or €348 a year (€29 a month).	Both: a bot in the meeting or a desktop app with no bot. Mac, web, iOS, Android and a Chrome extension.
Krispsource, 2 November 2026	People who want noise-free calls and meeting notes in the same app.	7-day trial with no card. Core: $16 per user a month, or $8 paid yearly. Advanced: $30, or $15 paid yearly. Enterprise through sales.	Both: on-device capture with no extra participant, and an optional bot for Zoom. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and a browser extension.

There is one page per tool under alternatives, and the comparison puts them all in one table.

Which Mac meeting notes apps do not add a bot?

• No bot at all: Granola, Jamie, MacWhisper and PolarParrot always record from the device.
• Both options: Otter, Fireflies, tl;dv and Krisp have a bot and a bot-free mode.
• Fathom uses a bot by default. Its bot-free option is in beta and only on Mac.

More in how to record a meeting on a Mac without a bot.

How much does it cost for one person?

PolarParrot Pro costs €15 a month or €150 a year, with 20 hours of meetings a month, VAT included. That is similar to others, not the lowest.

Free plans are not the same either. Fathom publishes unlimited recordings. Otter gives 300 minutes a month. Jamie gives 10 notes a month. MacWhisper has a free version and a one-off Pro.

PolarParrot's free part is 3 meetings per Mac, up to 1 hour each, no card.

If you already pay for Zoom, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

You may already have AI notes inside your platform, so check your plan first. The catch is that Copilot and Gemini live inside their own platform: if you use several, your notes end up scattered.

Copilot in Teams does not do intelligent recap without a paid licence: it needs Teams Premium or Copilot, with transcription on.

PolarParrot works with Teams, with an open bug on calls of three or more people. We explain it in how to record Teams, Zoom and Meet.

How to choose a Mac meeting recorder

1. Where you will use it. If it is not just on a Mac, rule out the Mac-only ones.
2. Whether a bot on the call is fine. Some clients and companies do not want one.
3. Where the audio goes. Some transcribe locally and others in the cloud.
4. How many hours a month you have. Some plans have a cap and some do not.
5. Whether you want to ask your AI. Check if it has MCP, on which plan, and if it only reads.

What PolarParrot does

• Records your Mac's audio and your microphone when you press record.
• Keeps your voice apart from everyone else's.
• Leaves you notes with a summary, decisions, actions and questions.
• Adds what matters from the screenshots you take while recording, up to 12 per meeting.
• Your AI (Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor) can read your notes over MCP, on every plan. Only read.

We go through it step by step in how it works.

What PolarParrot does not do

• It only runs on a Mac. There is no version for Windows, iPhone or Android.
• It needs two macOS permissions: the microphone and system audio recording. Without them it cannot record.
• FaceTime. PolarParrot cannot record the other people on FaceTime: macOS only lets it record your voice.
• Download. The App Store version is not available yet. You download PolarParrot from this website.
• The audio leaves your Mac. It is uploaded to our server to write the notes and deleted when they are done. You can change that in Settings. Transcription does not run on your Mac.
• The free part is short: 3 meetings per Mac. Pro includes 20 hours a month, and extra hours are sold separately.
• The price is per person. There is no team plan.