The Best Free AI Note-Taker? I Put 3 to the Test So You Don’t Have To
Exploring how AI is reshaping the way we think, build, and create — one idea at a time
AI note-takers have become one of those tools everyone talks about but few actually test properly. They promise cleaner meetings, sharper summaries, and the kind of recall we all wish we had at 9:30 a.m. on a Monday. With so many of them popping up in recent times, I wanted to see how the most popular free ones actually perform in real work scenarios.
So, I spent the past few days testing three well-known names: Fireflies, Krisp, and tl;dv. Each tool claims to transcribe accurately, summarize intelligently, and stay out of the way while your meeting unfolds. But as with most tech that sounds too convenient, the reality varies.
What follows is a breakdown of what they get right, where they fall short, and ultimately, which one stood out as the most reliable companion for everyday meetings.
What They Get Right
All three tools share one undeniable advantage: they remove the longstanding requirement of note-taking without disrupting the flow of a meeting. Fireflies.ai, in particular, stands out because of its transcript quality and the way it captures action items with near-clinical precision. Its summaries feel structured, readable, and practical, the kind of notes you actually revisit instead of letting them stay in a Google Drive folder.
Krisp.ai, meanwhile, leans heavily on privacy and accuracy. Because it takes a bot-less approach, it doesn’t “join” meetings the way others do, which means fewer interruptions and no awkward “Krisp AI has entered the call” notifications. Its diarization, separating speakers, is impressive, especially if your meetings involve people with different accents or uneven audio setups.
And then there’s tl;dv, the surprise pick. Its free plan is generous, its interface is modern, and its timestamped highlights make long meetings instantly skim-friendly. For many users, it strikes the right balance between usability and depth: enough insights to be helpful, without drowning you in automated details you didn’t ask for.
Where They Fall Short
For all the convenience AI note-takers promise, each one has its downsides. Fireflies, despite its strong summaries, feels a little heavy at times. The bot joining your meeting can be distracting, and the interface occasionally gives too much information, turning a simple recap into something that feels closer to a compliance report. It’s powerful, but not always lightweight.
Krisp takes the opposite approach and sometimes overcorrects. Because it doesn’t join the meeting directly, it relies on your local audio setup. If your mic is inconsistent or you’re in a noisy environment, the transcription accuracy can dip noticeably. The privacy benefit is great, but the trade-off is that the experience depends more on your hardware than the software.
And tl;dv, for all its ease, shows its limits with longer meetings. Accuracy fluctuates, especially when multiple people talk over each other or if the discussion gets technical. Its summaries are helpful, but they sometimes feel oversimplified, useful for a quick skim, not ideal if you’re relying on them for detailed follow-ups.
My Perspective: The One That Fits Real Workflows
After trying these tools back-to-back, I’ve realized that the “best” AI note-taker isn’t the one with the flashiest interface; it’s the one that perfectly fits in your workflow and doesn’t make you double-check its output. I care less about perfect transcripts and more about whether the summary helps me make decisions faster. In that sense, the winner became obvious fairly quickly.
Fireflies impressed me with structure, Krisp with privacy, and tl;dv with pure usability. But only one felt reliable enough to use daily without wondering what it might miss, and that is tl;dv.
It’s not the most feature-heavy, and it won’t win accuracy awards on every technical discussion, but it consistently delivered clear, skimmable summaries without demanding anything extra from me. It handled the essentials, stayed out of the way, and didn’t make me question whether something important was missing. In day-to-day work, that kind of quiet reliability goes a long way.
If I want structure and depth, I’d pick Fireflies. If I’m prioritizing privacy, I’d reach for Krisp. But if I had to choose one tool to use every day? tl;dv earns that spot.
AI Toolkit: Five Tools Worth Adding to Your Stack
EasyAI (Passio Life): Build structured, production-grade AI apps using the same tech behind MyFitnessPal and InsideTracker.
Tarota.ai: An AI-powered tarot reader that gives private, personalized readings for love, career, money, and more.
seo.ing: Autonomous SEO content creation with multi-agent crawling, outlining, and article generation.
Matik: Automatically turn your CRM and BI data into ready-to-send decks, documents, and reports.
SketchTo: Convert photos to sketches and sketches back to realistic images with AI-powered precision.
Prompt of the Day: Your AI Tool Stress-Tester
Prompt:
I want you to act as an evaluator for AI productivity tools. I’ll tell you which tool I’m testing and what I’m using it for. You will:
run a structured assessment of its output,
point out strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots,
compare it to 2–3 alternatives, and
give me a final recommendation based on accuracy, reliability, and workflow fit.