Whether sitting in a class, meeting, or interview, I’ve never been fond of taking notes, and I’m far from alone.
Whether sitting in a class, meeting, or interview, I’ve never been fond of taking notes, and I’m far from alone. Not only does the process of scribbling something down cause me to miss what was said immediately after, but I also suffer from awful handwriting, meaning that I can rarely read the notes anyway. Recording interviews has long been a solution, but transcribing interviews is another step (with extra cost) that can leave you with thousands of words of material to sift through, much of it irrelevant.
AI notetakers—massively popular at CES 2026 —have emerged to offer a new way of making IRL note-taking easier and faster, putting the power of AI into (or at least adjacent to) a portable device that evokes the microcassette recorder of yesteryear. As with all things AI, the jury’s out on whether AI notetakers are actually useful or if bypassing the intellectual rigor of writing down what people say is going to make us even stupider, but at the very least I’ve found them to be a convenient way to capture the main points of a conversation—and helpful at keeping a record of discussions and meetings I might otherwise have promptly forgotten.
For this guide, I evaluated several AI notetaker products, using them in person and online for meetings, interviews, and conference calls. In addition to “daily life” use cases, I tested each one by recording the same prerecorded presentation to use as a control. (I won’t identify it by name to mitigate the risk of companies attempting to tune their AI models for that specific dialog.) Throughout all of this testing, I considered the accuracy of transcriptions (and translations, where appropriate), the quality of insights generated, overall speed, additional features, and value for the money.
Updated August 2026: I've added notetakers from Soundcore, SpeakON, Looki, Flowtica, Vocci, and iFLYTEK, and updated prices throughout.
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The concept behind most AI notetakers is simple: Drop the device on the table between you and your interview subject or in earshot of your professor, and fire it up with the touch of a button. An onboard microphone records the discussion, transcribing all that is said on the fly, then beams it to a companion app on your smartphone. When the discussion is finished, the transcription is uploaded to the cloud for AI processing, where it is crunched and then turned into outline form, often featuring AI-selected quotes, action items, and other takeaways designed to make sense out of lengthy, meandering meetings.
You don’t need a physical device to AI-ify your notes. Services like Bluedot and Otter.ai , ubiquitous on Zoom calls these days, can do the job from your phone or computer. On Pixel phones , Google's Recorder app has been offering transcription and summarizations for several years, and Apple's Voice Memos app can do the same if you have an iPhone with Apple Intelligence .
But physical gadgets are handy for complicated in-person situations where the speaker is far away or difficult to hear, or where you want to use your phone for something else besides its voice recorder function. Just drop a notetaker where it’s convenient, and it'll take care of the rest. You don’t even need to stick around for the discussion—and some notetakers can even translate foreign languages. More advanced systems like the $1,600 Vibe Bot are also available for conference room settings, working as a sort of permanent stenographer for business meetings.
Nearly all AI notetakers push a paid subscription plan, and while most offer a stripped-down, no-cost tier, the utility of these plans varies greatly. Expect to pay $15 to $30 per month for unlimited AI insights on top of the hardware price.
I had low expectations for the rather generic Comulytic Note Pro, but it surprised me as not only the most useful all-around notetaker I tested, but also the cheapest after you consider the cost of a premium subscription.
The slim device, at 28 grams, is small enough to fit in a wallet or attach unobtrusively with the included magnetic ring to the back of your phone (note: it requires a special USB dongle to charge). The 64 GB of storage space and a 45-hour battery life aren’t massive, but both should be more than enough to handle a full week of interviews—all processed through OpenAI's GPT-5 and Google's Gemini—without offloading or recharging, The small LCD display is helpful (and rare in this market), indicating when you’re recording and showing the recording duration. This makes it a lot more foolproof than other notetakers, which offer nothing more than a colored LED light to tell you if they're recording.
The Note Pro supports 113 languages—sort of. It will record in a foreign tongue and offer a verbatim transcript in the original language, but insights and summaries are delivered in your language of choice. It’s not a full solution if you need a complete, direct translation, but if you just need the gist of a foreign news story or speech, Comulytic can handle it.
The proof is in the quality of the abstracts and insights provided. Of all the devices I tested, Comulytic’s summaries were the most insightful and least rambling , effectively picking out the most relevant portions of interviews and pulling the best quotes from my conversations (perhaps too many at times). It was also the only device to correctly transcribe a punny product nickname mentioned in passing in one interview, indicating that a more sophisticated language model may be behind the scenes.
Comulytic isn’t perfect. It doesn’t transcribe in real time, it’s one of the slowest products at completing analyses, and I never got its “fast transfer” mode working, which meant all recordings had to be sent to my phone via a pokey Bluetooth connection, but these are minor dings against an otherwise solid solution. Even if you don’t want to pay for a subscription, the free plan, which offers three “deep dives” and 10 abstracts a month, is better than nothing.
Subscription costs $15 per month or $120 per year
The eponymous Pocket is quite a bit bulkier (56 grams) than the Comultyic, but it features a beefier battery with a whopping 96 hours of recording time, and the inclusion of Claude, Gemini, and GPT-5 models. And it can attach magnetically to your phone out of the box (assuming you have a MagSafe or Qi2 smartphone ). A tiny switch on the side lets you shift into a mode that can record phone calls without being on speakerphone.
Pocket’s transcriptions and insights are very good and easy to understand, and they're generated quickly (in a bit more than half the time as Comulytic). But I did sometimes struggle with the lone button on the Pocket, as presses sometimes wouldn’t register or would cause me to tap it twice, which culminated in several two-second-long recordings being stored on the device. The tiny LED, which turns yellow when recording, is also tough to see.
Pocket’s free plan isn’t bad—offering unlimited transcriptions, summaries, and mind maps—but it limits history to 14 days and throttles exporting to one recording at a time. It didn't help that all exported documents I made were corrupted if I opted to save them in Word format. The luxe Pocket Pro plan offers a lot of refinements (and unlimited history), but it’s costly considering what you get. Ultimately, it was the larger size of the Pocket hardware that made me less likely to reach for it over the Comulytic. When attached to my phone, it made my handset much too bulky.
Subscription costs $20 per month or $199 per year
The InnAIO T10 is a language translator first, AI notetaker second, but if you want a device that can (haltingly) straddle both worlds, it’s worth a look—despite some obvious immaturity in its current incarnation.
The 33-gram disc (no stated storage capacity, 15 hours of battery life) can live on its own or slap onto the back of your phone, and with the press of a button, it’s ready to transcribe conversations in your native tongue and in another language. Note that translations can’t be disabled. Even if you only want an English transcription, you’ll have to pick a second language for real-time recordings.
The good news is the T10 is evolving—a promised offline mode is now operational, though the AI model may be dated, using GPT-4.1 instead of the more common GPT-5. It remains frustrating to use, and the free plan offers only 120 minutes per month of real-time translation and meeting minutes. It’s an imperfect product, but if you have a frequent need for transcriptions of multilingual communications, it’s arguably the best on the market.
Subscription costs $14 per month or $96 per year (1,200 minutes/month); or $25 per month or $179 per year (unlimited)
OSO’s AI Earbuds are a quirky concept, designed to transcribe what you hear—including phone calls—rather than specifically recording the broader world. It’s a small but important distinction. Technically, you can remove your earbuds and drop them in the middle of the conference table to record what happens in a room, but people will look at you funny.
The best use case for these earbuds is to leave them in place, doing double duty as standard Bluetooth headphones and switching into AI recording mode when needed. The GPT-5-powered feature is, however, rather limited, offering just four hours of battery life and lacking physical controls for recording, and requiring the use of the OSO app to fire up the system. Transcriptions are not displayed in real time, and—critically—the app is very finicky. Any hiccup (like closing the app) aborted recording in my testing. The unit can record in 100-some languages, but it can’t translate from one to another.
OSO’s free plan is very limited (with 300 minutes per month of transcription), and even its paid plan only gets you 2,000 minutes per month instead of the usual unlimited service. Its summaries are fine, but far from in-depth. Expect to see some competition in this space, and soon.
Not all notetakers are designed to slip into your pocket or attach to your phone. Some, like this unit from Anker subsidiary Soundcore, best known for its speakers and headphones, can clip to your lapel like a studio microphone.
The Soundcore Work is the size of a stack of nickels, weighing just 10 grams, and its ingenious design features a magnetic back attached via a tiny rubber strap, allowing it to clip onto your clothing, a necklace, or a bag strap. This means it’s not only always at the ready to record, it can easily be placed in a convenient location closer to the speaker (especially if that speaker is you). Just depress the button on the side to start recording and pop it out again to stop. The spring-loaded switch and small orange LED light make it easy to tell when the mic is live. To mark a particular timestamp you want to remember, just double tap the center of the unit.
Recharging is accomplished via a separate dock that attaches to a USB-C connection. The dock can also magnetically attach to the back of your iPhone–the unit is MFi-certified –to charge wirelessly.
Transcriptions and GPT-4o-powered summaries are quick and thorough, and I found them easy to read on the Soundcore app thanks to a large and clear type. Over 100 recording languages (but not translation) are supported, and the 64 GB of storage space is good for thousands of hours of recording. A slightly cheaper 8-GB model is also available, which is otherwise identical. You'll get 300 minutes of transcription per month for free.
Subscription costs $16 per month or $100 per year (1,200 minutes/month); or $240 per year (unlimited)
This is a nascent category that's growing. Here are others we've tested, but we'll also be keeping an eye on upcoming new hardware from companies like Omi, Boya, Mobvoi, and SwitchBot.
Plaud NotePin S for $179 : The 18-gram NotePin S is one of the smallest and most versatile notetakers on the market (you can wear it as a lanyard, even!), but it’s expensive given that it offers just 300 minutes of transcription unless you pay for a subscription. Transcriptions are not displayed in real time, though their eventual analysis is solid. It’s a handy little device with multi-language support (though not translation), 20 hours of battery life, and 64 GB of internal storage—but it’s just too costly in comparison to the field to recommend. A subscription will set you back $100 annually for 1,200 minutes per month or $240 per year for unlimited transcription time.
HiDock P1 for $169 : HiDock’s P1 is a big (91-gram) device that’s closer to an old-school tape recorder than a modern AI notetaker, complete with a bevy of onboard controls. It’s far more complicated than other notetakers, though its microphone is powerful, and its analyses are fast (at least when connected to a PC). It’s best for desktop scenarios rather than on-the-go usage; I couldn’t get it working with my phone. AI transcription is free, but additional features are available with a subscription .
SpeakON for $129 : This quirky device, weighing 27 grams, is more of an enhancement to your phone’s speech-to-text system than a true notetaker. Its main problem is that it only records while its singular button is being held down. That’s fine for capturing a few thoughts but a nonstarter for recording and digesting an hour-long presentation. (It doesn’t offer any real summary features, anyway.) Translations are included for 12 languages. No subscription needed.
Looki L1 for $249 : This oddball gadget is worn around the neck and is difficult to describe. An integrated camera means the system, 42 grams with its necklace, can capture not just audio but also video, allowing you to turn your boring old days into exciting vlogs, digital stories, and “unique comics” that you can then spam to TikTok and Instagram. Oh, it can also summarize (but not transcribe) meetings, but the feature feels like an afterthought. The digests are extremely short compared to other notetakers, and painfully slow to process online. It’s just not the best solution if you’re focused on audio work. No subscription needed.
Flowtica Scribe for $159 : AI notetaker, but make it a pen! The Flowtica Scribe may be the largest writing implement you’ve ever held, a 33-gram ballpoint that lets you take written notes alongside recorded ones. Other than the form factor, the concept is the same as other notetakers, with recordings quickly turned into intelligent summaries—but wholly unusable transcripts. One recent test stripped out all spaces from the transcribed recording, giving me a wall of gibberish. And while 39 languages are supported, some summaries of foreign (non-Chinese) speech randomly appeared in Chinese. You get 300 free minutes per month; the premium plan is $15 per month or $120 per year (for 1,500 monthly minutes). Unlimited service is $30 per month or $240 per year.
Vocci Ring for $299 : … now make it a smart ring. At a mere 3.5 grams, you won’t find a smaller AI notetaker, or arguably a more convenient one, either, as the Vocci Ring slips onto your index finger, where it’s always at the ready. It took some finessing (and two units) to get the ring working for me (the magnetic charging case is also very finicky), but when I finally did get going I was pleasantly surprised by the results: It delivered good transcriptions with rapid turnaround, and relatively terse but useful summaries. The form factor won’t work for everyone, but it may be absolutely perfect for others. You'll get 300 minutes of service free each month, then up to 1,200 minutes for $16 per month or unlimited time for $30 per month.
iFLYTEK AI Recorder P1 for $119 : Why, look at the cute emoji on the tiny LCD screen of the P1 from iFLYTEK, best known for its translation hardware . That’s sadly the most interesting part of this 23-gram clip-on device, which is so half-baked the manual doesn’t even tell you what app you have to use with it. (Tip for similarly confused users: It’s called Deepting.) Recordings regularly stopped saving after just a few minutes (despite the activity light on the P1 indicating the mic was still on), and summaries were either very short or failed to generate anything other than an error. A Pro subscription gets you 1,800 minutes per month for just $13 monthly or $86 annually, but I wouldn’t bother.
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