AI meeting assistants
By Samarth Wagh11 min readPricing checked 30 September 2026
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Quick answer: Zoom AI Companion is Zoom's built-in AI assistant, included at $0 extra with paid Zoom Workplace plans, that writes meeting summaries, live notes and next steps. The best Zoom AI Companion alternative is Lynkk: it starts free, briefs you before calls, shows live words during them, and turns every meeting into notes and tasks you can send to Jira, across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack, WhatsApp and in person.
Disclosure: This guide is published by Lynkk, and Lynkk is one of the tools reviewed. Zoom details come from Zoom's help center and announcements; other tools' details come from each vendor's own pages, checked on the date above.
We compared 7 alternatives to Zoom AI Companion on price, where they work and what they do after the meeting.
| Rank and tool | Best for | Works without paid Zoom? | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Lynkk | Best Zoom AI Companion alternative overall | Yes | Free; Pro $15/month |
| 2. Otter | Live transcripts | Yes | Free 300 min; Pro $8.33/user/month |
| 3. Fireflies | Searchable call library | Yes | Free; Pro $10/seat/month |
| 4. Fathom | Free unlimited recordings | Yes | Free; paid from $15/user/month |
| 5. Read AI | Meeting reports | Yes | Free 5 meetings; Pro $15/user/month |
| 6. Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft 365 companies | Yes (Teams) | $30/user/month add-on |
| 7. Gemini in Google Meet | Google Workspace companies | Yes (Meet) | Workspace Business and up |
AI Companion is the AI assistant built into Zoom Workplace, included at $0 extra with paid Zoom plans. It can write a meeting summary with next steps, take live notes, answer questions about the meeting and help generate tasks.
Zoom has expanded it well beyond Zoom meetings. Licensed users can invite AI Companion to Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings, and account admins can turn individual AI features on or off.
AI Companion covers 4 main jobs for paid Zoom users, according to Zoom's help center.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Meeting summary | Summarizes the meeting and next steps after it ends |
| Live notes and meeting questions | Helps you catch up and ask about the meeting while it runs |
| Tasks | Helps generate and manage tasks from meetings |
| Third-party meetings | Joins Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings for licensed users |
Zoom AI Companion note taking works best if your company already pays for Zoom Workplace and runs most meetings there.
People look for a Zoom AI Companion alternative for 3 common reasons: they do not pay for Zoom, they want different follow-up, or they want 1 assistant for every kind of conversation. Here is how those needs map to the tools in this guide.
We compared 7 tools on 5 questions that decide whether an alternative is worth switching to.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Does it need a paid Zoom plan? | Free Zoom users cannot use AI Companion |
| Which platforms does it cover? | Most teams meet in more than 1 place |
| Does it help during the meeting? | Live answers prevent follow-up emails |
| What happens after the meeting? | Tasks and tickets save the most time |
| What does it cost? | Per-user pricing adds up for teams |
Lynkk is the best Zoom AI Companion alternative because it works on free and paid Zoom accounts alike and helps at all 3 stages of a meeting: before, during and after. Notes, action items you can send to Jira arrive after each call.
Lynkk records Zoom in 2 ways, so it fits both internal calls and client calls.
Lynkk adds 5 things teams ask for most when they compare meeting assistants.
Pricing: start free; Pro is $15 a month. See Lynkk pricing.
Otter's free plan includes 300 transcription minutes a month, and Pro costs $8.33 per user per month billed annually. It shows a live transcript during Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls.
Best for: people who want to read along during meetings without a paid Zoom plan.
Good to know: Otter's Business plan adds 6,000 minutes a month and unlimited file imports.
Where Lynkk goes further: Lynkk shows live words during the call and lets you send tasks to Jira afterward.
Source: Otter pricing page, checked September 30, 2026.
Fireflies includes unlimited transcription and AI summaries on all 4 plans, with 400 minutes of storage per team on the free plan. Pro costs $10 per seat per month billed annually.
Best for: sales teams that want to search past calls by keyword.
Good to know: recordings are capped at 2 hours on the Free and Pro plans, and 3 hours on Business.
Where Lynkk goes further: Lynkk briefs you before the next call and records in-person meetings, Slack and WhatsApp.
Source: Fireflies pricing page, checked September 30, 2026.
Fathom's free plan includes unlimited recordings, transcripts and AI summaries, with advanced summaries for your first 5 calls a month. Paid plans start at $15 per user per month.
Best for: individuals on free Zoom accounts who want summaries after calls.
Good to know: new Team and Business plans no longer include free seats, so every member needs a paid seat.
Where Lynkk goes further: Lynkk adds help before and during the meeting, plus Jira follow-up.
Source: Fathom pricing page, checked September 30, 2026.
Read AI's free plan covers 5 meetings a month, and Pro starts at $15 per user per month billed annually. It adds reports on how each meeting went.
Best for: managers who want data on meeting habits.
Good to know: paid plans store an unlimited number of meetings.
Good to know: the Enterprise+ plan adds data retention policies, domain capture and SAML.
Where Lynkk goes further: Lynkk focuses on the follow-up: owned action items, tickets and cited answers.
Source: Read AI plans and pricing page, checked September 30, 2026.
Microsoft 365 Copilot costs $30 per user per month as an annual add-on and needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 license. In Teams it can recap meetings and answer questions about what was said.
Best for: companies moving most meetings to Microsoft Teams.
Where Lynkk goes further: Lynkk starts free, covers Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and in-person meetings, and prepares you before each call.
Source: Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing page, checked September 30, 2026.
Gemini's "Take notes for me" captures Google Meet notes in real time and saves them to a Google Doc with suggested next steps. Since January 15, 2025, it is included in Google Workspace Business and Enterprise plans.
Best for: companies moving most meetings to Google Meet.
Where Lynkk goes further: Lynkk adds live words during the call and Jira send for action items.
Source: Google Workspace help pages, checked September 30, 2026.
You use AI Companion in 3 steps on a paid Zoom account, once your admin has turned the features on. This is how to use Zoom AI Companion for a meeting summary.
Hosts can also use meeting summary templates, and licensed users can invite AI Companion to Teams and Google Meet meetings.
Here is how to turn off Zoom AI Companion: account owners and admins switch it off in the Zoom web portal, either with 1 universal toggle for all AI features or feature by feature. Zoom lets admins separately disable meeting summary, meeting questions and AI Companion in third-party meetings.
To disable Zoom AI Companion for your own meetings as a regular user, check your settings or ask your Zoom admin, since company settings can lock features on or off.
Yes. AI Companion creates a Zoom AI Companion transcript as part of meeting summary on paid plans, and admins decide in 1 setting whether users can keep those transcripts. Separately, Zoom transcribes cloud recordings on paid plans when that setting is on before the meeting.
Lynkk transcribes every meeting it records with speaker labels in 17 languages, on any Zoom plan, and adds notes and tasks after the call.
AI Companion costs $0 extra if every user already has a paid Zoom plan, while alternatives cost between $0 and about $300 a month for 10 people. Prices below were checked on September 30, 2026.
| Option | Price | 10 people per month |
|---|---|---|
| AI Companion | $0 extra with paid Zoom | Cost of 10 paid Zoom seats |
| Otter Pro | $8.33 per user | About $83 |
| Fireflies Pro | $10 per seat | $100 |
| Fathom | From $15 per user | From $150 |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | $30 per user add-on | $300 |
| Lynkk Pro | $15 a month | Workspaces: Pro for everyone |
You can switch in 4 steps, and you can run both side by side while you compare. These 4 steps keep every meeting covered during the move.
Keep your admin in the loop if your company manages AI settings centrally, since some Zoom settings are locked at the account level.
The best Zoom AI Companion alternative depends on what your team does after meetings. This table matches 4 common needs to the right tool.
| If you need | Choose |
|---|---|
| Notes, tasks, Jira follow-up across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and in person | Lynkk |
| A live transcript to read | Otter |
| A free recorder for Zoom | Fathom |
| AI across Word, Excel and Outlook as well as Teams | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
If your team stays on paid Zoom and only needs summaries, AI Companion is a reasonable default. If you want the follow-up done for you, Lynkk is the stronger choice.
It is safe when the replacement meets 3 conditions: it encrypts your data, lets you control where it is processed and never trains models on your meetings. The NIST Privacy Framework is a practical checklist for reviewing any vendor.
If you meet people in the EU, check any vendor against the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Lynkk keeps recordings private to your account and never trains models on your meetings. Details are on the Lynkk security page.
Recording consent still applies with any tool. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2511) allows recording with 1 party's consent, but some states require every participant to agree.
This is general information, not legal advice.
Lynkk is the best Zoom AI Companion alternative in 2026. It starts free, briefs you before calls, shows live words during them, and turns every meeting into notes and tasks you can send to Jira, across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack, WhatsApp and in person.
Zoom AI Companion costs $0 extra, but only with a paid Zoom Workplace plan. Free Zoom Basic accounts do not include it. If you use free Zoom, an alternative with a free plan such as Fathom or Otter adds AI notes and summaries to your meetings, and Lynkk starts on a Free plan.
Yes. On paid plans, AI Companion does 3 note jobs: it takes live notes, writes a meeting summary with next steps and answer questions about the meeting on paid Zoom plans. Licensed users can also invite it to Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings. Lynkk adds Jira send for action items and Ask Lynkk answers across all your notes.
Zoom account owners and admins can turn off AI Companion in the Zoom web portal, using 1 universal toggle for all AI features or individual settings such as meeting summary and meeting questions. Regular users may need their admin's help if company settings lock the features.
Yes, for licensed users. Zoom lets them invite AI Companion to 2 other platforms, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, for summaries and transcripts. Lynkk also covers Teams and Google Meet, plus Slack, WhatsApp and in-person meetings, and it starts free with no paid Zoom plan needed.
For most teams that want follow-up done for them, yes, at all 3 stages of a meeting. Lynkk works on free Zoom accounts, briefs you before each call, shows live words during it, and lets you send tasks to Jira after it. AI Companion is a good default for teams already paying for Zoom.
AI Companion is a useful built-in assistant for teams already paying for Zoom. If you want an assistant that works on any Zoom plan, prepares you before each meeting, takes notes with you during it and helps you finish the follow-up in Jira, Lynkk is the best Zoom AI Companion alternative. Start free with Lynkk.
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