AI notetaker · macOS native
The AI notetaker
that stays on your Mac.
Otter, Granola, Fireflies, Fathom, Tactiq - all of them ship your meeting audio to a third-party cloud and bill you monthly. Mac Note Taker doesn't. Record, transcribe, diarize, summarize - all on your Mac, on Apple Silicon, with the AI provider you choose.
100%
On-device
Capture, ASR, diarization, summary - all on your Mac. Optional BYO-key cloud LLM if you want.
$149
Lifetime
One-time payment, three-Mac activation. FOUNDER code drops it to $79 for the first 100 buyers.
0
Bots in meetings
ScreenCaptureKit taps system audio at the OS layer. Your participants never see a third party.
What a real Mac AI notetaker looks like.
Five things every credible 2026 AI notetaker for Mac should do. We hit all five; cloud alternatives hit two or three at best.
Captures both sides
Mic + system audio together via ScreenCaptureKit. One diarized transcript, both sides labeled.
Read more →Knows when to start
Menubar auto-detects Zoom, Meet, Teams, Slack picking up your mic. One click to record.
Read more →Knows who is talking
Voice fingerprints persist across meetings. Name once, recognized in every future call.
Read more →Reads your calendar
EventKit attendee list auto-fills speaker names. No more Speaker 3 on a call with 3 known people.
Read more →Summarizes on your terms
Local Ollama or your own OpenAI-compatible key. Same prompt, same output schema, your choice of backend.
Read more →Action items + chapters
Owner/task/timestamp triples and clickable chapters. Export to Linear, Notion, Markdown, JSON.
Read more →2026 head-to-head
Compared to every cloud AI notetaker people search for.
| Feature | Mac Note Taker | Otter | Granola | Fireflies | Fathom |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native macOS app | Yes | No (web) | Yes | No (web) | No (web) |
| Audio stays on Mac | Yes | No | Recording yes / AI no | No | No |
| Bot in meeting | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| System + mic capture | ScreenCaptureKit | via bot | Limited | via bot | via bot |
| Cross-meeting speaker re-id | Yes (voice fingerprint) | No | Per-meeting | No | No |
| AI provider | Ollama or BYO key | Otter cloud | Granola cloud | Fireflies cloud | Fathom cloud |
| Works offline | Yes | No | Recording only | No | No |
| Pricing model | $149 lifetime | $16.99/mo | $18/mo | $10+/seat/mo | Free + paid |
| Annual cost (year 1) | $149 | $204 | $216 | $120+ | $0+ |
| Annual cost (year 5) | $149 | $1,020 | $1,080 | $600+ | $0+ |
Pricing as of mid-2026. We track competitor pricing pages monthly; let us know if anything is stale at [email protected].
Who picks the on-device path
Founders + operators
Sales calls, customer discovery, board prep. The same five people every quarter. Lifetime + cross-meeting recognition pays for itself in month two.
Legal + HR
NDA, privilege, confidential employee conversations. Audio leaving the device is a non-starter. On-device flow plus local Ollama covers the whole pipeline.
Consultants + indie experts
10-15 client calls a week. $216/year subscription stings; one lifetime license across three Macs ends the math.
Researchers + journalists
Long-form interviews, multilingual sources, sensitive subjects. Local Whisper Large v3 + diarization + speaker re-id beats a cloud bot.
Engineering + product teams
Sprint reviews, design crits, customer pain calls. Action items export straight to Linear without leaving the Mac.
Anyone on a flight
Offline still works. No internet required for capture, transcription, diarization, or local AI summary.
Common questions
Is this really an AI notetaker, or just a recorder?
Both. ASR (Parakeet TDT v3 default, Whisper Large v3 optional), pyannote diarization, CAM++ voice fingerprints for cross-meeting re-id, LLM summary + action items + topic chapters. Everything a cloud notetaker does, minus the cloud.
How does it compare to Granola specifically?
Granola is the closest spiritual cousin. Both are Mac-native and bot-free. Difference: Granola runs AI in their cloud (transcript leaves the Mac), and it is a $18/month subscription. We run AI locally (Ollama) or via your own key, and we are $149 lifetime.
Do I need to know about Ollama to use this?
No. There is a one-click installer in Settings → AI Assistant. If you would rather use OpenAI with your own key, paste it and go. Same prompt, same output.
Does it work on my old MacBook Air?
macOS 14.2+ on Apple Silicon (M1 or newer). Intel Macs are not supported because on-device ASR + diarization rely on the Neural Engine.
What if I record someone without telling them?
Don't. Most US states require one-party consent, EU GDPR requires disclosure. A simple 'I record my meetings locally on my Mac' is usually accepted instantly. The on-device part disarms the most common objection - 'I don't want my voice on someone's cloud'.
The Mac AI notetaker that doesn't bill you forever.
$149 lifetime · 3 Macs · code FOUNDER for $79 (first 100).