Try your included Zoom AI Companion before buying a separate meeting assistant. If a gap remains, compare Dictaria for deliberate live Coach requests, Fathom for recordings, Granola for personal notes, and Fireflies for connected workflows. The guide separates included access from an extra subscription and compares capabilities, plan terms, and privacy. None of these assistants replaces the meeting platform itself.
Capabilities: Zoom AI Companion and four alternatives
Compare capture, live help, and what you can do with a meeting afterward. These are documented product capabilities; the pricing table identifies plans and limits. This is not an accuracy benchmark.
| Tool | Capture & notes | Assistance & follow-through |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom AI Companion | Meeting summaries and cloud recordings within Zoom Workplace, subject to host and administrator settings. | In-meeting questions let you catch up or clarify discussion. A sensible first check when you already pay for an eligible Zoom plan.Zoom AI Companion product & plans · Feature guide |
| Dictaria Our product | Local or cloud transcription, a live transcript, and saved meetings in an account. Guest local sessions are temporary. | Coach actions for advice, explanations, the latest question, or your own question, with selected reference documents. Workspace Chat and MCP extend recall.Dictaria product & plans |
| Fathom | Unlimited recordings and transcription, summaries, and clips. It also documents bot-free capture in a Mac beta. | Live summaries and account-wide Ask Fathom questions, plus integrations. An attractive starting point for people who want a generous recording library.Fathom product & plans · Feature guide |
| Granola | Bot-free capture combines the conversation with your typed notes, then produces an enhanced meeting record. | Chat with meeting knowledge; Business adds shared folders, integrations, API access, and MCP. A strong fit for a personal note-taking habit.Granola product & plans · Feature guide |
| Fireflies | Meeting transcription and summaries through multiple capture options, with a cloud meeting library. | AskFred, real-time assistance, CRM connections, and automation. Particularly useful when notes need to enter existing work systems.Fireflies product & plans · Feature guide |
Want a wider shortlist? Compare all 20 meeting tools by capabilities, pricing, and privacy.
Pricing: what would your meeting week cost?
An eligible Zoom subscription already includes AI Companion, so your additional cost may be zero if you have that plan. The linked Pro page showed $15.99 monthly; we leave annual terms unconfirmed rather than infer them from a dynamic offer. Adding Dictaria should earn its separate subscription through the Coach and personal-workspace workflow you will actually use.
Amounts are USD per user per month unless marked otherwise; Jamie is in EUR. Annual equivalents require an annual commitment, and unconfirmed billing terms are labeled.
| Tool | Paid plan & billing | Free access & limits that matter |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom AI Companion | Workplace Pro
| The linked Pro page shows $15.99 billed monthly and includes AI Companion. Annual pricing is dynamically quoted. Basic meetings are free, but do not assume the same AI entitlement.Zoom AI Companion pricing source |
| Dictaria Our product | Pro — planned launch price
| Currently free Pro access during public beta. Planned Pro: 100 cloud hours/month, 8-hour meetings, and unlimited interactive AI requests under fair use. $200/year.Dictaria pricing source |
| Fathom | Individual Premium
| Free includes unlimited recordings and instant summaries, with limits on advanced features. Team prices can be lower per seat but require at least two users.Fathom pricing source |
| Granola | Business
| Basic is free with limited history. Business adds unlimited meeting history. Billing is per workspace seat; annual billing is not currently offered.Granola pricing source · Billing details |
| Fireflies | Pro
| Free has limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of team storage. Pro includes unlimited transcription/summaries, 8,000 storage minutes per seat, and 20 AI credits; advanced AI usage is separately metered.Fireflies pricing source |
Dictaria Pro is free during the public beta. Its planned launch price is $20/month or $200/year, with Coach included. The planned $12/month Plus plan does not include Coach. Compare your meeting hours and AI requests with the full Dictaria plan limits before choosing.
Privacy: where the audio and text go
Zoom states that meeting content is not used to train its own or third-party AI models. Host and administrator settings still affect recording, summary access, and retention. If you add another assistant, decide whether you need both records. Dictaria has independent storage and cloud-AI processing, while its temporary guest local mode has no saved account record or Coach.
Bot-free capture does not guarantee local processing. Likewise, a no-training promise does not mean meeting content is never stored. These rows describe published policies, not an independent security audit.
| Tool | Audio, text & processing | Training, retention & control |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom AI Companion | Cloud AI processing; summaries and recordings can be saved to Zoom. Hosts and administrators control feature access, sharing, storage, and deletion. | Customer communications are not used to train Zoom or third-party AI models. Vendor processing retention and your own saved meeting library are different policies.Zoom AI Companion privacy source |
| Dictaria Our product | Guest local audio and text stay on-device. Signed-in local transcripts are saved to the account. Cloud transcription and Coach send relevant content to providers. | No general-purpose model training. Provider retention can reach 30 days for transcription and 55 days for text AI. Saved content defaults to one year, with shorter or manual retention options.Dictaria privacy source |
| Fathom | Cloud meeting content can include audio, video, transcripts, and speaker information. Team administrators can govern access and deletion. | Depending on settings, de-identified content may train Fathom’s own models; users can opt out. Third-party AI training is not authorized. Account deletion is subject to its policy and retention exceptions.Fathom privacy source |
| Granola | Meeting audio is not stored; mobile can cache it temporarily for transcription. Notes and transcripts are stored on US-hosted infrastructure. | Granola can use anonymized data to improve its own models unless you opt out. Enterprise is opted out by default. Third-party AI providers cannot train on the data.Granola privacy source |
| Fireflies | Meeting records live in Fireflies. Its zero-retention agreements apply to processing vendors, not to your saved Fireflies library. | No internal or external AI training on meeting content. Sharing permissions and admin retention controls govern saved records; some governance features require Enterprise.Fireflies privacy source |
In Dictaria, guest local transcription is temporary and has no cloud AI. Signed-in local mode saves text to your account, and Coach sends selected context to cloud AI. Follow Dictaria’s complete data flow to choose the mode that fits your meeting.
When to keep Zoom AI Companion
Zoom documents AI Companion meeting summaries within its meeting workflow, with account and meeting controls determining access. Check the current settings and eligibility for the account you use. Zoom AI Companion documentation.
Keep the built-in workflow if the available summary meets your needs and your organization already manages access appropriately. Adding a second capture tool can create duplicate records and extra decisions about retention.
Evaluate the extra tool’s extra job
Write a sentence that starts, “I would add this because…” If the answer is simply that it also makes notes, test your existing assistant first. If the answer is that you need a particular way to ask for help or revisit your own meeting history, evaluate that additional job without dismissing the platform’s current capabilities.
Where Dictaria fits
Dictaria gives you an independent meeting workspace and deliberate Coach actions. You can request advice, an explanation, or a response to the latest question, with selected reference context. Later, saved meetings and Workspace Chat support your personal follow-up. Try this workflow with your actual capture setup before treating it as a replacement. See how Coach works.
Dictaria is a separate service with its own account, allowances, and data handling. Do not assume it is covered by your Zoom subscription or approved under the same organizational arrangement. It also does not replace the meeting platform itself.
What to test before switching
Use a short, representative meeting you have permission to record. Keep the source material consistent so you can compare the work each tool helps you finish.
- Use the available Zoom summary on a representative meeting before evaluating a paid replacement.
- Test the additional task you want: live clarification, personal recall, or a different handoff.
- Decide which record to keep if both tools capture the call, and verify how you remove the other one.
Making the choice
Keep the built-in option when it does the job. Add Dictaria when its personal Coach and meeting-history workflow earns the additional setup and subscription.
Sources & editorial notes
Written by Dictaria, a provider included in this comparison. Reviewed against the official pages linked above and below. The selection advice is our editorial judgment; we did not conduct a hands-on accuracy, latency, or pricing benchmark. Features and access can change.
- Zoom AI Companion: product documentation
- Dictaria: product documentation
- Fathom: product documentation
- Granola: product documentation
- Fireflies: product documentation
Names belong to their respective owners. Inclusion does not imply affiliation or endorsement.