What it does
Hit record at the start of class. You get back a searchable transcript, chapter-by-chapter notes, auto-generated flashcards, and a quiz you can use to self-test before the exam. Works on a phone in a lecture hall, a laptop in a Zoom class, or on an uploaded recording you already have.
ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini can’t record live audio — they’re text models with no microphone access. This runs the recording, the transcription, and the study-material generation in one pass.
Updated April 2026 with current competitor pricing and feature comparisons. Finals season pricing verified for US and UK students.
Finals run mid-April through early May for most US universities. If you’re behind on a course, the fastest path is to upload every recorded lecture you have and generate flashcards from the chapters the AI pulls out. A 50-minute lecture finishes processing in under 5 minutes.
Key things it does:
- Records live in-person lectures, Zoom, Meet, Teams, or uploaded files (MP3, MP4, WAV, M4A, WebM)
- Transcribes in 40+ languages with 95%+ accuracy on clear audio
- Detects topic shifts and builds chapters automatically
- Generates practice quizzes and flashcards from each chapter
- Exports to PDF, Word, Markdown, or plain text
How it works
- Click Record at the start of your lecture, or upload a file you already have
- Speech is transcribed in real-time with speaker labels
- Topics are detected and chapters are inserted automatically
- Open the notes view with clickable timestamps jumping back to the audio
- Generate a quiz or flashcard deck from any chapter with one click
Free tier is 600 minutes monthly — roughly 15-20 hours of recorded class. No credit card. Premium unlocks unlimited recording, priority processing, and the full flashcard scheduler.
For video files or YouTube links without live recording, use the video to notes converter. For voice memos or podcasts, use audio to notes. This page covers live and pre-recorded lecture capture plus academic study tools.
AI Lecture Note Taker vs Other Apps
Updated April 2026 — pricing verified from official product pages.
| Feature | ScreenApp | Otter.ai | Fireflies.ai | Fathom | NotebookLM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 600 min/month | 300 min/month (30 min per session) | 600 min/month | Unlimited Zoom recordings | Unlimited notebooks |
| Live recording | Yes | Yes | Yes | Zoom only | No (upload only) |
| Quiz generation | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Flashcard creation | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Speaker ID | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Pro only) | No |
| Languages | 40+ | 30+ | 69 | English only | English primarily |
| Monthly pricing | Premium available | $16.99/mo (Pro) | $12/mo (Pro) | $15/mo (Pro) | Free |
| Annual pricing | Premium available | $8.33/mo (Pro) $6.67/mo (student) | $10/mo (Pro) | $12/mo (Pro) | Free |
vs Otter.ai — Otter caps free sessions at 30 minutes, which breaks for a typical 50 or 80-minute lecture. Otter also has no quiz or flashcard output. Otter Pro is $8.33/month annual ($16.99 monthly), or $6.67/month with the 20% student discount.
vs Fireflies.ai — Both give 600 minutes free. Fireflies targets sales calls and CRM sync; it has no academic study tools. Fireflies Pro is $10/month annual ($12 monthly) for 2,400 minutes.
vs Fathom — Fathom records Zoom only. No in-person classes, no uploaded files, no study materials. The unlimited Zoom free tier is fine for purely online students but not for anyone in a lecture hall. Fathom Pro is $12/month annual ($15 monthly).
vs NotebookLM — NotebookLM is free and excellent for reading uploaded PDFs and generating audio overviews, but it doesn’t record live lectures. Use NotebookLM to study from papers and slide decks; use this to capture the lecture itself.
vs Granola, Read AI, and other 2026 entrants — Most new AI note-takers launched in the past year target meetings, not classes. They record Zoom calls, write executive summaries, and sync to Slack. None of them build chapter-level flashcard decks or multiple-choice quizzes from an 80-minute organic chemistry lecture.
For more lecture-tool comparisons, see our Einstein AI vs ScreenApp review.
Who uses it
Undergraduates. Record multi-course schedules on a phone. Search transcripts for the exact moment a professor defined a term. Export the whole semester as a study pack before finals.
Graduate students. Capture seminars, thesis committee meetings, and conference panels. Speaker labels separate the question from the answer so you can cite the right person later.
Online learners. Upload Coursera, edX, or YouTube recordings and get the same chapter-and-flashcard output as live class.
International students. Review native-language lectures slowly after class, or transcribe a lecture delivered in English and read it back in your first language.
Lecture Note Taking AI Features
- Real-time transcription — text appears as the professor speaks
- Topic chapters — automatic breaks at subject changes
- Key point extraction — definitions and highlighted concepts surface in the sidebar
- Quiz generation — multiple-choice and short-answer questions from any chapter
- Flashcard decks — key terms and definitions, with spaced-repetition scheduling
- 40+ languages — auto-detected, including English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Arabic
- Speaker identification — labels up to 10 voices in discussions and Q&A
The recorder works on phone mics, laptop mics, and external USB mics. Background noise filtering holds up in a 300-seat hall.
Security. Recordings are encrypted at rest (AES-256) and never used to train models. FERPA and GDPR compliant. Delete any recording at any time.
Free Tier
600 minutes monthly, no credit card. That covers 15-20 hours of lecture content — enough for a standard 4-course semester if you’re recording selectively. Free accounts include real-time transcription, chapter detection, basic summaries, clickable timestamps, and text export.
Premium adds unlimited minutes, priority processing during peak exam weeks, quiz and flashcard generation without limits, and the spaced-repetition scheduler.
Start recording
Open the recorder and hit Record. The first lecture is ready in under 60 seconds. Used by 2M+ students.
FAQ
Is the AI lecture note taker free?
Yes. 600 minutes monthly with real-time transcription, chapter detection, and basic summaries. Covers 15-20 hours of lecture a month. No credit card. Premium adds unlimited recording, quiz and flashcard generation, and priority processing.
How accurate is lecture AI transcription?
95%+ on clear audio. Handles technical terminology, multiple speakers, and most accents. 40+ languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Arabic. Heavy background noise or two speakers talking over each other drops accuracy.
Does it work with live classes?
Yes. Record in-person lectures on a phone, or capture Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams on a laptop. Transcription runs during the session, not after — the notes are ready when class ends.
Does it generate study materials?
Yes. One-click quiz and flashcard generation from any chapter. Ask questions about the lecture through the chat feature and get answers grounded in the transcript.
Can I upload pre-recorded lectures?
Yes. MP3, MP4, WAV, M4A, and WebM are supported. Uploads count against the same monthly minute limit. File size cap depends on plan.
Is my lecture data safe?
Recordings are AES-256 encrypted at rest. FERPA and GDPR compliant. Recordings are never used to train models. Delete any recording at any time from the dashboard.
