You’re in a meeting, trying to participate in the conversation and take notes at the same time, and end up missing half of what’s being said. Sound familiar? Notta aims to solve that problem by automatically recording, transcribing, and summarizing meetings. The AI tool works in real-time and supports no fewer than 58 languages.
Who is behind Notta?
Notta Co., Ltd. was founded in 2020 by Ryan Zhang in Tokyo, Japan. The name is a contraction of ‘Note Taking’, which immediately makes the purpose of the tool clear: automated note-taking so people can capture information without being distracted and can fully focus on the conversation itself.
Since its founding, the company has grown significantly. Notta raised a total of $1.8 million in funding, with investors including Granite Asia, Linear Venture, Mizuho Financial Group, and GL Ventures. The most recent funding round was a Series B. The company now has over 10 million users worldwide and is used by more than 6,000 companies.
A notable detail: Notta is SOC 2 Type II certified, which means they take security and privacy seriously. The tool supports transcription in 58 languages, which is relatively high compared to competitors. This international focus fits with the Japanese origin, where multilingual support is often more important than in the English-speaking market.
Who is Notta for?
Notta primarily targets sales teams who want to analyze their conversations, consultants who need to document client meetings, researchers transcribing interviews, and students who want to transcribe lectures. The multilingual support makes the tool interesting for international teams or people who regularly work in different languages.
Who should skip Notta? Users who want to work completely offline should look for another alternative. Notta runs on cloud infrastructure and requires an internet connection. Also, if you only make short voice memos, the free plan is practically unusable due to the 3-minute per recording limit.
What can Notta do?
Notta’s free version offers 120 minutes of transcription per month, but with a maximum length of 3 minutes per recording. For real-time transcription of longer meetings, AI summaries, export options, and integrations with platforms like Zoom and Teams, you need a paid plan.
- Real-time transcription: Notta transcribes while you speak or during an online meeting. According to the company, accuracy is 98.86% for high-quality audio. In practice, this works well for English, Dutch, and Japanese, but quality depends heavily on background noise and accent.
- AI summaries and action items: After a meeting, Notta automatically generates a summary with the key points and action items. This saves time when writing up meeting notes. The tool also creates mind maps of conversations, which is useful for visualizing the structure of a discussion.
- Speaker recognition: The tool recognizes different speakers and labels who says what. This works fairly well, but you sometimes need to manually correct when people talk over each other or have similar voices.
- Screen recording: In addition to audio, you can also record your screen during presentations or demos. Notta combines this with transcription, so you know exactly what was said during which part of the presentation.
- Multilingual support: With 58 languages for transcription and 42+ languages for translation, Notta stands out. You can record a meeting in Japanese and have it automatically translated to Dutch, or vice versa. This works especially well for commonly used languages.
- Integrations with video platforms: Notta can join Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams meetings as a bot. You only need to share a link and the tool automatically records and transcribes. This works smoothly, although some users find it awkward to have a bot in the meeting.
- Notta Memo hardware: A lesser-known feature is the Notta Memo, a physical recording device you can use for face-to-face conversations. This is useful for interviews or conversations where you don’t want to have a laptop or phone present. Recordings automatically sync with your Notta account.
- Export and sharing: You can export transcriptions to various formats such as PDF, Word, and TXT. You can also share a link with colleagues so they can view the recording and transcription without having an account themselves.
The interface is clean with drag-and-drop functionality. You can upload audio files, record live through your browser, or use the mobile app. Notta is available as a web application and has apps for iOS and Android, but no desktop applications for Windows or macOS.
What does Notta cost?
Notta has a free plan with 120 minutes of transcription per month, but as mentioned with a limit of 3 minutes per recording. You can’t export transcriptions on the free plan, which significantly limits its usefulness.
The Pro plan costs $1.99 per month or $1 per year (which works out to $1.25 per month). This gives you 1800 minutes of transcription per month, unlimited recording duration, AI summaries, and export options. This plan is suitable for individual users who regularly transcribe meetings.
The Business plan costs $1.99 per month or $1 per year ($1.67 per month). This offers more transcription minutes, team features, and priority support. For larger organizations, there’s also an Enterprise plan with custom pricing.
New users get a 7-day trial period to test the paid features. Note: multiple users complain that this trial is communicated confusingly and that they’re unexpectedly charged after it ends.
What should you watch out for?
The biggest complaint about Notta concerns the misleading trial period. Some users report that they received a 3-day trial instead of the advertised 7 days, and that they were automatically charged without clear warning. Canceling the subscription also proves difficult, with users struggling to find the right option or getting no response from customer service.
The free plan is practically unusable for serious work. With a 3-minute limit per recording, you can at most transcribe short voice memos. For a normal conversation or meeting, you immediately hit the limit. This feels like a bait strategy to push people toward a paid plan.
There are privacy concerns around the use of data for AI training. While Notta is SOC 2 Type II certified, it’s not entirely clear how your data is used to improve their AI models. For sensitive conversations or confidential business information, this is something to keep in mind.
The lack of a desktop application is a drawback for some users. You’re dependent on the browser, which is less convenient if you want to work offline or prefer a dedicated app. The mobile apps work well, but don’t offer all the functionality of the web version.
Contacting support can be frustrating according to multiple reviews. Users report having to wait a long time for a response or getting no response at all with billing or technical issues.
Notta alternatives
If Notta doesn’t quite fit what you’re looking for, there are several alternatives that offer similar functionality:
- Otter.ai: Better known in the market and often mentioned as the standard for transcription. Supports fewer languages than Notta (mainly focused on English), but has a more generous free plan and better integrations with productivity tools. Choose Otter if you primarily have English meetings and want a reliable name.
- Fireflies.ai: Has a stronger focus on CRM integrations and sales workflows. If you want to link transcriptions directly to your Salesforce, HubSpot, or other sales tools, Fireflies is a better choice. The AI analysis of sales calls is more comprehensive than Notta’s.
- Sonix: More focused on media production and video subtitling. If you’re a content creator or want to add subtitles to videos rather than transcribe meetings, Sonix is more suitable. The editor is more powerful for editing transcriptions.
Frequently asked questions
Below you’ll find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Notta:
How accurate is Notta’s transcription?
Notta claims accuracy up to 98.86% for high-quality audio, thanks to advanced AI speech recognition. In practice, this heavily depends on the quality of your recording, background noise, and the speakers’ accents. For clear audio in commonly used languages like English, Dutch, and Japanese, the results are good, but expect that you’ll always need to make some corrections.
Can Notta record live meetings?
Yes, Notta can join online meetings via Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to record and transcribe them in real-time. You share a link with the Notta bot, which then appears as a participant in the meeting. This works automatically, but some people find it awkward that a bot is listening in.
Is my data safe with Notta?
Notta is SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified and stores data in AWS data centers in Tokyo, Japan. They use encryption for storage and transfer of data. However, there are questions about how data is used for AI training, so read the privacy policy carefully if you’re processing sensitive information.
Conclusion
Notta is a solid transcription tool with strong multilingual support and useful AI features for summaries and action items. The interface is user-friendly and the transcription quality is good for commonly used languages. For international teams or people who regularly work in different languages, Notta is an interesting option.
The downsides mainly lie in the aggressive pricing model with a practically unusable free plan, confusing communication about the trial, and complaints about customer service. The absence of desktop apps and lack of clarity about data usage are also points of concern.
Choose Notta if you need multilingual transcription and are willing to pay for the full functionality. For English-only meetings or if you want a more generous free plan, Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai are better alternatives.
