6 AI Meeting Transcription Tools Tested for 2026: Which Country Is Notta From and How to Choose for Chinese Meetings?

Why does everyone keep asking "Which country is Notta from?"

Search for the same question and you'll find at least three different answers.

Some say it's a Japanese company because the Japanese localization on its website is so thorough and the name is a play on the Japanese word "Note." Others say it's made by a Chinese team. Still others say it's registered in Singapore.

None of these are entirely wrong—each just captures part of the picture.

This article first clarifies Notta's company background in one go, then rounds up 6 AI meeting transcription tools worth trying in 2026, looking at free quotas, Chinese language support, and team collaboration capabilities.

Which country is Notta from? Here's the conclusion first

Notta's developer is NOTTA PTE. LTD., a company registered in Singapore (PTE. LTD. is a common abbreviation for a Singapore private limited company).

But its R&D momentum mainly comes from Shenzhen. According to public reports, the R&D company behind it is Shenzhen-based Siwei Xunhang, and many team members are from China.

Its real home turf, however, is Japan. Notta has registered a Japanese company, hired a Japanese COO, and was even featured on TV Asahi in 2020. Japanese users make up a significant portion of its overall user base.

So the more precise way to put it is: registered in Singapore, developed in Shenzhen, with Japan as the main market.

That's why you see different answers in different places. Note that company registration location and data storage location are two different things. If you have requirements about where data resides, it's best to confirm directly with the official company rather than just looking at its nationality.

6 AI Meeting Transcription Tools for 2026

Tinrec — Turn meetings into team data you can query and collaborate on

Tinrec is an AI meeting transcription and collaboration tool for individuals and teams. It doesn't just convert audio to text—it organizes meetings into data you can search, summarize, query, and export.

Here are a few things that stand out in practice:

• No need to invite a meeting bot. The desktop version directly captures your computer's system audio, so it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex online meetings without adding an extra account to the participant list.
• No need to re-listen after the meeting. It automatically generates summaries, chapters, and action items, and you can ask questions directly about the meeting content, such as "What was decided in this meeting?"
• Chinese and multilingual support. It supports mixed Chinese-English, multilingual transcription, and real-time translation, with the ability to switch between original text, translation, or bilingual view.
• The team version is a separate team space, not multiple people sharing one account. Meeting data belongs to the team, with roles and seats, plus usage analytics, audit logs, and an audio recycle bin; when a member leaves, data can be handed over to others.

Pricing, listed honestly: the free version lets you try basic quotas; a weekly card is available for short-term intensive use; a Pro monthly card suits regular weekly use, and a Pro annual card is for long-term data accumulation. The team version is USD 29.80 per paid seat per month, or USD 199 per paid seat per year (about USD 16.58 per month), with each paid seat providing 2,000 minutes of team shared import quota per month; first-time eligible users can try 7 days with 1 free seat and 300 minutes of shared quota.

Who it's for: people who need Chinese meeting transcription, don't want a bot joining their meetings, and want post-meeting data to stay within the team for continued use.

Notta — Registered in Singapore, strong in multilingual transcription

Notta is a Singapore-registered AI transcription tool that supports up to 58 languages, mainly benefiting multinational teams and language learners. Its strengths are file transcription, subtitles, and translation; it handles real-time transcription, file uploads, and meeting recording, and also offers custom vocabulary and summary templates.

Pricing: free version offers 120 minutes per month, with a maximum of 3 minutes per item; Pro annual billing works out to about USD 8.17 per month with 1,800 minutes per month; Business annual billing works out to about USD 16.67 per seat per month, including unlimited transcription, role permissions, and usage reports.

Who it's for: users who need multilingual file transcription and subtitles and don't mind English-first technical support.

Otter.ai — A veteran choice for English business meetings

Otter supports Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, offering real-time transcription, speaker identification, and AI Q&A, with fairly mature team management. The free Basic plan offers 300 minutes per month; Pro annual billing works out to about USD 8.49 per user per month, including 1,200 minutes of in-app recording and 10 file imports per month. It has also added Traditional Chinese support in the past year, making mixed Chinese-English meetings friendlier than before.

Who it's for: users whose meetings are mainly in English and whose teams are already in the Otter ecosystem.

Fireflies.ai — Wins on meeting automation and integrations

Fireflies' signature features are its meeting bot, automatic summaries, AskFred, and extensive third-party integrations—great for teams that want to automatically send records into other systems. Annual pricing is Free USD 0, Pro USD 10 per seat per month, Business USD 19, Enterprise USD 39. Note that its so-called unlimited transcription is still subject to storage, upload speed, and AI Credit rules.

Who it's for: sales teams that need to feed meeting records into a CRM or existing workflow.

Granola — No bot plus your own notes

Granola takes a "no bot + user notes" approach, capturing system audio through the desktop app and combining it with your handwritten highlights to generate more personalized meeting content. Basic is free, Business is USD 14 per user per month, Enterprise USD 35 per user per month. Keep in mind that it doesn't support uploading existing recording files and doesn't save meeting audio.

Who it's for: people who are used to taking notes during meetings and don't need to re-listen to recordings.

TurboScribe — A purely free option for zero budget

If you only need to transcribe a few files occasionally, TurboScribe is the lightest option on the list. The free version allows 3 files per day with a 30-minute limit per file; Unlimited annual billing is USD 120 (about USD 10 per month), and after paying, files can be up to 10 hours or 5 GB each, with up to 50 files uploaded at once.

Who it's for: people who have lots of long audio files to batch-transcribe into subtitles and don't need meeting collaboration features.

With so many options, how should you choose?

• Want to query after transcription and automatically generate action items and minutes → Tinrec, where transcription is only half the functionality
• Need Chinese meetings but don't want a bot joining → Tinrec, whose desktop version directly captures system audio
• Want meeting data to be available for the whole team to search, hand over, and audit → Tinrec team version, with roles, seats, and usage management
• Need 58-language file transcription and subtitles → Notta
• Mainly English meetings and your team already uses Otter → Otter.ai
• Want meeting records to automatically go into your CRM → Fireflies.ai
• Only need occasional transcription and don't want to pay at all → TurboScribe free version

4 things to know before using meeting transcription tools

1. Confirm recording authorization first. Informing participants before recording and obtaining consent when necessary is a prerequisite for using any tool; for international meetings, also pay attention to differences in local regulations.

2. Free quotas vary widely. Some tools give several hundred minutes per month, while others limit each session to just 3 minutes. Look at your usage frequency before deciding whether to pay—don't buy an annual plan right away.

3. Company nationality and data storage location should be viewed separately. The Notta case is the best example: registration location, R&D location, and main market are three different things. If you care about where data is stored, confirm directly with the official company rather than guessing based on the country of registration.

4. Don't expect 100% accuracy. Transcription quality is affected by recording quality, noise, accents, overlapping speakers, and technical terminology. A safer approach is to cross-check important content against the transcript timestamps and the recording.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which country is Notta actually from?

Its developer, NOTTA PTE. LTD., is registered in Singapore, its R&D momentum mainly comes from the Shenzhen team at Siwei Xunhang, and its main market is Japan. So "Singapore company," "Chinese team," and "Japanese market" all have supporting evidence—they just refer to different aspects.

Does Notta have a Traditional Chinese interface?

Yes, the interface offers Traditional Chinese. However, technical support is mainly in English, so if you really need real-time Chinese customer service, keep this in mind.

Is Notta's free version enough?

The free version offers 120 minutes per month with a maximum of 3 minutes per item. It's fine for occasionally transcribing a short recording, but a one-hour meeting will hit the per-item limit. For long-term use, consider a paid plan.

Can I record online meetings without a meeting bot?

Yes. Tinrec's desktop version and Granola both capture computer system audio, so no extra account needs to join the meeting.

What's the difference between a "seat" and a "role" in the team version?

Take Tinrec's team version as an example: roles determine who can manage the team and audit, while seats determine whether a member can record, upload, edit, and export. Members without a seat can still view, play, and read team data.

Are there legal issues with transcribing meeting recordings?

It involves recording consent and personal data regulations, and requirements vary by country. In practice, it's advisable to clearly inform participants and obtain consent at the start of the meeting, and consult legal counsel for sensitive content.

Conclusion

Back to the original question: Which country is Notta from? The answer is registered in Singapore, developed in Shenzhen, with Japan as the main market—only by putting the three clues together do you get the complete picture.

If what you need is multilingual file transcription and subtitles, Notta is a very reasonable choice. But if what you care about is Chinese meeting transcription, not wanting a bot to join meetings, and wanting post-meeting summaries, action items, and transcripts to stay within the team for ongoing search and querying, then Tinrec will be closer to that workflow.

We suggest trying the free quota on your most troublesome meeting first, then deciding whether to go further.

References

• Comparison of 5 AI meeting transcription tools: Otter, Notta features and pricing
• Notta | Learn AI
• AI transcription in Japan, achieving tens of millions in ARR - 36Kr
• AI transcription in Japan: 60-person team earns tens of millions annually | Emerging NewThings
• [Tutorial] Notta in 2026: Audio to text + AI summaries and multilingual support - Tinrec Blog