How to Take AI Meeting Notes in 2026: 5-Step Tutorial (Notta vs. Tinrec Tested)

If you type "https app notta ai" into Google, chances are you're trying to figure out two things: what exactly is app.notta.ai, and is there a web-based tool that lets you handle meeting notes without installing an app?

Here's the key decision point: if you only need to transcribe an occasional recording, any free tier will let you try it out. But if you have meetings every day, need to deliver minutes afterward, and share records with colleagues, the question isn't "which one is cheapest"—it's "which one can take you from recording all the way to action items, and keep your data accessible."

The following 5 steps use Tinrec's desktop version to demonstrate the entire workflow. What app.notta.ai is and how much free quota Notta offers will be covered in the FAQ section so you can compare for yourself.

Before You Start | What You'll Need

• A computer: The desktop version captures system audio for online meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and more.
• A smartphone: For in-person meetings and on-the-go interviews, use your phone to record in real time.
• An account: Sign in with Google, Microsoft, or Apple—no need to remember another password.
• Some material to organize: Could be an upcoming meeting or a backlog of old recordings you've been meaning to process.
• A stable internet connection: Real-time transcription and translation require connectivity.
• Consent from participants: Announce that you're recording before you start. Laws in many places, including Hong Kong, require consent—don't skip this step.

Step 1 | First, Identify What Kind of Meeting You Have

Goal: Choose the right entry point so you don't discover you recorded the wrong audio source after the fact.

How to do it: Sort the meetings you need to handle into three categories—online meetings (Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex), in-person meetings, and pre-recorded audio/video files. For online meetings, use the desktop version's system audio capture; for in-person meetings, record in real time with your phone; for old files, upload and import directly.

Why this matters: The three source types require completely different audio capture methods. If you use your phone to record a meeting playing through your computer speakers, you'll get echo and delay, and the transcript quality will suffer. Choosing the right source upfront saves you half the proofreading time later.

Outcome: You'll have a clear roadmap in your head for which entry point to use for each meeting.

Scenario: You're in the office, computer open with Zoom running, phone nearby. First, decide that this meeting will be handled by the computer.

Step 2 | Record Online Meetings with Desktop Version—No Bot Required

Goal: Capture the full meeting audio without affecting the participant list.

How to do it: Before the meeting starts, open Tinrec desktop, select "System Audio" as the source, and enable your microphone so your own thoughts are captured too. Then proceed with the meeting as usual—no need to invite any bot into the meeting room.

Why this approach: Traditional meeting bots appear in the participant list as "[Name] AI has joined the meeting," which can be awkward during client calls. Tinrec captures system audio directly, keeping the participant list clean and avoiding missed recordings when the host forgets to admit the bot.

Outcome: The transcript generates in real time during the meeting—no need to wait until afterward to upload and process.

Scenario: A video conference is on the meeting room screen, a recording window sits in the corner of the computer, and transcript text scrolls line by line.

Step 3 | Transcription with Real-Time Translation for Multilingual Meetings

Goal: Turn speech into searchable, quotable text.

How to do it: After recording or importing a file, Tinrec automatically generates a transcript. If the meeting involves multiple languages, enable real-time translation to view the original, translation, or side-by-side bilingual view. Mixed Chinese-English content is handled too.

Why this matters: Meetings in Hong Kong are rarely in a single language—mixing Chinese and English mid-sentence is the norm. The transcript needs to be understandable for the summary and Q&A to be meaningful.

Outcome: You get a timestamped transcript—click any sentence to jump to the corresponding point in the recording for verification.

To be clear: transcription quality is affected by recording quality, ambient noise, accents, overlapping speakers, and technical terminology—there's no fixed accuracy rate. For important numbers and commitments, we recommend cross-checking against the recording playback.

Step 4 | Generate Summaries, Chapters, and Action Items

Goal: Compress a 40-minute transcript into key points you can review in 3 minutes.

How to do it: After the meeting ends, open the record. First, review the AI summary to grasp the big picture, then use chapters to jump to key discussion sections, and finally check the action items list for any missed verbal commitments. If you need to clarify structure, generate a mind map to see how topics relate.

Why this matters: Nobody re-reads a transcript from start to finish. What's truly valuable is "who needs to do what by when"—and action items are automatically extracted from the discussion content.

Outcome: You have a summary, section highlights, and action items ready to paste into your project group chat.

Scenario: The meeting just ended. The project manager opens the record page—summary and chapters on the left, action items on the right—and assigns owners one by one.

Step 5 | Q&A, Export, and Team Knowledge Retention

Goal: Make meeting content queryable, portable, and reusable by the next person.

How to do it:

1. AI Q&A—Ask directly: "What budget did the client finally confirm?" "How many times was the design revised?" The tool answers based on the meeting content—no manual searching needed.
2. Multi-format export—Bring results into Notion, Google Docs, OneNote, Dropbox, and other common tools to fit your existing workflow.
3. Agent post-processing—Generate reports, tables, and documents based on meeting content—ideal for post-meeting deliverables and briefings.
4. Team workspace—Store recordings, transcripts, and action items in one place. The team plan offers member roles and seat management, usage analytics, audit logs, audio recycle bin (30-day retention), and team hotwords. When a member leaves, their resources can be handed over to other active members.

Team plan pricing: US$29.80 per paid seat per month; annual billing US$199 per paid seat per year (about US$16.58/month). Each paid seat includes 2,000 minutes of shared team import quota per month; under an active plan and active seat, real-time recording currently does not deduct minutes. First eligible team trial: 7 days, 1 free seat, 300 minutes shared import quota. Prices and billing amounts are subject to the official purchase page.

Outcome: Meetings are no longer one-off events—they become searchable, queryable data your team can reuse.

FAQ and Troubleshooting

Q1: What exactly is app.notta.ai? Is the free tier enough?

app.notta.ai is the web workspace entry point for Notta. The platform offers AI note-taking, meeting transcription, summaries, and translation. Official information indicates support for transcription and translation in 58 languages. The free version includes 120 minutes of transcription per month, with a maximum of 3 minutes per item; Pro annual billing works out to about US$8.17/month with 1,800 minutes per month; Business annual billing is about US$16.67 per seat per month. Notta Brain is their knowledge base product line, focused on personal and enterprise knowledge bases. For actual pricing and benefits, please refer to Notta's official page.

Q2: What should I do if the transcript has typos?

First, check the source: recording from too far away, noisy environments, and multiple people talking over each other all directly degrade quality. Second, technical terminology—if your team frequently uses specific abbreviations or product names, maintain them in team hotwords to improve recognition. Finally, for important numbers, amounts, and dates, we recommend clicking the timestamp to replay the original sentence for verification—don't rely entirely on AI.

Q3: Is the free tier enough to try? Which version should I buy afterward?

The free version provides basic quota—enough to try recording, importing, summaries, and transcription. Then choose based on your tasks: for short-term intensive meetings or interviews, consider a weekly pass; for steady weekly organization needs, the Pro monthly plan is more suitable; for long-term recording retention, the annual plan has a lower monthly equivalent.

Q4: What's the biggest difference between the team and personal versions?

It's not "multiple people sharing one account"—it's an independent team workspace. Personal version data belongs to the individual; team version data belongs to the team, with additional member roles, seat allocation, shared benefits, usage trends, audit logs, and audio recycle bin. Note that "role" and "seat" are two different things: roles determine who can manage the team and settings, while seats determine whether members can record, upload, edit, and import/export.

Q5: Can colleagues without a seat view team data?

Yes, they can view, play, and read—but cannot perform resource-consuming operations like uploading, editing, or importing/exporting. Currently, the team version focuses on team-level sharing rather than file-level granular permissions—this point should be made clear.

Advanced Tips | 3 Ways to Double Your Efficiency

1. Team hotword library: Pre-add company product names, project codes, and industry terminology. Proper nouns mentioned right at the start of a meeting are most likely to be mis-transcribed; maintaining hotwords significantly reduces proofreading time later.

2. Bilingual transcript: Enable real-time translation for multilingual meetings and view in original, translated, or bilingual mode. When a foreign colleague finishes speaking, you don't need to wait for translation—you can compare directly.

3. Agent post-processing: Beyond generating summaries, you can produce reports, tables, and documents based on meeting content. Turning weekly meetings into weekly reports or client interviews into requirement lists—all in one action.

If You Don't Use Tinrec, Here Are Other Options

Notta: Covers multi-platform transcription, meeting notes, file import, and translation, with support for 58 languages—suitable for users who need multilingual subtitles and translation. Free version: 120 minutes per month, max 3 minutes per item; heavy users should watch their quota.

TurboScribe: Focused on long files and batch processing. Paid version supports files up to 10 hours or 5 GB each, with up to 50 files per upload—ideal for processing large volumes of old recordings at once. However, real-time meetings and post-meeting collaboration aren't its strong suit.

If what you need is an all-in-one solution for "real-time meeting recording, post-meeting organization, and team sharing," Tinrec's desktop version with bot-free recording, AI Q&A, and team workspace will be a closer fit.

Summary

Now you understand what app.notta.ai is and have walked through all 5 steps: identify meeting types, bot-free recording, transcription with translation, generate summaries and action items, and Q&A with export and team retention. Rather than continuing to bounce between websites testing quotas, take a meeting recording from last week and follow the workflow above once—within half an hour, you'll know if this workflow is right for you. Next time you have a meeting, minutes shouldn't be your reason for working overtime again.

References

• AI Note Taker | Free AI Meeting Transcription
• Notta Brain - AI Agent Knowledge Base
• How To Use Notta AI Note Taker Effectively (Best AI Note ...
• Notta: AI Meeting Notetaker & Audio Transcription - Chrome Web Store
• Log in to Notta – Notta - Help Center