Basil AI Meeting Notetaker: Pricing, Reviews & Features (2026 Buyer's Guide)

Published October 26, 2026

Basil AI is a privacy-first meeting notetaker for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings 100% on-device. If you're comparing Basil AI meeting notetaker pricing, reviews, and features against Otter, Fathom, or Fireflies, the short version is: Basil costs $9.99/month or $99.99/year for Pro, has a free tier with 60 minutes of recording per month, and is the only major option in this comparison that never uploads your audio to a vendor cloud. On the U.S. App Store listing, early reviews average 5.0 stars, with verified reviewers independently confirming that all processing runs locally on the device.

Who Basil AI Is Built For

Basil AI targets a specific buyer: someone who records sensitive conversations and cannot send that audio to a third-party cloud. That includes executives discussing M&A or personnel issues, attorneys protecting privilege, clinicians handling PHI, and finance professionals in regulated workflows. Basil's App Store description makes the pitch directly: “transcription runs on the Neural Engine, and summaries are generated locally by Apple Intelligence,” which means there is no server holding your conversations.

If you're a sales rep logging call outcomes into Salesforce, a cloud-first tool like Fireflies or Fathom will serve you better. If you're a GC, a founder briefing a board, or anyone who signs an NDA before meetings, Basil is specifically designed for your threat model. Our comparison guide across the top notetakers walks through the trade-offs by role.

Basil AI Pricing in 2026 (Official)

Basil AI is sold through the Apple App Store as a free download with in-app purchases. Pricing published on the official Basil AI pricing page is:

• Free — $0/month. 60 minutes of recording or upload transcription per month, full transcription quality, export to Apple Notes and Files, GDPR-aligned architecture.
• Pro — $9.99/month or $99.99/year (annual saves 17%). Unlimited on-device recording and upload transcription, cross-device sync (iPhone + iPad + Mac on one subscription), no watermarks, priority support. 3-day free trial.
• Basil for Law — Solo — $19.99/month. Everything in Pro plus privilege attestation (on-device provenance record), a consent-attestation log, matter and client organization, and “Privileged & Confidential” labeling. 3-day monthly trial or 7-day annual trial.

According to the pricing page, one subscription unlocks Basil AI on all your Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac — there is no per-device charge. There is currently no separate student or team pricing. Subscriptions are managed through the App Store and can be cancelled anytime in iPhone or Mac Settings > Subscriptions.

What the Free tier actually gets you

The Free tier is unusual in this category. Fathom's free plan is unlimited recordings but caps advanced AI summaries, and Otter's Basic plan gives 300 monthly transcription minutes with a 30-minute cap per conversation. Basil's Free plan gives you 60 minutes a month but full transcription quality, AI summaries, Apple Notes export, iCloud Drive export, 60-language support, and the same on-device architecture as Pro — you don't give up privacy to try it.

Basil AI Reviews: What Users Actually Say

Basil AI has two listings on the Apple App Store (reflecting its evolution from a prototype into the current universal app). On the current Private AI Note Taker: Basil listing, the app shows a 5.0 average across 31 ratings as of October 2026. The Canadian App Store page shows a 4.6 average across early reviews. Notable themes from verified reviews:

• Offline operation is real. Reviewer “fub2” writes that models can be downloaded offline so “online access is not needed for the app to work.”
• Local processing is verifiable. Reviewer “MrRellim” writes that they “tested several times” and confirmed all processing is done locally on the phone.
• Interface quality is high for the stage. Reviewer “KhoaTobias” writes that first impressions showed “careful design in the interface so early in its development.”
• Responsive developer. When MrRellim requested the ability to delete audio but keep the transcript and summary, the developer publicly added the feature to the roadmap.

Honest limitation flagged in reviews: as a newer app, the review base is small compared to Otter (hundreds of thousands of reviews) or Fathom. If social proof volume is a hard requirement, that's worth factoring in.

Basil AI Features: What You Get

Basil AI's feature set is intentionally focused on the privacy-first meeting workflow rather than CRM automation. From the official App Store description and the basilai.app homepage:

Recording and capture

• Live meeting recording up to 8 hours continuously
• Audio file imports and DRM-free video file imports (MP4, MOV, M4V)
• Works entirely offline, including airplane mode
• Voice command activation (“Hey Basil”)

Transcription and summaries

• Real-time on-device transcription via Apple's Speech Recognition framework on the Neural Engine
• Clear, timestamped transcripts
• AI-generated summaries, action items, and highlights produced locally by Apple Intelligence
• Transcripts in 60 languages; version 2.2.11 added transcripts in the language you speak

Organization and export

• Searchable transcripts organized by folders
• Export to Apple Notes, iCloud Drive, PDF
• Per-device iCloud Sync switch (added in version 2.2.11) so you decide which devices sync
• Cross-device sync (Pro) across iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Privacy architecture

• No cloud upload of audio or transcripts to Basil's servers
• No account required for the browser companion; no analytics tracking of your content
• No use of your meetings for model training

Basil AI vs Otter, Fathom, and Fireflies: Price & Feature Comparison

The three cloud notetakers most buyers compare Basil to are Otter.ai, Fathom, and Fireflies.ai. Here is the honest 2026 picture:

Where each tool wins

Otter.ai is the cheapest per-seat annual option and has the deepest search and team-collaboration features, but Otter's pricing page prices Pro at $16.99/user/month monthly or $8.33 annually, and Business at $30 monthly or $19.99 annually, both billed per seat and stored in Otter's cloud under Otter's privacy policy.

Fathom has the most generous free plan on paper — unlimited recordings — but Fathom's own pricing page and multiple reviews document that advanced AI summaries are capped at 5 calls a month on free, and Premium is $20/user/mo monthly or $16 annual. Fathom was acquired by Superhuman on September 14, 2026, which may change its roadmap.

Fireflies.ai is strong for CRM-heavy sales teams. Fireflies pricing is Free, Pro at $10/user/mo (annual) or $18 monthly, Business at $19/$29, and Enterprise at $39, with an AI-credit pool (20 Pro, 30 Business, 50 Enterprise) that gates summaries and the AskFred assistant — a nuance Fireflies' privacy policy doesn't surface up front.

Basil AI wins the privacy and offline axis outright, and is the only option in this comparison where your audio physically cannot be seen by the vendor — because the vendor doesn't have a server for it.

Is Basil AI Worth It? Buyer Scenarios

Scenario 1: You're an individual professional handling confidential info

Basil Pro at $9.99/month gets you unlimited on-device transcription across iPhone, iPad, and Mac on one subscription. That's cheaper than Fathom Premium's $16/mo (annual) and roughly on par with Fireflies Pro ($10/user/mo annual), with no AI-credit cap and no cloud. For most privacy-sensitive solo users, Basil is the strongest value here.

Scenario 2: You're an attorney or paralegal

Basil for Law Solo at $19.99/month adds privilege attestation and a consent-attestation log that cloud notetakers do not offer, because the attestation is tied to on-device provenance. For deposition prep and client meetings specifically, review our private witness interview workflow.

Scenario 3: You're a sales rep who lives in Salesforce

Honestly, Fathom Business or Fireflies Business will serve you better. Basil doesn't push notes into Salesforce automatically, run deal coaching, or offer scorecards. The on-device architecture that makes Basil great for privileged work makes it a weaker fit for CRM automation.

Scenario 4: You're an executive at a regulated company

If your employer's policy forbids sending internal audio to third-party clouds — which is increasingly common under GDPR Article 5 data-minimization requirements — Basil is often the only tool that will pass review, because there is no processor to appoint and no business associate agreement needed on the app side.

How Basil AI Solves This: On-Device vs the Cloud Approach

The core architectural difference matters more than the price difference. When you record a meeting in Otter, Fathom, or Fireflies, raw audio travels to the vendor's servers for transcription, is stored there (sometimes indefinitely), and — depending on the vendor's terms — may be used to improve their models. Multiple pricing reviews confirm Fathom uses “de-identified data” to improve its models unless you opt out.

Basil AI inverts the stack. Recording, transcription, and summarization all happen on the Apple Neural Engine and through on-device Apple Intelligence models, as described on the basilai.app home page. The audio file lives on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The transcript and summary live on your device. Nothing is uploaded, there is no server-side copy, and your meetings cannot be fed into anyone's training set — because they never leave your device in the first place. For a detailed technical walkthrough, see our deep dive on how Basil processes audio locally and the Apple Neural Engine architecture.

This is also why Basil is cheaper to price. Basil doesn't pay to run GPUs transcribing your meetings; your iPhone does it with hardware you already own. That is why one $9.99 subscription can cover iPhone + iPad + Mac without a per-seat markup.

Known Limitations You Should Know Before Buying

Being honest about what Basil AI is not, as of October 2026:

• Apple-only. There is no Windows or Android app. If your team is cross-platform, Basil won't fit everywhere.
• No meeting bot. Basil captures device audio; it does not join Zoom/Teams/Meet calls as a bot participant. Some teams prefer this (no awkward “a bot joined the call” moment); others expect it.
• Speaker identification is listed as “Coming soon” on the pricing page's feature table.
• No native CRM sync. You can export to Apple Notes, PDF, or share via standard iOS/Mac share sheets, but there is no one-click push to Salesforce or HubSpot.
• Smaller review base. With 31 ratings on the current US App Store listing, you have less third-party validation than Otter or Fathom.

How to Buy and Try Basil AI

Basil AI is a free download from the Apple App Store on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Every new user gets a 3-day free trial of Basil AI Pro with full access. After the trial, you can continue on Free (60 min/mo), upgrade to Pro ($9.99/mo or $99.99/yr), or choose Basil for Law Solo ($19.99/mo). All subscriptions are managed through your Apple ID and can be cancelled from Settings > Subscriptions with no cancellation fee.

Bottom Line

If you want the cheapest cloud notetaker, Otter.ai annual at $8.33/user/month is hard to beat on sticker price. If you want unlimited free recordings and don't mind limits on advanced AI summaries, Fathom Free is the standout. If you want CRM-first sales workflow, Fireflies has the deepest integrations.

But if you record anything sensitive — privileged conversations, patient discussions, M&A talks, personnel reviews, confidential strategy — Basil AI is the only major option that solves the privacy problem architecturally rather than contractually. At $9.99/month covering all your Apple devices, that's a defensible answer when procurement, security, or your own conscience asks where your meeting audio actually lives.