No subscription required: Meetily offers real-time meeting transcription and AI summaries for free, using open-source models. It works on Windows and macOS, with privacy-focused local processing. Discover how it compares to paid tools.
Transcribing meetings has become one of the most practical uses of AI, but most services require monthly fees and cloud uploads that raise privacy concerns. Meetily, a free and open-source meeting assistant, aims to change that by providing real-time transcription and AI-powered summaries without a subscription or forced data sharing.
Meetily is available for Windows and macOS, with Linux support for those willing to build from source. After downloading from GitHub, users are prompted to install the necessary open-source AI models. The app requires access to both the microphone and system audio, enabling it to capture every participant in a conversation-regardless of the video conferencing platform. This flexibility means Meetily works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any other service, and can even handle in-person meetings if the laptop microphone picks up all voices.
During a meeting, users can watch the transcription unfold in real time or minimize the app to focus on the discussion. When the meeting ends, a single click stops recording and displays the full transcript. Meetily's AI can then generate a summary, with the option to specify which topics or points to emphasize. While AI-generated summaries may not always align perfectly with user priorities, the transcript provides a reliable reference for creating accurate meeting minutes.
Meetily also supports a beta feature that processes previously recorded audio or video files. Users can drag and drop files to receive both a transcript and a summary, making it useful for transcribing in-person conversations captured on mobile devices.
The free version of Meetily does have some limitations. Notably, it does not label speakers in the transcript, which may be a deal-breaker for some. Comparable open-source tools with speaker identification, such as noScribe, lack real-time recording capabilities and only process existing files. Anarlog (formerly Hyprnote) offers a more polished interface and access to multiple AI models, but setup is less straightforward. Quill provides free local transcription but requires account registration and includes upselling. Despite these trade-offs, the growing number of free options suggests rapid progress in AI-powered meeting tools.
