Plaud is the only hardware product in this directory. Instead of a bot joining your video calls, you carry a physical recorder — a card-sized device or a wearable pin — capture audio in the room, and let Plaud's cloud transcribe and summarise it. That solves the problem every software notetaker has: in-person meetings, corridor conversations, and phone calls that no Zoom bot can reach. It also means you're buying hardware and then paying a subscription on top.
At a glance
Devices
Plaud Note $159, NotePin $159, NotePin S $179, Note Pro $189
Subscription
Starter free; Pro $99.99/year or $17.99/month; Unlimited $239.99/year or $29.99/month; Team available
Free tier
Starter — 300 AI transcription minutes/month, included with every device
Pro
1,200 transcription minutes/month
Unlimited
Unlimited minutes, described as up to 24 transcription hours a day
It records the room. In-person meetings, one-to-ones over coffee, phone calls — all invisible to software notetakers. This is the actual reason to buy Plaud.
No bot joins your call. Nothing announces itself to other participants and nothing gets blocked by IT. It also sidesteps the specific consent mechanism at issue in the Otter.ai litigation — though not your obligation to tell people you're recording.
Free tier included with the hardware. 300 minutes a month at no extra cost, which for occasional use may be all you need.
The wearables are genuinely hands-free. NotePin clips on and captures without you touching anything.
Four microphones on the Note Pro. Better multi-speaker capture in a room than a phone on a table.
Where it falls short
You pay twice. $159–189 for hardware, then up to $239.99 a year for unlimited transcription. Three years on Unlimited is roughly $900 all-in. Software competitors with free tiers cost nothing.
Another object to charge and carry. The failure mode is leaving it at home or finding it flat.
Cloud processing, always. Room audio — including conversations by people who never agreed to anything — goes to Plaud's servers. The consent question is arguably sharper here than with a visible meeting bot, precisely because nothing announces itself.
Recording in the room is legally riskier. Two-party-consent jurisdictions apply to in-person conversations too, and a discreet wearable makes inadvertent non-compliance easy.
Four devices, unclear differentiation. Note, NotePin, NotePin S, and Note Pro overlap heavily, and $159 to $189 is a narrow spread for four SKUs.
Pricing
Devices: Plaud Note $159, NotePin $159, NotePin S $179, Note Pro $189. Every device includes the free Starter plan at 300 AI transcription minutes a month. Pro is $99.99/year or $17.99/month for 1,200 minutes. Unlimited is $239.99/year or $29.99/month. Extra minute bundles of 600, 3,000, or 6,000 can be bought separately, and a Team plan exists for organisations.
Who it's for
People whose important conversations happen in rooms rather than on Zoom — field sales, clinicians, consultants, journalists doing in-person interviews. Nothing software-only can serve them. If your meetings are all on video calls, Fathom or Fireflies.ai do the job free. Whatever you do with a discreet recorder, tell people it's running.
Last verified: 10 August 2026.
Similar to Plaud
Plaud: Buy a device, then buy a subscription — the only hardware entry here – Dictation Database
Free viewers, paid recorders — built for customer research teams
Meeting Transcription
Meeting recording with shareable highlight clips and CRM sync, priced per recording seat. Viewers are always free; the free plan includes one recorder.
