Short answer, as of August 2026: HyNote is the cheapest way to buy 1,200 transcription minutes a month, at $79.99 a year against $99.96 for the equivalent Otter plan, and it is the only tool in this category that also turns PDFs, YouTube links, screenshots and phone calls into notes. Two things to check before you buy: the pricing page opens on annual rates, and its compliance claims are not consistent between its own pages.
Disclosure: HyNote is our pick, and we earn a commission if you subscribe through our link. We place the tools we earn on first in our listings, which is why it leads our note taker ranking. The score is a separate thing and is not adjustable by hand: HyNote scores 6.5 out of 10 and Granola scores 7.9. Both numbers sit beside the placement in that ranking, so you can see exactly what the commercial relationship did and did not change.
What HyNote actually is
Most tools in this category are meeting recorders. HyNote is a note taker that treats a meeting as one input of eight. The same account handles live audio, uploaded recordings, video, PDFs, image OCR, YouTube links, web page capture and phone calls, and turns any of them into a transcript, a summary and an action list through more than thirty templates, from meeting minutes to SWOT to interview notes.
That breadth is the whole case for it. If your week is only Zoom calls, it is one of many good options. If your week is Zoom calls plus a 60-page PDF, a recorded site visit and two client phone calls, it is the only tool on our list that covers all four without a second subscription.
It records Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex from your device rather than sending a bot into the call, with speaker identification, timestamps and support for more than 50 languages. It runs on iOS, Android, web, Mac and Chrome, with an Apple Watch companion, and exports to Google Docs, Notion, PDF and TXT.
What it costs, verified
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | - | Recording and transcription, up to 120 minutes per session, templates, file uploads, cross-device sync, calendar integration |
| Pro | $11.99 | $79.99 a year | 1,200 transcription minutes a month, 300 one-time podcast, slides and infographic credits, translation, transcript export, 7-day trial |
| Plus | $18.99 | $129.99 a year | 1,200 real-time transcription minutes a month, speaker identification, 400 credits, live translation, export to Google Docs and Notion |
| Unlimited | $24.99 | $189.99 a year | Unlimited real-time transcription, 600 credits, unlimited storage, CRM integration |
| Teams | $15 | $180 a year | Everything in Unlimited plus team templates, admin controls and priority support |
The headline number on the pricing page is $6.66 a month. That is the annual rate divided by twelve. Pay month to month and Pro is $11.99, which is 80% more. The page opens on the annual view with a “45% OFF” badge, so it is easy to read the small number and buy the large one.
The detail nobody else has published: it costs more in the app
HyNote charges different prices on the web and inside its iOS app. Apple takes a cut of in-app purchases and this vendor passes it on.
| Plan | On hynote.ai | Inside the iOS app | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro, yearly | $79.99 | $89.99 | $10 |
| Plus, yearly | $129.99 | $129.99 | None |
| Unlimited, yearly | $189.99 | $199.99 | $10 |
| Pro, monthly | $11.99 | $12.99 | $1 |
| Unlimited, monthly | $24.99 | $25.99 | $1 |
Ten dollars a year is not ruinous, but it is entirely avoidable, and it is the kind of thing a review should tell you. Subscribe on the website, then sign in on the phone.
Is it good value? The comparison that matters
Three tools in this category sell exactly 1,200 transcription minutes a month, which makes them directly comparable.
| Tool | Plan with 1,200 minutes a month | A year | Per 1,000 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| HyNote | Pro | $79.99 | $5.55 |
| Otter.ai | Pro | $99.96 | $6.94 |
| Plaud | Pro | $99.99 | $6.94 plus a device |
HyNote is 20% cheaper than Otter for the same monthly minute allowance, and Plaud’s equivalent plan needs a recorder that starts around $159 on top. At the other end, HyNote Unlimited is $189.99 a year for unlimited real-time transcription, against $239.88 for Otter Business. This is the strongest part of the product’s case and it is a pricing argument, not a quality one.
Where it falls short
The compliance claims do not match each other
HyNote’s homepage states “AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, and SOC 2 Type II infrastructure”, with “GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA-aligned workflows”. Its dedicated security page, which is the more careful document, states AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2 or better in transit, hosting on Google Cloud, no model training on customer content, regular third-party penetration testing, and alignment with GDPR and CCPA. It does not mention SOC 2 and it does not mention HIPAA.
Two of the vendor’s own pages disagree, and the marketing one claims more. That is not evidence of wrongdoing, and note that “SOC 2 Type II infrastructure” can honestly describe a cloud provider rather than the vendor. It does mean that if you are buying for a clinic, a law firm or a finance team, you should ask for the report and a signed BAA before you commit, and not treat the homepage as an answer.
No developer surface at all
/docs, /developers, /changelog and /status all return the homepage rather than a page, checked against a URL that cannot exist so a catch-all route could not fool the test. There is a help centre and an integrations page, and that is the extent of it. No public API, no changelog to show what shipped, no status page when something breaks. Granola includes API and MCP access on a $14 plan; Otter has an API on Enterprise.
Two company names
The website is operated by Turing Intelligence LLC. The iOS app is published by Tuling Network Limited. Both are the vendor’s own records. It is worth a question if you are signing a data processing agreement.
What users say
On Apple’s App Store, HyNote holds 4.78 out of 5 from 7,230 ratings, on version 18.7, last updated 2026-08-26. On Google Play it holds 4.5 from about 4,070 reviews. Both figures come from the stores’ own listings, read on 31 August 2026, not from a review aggregator.
The gap between 4.8 on iOS and 4.5 on Android is the sort of thing worth noticing if you are an Android team: it is not damning, but it is consistent with the iOS app being the more finished one, and the vendor’s own marketing leads with the iOS number.
The vendor claims more than a million users and 2,000 teams. We have not been able to verify either figure independently and we are not repeating them as fact.
Who should buy it
Buy HyNote if you capture a mix of meetings, documents, videos and phone calls, you want one subscription rather than three, and you want the cheapest route to serious transcription volume. Take the annual plan on the website, not monthly, and not in the app.
Do not buy it if you need an API, a changelog or a compliance report today. Granola is the better laptop-meeting tool and ships an API. Otter.ai is the safer institutional purchase. Plaud is the only one that handles conversations in a room.
HyNote publishes a free plan with real recording and transcription, so the honest first step is to run a fortnight of your actual meetings through it before paying for anything.
How we test, and what we will not do
Prices come from each vendor’s own pricing page, read by hand on 30 August 2026, with the page saved. App ratings come from Apple’s and Google’s own store listings. We do not take prices, ratings or review text from G2, Trustpilot or Capterra, because republishing their compilations is both against their terms and the opposite of useful.
Scores are produced by a rubric that measures evidence, not enthusiasm: pricing clarity, free access, documentation, maintenance signals, how much we could verify, and whether there is a public API. An automated pass tops out at 8.5 out of 10. The last 1.5 points are reserved for a dated hands-on review by a named person, so none of the tools here has them. How we score.
Where a vendor’s own pages disagree with each other, we say so rather than picking the flattering one.
Questions people actually ask
Is HyNote free?
Yes, and the free plan is a real one rather than a trial. It includes audio recording and transcription, up to 120 minutes per session, the template library, file uploads, sync across web, mobile and tablet, calendar integration and private storage. No monthly minute cap is stated on the pricing page, which is unusual enough that you should confirm it in the app before you build a workflow on it.
How much does HyNote cost?
Pro is $11.99 a month or $79.99 a year, Plus is $18.99 or $129.99, Unlimited is $24.99 or $189.99, and Teams is $15 a seat a month from two seats. Read from the vendor’s pricing page on 30 August 2026.
Is HyNote worth it?
If you capture more than meetings, yes, on the arithmetic. Pro is the cheapest 1,200-minute plan of the three that publish one, and no rival on this page turns a PDF, a YouTube link and a phone call into notes from the same account. If you only record video calls on a laptop, Granola does that specific job better and its Business plan includes an API.
Does HyNote put a bot in my meeting?
No. It transcribes Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex from your device, so nothing appears in the participant list. That is a genuine advantage in client work, and a problem in organisations whose policy requires a visible recording notice.
Is HyNote secure enough for regulated work?
Its security page states AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2 or better in transit, Google Cloud hosting, no model training on customer content, third-party penetration testing, and GDPR and CCPA alignment. Its homepage additionally claims SOC 2 Type II infrastructure and HIPAA-aligned workflows, which the security page does not mention. Ask for the report before you sign anything in healthcare, legal or finance.
Does HyNote have an API?
Not publicly. /docs, /developers, /changelog and /status all return the homepage rather than a page, checked 31 August 2026. There is a help centre. If you need to pipe notes into your own systems, Granola and Otter both publish one.
Who makes HyNote?
The website’s footer says Turing Intelligence LLC. Apple lists the iOS app’s publisher as Tuling Network Limited. Both spellings appear in the vendor’s own records, checked 31 August 2026.
What are the best HyNote alternatives?
Granola for laptop meetings, Otter.ai if you need an established vendor with SSO and an API, Plaud for in-person conversations. The full comparison is in our AI note taker ranking.
Sources
Every price on this page was read off the vendor’s own page on 30 August 2026 and the page was kept. We do not take pricing from review aggregators.
- HyNote pricing, read 30 August 2026
- HyNote data security, read 31 August 2026
- HyNote help centre
- Apple App Store listing data for HyNote, read 2026-08-31
- HyNote on Google Play, read 31 August 2026
- HyNote AI Review 2026, Daniel Davidson
- HyNote AI Review: Is It Worth the Price?, AI Jobs & Interviews
- r/AI_Agents discussion on AI note takers, 200+ comments
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