A local alternative to Notion AI Meeting Notes

Notion AI Meeting Notes is a block you add to any Notion page by typing /meet. In the Notion desktop app it captures both your microphone and your computer’s audio, so it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other call apps, and no bot joins the call. The notes land in a Notion page with a summary, action items and the transcript. If your team already plans its work in Notion, having meeting notes in the same place is a real advantage.

Hearkeeper is not released yet. It is a Mac app built around one idea: your meetings stay on your computer.

The core difference

Where the audio goes. Notion’s help page says that during a live recording the audio is sent directly to its sub-processors for real-time transcription: OpenAI, Anthropic, Fireworks, Baseten Labs, X.AI and AssemblyAI. Notion says the sub-processors do not store audio. A temporary copy is kept on your device and deleted after successful processing or within 24 hours; if processing fails, the audio is uploaded to Notion’s servers and kept for up to three days to try again. Notion’s product page says it does not train on your data. The transcript and notes are stored in your Notion workspace.

Hearkeeper transcribes on your Mac with whisper.cpp, accelerated by Metal, and writes summaries, decisions and to-dos with a local language model, with no API key. Nothing is uploaded unless you connect a team server or your own API key.

Offline. Notion’s help page says AI Meeting Notes “is not currently supported while offline”. Hearkeeper works fully offline: on a plane, on bad Wi-Fi, or on a network you don’t trust.

Consent. Both tools take consent seriously, in different ways. When you start AI Meeting Notes, Notion reminds you to disclose it and get consent from everyone in the meeting, and offers a text message for the chat, a spoken announcement played through your speakers, or asking out loud. With its Google Meet add-on it posts and pins a message in the Meet chat and shows a recording indicator. Hearkeeper builds the step into every recording (read a short notice aloud, post it in the chat, or both), saves a consent receipt with the recording, and keeps a recording pill on screen, including in screen shares, with no hide button.

Icelandic. Notion lists sixteen transcription languages on its help page, including Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish, and Icelandic is not among them. Notion also says speaker labels are available in English only. Hearkeeper treats Icelandic as a first-class language, detects mixed Icelandic and English on its own, and transcribes 99 languages in all.

Notion AI Meeting Notes and Hearkeeper side by side

	Notion AI Meeting Notes	Hearkeeper
Bot in the call	No. The desktop app captures your mic and system audio	No. Records on your Mac; no bot joins
Where audio is processed	Notion’s sub-processors (OpenAI, Anthropic, Fireworks, Baseten Labs, X.AI, AssemblyAI), per its help page	On your Mac (whisper.cpp with Metal)
Where notes are stored	Your Notion workspace	One SQLite file and your own audio and note files on your disk
Training on your meetings	Notion says it does not train on your data	No. Nothing is uploaded unless you connect a server or your own API key
Works offline	No, per Notion’s help page	Yes, fully
Consent step and receipt	Reminder to disclose and get consent; chat text, spoken announcement, or Meet chat message	Consent step before every recording; receipt saved; pill that can’t be hidden
Icelandic	Not in the listed transcription languages; speaker labels in English only	Yes, first-class, with mixed Icelandic and English
Platforms	Notion desktop app (macOS 13 or later, Windows), browser (microphone only), mobile	Mac (macOS 14.2+, Apple silicon and Intel), when released; other platforms later
Price as listed	Included in Business, $20 per member a month billed yearly or $24 monthly, and Enterprise; Free and Plus get a limited trial (as listed on 30 September 2026)	Not announced yet

When Notion AI Meeting Notes is the better choice

• Your team already works in Notion. Notes, summary and action items arrive in a Notion page, next to the documents and projects the meeting was about.
• You already pay for Notion Business or Enterprise. Meeting notes are included, so there is nothing new to buy.
• You need it today, on Windows or a phone. It works in the desktop app on Mac and Windows, and on mobile for meetings in the room. Hearkeeper is on a waitlist and starts on the Mac only.
• Your organisation wants admin control. Workspace owners can turn the feature off. On Enterprise, owners can delete transcripts automatically on a schedule, and Notion says its model providers keep no data.
• You want notes shared by default. Meeting notes follow the permissions of the page they are saved on, so the whole team sees them without an export.

When Hearkeeper fits better

• You’d rather your audio never left your computer. Transcription, summaries and search are made on your Mac, not by outside model providers.
• You need it to work offline. Hearkeeper keeps recording, transcribing and summarising without a connection.
• You meet in Icelandic, or switch between Icelandic and English in the same meeting.
• You want consent on the record. A consent step every time, a saved receipt, and a pill that stays visible, including in screen shares.
• You want answers you can check. Every summary line and every answer cites the second it was said, and you can ask questions during the call and across all your meetings.
• You want the files, not a workspace. Audio and notes are your own files, search lives in one SQLite file on your disk, and notes export to Markdown.

Sources

All read on 30 September 2026.

• Take AI meeting notes in Notion (help): notion.com/help/ai-meeting-notes
• Notion AI Meeting Notes product page: notion.com/product/ai-meeting-notes
• Notion pricing: notion.com/pricing

Hearkeeper is coming to the Mac first. Join the waitlist and we’ll tell you when it’s ready.