Fathom
The most generous free AI notetaker there is, and the MCP hook into ChatGPT and Claude is the smartest thing it shipped in 2026, but everything advanced still gates behind paid and your data lives in the US.
Element scores
Strengths
Fathom's free tier is the most generous in the category: unlimited recording, transcription and storage with instant, well-formatted summaries and action items in under 30 seconds after a call. Ask Fathom is a natural-language search layer over your entire meeting history that returns cited clips with timestamps, and 2026's MCP integrations plug that library straight into ChatGPT and Claude. Bot-free capture, live summaries, custom vocabulary, native CRM sync to HubSpot and Salesforce, a public API, and SOC 2 Type II / HIPAA / GDPR compliance make it credible well beyond the free crowd.
Honest dings
The genuinely useful AI (unlimited advanced summaries, Ask Fathom, action items) gates behind paid, with the free tier capped at roughly five advanced AI calls a month, and pricing rose and reshuffled in early 2026. Data is stored in the US, which is a real consideration for EU teams under GDPR, and there is no self-hosted or on-premise option. It is a notetaker, not a revenue-intelligence platform: no deal-risk scoring or forecasting like Gong or Clari, and non-English transcription accuracy drops on harder calls.
Sources
Every audit lists the research it rests on — transparency and traceability are the product. Tools evolve: each audit is a snapshot of its audit date, and re-audits supersede older versions (kept below for reference).
- help.fathom.video/en/articles/3239425 — Official docs: Ask Fathom pulls from titles/summaries/transcripts/attendees, account-wide search, excludes deal data and trackers; Premium/Team gated (accessed 2026-07-23)
- help.fathom.video/en/articles/8368641 — Official docs: public API, user-level keys, 60 calls/min rate limit, OAuth apps for publishing integrations (accessed 2026-07-23)
- fathom.ai/whats-new — Official changelog: bot-free capture, live summaries, MCP integrations to ChatGPT/Claude, account-wide Ask Fathom, Slack Huddles (accessed 2026-07-23)
- fathom.ai/overview — Official: transcription across accents/cross-talk/languages, custom dictionaries, cited answers linking to exact transcript moments, build custom agents on top via MCP/API (accessed 2026-07-23)
- chromewebstore.google.com/detail/fathom-ai-note-tak… — Vendor listing: HQ 2261 Market St, San Francisco CA; SOC 2 Type II / GDPR / HIPAA, SSO/SCIM; used at 300K+ companies; AI Scorecards, keyword alerts, CRM auto-update (accessed 2026-07-23)
- checkthat.ai/brands/fathom/pricing — Independent pricing (updated 30/03/2026): Free $0 (5 advanced AI/mo), Premium $20/user, Team $18/user (2 min), Business $28/user (accessed 2026-07-23)
- makerstack.co/reviews/fathom-review — Independent review (05/03/2026): sub-30s summaries, Ask Fathom search quality, US-only cloud storage, no on-premise, non-English accuracy drop, 8.2 rating (accessed 2026-07-23)
- sally.io/blog/fathom-gdpr-and-data-security — Independent: data stored and processed in the US (GDPR consideration for EU teams), visible-bot transparency advantage (accessed 2026-07-23)
- affine.pro/blog/fathom-ai-integrations-tips — Independent: integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Asana, Slack plus Zapier/n8n; public API for custom workflows (accessed 2026-07-23)