The Best Free AI Note Takers for Students
The best free AI note taker depends on how you study: Otter.ai for live lecture captions, Gemini Notebook for audio overviews of your sources, Knowt for public flashcard sets, and Knomi Notes for notes, spaced repetition flashcards and timed practice tests with no paid plan. Below, seven tools with a free plan, in alphabetical order, each with what its free plan includes.
Knomi Notes is made by us, Knomi. Every fact about the others was read on their own websites on October 30, 2026, and each entry says what it does best.
Quick picks
| If you want | Try |
|---|---|
| Captions during a live lecture | Otter.ai |
| Listening to your material as an audio overview | Gemini Notebook |
| Studying from other people's public flashcard sets | Knowt |
| One workspace for all your notes and projects | Notion AI |
| Games, a study plan and an AI tutor | StudyFetch |
| Podcasts made from your notes (16 and over) | Turbo AI |
| Notes, spaced repetition and timed tests, all free | Knomi Notes |
The seven, A to Z
Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)
Google's research and study notebook: chat with your sources, Audio and Video Overviews, mind maps, reports, flashcards and quizzes.
- Free plan
- Free Standard plan: up to 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook, each source up to 500,000 words or 200 MB. YouTube needs captions.
- Best at
- Audio Overviews and a very large capacity for sources.
Knomi Notes
Notes, FSRS flashcards, quizzes, timed practice tests and chat from PDFs, slides, photos, YouTube, audio and lectures recorded in the browser.
- Free plan
- Every feature is free with a Knomi account.
- Best at
- Everything is free, timed practice tests included, and there is no minimum age.
Where it falls short: It runs in the browser only; there is no phone app to install. There is no public library of other people's sets to study from. Cards can't be exported to Anki or Quizlet yet.
Knowt
Flashcards, notes and spaced repetition free on your own sets; 1 AI summary a month free; public library and AP/SAT/ACT prep.
- Free plan
- Unlimited sets and notes, every study mode on your own sets (spaced repetition included), 1 AI summary a month, 1 AP, SAT or ACT mock exam.
- Best at
- A public library of millions of flashcard sets, notes and exam resources to study from.
Notion AI
A workspace for notes and documents with AI; full AI on the Business plan.
- Free plan
- The workspace, with a limited AI trial.
- Best at
- One place for everything: class notes, documents, databases and projects.
Otter.ai
Live transcription and summaries of lectures and meetings, with AI chat.
- Free plan
- Free Basic plan: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 imported files in total, 20 AI chat questions a month. Pro is $16.99 a month or $8.33 a month billed yearly.
- Best at
- Real-time captions during a lecture and automatic slide capture in virtual sessions.
StudyFetch
Notes, flashcards, tests, games and an AI tutor from your material; free to start with premium plans.
- Free plan
- 10 chats with the AI tutor, 1 study set, 2 document uploads and limited video and audio uploads; no live lecture assistant.
- Best at
- More ways to study one set of material: games, explainer videos, audio recaps and a study plan built around your deadlines.
Turbo AI
Notes, quizzes and podcasts from lectures, PDFs and YouTube; free tier plus paid plans; 16 and over.
- Free plan
- Notes, flashcards and quizzes with small limits: about 2 hours of lecture recording, 1 PDF upload and 10 chat messages a month (Turbo AI doesn't publish exact caps).
- Best at
- It makes podcasts from your material, so you can listen while you commute.
Questions
What is the best free AI note taker for students?
It depends on what you need. For live captions in a lecture, Otter.ai. For audio overviews of your sources, Gemini Notebook. For public flashcard sets, Knowt. For notes, spaced repetition flashcards and timed practice tests with nothing behind a paywall, Knomi Notes. Each entry on this page says what its free plan includes.
Is there a completely free AI note taker?
Knomi Notes has no paid plan: every feature is free with an account. Most others on this list have a free plan with limits and a paid upgrade; Knowt, for example, allows one AI summary a month on its free plan, and Otter's free plan has 300 transcription minutes a month.
Which AI note takers turn lectures into notes?
Knomi Notes, Knowt, StudyFetch, Turbo AI and Otter.ai all take lecture recordings. Otter adds live captions while the lecture happens; Knomi Notes records up to three hours in the browser for free.
Which ones make flashcards with spaced repetition?
Knowt (free on your own sets) and Knomi Notes (FSRS). Gemini Notebook makes flashcards and quizzes; the others on this list don't mention spaced repetition on their sites.
Is this list biased toward Knomi Notes?
Knomi Notes is our product, so read it with that in mind. To keep it fair, the list is in alphabetical order, every fact about another product comes from that product's own website with a link, and each entry says what it does better.
Sources
Every fact about another product was read on its own website on October 30, 2026. Prices and plans change; check the product's site before you decide.