Record it on your PC — nothing joins the call. Stop, and Pithflow writes the notes, with the key points ranked by how often each came up.
Recording lectures and interviews is built for Windows 10 and 11. On a Mac, Pithflow is the dictation app.
The note taker runs in the Pithflow app for Windows. Open this page on your PC to get it.
See download options →15-minute recordings free · Windows 10 and 11
Notes appear when you press Stop and save.
Why the standard error shrinks as the sample grows, and how to read a 95% confidence interval.
Pithflow is an AI note taker for Windows. Record a lecture, an online class or an interview from your PC — nothing joins the call — and when you stop you get a summary and key points ranked by how many times each came up. Your own ideas? Dictate them into any notes app with the same app that dictates into anything you type.
Written by Jesus Zamudio, who builds Pithflow · Last updated
Anything you can hear from your Windows PC, and anything you want to say into it: a lecture in the room, an online class, an interview, or your own thinking out loud. The recording side lives in the app's Meetings tab, with two modes — In person records the laptop microphone, Video call records the microphone plus whatever the PC is playing.
Choose In person and sit where the laptop can hear the lecturer — one microphone hears the whole room. When you stop, you get the points the lecturer came back to most, with the count. A full lecture needs Pro; the free plan stops a recording at 15 minutes.
Choose Video call and Pithflow records what your PC plays through its default speakers or headphones, plus your microphone. Nothing joins the class, so there is no bot for the instructor to admit.
In person or on a call. On a call the transcript keeps Me and Them apart, so your questions and their answers do not blur together; an in-person recording has no labels. Tell the person you are recording before you start.
Hold a key and talk: Pithflow's dictation types clean, punctuated text into OneNote, Notion, Word or any notes app you already use.
Dictate into OneNote →Recording a call or a team meeting instead? The AI meeting recorder page covers the meeting side: Zoom, Teams and Meet, minutes, and why nothing joins the call.
A short summary, then the key points ranked by how many separate times each one came up, with the count beside it, then the follow-ups. A point a lecturer comes back to five times is rarely a throwaway, and the count makes that visible instead of burying it in a paragraph. Here is the shape — an illustration of the format, not a real lecture:
Why the standard error shrinks as the sample grows, how to read a 95% confidence interval, and what changes for the problem set.
Full transcript one click away · Copy · Save as Word, PDF or text
How the ranking works, and the bug that briefly doubled every count: why the notes rank points by mentions.
It depends on who is doing the talking. If you are listening, you want a note taker. If you are the one talking, you want dictation. Pithflow is one app for both.
You listen; the notes are written when you stop. For lectures, online classes and interviews.
This page.
You talk; clean text lands in the app you are typing in. For emails, documents and your own notes.
AI dictation for Windows →The same recording aimed at calls: minutes, decisions and action items from Zoom, Teams or Meet.
AI meeting recorder →The longer version, with a one-question test: dictation vs meeting transcription.
Three ways. A bot joins the video call as a participant and listens from inside it. A desktop app records what your own computer hears — your microphone and the sound it plays. A browser extension reads the call's captions in the browser tab. Pithflow is the second kind. Here is how the better-known note takers compare on the things people ask about:
| Note taker | How it captures | Windows app | Live transcript | Speaker names | Dictation included | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otter | Joins as a bot by default; a desktop app records without one | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | $16.99/mo, or $8.33/mo billed yearly |
| Fireflies | Joins as a bot by default; a desktop app records without one | Yes | Yes | With the bot; not in bot-free desktop recordings | No | $18/mo, or $10/mo billed yearly |
| Granola | Desktop app, no bot | Yes | Yes | On Meet, Zoom and Teams; otherwise Me / Them | No | $14/mo (Business) |
| Wispr Flow Notetaker | Desktop app, no bot | Yes (since Sept 15, 2026) | Yes | Yes, using calendar invites | Yes | Unlimited notes on Growth, $23/mo or $18/mo billed yearly; limited on Free and Pro |
| Jamie | Desktop app, no bot | Yes | No — notes after the recording | Yes, remembers voices | No | €21/mo billed yearly (Plus) |
| Tactiq | Chrome extension, no bot | Extension only | Yes | Yes | No | $12/mo, or $8/mo billed yearly |
| Pithflow | Desktop app, no bot | Yes (Windows 10 and 11) | No — notes after you stop | No — Me / Them on calls only | Yes | $9.99/mo, or $99/yr |
Where the others win: Wispr Flow's Notetaker, Otter, Fireflies and Granola show a live transcript and can name speakers, and Granola also runs on phones. Wispr's pricing page is also offering its Notetaker free through October 31 to teams on its dictation-only plan. Where Pithflow is different: the key points come ranked by how often each came up, with the count; dictation is in the same $9.99 plan; and Pithflow never needs access to your calendar or your inbox. The per-product detail is on the Granola, Otter and Fireflies comparisons.
On the free plan, each recording stops at 15 minutes and keeps everything said before the cap; the minutes count toward the free weekly allowance. Pro ($9.99 USD a month, or $99 a year) and Team ($45 a month for up to 5 seats) have no per-recording cap, so a 90-minute lecture is one recording and one set of notes. The click-by-click steps are in how to record in the Meetings tab; what is stored and what happens to the audio is on the Meetings page under where the recording goes.
An app that listens to something you are part of — a class, an interview, a call — and writes the notes for you: a summary, the main points and the follow-ups. Some join a video call as a bot; others, like Pithflow, record from your own computer, so nothing joins.
Dictation turns what you say into text in the app you are typing in. A note taker turns what you hear into notes after the fact. Pithflow does both: hold a key to dictate, or open the Meetings tab in the app to record a lecture or an interview.
Yes, on Pro or Team, which have no per-recording cap. On the free plan a recording stops at 15 minutes and everything before that is kept. Long recordings upload a minute at a time while you record, so an hour-long lecture does not wait on one giant upload at the end.
Yes. On a call, choose Video call: the transcript is split into Me (your side) and Them (everything the call plays). In person, choose In person: one microphone hears both of you, so the transcript has no labels. Pithflow does not name individual speakers. The full transcript is one click from the notes, and you can save it as a Word, PDF or text file.
If the course plays through your PC's default speakers or headphones, yes: Video call mode records that audio together with your microphone, and nothing joins the session. If your course app sends its sound to a different device, switch it to the Windows default first.
The note taker is built for Windows 10 and 11. Pithflow's Mac app is the dictation app; recording lectures and interviews needs the Windows app.
Ask first. Pithflow does not announce itself, so telling the lecturer or the person you are interviewing is on you, and schools and several US states have their own rules. Our post on recording consent covers the specifics.
On consent: is it legal to record with an AI note taker?
Lectures, online classes and interviews, recorded from your own Windows PC. Nothing joins.
Get started on WindowsCreate your free account — the installer downloads itself · Windows 10 and 11
