A two-hour pharmacology lecture is well over 10,000 spoken words. Nobody types that fast, so most students end up with half a page of notes, a few arrows, and a plan to "rewatch it later" that never happens. That gap is what AI note takers are selling to fill.
The honest answer: for a clean transcript of a live lecture, Otter is the easiest start, and Microsoft's Transcribe may already be free through your uni. If you have an accessibility plan, ask about Genio. If you want the lecture turned into something that tests you, a transcript isn't enough, and that's where a study tool like The Study Mill (which I build, so I'm biased) fits. Most students do best with one tool for capture and one for revision.
Note taking and studying are two different jobs
Every tool on this list does the first job well: it listens and writes down what was said. Some add a summary on top. That's useful, and it frees you to actually listen in the lecture instead of scrambling to copy slides.
But a transcript is still the lecture, just in text. Reading it back feels like study and does about as much as rereading anything else, which is not much. What moves exam marks is pulling the answers out of your own memory, then coming back to the ones you missed. Active recall vs rereading covers the research. So as you read the comparison below, ask what each tool does after the notes exist.
The comparison
| Best at | Free option | Turns it into practice? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Live transcripts with speaker labels | Yes, capped minutes and short sessions | Not really, it's built for meetings |
| Microsoft Transcribe (Word, OneNote) | Transcribing a recording you already have | Included with some Microsoft 365 plans, which many unis provide | No |
| Genio Notes (formerly Glean) | Audio synced to your slides, made for accessibility | Often free through your uni's disability service | Some quiz features |
| Notion AI meeting notes | Notes inside a Notion workspace | Limited trial only | No |
| Turbo AI, Mindgrasp | Notes, flashcards and quizzes from recordings | Small free allowance or a trial | Yes |
| The Study Mill | Teaching and testing you on each week | 2 classes, all their weeks | Yes, it's the main point |
Otter.ai
Otter is the name most people know, and for good reason. Open the app, hit record, and you get a live transcript with speaker labels you can search later. If your tutorial has lots of discussion, the speaker labels help.
The catch for lectures is the free plan. At the time of writing, several reviews agree it gives about 300 minutes a month, with each recording capped at around 30 minutes, and only a few file imports in total. A one-hour lecture gets cut off halfway. Paid plans lift those limits. Otter is designed for work meetings, so its summaries read like meeting minutes (action items, decisions) rather than study notes.
Pick it if you want the best live transcript and you'll do your own revising.
Microsoft Transcribe in Word and OneNote
This one gets overlooked. Word for Microsoft 365 has a Transcribe button that takes a live recording or an uploaded audio file and gives you a timestamped transcript, and OneNote on Windows has it too. Many universities give students a Microsoft 365 licence, so check yours before paying for anything. Availability depends on your plan and device, and Microsoft has changed the monthly limits over time.
It does no summarising or quizzing. It's a transcript and nothing more, but it's one you may already own.
Pick it if you have uni Microsoft 365 and just need the words.
Genio Notes (formerly Glean)
Glean changed its name to Genio in 2025, and the note taking app is now Genio Notes. It was built for students with disabilities, and it shows: you record the lecture, the audio lines up with your slides, and you can tap to mark the important bits as they happen instead of writing everything down. It has added AI features like quizzes from your notes.
Many universities license it and hand it out through their disability or accessibility service, often at no cost to the student. If you have a learning access plan, ask about it. Individual subscriptions exist too, but I couldn't confirm a current price.
Pick it if you have access through your uni, or you want a calm, structured way to capture lectures alongside slides.
Notion AI meeting notes
If your whole uni life already lives in Notion, its AI meeting notes can record and summarise a session inside the page you're working in. The full feature sits on Notion's business plans, and free accounts only get a limited trial. It's handy for people already deep in Notion, and a lot of setup for anyone else.
Pick it if you're a Notion person already paying for it.
Turbo AI and Mindgrasp
These are built for students rather than offices. You give them a recording or a PDF and they produce notes, flashcards, quizzes and a chat. They sit closer to a study tool than Otter does. Their free options are small, so they suit trying the idea more than a full semester. I compared them in detail in Turbolearn and Mindgrasp alternatives.
The Study Mill
The Study Mill isn't a live captioning app, and if you need a word-for-word transcript in real time, Otter or Genio will do that job better. What it does is take a lecture recording (audio or video, or one you record in the app on your phone) along with that week's slides, PDF, Word doc or photos of handwritten notes, and build the week into:
- Short lessons with analogies, specific to what your lecturer actually said
- Flashcards, some illustrated, linked back to the lesson they came from
- A quiz mixing multiple choice and written answers the AI marks
- Notes, and a tutor you can ask about that week
- Walk & Learn, where two hosts, Milli and Luke, teach the week as audio and ask you questions you answer out loud
Daily review brings back what you got wrong, and if you set an exam date it plans revision around your timetable. Everything is organised by class and week, so week 9 doesn't get buried under week 3.
The free plan covers 2 classes with all their weeks. Pro is A$7.99 a month or A$49 a year and adds unlimited classes, exam mode and cram sheets. Students with a .edu or .edu.au email get 50% off.
Pick it if the transcript isn't your problem and remembering it in the exam is.
A setup that works
You don't need to pick one. A simple combination for most students:
- Capture with whatever is free to you: your uni's lecture recording, Microsoft Transcribe, Otter's free minutes, or Genio if your uni provides it.
- Within a day, upload that recording or transcript with the slides into a tool that quizzes you. The first review counts most. Lecture recordings to notes walks through it.
- Space the reviews over the following weeks rather than rereading the night before. The spaced repetition schedule has the timings.
One more thing before you hit record: check your uni's rules on recording lectures. Most allow it for personal study, some require permission, and almost none let you share the recording.
Try it on one lecture
Take the recording you've been meaning to rewatch and upload it to The Study Mill with that week's slides. It's free for 2 classes, and you'll know within one quiz whether it beats rereading a transcript.
Other apps' prices and features are as published in October 2026 and change often. Check their own pricing pages.