X-twitter Youtube Instagram Video

Recall.ai

Verified

Recall.ai provides developers with a unified API to build bots that record and transcribe meetings across Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. It extracts real-time audio and video streams for AI applications. But the base plan restricts recordings to two hours, limiting its use for long webinars.
  • Pricing: Freemium
Website

What is Recall.ai?

Recall.ai is an infrastructure layer that lets developers deploy meeting bots across multiple video conferencing platforms through a single API. You send an API request, and a virtual bot joins a Zoom or Google Meet call to capture audio and video. The system handles the complex browser orchestration required to record these streams.

Developer Recall.ai, Inc. built this tool to eliminate the technical debt of managing separate SDKs for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex. Software teams building sales coaching tools or AI note-takers use this API to extract real-time transcripts.

The platform manages the server scaling.

  • Primary Use Case: Building AI meeting assistants that join and record video calls.
  • Ideal For: Software developers creating transcription or sales coaching applications.
  • Pricing: Starts at $0.50/hr (Pay As You Go). You pay for the exact hours your bots spend in meetings.

Key Features and How Recall.ai Works

Media Extraction and Transcription

  • Real-time Transcription: Delivers a live text stream with speaker identification. Latency stays under one second.
  • Raw Media Access: Provides raw MP4 or MP3 files for custom AI model training. The base plan deletes these files after seven days.
  • Metadata Capture: Extracts participant lists and join timestamps. It captures standard metadata exposed by the host platform.

Bot Management and Interaction

  • Unified API: Connects to Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and Slack Huddles through one integration point. Platform-specific features require custom logic.
  • Bot Customization: Configures bot names and profile pictures for brand consistency. Host platforms can block custom avatars.
  • Meeting Interaction: Sends chat messages or mutes participants via API commands. The bot cannot bypass host permissions.

Infrastructure and Security

  • Global Infrastructure: Operates low-latency recording servers across multiple global regions. Base plan users cannot select specific server locations.
  • Webhook System: Sends real-time event notifications for recording starts and stops. Webhooks fail if your receiving server goes offline.

Recall.ai Pros and Cons

Pros

  • The unified API eliminates the technical debt of managing separate SDKs for every major video conferencing platform.
  • Real-time media access enables developers to build low-latency applications like live coaching or instant translation.
  • Recall.ai handles all infrastructure management, removing the need for developers to scale virtual browsers or servers.
  • Detailed documentation and SDKs allow a developer to deploy a functional bot in under 60 minutes.
  • SOC2 Type II compliance provides the necessary security validation required by enterprise-level customers.

Cons

  • The two-hour recording limit on the Pay As You Go plan prevents the capture of long-form webinars or workshops.
  • A short seven-day storage window necessitates immediate implementation of external S3 or cloud storage export logic.
  • The hourly pricing model causes unpredictable monthly costs for startups with highly variable meeting volumes.

Who Should Use Recall.ai?

  • AI Application Developers: Teams building sales coaching or automated note-taking tools get immediate access to raw meeting data.
  • Enterprise Development Teams: Large organizations benefit from the SOC2 Type II compliance and custom infrastructure options.
  • Solo Founders: The Pay As You Go model allows single developers to prototype meeting bots without high upfront costs.
  • Not for Non-Technical Users: This is a developer API, not a consumer application. Business users looking for an out-of-the-box meeting recorder should look elsewhere.

Recall.ai Pricing and Plans

Recall.ai uses a freemium model with a usage-based pricing structure. The platform offers a free trial to test the API before committing to a paid tier.

The Pay As You Go plan costs $0.50 per hour of bot meeting time. This tier imposes a 500-hour monthly limit and restricts individual recordings to two hours. Media files remain on their servers for seven days before deletion. This short storage window forces developers to build immediate export pipelines (a common friction point for small teams).

The Launch plan requires custom pricing. It removes the monthly recording limit and offers volume discounts. Users on this tier receive shared Slack support for faster troubleshooting.

The Enterprise plan also uses custom pricing. It adds white-glove security, dedicated support, and custom infrastructure options for large-scale deployments.

How Recall.ai Compares to Alternatives

Similar to Symbl.ai, Recall.ai provides real-time transcription and meeting intelligence capabilities. But Symbl.ai focuses on providing pre-built conversation analytics and sentiment analysis out of the box. Recall.ai acts more like a pure infrastructure layer. It gives you the raw audio and video streams to process with your own AI models. Developers who want complete control over the AI analysis prefer Recall.ai.

Unlike Daily.co, this tool specializes in joining existing third-party meetings rather than hosting them. Daily.co provides WebRTC video infrastructure to build custom video calling applications from scratch. Recall.ai sends bots into Zoom or Google Meet calls that your users scheduled in advance. If you need to build a native video chat app, Daily.co works better. If you need to extract data from external platforms, Recall.ai is the correct choice.

The Best API for AI Meeting Assistants

Recall.ai delivers massive value to software teams building AI meeting tools. It solves the specific, painful problem of managing headless browsers to record Zoom and Teams calls. Startups building sales coaching platforms or automated note-takers should use this API to accelerate their time to market.

Non-technical users should avoid this tool.

If you just want a meeting assistant for your own calls, buy a consumer product like Otter.ai.

This API will dominate the meeting bot infrastructure space over the next 12 months.

As more companies build AI agents that interact in real-time, reliable media extraction will become a mandatory foundation.

Core Capabilities

Key features that define this tool.

  • Multi-platform support: Connects to Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack Huddles, and Webex via one API. Limited to supported platforms.
  • Real-time transcription: Delivers live text streams with speaker identification during active calls. Limited by the accuracy of the underlying speech-to-text engine.
  • Video recording: Captures MP4 files stored in the cloud. Limited to 2 hours per recording on the base plan.
  • Audio recording: Captures MP3 files for voice-only processing. Limited to 7 days of free storage on the entry tier.
  • Bot customization: Sets custom bot names, profile pictures, and entry messages. Limited by the specific meeting platform’s display rules.
  • Webhooks: Sends real-time notifications for events like bot joined or call ended. Limited to standard HTTP POST requests.
  • Media output: Sends raw audio and video streams via RTMP or RTSP for external processing. Requires external server infrastructure to receive streams.
  • Participant management: Admits, removes, or mutes participants using API commands. Limited to host permissions on the target meeting platform.
  • Global infrastructure: Deploys bots in multiple regions to minimize latency. Limited to available AWS regions.

Pricing Plans

  • Pay As You Go: $0.50/hr — No monthly fee, 500 hours/mo limit, 2-hour limit per recording, 7 days free storage
  • Launch: Custom Pricing — No monthly recording limit, no recording length limit, shared Slack support
  • Enterprise: Custom Pricing — White-glove security, support, and infrastructure

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Q: How does Recall.ai handle Zoom bot restrictions? Recall.ai uses headless browsers and official API integrations to bypass common bot blocking mechanisms. It joins Zoom calls as a standard participant, ensuring reliable recording even when native recording is disabled.
  • Q: What is the latency for Recall.ai real-time transcription? Recall.ai delivers real-time transcription with sub-second latency. Developers receive text streams via WebSockets as participants speak, making it suitable for live translation or real-time coaching applications.
  • Q: Does Recall.ai support recording Slack Huddles? Yes. Recall.ai provides full support for recording and transcribing Slack Huddles. Developers use the same unified API endpoints they use for Zoom or Google Meet to capture audio from Slack.
  • Q: How much does Recall.ai cost per hour of recording? Recall.ai charges $0.50 per hour of recording on its Pay As You Go plan. This rate includes both audio and video capture, real-time transcription, and seven days of cloud storage.
  • Q: Is Recall.ai SOC2 compliant? Yes. Recall.ai maintains SOC2 Type II compliance. The platform encrypts all meeting data at rest and in transit, meeting the security requirements for enterprise software development.

Tool Information

Developer:

Recall.ai Inc.

Release Year:

2022

Platform:

Web-based

Rating:

4.5