Plaud review
7.7/10★★★★★Pocket AI recorders and wearables that transcribe and summarise in 112 languages
- Best for
- People who record in-person meetings, lectures and phone calls and want a dedicated recorder
- Price
- Paid · from $159
Free: Each device includes the Starter plan: 300 transcription minutes a month - Platforms
- iOS, Android, Web, Desktop app
- Made by
- PLAUD LLC
- App store ratings
- iOS 4.9★ (23K) · Android 4.6★ (11K)
What it is
Plaud sells small AI voice recorders, including the card-shaped Note Pro and the wearable NotePin S, that capture meetings, calls and lectures and sync to the Plaud app. The app transcribes in 112 languages with speaker labels and writes summaries from thousands of templates.
Latest: June 2026: PCWorld gave the Plaud Note Pro its Editors' Choice award.
What the AI does
- Transcription in 112 languages with speaker labels
- Multiple summaries per recording from 10,000+ templates
- Ask Plaud questions about recordings
- AutoFlow automation of transcripts and summaries
- Choice of AI models including Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini
Pros and cons
- Dedicated recorder captures clear audio, even with several speakers
- Long battery life (30–50 hours)
- Highly rated app on both iPhone and Android
- PCWorld Editors' Choice
- You have to buy a device before you can use the app properly
- 300 free minutes a month run out quickly
- Struggles with slang and industry jargon
How it scores
Excellent capture and summaries backed by strong reviews; the hardware plus subscription cost lowers value.
Feature checklist · 5 of 9
- Transcribes uploaded audio and video files (yes)
- Records audio in the app or on its own device (yes)
- Labels different speakers (yes)
- Transcribes 50+ languages (yes)
- Can transcribe on your device, without uploading audio (no)
- Exports subtitles (SRT or VTT) (no)
- AI summaries or Ask AI about recordings (yes)
- Translates transcripts into other languages (no)
- Optional human-checked transcripts (no)
Alternatives
See all Plaud alternatives, ranked →
- MacWhisper 8.1/10Mac users who transcribe a lot of files and want privacy and a one-time price
- Happy Scribe 7.8/10Video teams and researchers who need accurate transcripts and subtitles in many languages
- Rev 7.8/10Journalists, lawyers and researchers who sometimes need a guaranteed-accurate transcript
- Notta 7.6/10People who transcribe a mix of meetings, interviews and files in several languages
MacWhisper vs PlaudHappy Scribe vs PlaudRev vs Plaud