Microsoft Teams doesn't sell one AI notetaking product, it sells several, layered on top of each other. Plain-text transcripts are bundled into Teams Essentials ($4/user/month) and Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7/user/month) and up, but the actual AI-generated summary ('Intelligent Recap') requires either the Teams Premium add-on ($10/user/month, on top of an already-paid Teams license) or the full Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on ($30/user/month enterprise, or $18-21/user/month for SMBs, on top of a base Microsoft 365 plan). CraftNote is a standalone AI meeting assistant with a single transparent price that includes AI summaries on every tier, including free, and works the same way regardless of which meeting platform you're on. This page is checked against Microsoft's own Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing pages as of 2026-08-25.
Overview
CraftNote
CraftNote is a bot-free AI meeting assistant for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and the web. Every meeting, on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, in person, or by phone, produces a full transcript, AI summary, and action items automatically, even on the free tier. Paid tiers start at $9.99/mo ($8.33/mo billed annually) for individuals and $15/user/mo ($12/user/mo billed annually) for teams.
Microsoft Teams Transcription
Microsoft Teams' AI meeting features are split across licensing tiers. Basic transcripts and captions are included from Teams Essentials ($4/user/month) and Microsoft 365 Business Basic ($7/user/month) upward, but with no AI summarization, just a raw, searchable transcript. Getting an AI-generated recap with action items requires layering on Teams Premium ($10/user/month add-on) or Microsoft 365 Copilot ($30/user/month enterprise, $18/user/month promotional SMB rate through Sept 30 2026, standard $21) on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 base plan.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | CraftNote | Microsoft Teams Transcription | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing structure | One product, transparent tiers: free, $9.99/mo Individual, $15/user/mo Teams. AI summaries included at every paid level. | Multi-layer licensing: a base Microsoft 365 plan ($4-$7/user/month for a bare transcript) plus a required add-on, Teams Premium ($10/user/month) or full Copilot ($18-30/user/month), just to get AI-generated summaries and action items. | ✓ |
| AI summaries and action items included | Every meeting on every plan, including the free tier, produces an automatic AI summary with action items. | Not included on Teams Essentials or Microsoft 365 Business Basic, those tiers give you a plain-text transcript only. AI recap requires the Teams Premium or Copilot add-on. | ✓ |
| Cross-platform meeting coverage | Bot-free on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, phone calls, and in-person meetings. | Built for and works fully only within Microsoft Teams meetings; it isn't designed to capture meetings on other video platforms. | ✓ |
| Speaker identification across meetings | Persistent Speaker Memory, identify someone once and CraftNote recognises them automatically in every future meeting. | Identifies meeting participants via the Microsoft 365 directory within a single meeting; no publicly documented cross-meeting persistent voice memory. | ✓ |
| Live translated captions / language coverage | 100+ languages with automatic detection across transcription and AI summaries, on every plan. | Live captions cover 30+ languages from Business Basic up (English-only on Teams Essentials). Live translated captions require Teams Premium and cover roughly 40 spoken source languages translated into about 100 caption display languages. | ✓ |
| Mobile / in-person capture | Native iOS and Android apps record in-person meetings, lectures, and sales calls directly from your phone. | Transcription and recap are scoped to scheduled Teams meetings; there's no general-purpose in-person recorder in the Teams app. | ✓ |
| Depth of AI recap | Structured AI summary, decisions, action items, and topic breakdowns generated automatically after every meeting. | Teams Premium's Intelligent Recap generates chapters, action items with assignees, and name-mention highlights; Copilot adds deeper cross-app grounding using your emails, files, and calendar via Microsoft Graph. | ― |
| Ecosystem integration | Integrates with Google and Outlook calendars; exports to PDF/Word; MCP integrations (Linear, Claude, ChatGPT) on the Teams plan. | Deep native integration across Outlook, Word, Excel, SharePoint, and OneDrive when paired with a Microsoft 365 subscription, a real advantage for organizations already standardized on Microsoft 365. | ✓ |
| Setup and access | Requires creating a separate CraftNote account and installing the app. | Basic transcription works automatically for anyone on a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan; AI recap activates automatically once Teams Premium or Copilot is licensed, no separate app to install. | ✓ |
| Total cost to get AI summaries for a team | $15/user/month billed monthly ($12/user/month billed annually), all-inclusive. | Minimum realistic path is Business Basic ($7/user/month) plus Teams Premium ($10/user/month) = $17/user/month before any Copilot features, or $23.50+/user/month for a Copilot-inclusive Business Standard bundle. | ✓ |
Who Should Pick Which?
Choose CraftNote if…
Teams that meet across multiple platforms (not just Microsoft Teams), want AI summaries included without stacking a Premium or Copilot add-on on top of a base license, or need broader language coverage, persistent speaker memory, and mobile/in-person recording.
Choose Microsoft Teams Transcription if…
Organizations fully standardized on Microsoft 365 who are willing to pay for Teams Premium or Copilot to unlock AI recaps, and who want that recap deeply grounded in their existing Outlook, Word, Excel, and SharePoint content via Microsoft Graph.