Business+
Required plan
$18.32+/mo
Minimum cost
Zoom only
Platform limit
<5 min
Summary delivery
Zoom AI Companion is Zooms built-in AI assistant, included on paid Zoom plans at no extra cost. It transcribes meetings, generates summaries, answers questions during calls, and helps compose messages in Zoom Chat. If you are on a qualifying Zoom plan, you already have access to it.
The catch is that Zoom AI Companion only works inside the Zoom ecosystem. If your team uses Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any other platform, it does nothing on those calls. And even for Zoom-only users, third-party AI note takers often produce better summaries and integrate more deeply with external tools.
This guide explains exactly what Zoom AI Companion does, which plans include it, where it falls short, and how it compares to dedicated AI note takers.
What Zoom AI Companion Does
Meeting summaries
After a Zoom meeting ends, AI Companion generates a summary with key topics and next steps. Sent to the host via email and saved in the Zoom portal. Quality is decent but tends toward verbose output that requires editing before sharing.
In-meeting Q&A
During a live meeting, participants can open the AI Companion side panel and ask questions like "what did we decide about the budget?" Answers draw from the transcript generated up to that point - useful for rejoining a meeting mid-call.
Smart recording chapters
For cloud recordings, AI Companion adds chapter markers and a topic index so you can jump to specific parts of a long recording. Only applies to Zoom cloud recordings, not local recordings.
Zoom Chat assistance
Helps compose messages in Zoom Chat, summarizes long message threads, and drafts responses. Separate from the meeting note-taking functionality and only works within Zoom Chat.
Which Zoom Plans Include AI Companion
Included free on Business ($18.32/user/month), Business Plus, and Enterprise. Not available on Free or Pro ($13.32/user/month). IT admin must enable it in the Zoom admin portal before users can access it - some organizations disable it by default for data privacy reasons.
Limitations of Zoom AI Companion
AI Companion does not join Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or any other video platform. If you attend any meetings outside Zoom - including calls with external clients on their platforms - AI Companion does nothing. You need a separate solution for those calls.
Average summary quality
Produces usable but not exceptional summaries. Third-party tools like Fathom and Fireflies.ai consistently produce cleaner, more actionable output with better action item extraction. AI Companion tends toward longer output with less precise identification of what was actually decided.
Limited integrations
No native push to Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, or Asana. Summaries stay in the Zoom portal unless you export them manually. The integration depth that dedicated tools offer is not available.
No speaker-level action item assignment
Identifies action items but does not reliably assign them to specific people by name. Dedicated tools like Fireflies.ai and MeetGeek are better at pulling "Name will do X by Y" from the transcript.
Data stays in Zoom
Recordings and summaries are stored in Zooms cloud under Zooms data processing terms. For EU organizations with GDPR requirements, review Zooms data storage region settings before enabling AI Companion.
Zoom AI Companion vs Third-Party AI Note Takers
Fathom - best free Zoom alternative
Native Zoom app available in the Zoom marketplace. Unlimited free recordings and AI summaries. Summaries ready in 30 seconds. Better quality than AI Companion with zero cost. Works on any Zoom plan including free.
Fireflies.ai - best for multi-platform teams
Covers Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and 10+ other platforms from one tool. 100+ language support, 50+ integrations including Salesforce and HubSpot. Free plan includes 800 minutes storage.
tl;dv - best for EU and multilingual teams
EU data storage by default. Unlimited free recordings in 30+ languages. Best for GDPR-compliant organizations or teams that run meetings in multiple languages.
Otter.ai - best for real-time transcription
Shows a live transcript during the meeting in a side panel visible to participants. Works across Zoom and Google Meet. Free plan includes 300 minutes per month.
Use Zoom AI Companion if you are on Business+ and only ever use Zoom, want zero additional setup, or primarily need the in-meeting Q&A feature. Use a third-party tool if you attend meetings on other platforms, need CRM or project management integrations, want better summary quality, or are on Zoom Free or Pro plans where AI Companion is not available.
For a full comparison of AI note takers for Zoom with real test results, see the best AI note takers for Zoom in 2026.
Tools Mentioned
Miriam Alonso
CSM - 3 months testing
Customer Success Manager with 5+ years experience evaluating SaaS tools. Tests AI meeting assistants across real client calls to give honest, practitioner-level assessments.
See all my reviews →