Aside vs Notion AI.
Notion is the only one of these five where the meeting note lands next to the project it is about. It also needs the Business plan, and the audio leaves your Mac to become text.
- Notion$24/moper member on Business, which is where AI Meeting Notes starts
- Notion16 languageslisted for a transcription that runs on their sub-processors’ servers
- Notion10 hoursa day per user, which is their published cap and a generous one
- Aside$79 onceper person, on all your own Macs, and nothing metered after it
| What is being compared |  Aside |
Notion AI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Plus. $8/mo all-in, or $79 once (cloud optional) | Limit. $24/mo per member on Business, $20 annual |
| Free | Limit. 10 meeting trial | Limit. A limited trial of meeting notes on Free and Plus |
| Plan needed to record | Plus. The app, and nothing else to buy | Limit. Business or Enterprise, per their help centre |
| Joins the call | Plus. Never, no bot and no attendee | Plus. No bot either. System audio and mic, same as us |
| Transcription | Plus. On your Mac, ~99 languages, works offline | Limit. On their sub-processors’ servers, 16 languages listed |
| System-wide dictation | Plus. Yes, hold fn, transcribed on your Mac | Limit. Not offered as of 14 September 2026, voice stays inside Notion |
| Speaker labels | Plus. On your Mac, and the mic is already a separate track from the far end | Neither. Not named on their pages |
| Offline | Plus. Records and transcribes with no connection | Limit. “Not currently supported while offline” |
| Where the note lives | Plus. A Markdown file in the folder you chose | Limit. A page in the workspace, on their servers |
| Getting it out | Plus. Nothing to export, it was already a file | Neither. Markdown export per page, whole workspace on Business |
| Daily cap | Plus. None, nothing is metered | Neither. 10 hours per user a day, which most weeks never reach |
| Own model or API key | Plus. Yes. Free from us, your provider bills you, or Ollama for free | Limit. No, we found no way to bring your own key |
| MCP for agents | Plus. Included, and it reads the same files you do | Plus. Yes, a remote MCP server hosted by Notion |
| The rest of your work | Limit. Meeting notes and system-wide dictation. No shared docs, databases or wiki | Plus. The note lands beside the project, the doc and the task |
| Platform | Limit. macOS only | Plus. Mac, Windows, browser and mobile |
| macOS version needed | Limit. macOS 26 or later | Neither. Not published. Desktop, browser and mobile |
The seat is the price, and the note is a page.
1. It starts at the Business plan
Notion’s help centre puts it plainly: AI Meeting Notes needs the Business or Enterprise plan. Their pricing table shows meeting notes as a limited trial below that. Business is $24 per member a month, $20 if you pay for the year, and it multiplies by everyone who has to be in there. Aside is $8 a month, or $79 once for the Mac in front of you.
2. The recording leaves before it becomes text
Nothing joins your call, and that part matches how Aside works. What differs is the next second: the audio goes to Notion’s sub-processors to be turned into text, and the note is a page in their workspace. Aside records and transcribes on your Mac and writes the note as a Markdown file into a folder you choose. Only the transcript text goes to the AI you picked to write it, or to nothing at all if you point it at Ollama.
Notion makes the transcript on somebody else’s machine. How the same job goes on your own Mac was measured, and the run is on the benchmark page.
Your meeting notes are files on your Mac.
Every call lands as a dated file in the folder you chose. Inside Aside you can search across all of them, tag them, and click any transcript line to hear that moment again.
Your meetings folder
A workspace note lives as long as the workspace does, and the seat under it. These are plain Markdown files on your own disk, and they open in whatever you use in a year.
Where Notion is the better answer.
- Your work already lives in Notion. The meeting note landing in the same workspace as the project, the doc and the task is the whole argument for it, and a folder of Markdown files is not that.
- You’re paying for Business anyway. If the seat is already on the invoice for wikis and databases, the meeting notes are not a new line item.
- Your team needs shared pages, comments and permissions. Notion has all of it. We have none of it and no date for any of it.
- You’re not on a Mac. Notion runs on Windows, in a browser and on a phone. Aside doesn’t.
- You need retention controls. On Enterprise, a workspace owner can set automatic transcript deletion and decide whether audio is stored locally. Aside has no admin console at all.
Best for.
- Aside. A Mac user who wants meeting notes as Markdown files on their own disk rather than pages in a workspace, and dictation into any Mac app in between.
- Notion AI. Teams whose work already lives in Notion, and anyone already paying for a Business seat.
Aside, pros
- Transcription runs on your Mac, in about 99 languages, and works offline.
- Every meeting is a Markdown file in a folder you pick, so there is nothing to export.
- Only the transcript text goes to the AI you picked, or to nothing at all with Ollama.
Aside, cons
- macOS only. No Windows, no browser, no phone.
- No shared pages, comments or permissions.
- No admin console and no retention controls.
Asked before switching.
Which Notion plan do I need for AI meeting notes?
Notion’s help centre says you must be on their Business or Enterprise plan to use AI Meeting Notes. Their pricing table lists meeting notes as a limited trial on Free and Plus. Checked 9 August 2026: Business is $24 per member a month, or $240 a year, which is $20 a month. Aside is $8 a month or $79 once, and it is not per seat.
Does Notion send a bot into my call?
No, and this is the row where Notion and Aside agree. Their product page says it transcribes your system’s audio and mic, no setup and no bots, which is the same mechanism Aside uses. Nobody in the meeting sees an extra participant either way.
Where does the audio go with Notion AI Meeting Notes?
Off the device. Notion’s help centre names the sub-processors it engages for AI Meeting Notes, OpenAI, Anthropic, Fireworks, Baseten Labs and X.AI, and says the audio file is sent to them for transcription while a temporary copy sits on your device during the session. If real-time processing fails, that local copy is uploaded to Notion’s servers and kept for up to three days. Aside records and transcribes on your Mac, and only the transcript text goes to the AI you picked to write the note.
Does Notion AI Meeting Notes work offline?
Their help centre answers this one directly: AI Meeting Notes is “not currently supported while offline”. Aside transcribes on your Mac with a model that ships inside the download, so the recording and the transcript happen on a plane or in a basement. Writing the note needs whichever AI you pointed it at, or nothing at all if you point it at Ollama.
Can I get my meeting notes out of Notion?
Yes, and Notion is better about this than most. A page exports as Markdown, HTML or PDF, and on the Business and Enterprise plans you can export the whole workspace. It is still a step you have to take, and it produces a copy. With Aside your meeting notes are files on your Mac from the moment the meeting ends, so there is nothing to export.
Is Aside a replacement for Notion?
No. Notion is a workspace with docs, databases and wikis in it, and Aside is a Mac app that records meetings and dictates into any app, and writes Markdown files. If your team’s work already lives in Notion, the meeting note sitting next to the project is worth something Aside cannot offer, and we’d rather say that here than after you’ve paid.