Ten meetings free. Then $8 a month, or $79 once.
Same app either way. The difference is who runs the AI that writes the notes.
Not out yet: ten meetings free and these prices begin at launch.
Easiest setup
We run the model
Everything included. Nothing to configure.
$8/month
- Ready in minutes
- Model usage included
- No API key required
- Every update included
Buy later. Your first three monthly payments count toward the $79 purchase.
Cancel anytime.
Full control
You choose the model
Own Aside outright and connect it your way.
$79one-time
- Use Ollama or your own API key
- Run fully local with Ollama
- No subscription to Aside
- Every update included
The optional local model is a ~2 GB download and runs on Macs with 8 GB memory. API providers may charge separately.
One-time payment. Yours forever.
Tax is added at checkout where it applies.
Requires macOS 26 or later. Apple silicon, or Intel with much slower transcription. Already subscribed? Manage subscription to change your card, read invoices or cancel.
$79 is four to six months of the others.
Granola, Otter and Fathom bill you every month after that. Aside is paid for.
| Tool | Cheapest paid plan | What $79 buys | Cost in year two |
|---|---|---|---|
 Aside
|
$8 / mo, or $79 once | The app, forever | $0 to $96 |
| Granola business | $14 / user / mo | About 6 months | $168 |
| Otter pro | $16.99 / mo | About 5 months | $204 |
| Fathom premium | $20 / user / mo | About 4 months | $240 |
Those three are more mature products, with team features Aside doesn’t have. See Alternatives for where each of them wins.
Price is the easy column. How the transcription on your own Mac was measured is on the benchmark page.
Why it’s shaped like this.
Why not a subscription like everyone else?
Either, your choice. $8 a month includes the app and the cloud, cancel anytime. $79 once owns the app outright, and then you run the AI: fully local with Ollama, or on your own API key. Most of Aside runs on your own Mac, which is why owning it outright exists at all.
Why not one-time for everything, then?
We tried to make that work and the numbers said no. In-meeting chat sends the whole transcript on every turn, so a heavy user can burn through $79 of model spend in well under a year.
Do I have to use Aside cloud?
No, that is what the one-time price is for. Bring your own key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Kimi or GLM, or run Ollama locally. That path has no recurring cost and it isn’t crippled to push you into the subscription. The vault is open Markdown anyway, so a bypass would be trivial. We’d rather it be a feature.
Does $79 cover future versions?
Every update to the app is included.
How does $79 compare with a meeting notes subscription?
At list prices checked on 5 August 2026, $79 is about six months of Granola business at $14 a month, about five months of Otter pro at $16.99 a month, or about four months of Fathom premium at $20 a month. Annual billing is cheaper at Otter and Fathom and stretches those two out, it does not remove the break-even. After that you keep paying them and you stop paying us.
Is there a free plan?
No, a ten meeting trial instead. A permanent free tier means the people who pay are covering the people who never will, and it doubles the support surface for the one person answering it.
What if I buy it and it isn’t for me?
Email us within 14 days of buying and we refund you. No form and no reason needed. That is a promise we make on top of your statutory rights, not instead of them, and the terms of sale spell both out.
Can I switch from the subscription to owning it?
Yes, and inside your first three months everything you have paid counts in full toward the $79. After that window you can still switch, but there is no credit: those months were cloud you used. Cancelling happens in the billing portal and takes effect at the end of the period you paid for.
What happens if I stop paying?
Stop paying the $8 and Aside stops recording new meetings, but everything you already recorded stays yours and readable, and the $79 purchase never stops. Aside cloud is part of the subscription, so writing new notes then needs your own API key or Ollama.
What happens to my $79 app if you stop?
The app on your Mac keeps working. Your licence key is an Ed25519 signature, and Aside verifies it against a public key compiled into the app, with no call to a server anywhere in that check. So the build you have keeps running and your key keeps validating with heyaside.com down or gone. What would stop is what runs on our side, which is new builds and Aside cloud. Your notes are Markdown files in a folder you own and are not affected either way, and you can keep writing new ones with your own API key or with Ollama.