Tactiq Review (And Our 3 Favorite Alternatives)

Welcome to our complete review of the AI note-taker Tactiq.

In this Tactiq review, you’ll learn what this note-taking tool does and who it’s best suited for. We’ll also introduce you to a few Tactiq alternatives that we like a lot more, like Plaud, the world’s No. 1 AI note-taking brand.  

If you live in Chrome and you’re looking to get fast transcripts from Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams, Tactiq is a great choice. But it doesn’t do much more than that, and it actually has some pretty serious limitations.    

To create this guide, we looked closely at how Tactiq works across real meeting scenarios, and while it’s fast and easy to start using, the cracks show pretty quickly. As a Chrome extension, it’s completely Chrome-dependent, which can feel pretty limiting. Also, it doesn’t record meetings, and there’s no mobile app. 

There’s A LOT more to get into here, and we can’t do it all in this intro.

We’ll dig more into these issues below, along with some things we really like about this tool with the strange spelling. Keep reading to find out if the Tactiq Chrome extension is the right note-taker for you.

Note: This is part of our series on the best ai note-takers available. If Tactiq is not for you, check out our review of the best ai note-takers and find one that fits your needs and budget. We also have reviewed all of the best free note-takers as well.

Tactiq Quick Verdict: Is it the Best AI Note-Taker?

Tactiq is not the best AI note-taker. 

That isn’t because it’s bad at what it does. It’s good at basic, real-time transcription and quick summaries, especially if you use Chrome and mostly run simple meetings. 

We admit, there’s definitely a lot to like about it.

Tactiq’s security and privacy are solid. There’s no bot joining calls (we hate that), setup takes minutes, and for one-on-one conversations or lightweight check-ins, it works fine. If you mostly have one-on-one meetings and need automatic summaries, Tactiq is probably all you need. 

But once you start wanting to capitalize on your data instead of just reviewing meeting notes, you might feel let down. 

More comprehensive tools allow you to build a searchable meeting archive from your notes, review audio files, add images later, create mind maps, and a lot more. 

If you want to do anything beyond surface-level summaries, Tactiq can’t deliver. 

And its tech limitations will get to you as you grow. The Chrome-only setup feels restrictive fast. And the free plan is so limited that most users will hit a wall almost immediately. 

If you want something that’s much more versatile and has the same high standard of accuracy, Plaud is a much stronger option. It’s built for real meetings wherever they happen: in person, online, and over the phone. It’s like Tactiq if you removed all of its limitations. 

Tactiq Pros

• Live transcription during meetings

• Fast and lightweight

• No bots join meetings

• Easy setup

• Works across Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams
  
  

Tactiq Cons

• Chrome-only, cannot use outside of the browser

• No mobile app

• Doesn’t record audio or video 

• You can only add images during the meeting

• Free plan is weak

• Not built for long-term note organization or scaling teams
  
  

Who Tactiq Is For

• People who want quick meeting transcripts and summaries 

• Chrome users running simple meetings

• People who care more about speed than depth
  
  

Who Should Skip It

• Non-English speakers or those with accents 

• Anyone who wants notes they can search and reuse later

• Users who need mobile, desktop, or offline recording

• Those who want to add slides, photos, diagrams, etc. to their notes after the meeting

Tactiq’s Free Plan Experience

After a few days of using it, we can safely say that Tactiq’s free plan is one of the worst of all the AI note-takers we’ve used. It’s honestly more like a free trial than a free plan. 

Tactiq technically gives you “access” to most of its AI features on the free plan, including AI summaries, action items, follow-up emails, and project updates. But you only get five AI credits per month to spend (each AI feature costs 1 credit per use). Most of you reading this would burn that up after a single workday.

And then, you can say goodbye to Tactiq AI notetaker until next month. This is taken directly from Tactiq’s website: “If all AI credits are spent, you will not be able to use any AI features.” 

You also get 10 meeting transcripts per month, which isn’t bad. But meeting transcription without AI notes and summaries isn’t very helpful.

If you only have an occasional call and just want to test live transcription, the free plan is fine. But if you’re in meetings regularly, you’ll hit the ceiling almost immediately. And upgrading to get unlimited credits is expensive. 

Compare that with Plaud’s free plan, which includes access to all its AI core features from day one, plus 300 minutes of transcription per month. With our AI note-taker, there’s no “credits” system to hold you back. You just pay your subscription fee, and you get everything.

Tactiq Full Review

Let’s slow down and look at Tactiq in more detail. This section breaks down what Tactiq really is, why it’s so popular, and what it’s like to use day-to-day.

What is Tactiq?

Tactiq is a browser-based AI meeting assistant that can capture real-time transcriptions and generate AI summaries. It runs as a Chrome extension and captures meeting captions directly from your browser while a call is happening. There’s no bot joining the meeting and no separate app to install. You open Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams in Chrome, and Tactiq works in the background. For busy teams, Zoom and Google Meet integration is a major advantage, by the way.

After meetings, you can spend credits on AI features like summaries and action items. Tactiq uses generative AI to create these based on meeting transcripts. You can easily share and export key insights, and Tactiq integrates with tools like Notion, Drive, and other apps. 

We hope that’s all making sense. Let’s move on to why this note-taker is so popular.

By the way, if you're looking for an ai note-taking tools for meetings, we've got full reviews of the best ai note-takers for Zoom and for Microsoft Teams.

Why is Tactiq so Popular?

Tactiq is popular for its speed and convenience. You don’t need to download an app or learn a new process. Just add the extension to Chrome and tap a button to start transcribing your next meeting. That’s way better than some of the clunky AI tools out there these days that make you download something, go through a long sign up process, and then take 30 minutes to configure.

We must admit it, it 100% is appealing for users who want instant AI notes without dealing with recording permissions, meeting bots, or complex setup. But its simplicity also comes with limitations. 

Because it relies entirely on Chrome captions, accuracy is tied to your device, mic quality, and browser performance. There’s no standalone recorder, no mobile app, and no offline capture. If Chrome hiccups, your notes do too.

This is why we don’t recommend Tactiq if you are serious about recording meetings and turning them into reliable data. 

What is Using Tactiq Like?

Using Tactiq is super straightforward. Once you install the Chrome extension, it records meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams directly through the browser. There’s no separate recording step. You join the meeting, and Tactiq starts generating real-time transcriptions.

During the call, Tactiq displays live captions, lets you highlight key points, and attempts speaker identification (we say that kindly). After the meeting ends, you use the Tactiq web app to generate summaries, pull action items, and organize notes (if you don’t have the unlimited plan, you need to spend AI credits to access these features). From there, you can share transcripts via link or push notes into tools like Google Docs, Slack, and Notion. 

Still with us?

Tactiq feels good to use at first because it’s so easy. But, trust us, you WILL start hitting walls fast. 

A few things really rubbed us the wrong way…

If there’s something confusing in a transcript, you can’t go back and listen to the audio because Tactiq doesn’t record. If you want to add images of slides to your notes after a meeting, you can’t do that either. You can only capture images during meetings. And, if you want to work from anything besides your desktop, you’re out of luck.

Using Tactiq is simple. But it’s not a comprehensive tool for taking notes.  

Tactiq Features Breakdown

Tactiq provides a small group of core features designed to support live meetings and quick follow ups. Here’s a look at those features and how they hold up in practice.

Meeting summaries

Tactiq generates AI summaries after meetings, pulling highlights and key takeaways from the transcript. The company claims up to 98% accuracy, but real-world results vary. 

In our experience, summaries are usually solid for one-on-one calls with clean audio. In group meetings, getting accurate transcriptions depends heavily on your device, mic quality, and how well speakers are separated in the transcript. It’s good enough for a recap, but not something we’d recommend blindly trusting for detailed records.

Action Items

Tactiq can automatically generate action items from the transcript and present them in a short list. This works best when tasks are stated clearly during the meeting. If conversations are loose or jump between topics, the output can get confusing. We don’t recommend it as a replacement for deliberate task tracking, especially because you can’t go back and double-check the audio on Tactiq. 

Another annoying thing about action items on Tactiq is that they cost AI credits. This is a super simple task for AI, and we wish Tactiq would be more generous with it.  

Privacy & Security

Tactiq’s security and privacy standards are very high. This is one of the best things about the tool.

We love the bot-free approach. Since it doesn’t join meetings as a participant, it avoids some common compliance concerns. Transcripts and summaries stay in the Tactiq web app, and overall security is strong. 

Tactiq is HIPAA and GDPR compliant, and it has achieved an ISO 27001 certification for data security. 

Just keep in mind that Tactiq is still tied to your browser environment, which limits control compared to recording hardware or standalone apps.

Pricing

Here’s a breakdown of Tactiq’s pricing: 

First things first…and we say this with the utmost respect…Tactiq’s pricing doesn’t make much sense to us. 

The free plan is basically a trial. If you have 2 meetings per month, then it’s fine. But otherwise, it’s mostly useless. We here at Plaud have multiple meetings per day, so Tactiq would be mostly useless to us on the free plan.

Our biggest problem is that the Pro plan is almost as useless as the free plan, and it’ll cost you nearly $100 a year. For $8 a month, Tactiq gives you a whopping 5 more AI credits compared to the free plan. If you have regular daily meetings, you’ll burn through those credits in 2-3 days. 

The only plan that actually makes sense is the Team plan, because you get unlimited AI credits. But that costs nearly $17 a month. That’s pricey compared to other AI tools. 

With Plaud, you can get 20 hours of transcription a month for just about $8, and that includes unlimited AI features like summaries, action items, searchable notes, custom templates, and a bunch of other stuff Tactiq doesn’t have. 

Reputation

Tactiq is generally seen as a legitimate, trustworthy product, but it doesn’t have many independent reviews. It holds a 4.8 rating on Product Hunt from 26 reviewers, and a 2.8-star rating on Trustpilot with just 10 reviews.

The lack of feedback makes it harder to gauge Tactiq’s long-term reliability, especially when compared to more established players with thousands of public reviews.

For instance, Plaud has 4.6 stars on TrustPilot with nearly 1000 reviews. And it’s been reviewed by many major publications like Forbes, PCMag, and Tom’s Guide. 

3 Tactiq Alternatives That Are Much Better

Tactiq is fine for getting in-browser transcripts and basic AI summaries. But it’s not the best AI notetaker. Many other tools are more versatile, affordable, and feature-rich. 

Tactiq isn’t a bad tool. It does its job well. And for the meetings that you can have on the lower-tier or free plan, it does a great job. But it’s not even close to the top of the list of AI note-takers (and there are a lot of them). It’s somewhere in the middle. 

The tools below are much better than Tactiq because they go beyond basic captions. They’re built for real meetings and long-term value instead of just quick transcripts in a browser tab.

Plaud: The World’s No. 1 AI Note-Taking Brand

Plaud Note is a hardware-based AI note-taker designed to capture online meetings, in-person conversations, and phone calls. Instead of relying on Chrome to “listen in,” Plaud records audio directly using high-quality microphones with noise cancellation. Then, it uses AI to transcribe meetings, summarize, and organize everything afterward. 

Plaud works outside browsers, apps, and internet-dependent environments, so it isn’t affected by Chrome glitches or spotty WiFi. It’s also highly secure, with 64 GB of on-device storage and unlimited cloud history.

This makes it ideal for interviews, multi-speaker meetings, field recordings, medical recordings, lectures, sales calls, journalistic work, and much more.  

When it’s time to generate insights and AI notes, you can do it on Plaud’s mobile, web, or desktop app. Plaud has unlimited cloud history even on the free plan, which turns into a massive searchable database of past meetings. It’s kind of like building your own AI. 

Why We Like Plaud Better than Tactiq:

• Much more versatile: Records virtual meetings, in-person conversations, and phone calls.

• High accuracy: Plaud achieves regular transcript accuracy of 98% thanks to its dual MEMS microphones.

• Offline use: Recording doesn’t depend on a connection. 

• Records and saves audio: Listen back to your audio files when correcting transcript errors.  

• Easy access: Access Plaud AI on the web, desktop app, or mobile app.

• Multimodal inputs: You can add images to your notes, and Plaud will incorporate them into its AI summaries, search, conversational AI, etc.  

On top of that, Plaud’s free plan includes access to all core AI features plus 300 transcription minutes per month. You only pay if you need more minutes. For anyone who wants dependable notes instead of just fast captions, Plaud is the stronger choice.

Tl;dv

Tl;dv is an AI meeting recorder and notetaker that automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Unlike Tactiq, which reads live captions in a browser, tl;dv joins the call as a bot. It captures the full audio/video and creates speaker-labeled transcripts and highlights. It’s more of a full meeting management tool than a lightweight caption reader.

We like tl;dv more than Tactiq because it offers unlimited meeting recordings and transcriptions on its free plan. It also offers the equivalent of 20 Tactiq AI credits for free. It’s just a much better deal if you’re looking for a free AI note-taker. The only thing we don’t like is that it’s a bot-based tool. 

Why We Like Tl;dv Better than Tactiq: 

• Unlimited recording + transcripts: It records the entire meeting, not just caption text from the browser. 

• Post-meeting features: You can clip highlights, generate summaries, and share searchable recordings for easy reference. 

• More integrations: tl;dv has seamless integration with 5000+ tools, which is over 10 times more than Tactiq.  

• Mobile app: You can use tl;dv on mobile via a dedicated app. Tactiq doesn’t have that. 

Otter

Otter is an AI meeting recorder and transcription software that goes beyond what Tactiq does. 

Instead of just reading captions in your browser, Otter captures and stores meeting audio/video, gives you searchable transcripts, and generates automated summaries with action items. It works across platforms and also has mobile and web apps, so it’s more versatile than a Chrome-only tool.

Otter’s free plan is one of the best if you plan to attend online meetings only. It gives you 300 transcription minutes a month and a bunch of AI features. Unfortunately, the free plan has very limited cloud history, which is why we still prefer Plaud. But Otter’s free plan is much better than Tactiq’s. 

Why We Like Otter Better than Tactiq:

• True recording and storage: Otter saves full meeting audio and transcriptions you can revisit later, not just live captions. 

• Platform flexibility: Works via web and mobile apps, and can link with calendars to record scheduled team meetings. 

• Generous free plan: Otter offers 300 transcription minutes per month with unlimited summaries, action items, insights, etc. on the free plan. That’s far more usable than Tactiq’s tiny credit allotment. 

• Multilingual support: Otter is better than Tactiq for support in multiple languages. Tactiq users often complain about poor output in other languages.