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AI meeting tools fall into two categories: those that process audio in the cloud and those that process it on your device. The right choice depends on your privacy requirements, hardware, and how much you trust third parties with your recordings.

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How each approach works

Cloud-based meeting AI (Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Grain, etc.) Your audio or a live audio stream is sent to the vendor’s servers. Transcription and summarization happen remotely and the results are returned to you. The vendor processes, stores, and may use your audio data under the terms of their privacy policy. Local meeting AI (Steno) By default, all processing happens on your Mac using models downloaded during setup. No audio leaves your device. Transcription uses two on-device engines — Parakeet (the default, with a live transcript while you record) and Whisper (optional, chosen in Settings). Summarization uses a local language model running via Ollama by default, with an optional cloud model (OpenAI, Anthropic, or AWS Bedrock — each billed by that provider) or a custom endpoint (which may be a paid API or your own self-hosted server) as an alternative — in which case your transcript is sent to it. In the default local configuration there are no ongoing costs and no vendor relationship for your audio data.

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Side-by-side comparison

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When to use a cloud recorder

Cloud tools have real advantages in certain situations:
  • You need real-time transcription shared with other meeting participants
  • You want automatic calendar integration and bot joining
  • Your team needs a shared workspace for meeting notes
  • Accuracy for a specific language or accent is critical and you need to evaluate vendors

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When to use Steno

  • Your recordings contain confidential, regulated, or privileged information
  • You do not want a meeting bot appearing in your calls
  • You want zero ongoing cost
  • You work offline or in environments with restricted internet access
  • You prefer to keep your data entirely under your own control

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Accuracy

Steno transcribes on-device with two engines: Parakeet (the default) and Whisper (optional, selected in Settings → Transcribe). Accuracy is high across common recording conditions. Parakeet covers 25 European languages, including English, and produces a live transcript while you record; switch to Whisper when you need one of its 99 supported languages.
Yes. Steno is independent of your call platform. You can run Steno for local notes while also using a team-facing cloud tool for shared notes — they do not conflict.
On Apple Silicon, transcription is fast and runs entirely on-device, and the default Parakeet engine shows a live transcript while you record. Cloud tools also return transcripts in roughly real-time. Local processing is fast enough for most workflows, and everything stays on your Mac.
Cloud recording vendors have detailed privacy policies, but they generally involve storing your audio on their servers, using it for service improvement, and sharing it with subprocessors. Review the specific policy for any cloud tool you use with confidential audio.