What a Meeting-Bot Hour Really Costs: Seven APIs Priced Like for Like
Skribby, Recall.ai, MeetingBaaS, MeetStream, Nylas, Attendee and Vexa priced like for like at 100, 1,000 and 10,000 hours, with a dated change log.
Last checked October 3, 2026. Desk research from public pricing pages, vendor docs and Wayback Machine captures. List prices in USD only; nothing here comes from a private quote.
As of October 3, 2026, the cheapest meeting bot API depends on what you record. For audio plus a post-call transcript with speaker labels, which most notetakers need, Skribby and MeetStream tie at $0.45 an hour. Drop the speaker labels and Skribby goes as low as $0.39. For video with a live transcript, MeetStream is cheapest at $0.45. For video kept 30 days, MeetStream wins below roughly 5,600 hours a month and MeetingBaaS above it. Recall.ai lists $0.65 all-in, and as little as $0.40 for startups it accepts. The headline rate on each pricing page answers none of these questions on its own.
Seven vendors publish a per-hour price for a bot that joins Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Their pages quote different things. One rate is audio only. Another excludes transcription. A third buys you a recording, a transcript and a summary. Comparing the big number on each page compares seven different products.
This piece prices the same job across all seven. The full tables, every formula and the raw data sit in the Meeting Bot API Cost Index.
Why the headline prices don't compare
| Vendor | Headline | What it covers | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skribby | $0.35/hr | Audio recording, 1 week of storage | Transcription (model totals $0.39 to $1.36), video (+$0.05) |
| Recall.ai | $0.50/hr | Recording, audio or video | Transcription ($0.15/hr built in), storage after 7 days |
| MeetingBaaS | "From $0.35" | One token = one recording hour, video and diarization included | $0.35 is the per-token price in the $1,500 pack; Gladia transcription adds 0.25 token |
| Attendee | $0.50/hr | Hosted recording | Transcription: you bring your own provider key |
| Nylas Notetaker | $0.65 to $0.80/hr overage | Recording, transcript and summary | Plan fee: $15 or $49 a month |
| MeetStream | $0.35/hr | Recording with video, 30 days of storage | Transcription (+$0.10, real-time, diarized) |
| Vexa | $0.30/bot-hr | Audio capture, 12 months of storage | Transcription (+$0.20); no video listed |
Which meeting bot API is cheapest?
It depends on the profile. Four profiles cover most products built on meeting bots: A, audio plus a post-call transcript (the notetaker case); B, video plus a real-time transcript (live coaching, agents that act during the call); C, video plus a post-call transcript with recordings kept 30 days (review and compliance); and D, a startup recording 500 hours a month on profile A.
| Profile | Cheapest on list price | Price |
|---|---|---|
| A. Audio plus post-call transcript, with speaker labels | Skribby and MeetStream, tied | $0.45/h |
| A. Same, without speaker labels | Skribby | $0.39/h |
| B. Video plus real-time transcript | MeetStream | $0.45/h |
| C. Video kept 30 days, under ~5,600 h a month | MeetStream | $0.45/h |
| C. Same, above ~5,600 h a month | MeetingBaaS | $0.43/h at 10,000 h |
| D. Startup at 500 h a month, list price | Skribby and MeetStream, tied | $225/month with speaker labels; Skribby $195/month without |
Every vendor's cost at 100, 1,000 and 10,000 hours, with the formula behind each cell, is in the cost index.
How much the answer changes with the profile
A lot. Skribby wins profile A by six cents an hour, but only on a model without diarization, and drops to second or third in B and C, because video and real-time each add to its base. MeetStream wins B at every volume, and C below roughly 5,600 hours a month, because its $0.45 already includes video, a real-time diarized transcript and 30 days of storage.
MeetingBaaS shows the widest swing. On profile C it costs $3.50 an hour at 100 hours if MeetingBaaS hosts the recordings, because its own 30-day retention comes only with the $299 Enterprise plan. Every plan can send recordings to your own S3-compatible bucket instead, which brings the same 100 hours to about $57 plus your storage bill. At 10,000 hours the same profile costs $0.43, the cheapest option in profile C. The crossover with MeetStream sits near 5,600 hours a month: $299 a month plus about $0.40 an hour (1.25 tokens at $0.3529, less a 10% pack discount), against MeetStream's flat $0.45. Buying smaller token packs moves the crossover higher. Its plans also cap bots per day: 75 on the free plan, 300 on Pro.
Recall.ai sits near the top on list price in every profile. For a startup it accepts, the $0.25 rate brings profile D to $200 a month (assuming transcription stays at $0.15), within $5 of Skribby's cheapest list price, for the first 10,000 hours. The rate requires an application and approval.
What transcription costs next to the bot hour
Less than the bot, with one exception. Built-in transcription runs $0.10 (MeetStream), $0.15 (Recall.ai) and $0.20 (Vexa) an hour. MeetingBaaS charges 0.25 token, about $0.08 to $0.13. Bringing your own AssemblyAI key costs $0.15 an hour, plus $0.02 for diarization, paid to AssemblyAI.
Skribby is the exception. Its model choice moves the hourly price more than any other line item in this tracker: from $0.04 over base (Groq Whisper Turbo) to $1.01 over base (Google Chirp 3 Realtime). Pick the model first, then compare vendors.
Real-time costs extra only on Skribby and MeetingBaaS. Recall.ai and MeetStream charge the same for streamed and post-call transcripts, and Vexa sells only real-time transcription.
Where the minimums are
None of the seven charges a large platform fee on its entry plan. The small print still matters:
- MeetingBaaS sells usage as prepaid tokens. The smallest pack is $50. Its pricing page says it charges recording tokens while a bot waits to be admitted.
- Recall.ai bills from the moment the bot starts joining until it finishes, waiting room included. It does not bill bots that end in a fatal error.
- MeetStream states: "No charges for idle bots or failed joins."
- Nylas charges a plan fee ($15 or $49) before overage applies. Existing Nylas customers move to a recommended plan on December 1, 2026, unless they pick one first.
- Vexa requires a $10 minimum top-up.
What changed in the last 12 months
Wayback Machine captures of each pricing page since September 2025 show five list-price moves. Recall.ai cut Pay As You Go from $0.70 to $0.50 an hour between December 25, 2025 and January 20, 2026; the blog post announcing it carries a March 10 date. Nylas listed a $5 plan by January 2026 and kept it until August, then restructured on September 9. Vexa moved from a per-bot subscription to per-hour pricing in spring 2026, then cut its free credit. MeetingBaaS, Attendee and Skribby held their base prices. The dated log is in the cost index.
Can you trust the prices on vendor comparison pages?
Not without a date. We checked 73 rival-price quotes on comparison and "alternative" pages published by six of these vendors, against the live pricing pages on October 3, 2026. 33 matched. 14 were stale, 5 were wrong, and 21 were ambiguous: a base rate set against an all-in rate, a hosted plan left out, or a figure we could not check. Five of the six vendors had at least one stale or wrong rival price, the market leader included. MeetingBaaS's quotes were all current or ambiguous. Every quote, with its URL and our verdict, is in the rival-quote file. Four examples:
- Vexa's Recall.ai comparison lists Recall at "~$0.72/hr effective" with "$0.22/hr" transcription. Recall's pricing page says $0.15, and the same Vexa page's FAQ gives Recall's transcription as ~$0.15.
- A MeetStream post prices a diarized Skribby hour with video at $0.85. Skribby's page puts that hour at $0.50: $0.45 for the cheapest diarized model, base included, plus $0.05 for video.
- Recall.ai's competitor benchmark ("list pricing for no commitment as for March 2026") puts its own $0.50 recording-only rate next to Nylas at $0.70, which already includes the transcript and a summary. Like for like, a Recall hour with built-in transcription costs $0.65.
- Skribby posts from 2025 still describe a $1,000 monthly Recall.ai platform fee. Recall's August 2025 pricing page showed no platform fee on Pay As You Go and offered 5 free hours, against the post's "no free trial". Skribby's comparison pages had 12 of 17 rival prices stale or wrong.
Many of these were right on the day their authors wrote them. Prices moved and the pages did not. Recall.ai's own pricing post makes the same point: "All other information about Recall.ai pricing that doesn't match what's written in this article is outdated."
Method
The tracker covers seven vendors that publish per-hour pricing for a hosted meeting bot. A script fetched each pricing page on October 3, 2026, saved the raw text, and checked 64 price strings against the data file. Price history comes from every distinct Wayback Machine capture since September 1, 2025. The cost model applies one set of rules to every vendor; the formula and assumptions behind each cell are in the published cost table. Volume discounts that need a sales call are left out of the main tables and noted where a vendor publishes a floor. Gaps we could not fill are listed in the cost index.
This compares price, not quality. Transcription accuracy, join reliability and platform coverage differ between vendors and between models.
FAQ
How much does Recall.ai cost per hour? As of October 3, 2026, $0.50 an hour for recording on Pay As You Go, plus $0.15 for built-in transcription, so $0.65 all-in. Storage after 7 days costs $0.05 per recording hour per 30 days.
How much does Skribby cost per hour? As of October 3, 2026, $0.35 an hour for an audio-only bot, billed per minute. With transcription, totals run from $0.39 (Groq Whisper Large v3 Turbo, no speaker labels) to $1.36 (Google Chirp 3 Realtime); the cheapest model with speaker labels costs $0.45. Video adds $0.05 an hour.
Is Skribby cheaper than Recall.ai? On list price, yes, in every profile here: $0.45 against $0.65 for audio with a speaker-labelled transcript ($0.39 without labels), and $0.57 against $0.65 for video with a real-time transcript. Recall's startup rate, as little as $0.40 all-in, narrows the gap for startups it accepts.
What is the cheapest meeting bot API for a startup? At 500 hours a month on list prices, Skribby and MeetStream tie at $225 a month with speaker labels; without them, Skribby costs $195. With approved startup terms, MeetStream comes to $175 if it grants its $0.25 rate, and Recall.ai to $200.
Does real-time transcription cost more? On Skribby and MeetingBaaS, yes. Recall.ai and MeetStream charge the same either way, and Vexa sells only real-time transcription.
How often is this updated? The date at the top is the last time every price on this page was checked against the vendor's own pricing page.
Sources
All accessed October 3, 2026. Full source list with every price in the cost index.