Nobody misses the meeting they skip; they miss the five minutes of context that decides what happens next. Both Zoom and Microsoft Teams now ship AI meeting summaries that promise to close that gap automatically. But they bundle those summaries very differently, charge very different prices, and neither works the same way in practice. Here is how the two actually compare in 2026.
How Zoom does AI meeting summaries
Zoom's tool is called AI Companion. It sits inside Zoom Workplace and, after a recorded meeting ends, produces a meeting summary with key discussion points, action items pulled out automatically, and chapter-style highlights with timestamps. It can also catch up a late joiner in real time — join ten minutes late and you can ask the companion what has been covered so far — and draft follow-up emails from the call's content.
Zoom pricing for AI summaries
This is where Zoom has a real edge. AI Companion is included at no extra cost with any paid Zoom plan (Pro starts around $15 per user per month). There is no separate AI license to buy for the standard meeting-summary features.
Free Basic-plan users get a limited taste: AI Companion works in up to three meetings per month, each including a meeting summary, in-meeting questions, and AI note-taking. If free-plan users want more, Zoom sells a standalone AI Companion add-on at $10 per user per month, which does not require a paid Zoom license. There is also a Custom AI Companion add-on at $12 per user per month that adds cross-platform note-taking — it can take notes even in Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings — plus custom meeting summary templates and a personal AI coach.
One caveat worth knowing: the Meeting Summary feature only triggers for meetings hosted in Zoom by a licensed user on a paid plan, with the feature enabled by the account admin. If you are a guest on someone else's free account, the summary belongs to the host.
The ZoomMate rename
If you see the name "ZoomMate" in Zoom's menus, it is the same product. In 2026 Zoom began retiring the "AI Companion" name and moving these features under ZoomMate, its newer agentic AI label. The features — meeting summaries, transcription, notes, in-meeting questions — work the same way. There is a free ZoomMate tier with a limited monthly amount of AI, and a paid tier that adds AI credits and agentic features such as drafting documents or generating slides.
How Teams does AI meeting summaries
Microsoft's equivalent is called Intelligent Recap. After a Teams meeting, it generates an AI summary with key discussion points, suggested follow-up tasks, and — if transcription was enabled — searchable chapter markers so you can jump to the moment a decision was made. Paired with Microsoft 365 Copilot, you can also ask natural-language questions about the meeting afterward, such as "what were the action items?" or "what did Alex say about the budget?"
Teams pricing for AI summaries
This is where Teams gets complicated. There are two doors into Intelligent Recap:
1. Teams Premium — an add-on license at $7 per user per month with an annual commitment (or $8.40 on monthly terms). It includes Intelligent Recap along with meeting protection features, live translated captions, and meeting templates. Trials are available.
2. Microsoft 365 Copilot — the full assistant experience, including asking follow-up questions about meetings in natural language, requires a commercial Copilot license at $30 per user per month, on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 base plan (Business Basic, Standard, Premium, or Enterprise E3/E5).
In other words: Teams Premium gets you the recap for $7/month; the Copilot experience on top costs roughly four times that and requires an underlying Microsoft 365 subscription.
Privacy-first recaps
One genuinely useful 2026 development on the Teams side: Microsoft has been rolling out privacy-first Copilot recaps that let organisations generate AI meeting summaries without storing recordings or transcripts. Admins can disable recording and transcription at the tenant level while the summary still gets generated. For regulated industries that have retention rules but still want AI notes, that is a meaningful option. Note it still requires the Copilot license, not just Teams Premium.
Head-to-head comparison
| Zoom AI Companion | Microsoft Teams | |
|---|---|---|
| Product name | AI Companion (ZoomMate) | Intelligent Recap (+ Copilot) |
| Meeting summary | Yes, with highlights and timestamps | Yes, with chapters and follow-ups |
| Action item detection | Automatic | Automatic |
| Real-time late-joiner catch-up | Yes | Yes (via Copilot) |
| Ask questions about the meeting | In-meeting questions, 20 per side panel on free | Natural-language Q&A via Copilot |
| Works in rival platforms | Yes, via Custom add-on ($12) | No |
| Entry price for summaries | Included with paid Zoom plan (~$15/user/mo); free tier limited to 3 meetings/mo | Teams Premium $7/user/mo annual; Copilot $30/user/mo for full Q&A |
| Requires admin enablement | Yes, by account admin | Yes, by tenant admin |
The money question
If your team already lives in one ecosystem, the decision mostly makes itself. A small team paying for Zoom gets AI summaries bundled in at no marginal cost. A company already on Microsoft 365 can add Teams Premium for $7 per user per month and get recaps without changing anything — but the genuinely conversational "ask anything about the meeting" experience stays gated behind the $30-per-user Copilot license, which is a hard sell when you multiply it across a department.
Zoom's $10 standalone add-on is the most interesting option for mixed environments: a free-tier Zoom user can buy AI Companion access without upgrading Zoom itself, and the $12 Custom add-on even takes notes in Teams and Meet calls — useful for consultants who bounce between clients' platforms.
Third-party options that work with both
If you want one tool regardless of platform, the independent meeting bots are worth a look: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and Fathom all join calls as participants, record, transcribe, and generate summaries with action items, and they integrate with Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet alike. They carry their own free tiers with monthly minute caps, and they are the practical answer when you do not control the admin console of the meeting platform — or when your organisation blocks the built-in AI features for compliance reasons. The trade-off is that they add a bot to your attendee list and run as separate subscriptions.
How to enable summaries in each platform
On Zoom, an account admin turns on AI Companion in the Zoom web portal under Settings, then meeting hosts can toggle "Meeting Summary" on for their calls. The summary is delivered by email to the host after the meeting and can be shared from the meeting's recording page.
On Teams, an admin assigns Teams Premium licenses to users, who then see the Recap tab appear after meetings. For Copilot Q&A during or after a meeting, the admin enables Copilot in the meeting options and each user needs a Copilot license.
In both cases, check your organisation's AI data policies before enabling: summaries are generated in the vendor's cloud, and some companies require data-processing addenda or EU data residency before switching these on.
Which should you pick?
Pick Zoom AI Companion if your team already pays for Zoom, you want summaries with no extra license line-item, or you need cross-platform note-taking via the Custom add-on. Pick Teams Intelligent Recap if you are standardised on Microsoft 365 and want recaps flowing into the Office ecosystem — go with Teams Premium alone unless you can justify Copilot for reasons beyond meetings. And if you meet across many different platforms or cannot get admin approval for the built-in tools, a third-party bot like Fireflies or Fathom gives you summaries everywhere with the least friction.
Key takeaways
- Zoom AI Companion meeting summaries are included free with paid Zoom plans; free-plan users get three AI meetings per month or a $10/month standalone add-on.
- Teams Intelligent Recap comes with Teams Premium ($7/user/month annual), but natural-language Q&A about meetings needs a $30/user/month Copilot license on top of Microsoft 365.
- Teams is adding privacy-first recaps that generate summaries without storing recordings or transcripts — aimed at regulated organisations.
- Zoom's Custom AI Companion add-on ($12/month) can take notes in Teams and Google Meet meetings, a rare cross-platform option.
- Third-party bots (Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom) are the fallback when you cannot enable the built-in tools or meet across platforms.