Read AI
Read AI is an AI meeting assistant and enterprise search engine that joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls to deliver real-time transcripts, summaries and action items, then answers questions across meetings, email, messages and CRM.
What is Read AI?
Read AI is an AI meeting assistant and enterprise search engine published by Read AI, Inc., a Seattle company founded in 2021 by David Shim, formerly chief executive of Foursquare and founder of Placed, alongside Rob Williams and Elliott Waldron.
The core job is easy to describe. Connect a Google or Microsoft calendar, choose which meetings the assistant should attend, and Read AI joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet on your behalf. Afterwards it delivers a meeting report: a summary, a speaker-by-speaker transcript, topics, action items and key questions. While the call is running, an in-meeting dashboard shows live notes alongside sentiment, engagement and talk time, the metrics the company packages as the Read Score. Higher tiers add audio and video playback with highlights, and a speaker coach that scores pace, filler words, bias and charisma.
The second half of the product is search. Ask Read applies retrieval-augmented generation across everything the user has connected, from meetings and Gmail or Outlook mailboxes to Slack and Teams threads, Google Drive and OneDrive files, and HubSpot or Salesforce records. It returns answers with citations pointing back to where something was said. Paid tiers open native access to Anthropic Claude and OpenAI GPT models from the same interface. A third strand, the digital twin named Ada, schedules follow-ups, resolves calendar conflicts, suggests CRM updates and delivers briefings on a schedule you set.
Read AI presents itself as independent and platform-agnostic, and its surface area reflects that: web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android clients, a Chrome extension, an MCP server, a REST API, webhooks, a Claude connector and a ChatGPT app, plus twenty-two named integrations. Meeting reports come in sixteen named languages, with more than twenty claimed overall.
Commercially it is freemium. The free tier covers five meeting transcripts a month with unlimited search; paid tiers start at 15.00 USD per user per month on annual billing and run up to Enterprise+, which adds HIPAA, SAML, SCIM and custom retention. Certifications shown are SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and HIPAA.
What it does
- Join scheduled Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls automatically and record them
- Produce a meeting report with a summary, a speaker-by-speaker transcript, topics, action items and key questions
- Answer questions across meetings, email, messages, documents and CRM records, with citations back to the source
- Summarise Gmail and Outlook inboxes and Slack and Teams threads
- Push notes and action items into Slack, Notion, Jira, Asana, Linear, Confluence, HubSpot and Salesforce
- Delegate scheduling, follow-ups and CRM updates to Ada, the digital twin
- Coach the speaker on pace, filler words, bias and charisma, and track those trends over time
When to use Read AI / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Read AI is the right fit.
When to use Read AI
- Distributed teams that juggle Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, plus in-person meetings, and want one consistent recap for all of them
- Sales and account teams that need meeting notes and contact data synced straight into HubSpot or Salesforce
- Product, engineering and project groups that push action items into Jira, Asana, Linear, Confluence or Notion
- Knowledge workers who want a single AI search over meetings, inboxes, chat threads, cloud documents and CRM records
- Universities, school districts and public-sector bodies, which the site names as customers and covers with dedicated education pricing
When not to use Read AI
- Anyone under 18, since the terms of service require users to be at least 18 years old
- Teams hoping to collaborate on the free plan, because free users cannot belong to a Workspace and licences cannot be shared
- Organisations wanting to mix tiers, as every licence in a Workspace must sit on the same plan and there is no admin-only licence
- Buyers who need HIPAA, SAML, SCIM or a custom retention policy without committing to Enterprise+ and its five-licence minimum
- Privacy-conservative organisations that require a published subprocessor list and named hosting countries, neither of which the site provides
How to use Read AI
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Create an account at app.read.ai using Google, Microsoft or Zoom single sign-on, or an email address and password
- Connect a Google or Microsoft calendar when onboarding asks for it, the one structural permission the service needs
- Set the rules for which meetings the assistant should join; Read AI never attends a call that has not been enabled this way
- Optionally install the Windows, macOS, iOS or Android app or the Chrome extension, though nothing has to be installed to start
- Let the assistant join the call: it announces itself at the start and the host has to approve it
- Remove it at any moment by typing "opt out" in the meeting chat, or by ejecting it like any other participant
- Open the meeting report after the call and decide whether it is shared with participants, kept private or opened through a link
- Connect integrations from the Apps & Integrations page to route notes and action items into Slack, Notion, Jira, Salesforce and the rest
- Upload your own audio or video recordings to generate reports from them, within the monthly credit allowance of your plan
- As a workspace admin, restrict applications and configure SAML, SCIM, Domain Capture and retention from Workspace Settings
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Works the same way across Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and in-person meetings, which few assistants attempt
- The permanent free plan is genuinely usable, with no credit card and unlimited Ask Read search rather than a token allowance
- Privacy controls are explicit: the assistant announces itself, the host must approve it, and any participant can eject it by typing "opt out"
- No training on customer data by default, with contribution opt-in and reversible from account settings
- SOC 2 Type 2 certified, with the third-party audit report available through the Trust Center, and HIPAA available with a Business Associate Agreement
- Wide programmatic surface: MCP server, REST API, webhooks, Claude connector and ChatGPT app
- Published volume discounts, dedicated education pricing and free premium access for Zoom One Pro, Business and Business Plus subscribers
Cons
- The free plan is capped at five meeting transcripts a month and one hour per meeting
- Free users cannot belong to a Workspace, so there is no free path to team collaboration
- Audio and video playback, and native Claude and GPT access, are absent from the cheaper tiers
- HIPAA, SAML, SCIM, Domain Capture and custom retention all require Enterprise+ and a five-licence minimum
- No refunds if a renewal is missed, and card payment only since PayPal is not accepted
- No subprocessor list is published, and hosting is described only as the United States and other, unnamed countries
- Data collection is broad by design, covering audio, video, participants without an account, and inferred demographics and company affiliation
Pricing & Plans
A permanent free plan is available at no cost and without a credit card, covering five meeting transcripts per month alongside unlimited enterprise search. The cheapest paid entry point is the Pro tier at 15.00 USD per user per month when billed annually, or 19.75 USD per user per month when billed monthly.
- 0 USD - 5 meeting transcripts per month
- unlimited enterprise search
- summaries for meetings
- email and messaging
- personalised meeting coach
- basic integrations
- topic readouts
- 20+ languages
- 15.00 USD per user/month billed annually
- 19.75 USD billed monthly - everything in Free plus priority report processing
- unlimited meeting transcripts
- 100 file upload credits per month
- premium integrations (Notion
- Salesforce
- HubSpot
- Jira
- 22.50 USD per user/month billed annually
- 29.75 USD billed monthly - everything in Pro plus audio and video playback
- video highlights
- 200 file upload credits per month and premium support
- 29.75 USD per user/month billed annually
- 39.75 USD billed monthly
- five licences minimum - everything in Enterprise plus HIPAA compliance
- SAML and SCIM
- Domain Capture
- custom data retention policy
- 300 file upload credits per month
- Workspace onboarding and meetings up to 8 hours
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Read AI handles your data.
GDPR overview
GDPR compliance is claimed explicitly: the homepage carries a GDPR Compliant badge next to SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA, and the privacy policy devotes a full section to the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Legal bases are set out purpose by purpose, covering contract performance, legitimate interest, legal obligation and consent. Data subject rights include access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability and withdrawal of consent, exercised through a dedicated request form. An Article 27 representative is named: Adam Brogden of GDPRLocal Ltd., reachable at contact@gdprlocal.com. Transfers rely on the EU-U.S., Swiss-U.S. and UK Extension Data Privacy Frameworks under FTC jurisdiction, with contractual clauses for restricted transfers. A Data Processing Addendum applies to enterprise customers, and the Read Score excludes video and facial elements for EU and UK users.
Who owns the data?
Read AI, Inc., based at 999 Third Ave, Suite 3300 in Seattle, acts as an independent controller for individual users in the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and as a processor when an enterprise customer deploys the service to its staff. The privacy policy, last updated on 29 June 2026, states plainly that the company does not sell customer data, and the privacy page repeats it. Meeting owners decide who may see each report, and nothing is published to the open internet. Users can delete their account from settings, and rights requests go to privacy@read.ai or through the data subject request form.
Reuse rights
The end user keeps practical control over reuse. A meeting owner decides whether a report is shared automatically with participants, kept private or opened through a link, and reports and action items can be pushed into Slack, Notion, Jira, Asana, Confluence, HubSpot or Salesforce without asking Read AI for permission. On the vendor's side, the collected material serves the service itself: transcripts, summaries, Read Score analytics, inferred demographics and company affiliation, plus support, security and legal compliance. Training on customer content is off by default and happens only through the opt-in Customer Experience Program, which can be reversed at any time in account settings. Some advertising activity counts as a sale or a share under United States state privacy laws, and identifiers such as email addresses may be passed to advertising partners, but meeting information is used for targeted advertising only with explicit consent.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Read AI, Inc. is established in the United States, and the privacy policy states that the company and its service providers process and store personal information on servers located in the United States and other countries. Those other countries are not named, so the picture is incomplete by the vendor's own account. Restricted international transfers are covered by appropriate safeguards such as contractual clauses, or by an applicable derogation, and the company certifies under the EU-U.S., Swiss-U.S. and UK Extension Data Privacy Frameworks, with the Federal Trade Commission holding jurisdiction over that compliance. Individuals may request access to the safeguards used for transfers outside the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland. On the technical side, the service is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and the third-party audit report is available through the Trust Center; calendar data is held in an encrypted database and Ask Read uses encryption at rest and in transit. No subprocessor list is published on the site, and no hosting country other than the United States is named anywhere.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Read AI.
- The assistant records audio and video of everyone on the call, including participants who never created a Read AI account
- The in-meeting notice and the opt-out prompt disappear when the meeting chat is disabled or unsupported, so consent is not always offered
- Automatic inferences reach well beyond transcription, covering sentiment, engagement, talk time, demographic characteristics and company affiliation
- Identifiers such as email addresses and phone numbers may be passed to advertising partners, an activity qualified as a sale or a share under some United States state privacy laws
- Audio and video are kept for up to two years, and the custom retention policy that shortens this is an Enterprise+ feature
- Participants without an account cannot request deletion themselves and have to go through the meeting host
- Leaning on automatic recaps can erode the habit of listening closely and taking notes, and recording obligations differ by jurisdiction, leaving the responsibility with whoever convened the meeting
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low for an individual. Sign up with Google, Microsoft or Zoom single sign-on, grant calendar access, which is the one structural permission, and choose which meetings the assistant joins. Nothing has to be installed, since the desktop, mobile and Chrome clients are optional. Integrations are connected from a settings page in a few clicks. The effort rises on the administration side: Enterprise+ deployments involve SAML, SCIM, Domain Capture and a retention policy, with guided Workspace onboarding included at that tier. Developers wanting the MCP server, REST API or webhooks will find them documented in the help centre.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Read AI
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free plan?
Can I try the paid features before buying?
Which meeting platforms does Read AI support?
Will my meetings be used to train AI models?
Can someone remove the assistant from a meeting?
How long is my data kept?
What certifications does Read AI hold?
Is there an API?
Which languages are supported?
What is the minimum age to use Read AI?
Should you pick Read AI?
Read AI is one of the more complete offers in its category, and the breadth is the point. It started as a meeting assistant and now spans meetings, email, messaging, enterprise search and a digital twin that schedules and updates the CRM on the user's behalf. The company behind it, founded in Seattle in 2021, has raised three rounds relayed on its own press page, the last valuing it at 450 million USD in October 2024.
Two things genuinely stand out. The first is platform neutrality: the same assistant behaves identically on Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, and captures in-person meetings through the mobile apps. The second is a free plan that is actually usable, with unlimited Ask Read search rather than a token allowance, and privacy controls that are unusually explicit. The assistant announces itself, the host approves it, and any participant can eject it by typing two words in the chat.
The reservations are just as clear. Team features begin at the paid tiers, since free users cannot join a Workspace. The controls an IT department is likely to insist on, meaning HIPAA, SAML, SCIM, Domain Capture and custom retention, all sit on Enterprise+, which requires five licences. And a tool of this kind is intrinsically data-hungry: it records audio and video, processes participants who never signed up, and infers sentiment, engagement and demographic characteristics. The privacy policy is thorough and names an Article 27 representative, but the site publishes no subprocessor list and describes hosting only as the United States and other countries.
For teams that meet constantly across several platforms and want those conversations to become searchable knowledge, the value is obvious. For regulated environments, the review should start with Enterprise+ and a careful read of the privacy policy.
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