HumlaThe open source AI meeting notes notepad for Mac
No bot joins the call. Humla records both sides on your Mac, works out who said what, and writes the recap from your notes and the transcript, on device or with your own keys.
Six pages, maybe a new CMS?
Keep the brand palette
Who signs off the budget?
Hanna approves budget, wants quote this week
Jonas owns logo files
Send revised quote Friday
Brightleaf wants a six page rebuild on a new CMS. The current palette stays and only the typography is tightened. Hanna approves the budget.
- Six pages, moved to a new CMS
- Brand palette stays as it is
- You: revised quote to Hanna by Friday
- Hanna: brand assets by the 22nd
- Jonas: logo files ready for handover
- Open source, MIT · 339 stars on GitHub
- Version 0.74.0, released 4 days ago
- Free, no account
- Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later
Humla is the notepad that listens. Write what matters to you, talk the way you always do, and the recap is one click away when the call ends. On your Mac, with no bot in the room.
From a blank note
to a sent recap
Humla lives in the note you already take. It records both sides of the call without joining it, works out who said what, and writes the summary from your notes and the transcript together.
Write down what matters to you
Jot the agenda in the note and pick a preset, so the summary knows what kind of meeting it is reading.
Talk. Nothing joins the call
Your microphone and the call's audio are recorded as two streams on your Mac, and the transcript fills in as you talk.
Speakers named, recap in one click
When you stop, your Mac works out who said what. Press Summarize and the recap reads your notes and the transcript together.
Don't search your notes. Ask them.
Every note has a chat pane. Ask a question and Humla searches your meeting history, reads the notes that matter, and answers with citations that open the source.
- What did we promise Brightleaf about the quote?
Searched your notes · Read 2 notes
You promised Hanna a revised quote by Friday. She approves the budget and asked to have it this week. The quote covers:
- Six pages, moved to a new CMS
- The brand palette kept as it is
Brightleaf kickoffBrightleaf proposal call
It works the question
It searches, opens the notes that look promising and tries again before it answers. Fully offline with Ollama, with your own OpenAI key, or on your GitHub Copilot plan.
- What did we promise Brightleaf about the quote?
Searched your notes · Read 2 notes
You promised Hanna a revised quote by Friday. She approves the budget and asked to have it this week. The quote covers:
- Six pages, moved to a new CMS
- The brand palette kept as it is
Brightleaf kickoffBrightleaf proposal call
Answers with receipts
Chips under every answer open the note it came from, on the day it happened.
Your meetings stay yours
Free, open source and on your Mac. You don't have to take our word for any of it.
No bot in the meeting
Clients never see a recorder join. You're recording your own Mac.
Fully on-device mode
Local transcription, speaker labels and summaries. Nothing leaves the Mac.
Keys in the macOS Keychain
Your API keys live in the Keychain, never in plain text.
No account, no profile
Humla doesn't know who you are. A few anonymous setup counters you can switch off, and nothing about your meetings.
Notes on your disk
Everything lives in a local SQLite database. Humla Cloud is optional and syncs notes, never your keys.
Open source, auditable
MIT licensed and public. Read every line before you trust it.
The free, local and open one
An honest look. Humla wins on privacy, price and openness; the others lead on integrations and mobile.
| Humla | Granola | Otter | Fireflies | Notion AI | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free app | With Cloud | |||||
| Records with no bot in the call | — | |||||
| Runs fully on your device | — | — | — | — | ||
| Bring your own AI model or key | — | — | — | — | ||
| Open source | — | — | — | — | ||
| AI summaries and action items | ||||||
| Chat with your notes offline | Cloud only | Cloud only | Cloud only | Cloud only | ||
| App integrations (Slack, CRM…) | — | — | ||||
| Mobile app | — | — | ||||
| Team and workspace sync | — | |||||
| Price | Free | $5 / user | $14 / user | $20 / user | $10 / user | Per seat |
Reflects each product's standard plans as of 2026. Check their sites for the latest. Full breakdowns: Granola, Otter, Fireflies, Notion AI.
The details that make it yours
On-device speaker labels
Free, local, and it never uploads your audio.
Engines per language
Route each language to the transcription engine you want.
Custom vocabulary
Teach it names, jargon and acronyms.
Full text search
Search every note, transcript and folder.
Click to edit the transcript
Fix a word with a click. Playback follows along.
Signed and notarised
Opens cleanly, and updates itself.
The app is free. Forever.
Team sync is the only thing you'd ever pay for. Everything else, chat included, is in the free app.
- Mic and system audio recording
- On-device Whisper and speaker labels
- OpenAI, Deepgram or Groq with your own key
- All summary presets and custom prompts
- Chat with your notes, no quotas
- A third of Granola's or Otter's per-seat price
- Shared team workspaces and folders
- Sync across all your devices
- Managed hosting, backups and updates
- Only pay for the seats you actually use
Questions and answers
Does a bot join my meetings?
No. Humla records through macOS itself, so nothing joins the call and the other side sees nothing.
How many speakers can it tell apart?
Speaker labels are most reliable in smaller meetings, up to about six voices. Big calls can mislabel who said what; you can rename or merge speakers by hand and run detection again anytime.
Is my audio private?
By default, everything stays on your Mac. Use a cloud provider and only your audio goes there, on your own account. Go fully local and nothing leaves at all.
Does Humla send any usage data?
A few anonymous counters about setup: whether the app was opened for the first time, and whether the setup wizard was finished. Each is sent at most once per install, with no identifier attached and nothing about your meetings. The setup wizard shows the switch, and you can turn it off later under Settings → About.
Do I need an API key?
Only for cloud engines. On-device Whisper and speaker labels are free; you just download the model.
What does Humla Cloud actually do?
It syncs notes and shares workspaces, and that's all. Transcription and summaries still run on your own providers or on device.
Which languages does it handle?
Around 100, anything Whisper supports, auto-detected, plus a local Norwegian model. Route each language to a different engine if you like.
How is Humla different from Granola, Otter or Notion AI?
They're cloud products, so your recordings live on their servers. Humla runs on your Mac, on your own keys, it's open source, and team sync costs half as much per seat.
Is there a Windows or web version?
Not yet. Humla runs on Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 13 or later) for now. Want Windows or Intel? Star the repo and open an issue.
Can I chat with my notes without sending them to the cloud?
Yes. Chat runs fully offline with local models via Ollama, and the model and the search index both live on your Mac. Or bring your own OpenAI key if you prefer cloud.
Can I use my GitHub Copilot subscription?
Yes. GitHub Copilot can write your summaries and titles and answer chat questions. Sign in with GitHub, pick a model your plan includes, and the calls count against your Copilot plan instead of an API key. Transcription stays separate, on-device or on your own key.
Does chat cost extra?
No. Personal chat is part of the free, open source app, with no quotas or meters. If you chat with OpenAI you pay them for your own usage; with local models there's nothing to pay at all.
Try it on your next meeting.
Free and open source. Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later.