Best multilingual AI notetaker: what the language pages skip

The language count on a comparison page does not tell you whether a notetaker can handle your meeting.

Transcribing separate English and Korean calls is different from following both languages in the same conversation. A multilingual transcript also does not guarantee a translated summary or localized app interface.

Product support changes too. Granola now lists Korean and Mandarin on desktop, and Fathom expanded its Mac 3.0 language rollout in October. The comparison below uses current official documentation, checked October 11, 2026.

Start with your language pair, capture method, and required output language. Then test the exact workflow before choosing a tool.

Disclosure: I co-founded Anarlog, one of the products in this comparison. Our bias is toward open-source software, local ownership, and a choice of speech and AI providers. The vendor counts and constraints below link to first-party documentation so you can check them.

For more on each product, read Granola complaints, our Otter review, Fireflies alternatives, Fathom complaints, and our tl;dv review.

What "multilingual" has to mean

A notetaker that works in more than one language has to clear four bars. Most products clear one and advertise four.

1. Recognition. The ASR can emit the right script for the languages in the room.
2. Code-switching. Two languages in one meeting, often in one sentence, without the model picking a side and garbling the other.
3. Output language. The summary, chat, and UI can be in the language the team reads. Recognition in Korean with an English-only notepad is half a product.
4. Vocabulary. Names, product terms, and loanwords survive. Test them alongside language switching; a supported language list does not establish accuracy on your terminology.

If you only need (1) for a weekly French stand-up, a lot of tools are fine. If you need (2)+(3) on a JP-EN customer call, the field gets small.

The field, with the caveats attached

Counts below are what the vendors published in 2026. They move. The caveats move slower.

There is no "best" row. There is a best for a given pair and a given capture model.

Granola: desktop and mobile have different language rules

Granola's language support depends on the platform and recording mode.

Granola's language page lists 31 desktop languages and 17 mobile languages. Korean and Mandarin are now supported on desktop. Polish and Ukrainian remain listed for mobile only.

Granola's notepad is the product people want to keep; the language-mode constraints decide who can use it. Source: Granola.

The workflow differences matter more than the total:

• Desktop multi-language mode can follow supported languages within one meeting. Mobile chooses a single transcription language.
• Desktop summary language can be English or the majority spoken language. Mobile summaries use the majority language automatically.
• The app interface remains English.

For a Korean-English call, desktop Granola is now a candidate. Test the actual language mix and company terminology instead of rejecting it based on the old ten-language list.

Otter: six languages, pick one

Otter's current list is English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Chinese (Simplified), not Korean. German and Chinese are beta. Choose the recording language beforehand; French selected as the default is the documented exception for French-English switching.

That can fit separate German and English meetings. It does not establish support for a Korean-English call. Changing transcription language also leaves the interface in English; Otter Chat translation is a separate capability.

Otter's official Notetaker overview shows the visible guest that joins the call. Source: Otter.

Our Otter review covers its other limits, including minutes, bots, and billing.

Fireflies: the number is not the product

Fireflies documents 100+ languages for transcription and summaries, but its multi-language mode is a separate beta with 60+ languages, available on Business and Enterprise. That mode can follow switches within a sentence, but the summary stays in the dominant language and cannot be changed independently yet.

Fireflies' meeting-summary workspace is polished. The multilingual question is whether the transcript and summary preserve the same language choices. Source: Fireflies.

If Fireflies is already your English notetaker and you have occasional Spanish calls, you may be fine. If you are buying it because of the language count, read our Fireflies alternatives comparison first and run a real bilingual meeting on a trial.

Fathom: multilingual bot-free support is rolling out

Fathom's older language page lists 38 transcript languages. Its 3.0 upgrade guide, updated October 2, says the Mac experience supports English and 38 additional languages for native-language summaries and translated action items from October 1. Availability varies by account during the rollout.

Fathom's recap combines transcript and summary. Check which language features are enabled in your account. Source: Fathom.

The English-only restriction from earlier versions is outdated. Support for several languages still does not prove code-switching in one recording. Test that separately, and check capture-mode differences in our Fathom review and Fathom complaints.

tl;dv and Notta

tl;dv is the boringly adequate multilingual bot: 30+ languages, clips, enough UI localization to not feel like an English app wearing a flag. Vocabulary control costs money. The bot is still a bot.

tl;dv pairs a meeting recording with transcript and AI notes. Source: tl;dv.

Notta is the one US-centric roundups underweight. 58 monolingual languages is a real list. The bilingual and real-time matrices are smaller, and the docs say so. If your pair is JP-EN or CN-EN, try Notta before you try to stretch Granola or Otter.

What we run

Anarlog does not win a language-count contest on a homepage. It wins the shape of the problem:

• Main language = chat and the default for summaries. With additional spoken languages selected, the summary uses the dominant selected language when detection is available.
• Additional spoken languages = what the transcriber should expect in the same room.
• Provider = you. If a model is weak in Korean, you change the model. You do not wait for the notepad vendor to add a row.

Apple Speech, if you use it, is the exception: one supported language at a time, and the language has to be enabled in macOS. For mixed meetings you want a cloud or local model that actually does code-switching.

Notes stay in your database. Language policy is not tied to a 30-day history wall or a training-default cloud. Anarlog is MIT-licensed, so the capture and storage path is auditable.

Anarlog keeps the meeting note in a local SQLite database and lets you choose the speech and AI providers.

See Anarlog language settings.

A simple way to choose

• English plus one Western European language, separate meetings: Granola, Otter, Fathom bot, tl;dv are all in play. Pick on capture and price, not languages.
• Korean-English or Mandarin-English on desktop: Granola now belongs on the shortlist alongside Notta, Jamie, and Anarlog with a supporting model. Test the pair in the intended mode.
• Polish or Ukrainian: Granola currently lists mobile support but not desktop support. Check other tools' platform-specific lists before choosing.
• Code-switching in one meeting: Granola desktop and Fireflies multi-language beta document switching support. Otter's exception is French-English with French selected. Test Notta's bilingual matrix, Jamie, Fathom's rollout, or Anarlog with a model that supports the pair.
• No bot + local ownership + multilingual capture: consider Anarlog when its supported provider or model fits your languages and hardware. Add names and terms to the dictionary and test a real recording.

If you want the rest of the product (bots, minutes, CRM, lawsuits), use the complaints posts. Language was the part that did not have a home. Now it does.

Related

• Why people complain about Granola
• Otter.ai review
• Fireflies.ai alternatives
• Fathom review
• Best AI notetaker
• Granola alternatives