30 days
The default. Long enough for the follow-up, the invoice and the question that comes after both.
Guide
A notetaker that keeps the audio
Notes are a paraphrase, and a paraphrase takes sides. A notetaker that keeps the audio lets you go back to the words: press the time beside any line and hear it said, while the audio is kept. Recordist keeps the recording on your own computer, for 30 days by default or for as long as you choose, and every decision and action item in its notes links to the line it came from.
Why keep the audio
Three weeks after a call, a client asks whether the date was the 4th. The notes say one thing, and memory says another. Memory edits in everyone's favour, including yours. A recording does not.
Most notetakers keep a transcript and a summary and let the audio go. That is enough until the day someone says "I never said that." With the audio kept, the question has an answer neither of you wrote, in the voice that said it.
From the decision to the line
Every decision, action item and open question in Recordist's notes ends with the time it was said. Choose it and the transcript lands on that line. Press the time and the line plays, in the voice that said it, while the audio is kept.
Before the notes are saved, each item is checked against the line it cites. An item no line supports is removed, an owner or a due date the transcript does not state is left blank, and the meeting says how many items were removed or changed. On Pro, the follow-up email drafted with the notes is checked the same way.
During a call, a marker (Cmd+Shift+M on a Mac, Ctrl+Shift+M elsewhere) bookmarks the moment someone says something you want to come back to. Markers are listed under the transcript with their time, and while the audio is kept, a click plays the recording from there.
Decision
Start phase two on 2 November at the agreed fee.14:22
Transcript, at 14:22
Client 14:22 Let's go with phase two from the 2nd of November, at the fee we discussed.
Play from 14:22
An example. The call and the people are made up.
Search, then listen
Search everything finds a sentence across every meeting on your computer, with the meeting it was said in and the time. Open the result and the meeting lands on that line; press the time and hear it, while the audio is kept. The index lives on your disk, so it answers at once and works offline.
On Pro, Ask puts a question to your recent meetings, or to the ones a search found, and is told to name the meeting and the minute each answer came from. You open that line and press the time, and it plays, while the audio is kept.
How long the audio is kept
Audio is kept for 30 days by default. Under Settings → Privacy → Keep audio files you choose Forever, 90 days, 30 days, 7 days, or Delete right after transcription. The transcript, the notes and the search index stay until you delete the meeting, or until Delete meetings after removes it if you set a number of days; starred meetings are always kept. Every choice works on every plan.
A meeting on hold is kept whatever the setting: while it is on hold, Recordist will not delete it or its audio. Organisations can set a hold through the device management profile on the Mac computers they manage.
90 days, or forever
For client work that runs across a season, or a record you want to keep whole.
7 days, or none
For the person who wants the transcript and nothing else kept. The audio can be deleted the moment the transcript is written.
Where the audio is
In a folder on your computer, as ordinary files: your microphone and the other side of the call kept apart, with a mix of both. Show in Finder opens the folder. The audio is never uploaded, and Recordist has no server that could hold it. The Privacy Ledger in the app lists every request the app makes, with the destination and the size, so you can check that claim rather than take it on trust.
Where you keep your computer's disk encrypted, the audio is encrypted at rest with it: FileVault on a Mac, BitLocker or device encryption on Windows, an encrypted disk on Linux.
Nothing is recorded until you say so. When a call starts, a small card asks "Record this meeting?" By default it asks before it records, and nothing joins the call, so you tell the people on it. Meeting notes without a bot in the call has the whole of that.
Free and Pro
Free for Mac, Windows and Linux. No account and no email needed. Windows and Linux are a preview. The Mac app is signed with our Developer ID and notarised by Apple.
Recording, transcription and search are free, with no time limit, and so is hearing any line again while the audio is kept. Free writes notes for 3 calls a month. Every install includes 7 days of Pro, with no card, starting with your first recorded call of 10 minutes or more. Pro writes up every call, drafts the follow-up email with the notes and answers questions across your meetings. Pro is US$9 a month or US$90 a year for anyone who subscribes by 30 November 2026, and that price stays for as long as the subscription stays active; from 1 December 2026 new subscribers pay US$15 a month or US$144 a year.Pro is CA$9 a month or CA$90 a year for anyone who subscribes by 30 November 2026, and that price stays for as long as the subscription stays active; from 1 December 2026 new subscribers pay CA$15 a month or CA$144 a year.Pro is €9 a month or €90 a year for anyone who subscribes by 30 November 2026, and that price stays for as long as the subscription stays active; from 1 December 2026 new subscribers pay €14 a month or €139 a year.Pro is £8 a month or £79 a year for anyone who subscribes by 30 November 2026, and that price stays for as long as the subscription stays active; from 1 December 2026 new subscribers pay £12 a month or £119 a year.
Questions
How long is the audio kept?
By default, a meeting's audio is deleted after 30 days, and the transcript, notes and search index stay until you delete them. You can change this in Settings: keep audio for 7, 30 or 90 days, forever, or delete it as soon as the transcript is written. Every choice works the same on every plan.
Can I hear a line from a call three weeks ago?
Yes, while the audio is kept: three weeks is inside the 30-day default, and longer if you chose to keep audio for 90 days or forever. Open the meeting at the line, from the notes or from a search, and press the time.
Does keeping the audio mean it is uploaded anywhere?
No. The audio is written to a folder on your computer and never leaves it. Recordist has no server that could hold a recording. The Privacy Ledger in the app lists every request the app makes, and none of them carries audio.
What stays when the audio is deleted?
The transcript, the notes, the search index and the time beside each line stay until you delete the meeting. Only the playback goes with the audio, so a line can be read for as long as you keep the meeting and heard for as long as you keep the audio.
Can I keep one call for longer than the others?
Yes. Put the meeting on hold from its Record card: while it is on hold, Recordist will not delete it or its audio. Starred meetings are also kept when Delete meetings after removes older ones. To keep every recording, set Keep audio files to Forever in Settings → Privacy.
Can I export the audio with the notes?
A meeting exports as Markdown, plain text, SRT, VTT or JSON. The audio stays as ordinary WAV files in the meeting's own folder on your computer, which Show in Finder opens, so you can copy or keep them however you like.
Related: Meeting notes without a bot in the call, Private meeting notes for consultants, and the recording docs.
Transcripts and notes are produced by software and can be wrong; the audio is kept so that you can check them against it. FileVault, BitLocker, Finder and Windows are trademarks of their owners, named only to identify their products. If something here is out of date, write to support@recordist.app and we will correct it.