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Help Center

Stuck? Start here.

Most questions have a short answer in plain language, and it is on this page or one click from it. Wren, our AI support assistant, answers from the same pages, and a person is one click away. Building on Recordist? The Developers section has the technical reference.

The things people ask first

The card didn't appear, the notes are taking a while, and what can Recordist actually see. Then the rest.

Getting started

Your first call on the record: install, the permissions it asks for, and moving to a new machine.

Recording & detection

The card that asks, the apps it notices, calendar titles, and markers for the moments that matter.

Transcription & models

Which Whisper model fits your machine, languages, and what to do when a transcript comes out wrong.

AI notes & providers

The built-in engine, your own API key, templates, and why local notes take a few minutes.

Privacy, data & permissions

What leaves your machine and what never does, the Privacy Ledger, and how to delete everything.

Billing, refunds & licence keys

What Free and Pro each do, how keys work, cancelling, and when a payment is refunded.

Integrations

Your AI assistant reading your meetings, the Chrome extension, and exports to the apps you already use. The technical reference is in Developers.

Troubleshooting

A silent recording, a slow model, where Windows and Linux stand, and the known issues we keep honest.

More answers

Questions people ask before they trust it, answered in full.

How long do local notes take?
Transcription is fast on any Apple-silicon Mac. Notes from the built-in engine depend on memory: about five minutes for a 40-minute meeting on an 8 GB Mac with the default model, and about 12 with the larger one. Macs with more memory can use larger models. With your own cloud key, notes usually arrive sooner. While they are written, the app shows the time elapsed. What was measured, and the three ways to make them faster.
Does Recordist join my calls as a bot?
No. Nothing joins your call. Recordist is a desktop app that records your microphone and the sound coming out of your machine, so there is no "Recordist Notetaker" in the roster and nothing is sent to the meeting platform. Your client hears about the recording from you, in your own words, and the app gives you the words.
Where does my audio go?
Never to us. Audio is written to a folder on your machine, transcribed there with Whisper, and summarised there with the built-in engine. If you choose your own Anthropic or OpenAI key for notes, the transcript text of that meeting, with its title and attendee names, goes straight to that provider, never through us, and the Privacy Ledger in the app shows you exactly when and how much. The audio never goes to the provider. On a Mac your organisation manages, it can choose to archive each meeting to its own storage. We never receive it.
What is the Privacy Ledger?
A list inside the app of the network requests it has made, with the destination, the size, the reason, and whether each one stayed on this machine or went to the local network or the internet. Each request that can carry meeting content is written to it before it is sent. A few kinds of request are not recorded in it yet, none of them carrying meeting content, and the Privacy Ledger help article lists them. On the default setup it shows the downloads, the update checks at launch and every six hours, and the requests to the notes engine on your own machine. None of them takes anything from your meetings anywhere else. If you use a cloud key for notes, it records each transcript sent and to whom. It exists so you can check the claim instead of trusting it.
What is a Prep Brief?
Up to 45 minutes before a meeting in your calendar with people you have recorded before, Recordist shows a short brief on the Meetings screen: a summary of your last meeting with them, what you decided and the action items still open. It is put together from your own notes on your machine, so it works offline and needs no account. It reads your Mac's calendar, with your permission, or a calendar feed you add in Settings: on Windows and Linux the feed is the source. Prep Briefs are part of Pro, and of the 7 days of Pro every install starts with. If you already use them on Free, you keep them until 31 December 2026.
How do my AI agents use it?
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor or any assistant that speaks the MCP standard can search and read your meetings through a connection that exists only on your own machine. What the assistant reads goes wherever that assistant sends it: Claude Desktop, for example, sends it to Anthropic to answer you. See connecting your assistant, or the Developers section for the technical reference.
Is recording legal?
Laws vary by country and by state or province. Some places require the consent of everyone on the call; others require only one party. You are responsible for getting consent where it is required, and for following your employer's policies. Recordist records only after you click Record, unless you turn on automatic recording for an app or allow agents to start recordings in Settings; both are off by default. Read the plain-English guide.
Do I need an account?
No. Download it and your next call can be on the record; there is no sign-up at all. If you buy Pro, we email you a licence key that the app verifies offline. There is no Recordist login.
Which platforms are supported?
Mac, Windows and Linux, free from the download page with no account and no email. On a Mac it needs macOS 14.6 or later on Apple silicon, and the app is signed by us, notarised by Apple. On Windows it needs 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 with an AVX2 processor, and on Linux x86_64 with glibc 2.35 or newer. What differs from the Mac is on the Windows and Linux page.
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. This works the same on every plan.
Can I use my own AI model?
Yes. The built-in engine is the default: it runs on your machine, needs no account or key, and downloads its model once. If you already run Ollama you can point Recordist at it and use any local model it serves (Recordist refuses Ollama cloud models for notes). You can also paste an Anthropic key or an OpenAI-compatible key and base URL. Recordist never proxies these requests through its own servers.

Recordist

Recordist for Mac is downloading.

Thank you for trying Recordist. Three steps and it is ready before your next call. Open it now, so it is set up in time.

  1. 1Open the download and drag Recordist to Applications, then open it from there.
  2. 2Allow the microphone and system audio when your Mac asks, so both sides of the call are heard. Calendar is optional: it names your meetings and who is in them.
  3. 3Close the window when you like. Recordist waits in the menu bar and, when your next call starts, asks: Record this meeting? Nothing is recorded until you say yes.

The first time it opens, Recordist downloads its speech model: 142 MB in English, 466 MB for other languages. That usually takes a minute or two, and you can record once it finishes. The notes engine, 1 to 3 GB, follows in the background.

While it downloads, see a finished call in your browser

Every install includes 7 days of Pro, so your first calls are written up in full.

No call today? Import a recording you already have: in Recordist, Meetings, then Import audio. One of 10 minutes or more starts your 7 days of Pro, and the notes follow the transcript.

While it downloads, get your Free key. More AI notes each month, with no end date. Optional: your download has already started.

Two emails: a link to confirm, then a copy of your key. Nothing else unless you ask. We never sell or share your address, and Resend, our email service, sends them for us. Privacy

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