Read AI writes meeting reports and coaching insights. But its free plan stops at 5 meeting transcripts a month, with a 1-hour maximum, per its pricing page. Its privacy policy says it and its providers store data "on servers located in the United States and other countries".
Off Grid AI Desktop (OGAD) Pro does the core job on your own computer. No bot, no meeting cap, no upload. You pay once and every transcript stays on your disk.
Get Pro for $79.99 once · Download Off Grid AI
Off Grid AI and Read AI side by side
| Off Grid AI Pro | Read AI | |
|---|---|---|
| How it joins calls | Records your computer's audio; no bot | Read joins the meeting, or the desktop app records without a bot |
| Where meetings are kept | Your disk | Servers in the United States and other countries |
| Meetings | No cap | Free: 5 transcripts a month. Pro: unlimited |
| Longest meeting | No cap | Free: 1 hour. Pro: 4 hours |
| Your data trains their models | No | "No training on your data by default"; settings control it |
| Price | $79.99 once, or $7.99 a month | Pro $15 a user a month billed yearly, or $19.75 monthly |
| Computers | Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux | Windows 10+ and macOS 14+ apps, plus mobile apps |
Checked 30 October 2026 against Read AI's pricing, home page, desktop app and privacy policy. Off Grid AI's price is a limited-time lifetime offer, down from $119.
What it costs over three years
| 1 year | 3 years | |
|---|---|---|
| Read AI Pro, billed yearly | $180 | $540 |
| Read AI Enterprise, billed yearly | $270 | $810 |
| Off Grid AI Pro, lifetime | $79.99 | $79.99 |
Read AI's prices are per user. OGAD Pro is per person, and one key covers up to 5 of your devices.
Read in the room, or nothing in the room
Read AI's home page says "Everyone in the meeting knows Read is there." That is honest, and it is also the point. Some clients don't want an AI scoring the call. Read's desktop app can record "no bot necessary", but it still needs a Read AI account, and your meetings go to Read's servers.
OGAD never joins the call. It sees that a Zoom, Teams or Google Meet call has started and records two tracks on your computer: the call's audio and your microphone. For a meeting in a room, press Record meeting. Nothing new shows up in the participant list.
Training and retention
Read AI's home page says "no training on your data by default". Its privacy policy adds that it may use information "to train and improve our models within our Services", consistent with your account settings. It also says audio and video are kept for no longer than 2 years.
With OGAD and local models, your meetings never reach a server. You keep a meeting as long as you want and delete it when you want.
What you get after the call
When you stop, a local Whisper model writes the transcript. A local text model then writes:
- a summary of the call,
- the decisions made,
- the follow-ups, with who owes what.
Your meetings then join the rest of your Off Grid AI memory. Before your next call with the same client, God's meeting prep shows what you discussed last time and what's still open.
Meetings are one part of Pro
- Memory. Screens, meetings, mail and documents in one local memory you can search and ask.
- Actions you approve. Replies and issues through Gmail, Linear, Jira and Notion. Nothing runs without your yes.
- God, your chief of staff. A morning brief, meeting prep and what people owe you.
- Reflect. Time by project, app and person, without timers.
- Vault, Clipboard and Sync. Encrypted secrets, a searchable clipboard, and your devices in sync without a server.
When Read AI is the better pick
Read AI measures meetings, not just records them. It has engagement and coaching metrics, enterprise search across your tools, and premium integrations such as Notion, Salesforce and HubSpot on Pro. Its Enterprise+ plan lists HIPAA compliance, SAML and SCIM. It runs on any laptop because its servers do the work. OGAD needs a computer that can run a speech model; most Apple silicon Macs and recent PCs can, and the app shows which models fit.
If your company wants meeting analytics across a team, Read AI does that. If you want every call transcribed in private and paid for once, use OGAD. Also see how OGAD compares with Otter, Fathom and Granola.
Switch in ten minutes
- Download OGAD for Mac, Windows or Linux.
- Get Pro and enter your key in the app.
- In Models, download a transcription model and a text model.
- Allow microphone and screen-audio access, then join a short test call.
- Open Meetings and check that both voices reached the transcript.
Tell the people in the call that you're recording, as you would with any notetaker.
FAQ
What is a free or cheaper Read AI alternative?
Off Grid AI Desktop Pro transcribes and summarizes meetings on your own computer with no monthly meeting limit. On 30 October 2026 it costs $79.99 once for lifetime access, a limited-time price, or $7.99 a month.
How many meetings does the Read AI free plan include?
Read AI's pricing page lists 5 meeting transcripts a month on the free plan, with a maximum meeting length of 1 hour.
Does Read AI train on my meetings?
Read AI's home page says there is no training on your data by default. Its privacy policy says it may use information to train and improve its models, consistent with your account settings. Off Grid AI does not train on your meetings.
Can Read AI record without a bot?
Yes. Read AI's desktop app for Windows and macOS can record meetings without a bot, and it needs a Read AI account. Off Grid AI never uses a bot.
Where does Off Grid AI keep my meetings?
On your own disk. Off Grid AI Desktop records the call audio and your microphone as two tracks, and local models write the transcript and summary.
Get Off Grid AI Pro and transcribe every call, not just five.
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