Circleback Now Has a Free Plan. Here Is What You Actually Get.
The AI meeting note-taker is opening its doors to free users for the first time, hoping word-of-mouth does the marketing work that paid ads never did.
Key points
- Circleback, an AI meeting note-taker backed by startup accelerator Y Combinator, launched its first-ever free subscription tier in 2025.
- Free users can record unlimited meetings but can only view transcripts from the past 30 days.
- Paid plans now start at $14 per month (billed annually), down from $20.83 per month.
- Circleback was founded in 2023, raised $2.5 million in 2024, and the company says it runs at roughly $8 million in annual revenue with eight employees.
- CEO Ali Haghani says the company does not buy Google or Meta ads and treats the free tier as its marketing budget.
If you have sat through a work call recently and wished something else was taking notes, you are not short of options. Wispr, Granola, Read AI, Fireflies, Calendly: the market for AI tools that listen to your meetings, transcribe them, and pull out action items has become genuinely crowded in the past few months.
Circleback, an AI note-taking app founded in 2023, is responding to that pressure by removing its biggest barrier to entry: the price.
What does the free plan actually include?
Free users get quite a lot. The plan covers unlimited meeting recordings, access to Circleback's mobile app and its Apple Watch companion, and an AI assistant that lets you ask questions about your transcripts, for example: "What did we agree to do by Friday?" Basic integrations with Slack and Linear, a project-management tool, are included too.
The catch is history. Free accounts can only look back 30 days. Older transcripts disappear.
For anything beyond that, paid plans start at $14 per month, billed as a single annual payment. That buys unlimited meeting history, every available integration, plus full API and MCP access. (An API, or application programming interface, lets developers connect Circleback to other software; MCP, model context protocol, is a newer standard that lets AI assistants share data with each other.) Before this change, there was no free option at all, and paid plans started at $20.83 per month.
Why is Circleback doing this now?
Too many potential customers were bouncing before they saw the value. CEO Ali Haghani told TechCrunch AI that the company's previous trial period created a sharp drop-off in sign-ups.
"If we just open the gates and allow more people to use the product, that's gonna bring Circleback in front of more people," he said.
The company spends nothing on paid advertising, treating the free tier as the marketing budget instead. We first covered Circleback on 31 August 2026; free-tier expansion is a pattern across AI tools right now, not a one-off move.
Is the company in financial trouble?
No, by its own account. Circleback says it has been profitable since raising $2.5 million in 2024. With eight people on staff and run-rate revenue of over $1 million per employee, the company estimates roughly $8 million in annual run rate. Haghani said he is not currently looking for more investment, though he acknowledged interest exists.
"We are consistently competing and winning customers against much bigger companies," he said.
The moment money could clearly solve a specific problem, he added, the company would consider raising. A team of eight turning $8 million in revenue is the kind of ratio that makes investors pay attention whether or not the founders are calling.
Common questions
Will the free plan record calls on any platform?
Circleback works across common meeting tools and also offers a mobile app, but check their current platform list on signup, as compatibility can change.
Is my meeting data private?
No independent audit of Circleback's data practices has been published. Before recording any meeting, check your employer's policy on third-party recording tools and inform other participants, which is a legal requirement in many places.
