ChatGPT Meetings Plugin: How to Set It Up and Use It

The ChatGPT Meetings plugin is a note-taking add-on for the ChatGPT desktop app on Mac. You install it from Plugins, grant microphone and system audio access, and it listens to your calls or in-person conversations, then saves a personalised summary with action items to ChatGPT Space. As of September 30, 2026 it is a beta for Pro and Business plans.

OpenAI announced it at DevDay 2026, alongside the full list of OpenAI DevDay 2026 announcements. It is a quieter launch than Dots or GPT-6.1 Sol, but it targets a job most professionals do every day.

This guide follows OpenAI’s own Meetings plugin help article step by step, then covers limits, privacy, consent, how it compares with other AI note-takers, and where learning and development (L&D) teams can use it.

What is the ChatGPT Meetings plugin?

The ChatGPT Meetings plugin is an AI note-taker built into the ChatGPT desktop app. It captures the audio of a meeting, generates a summary with suggested action items, and stores the result in ChatGPT Space as an editable page. It works for online calls and in-person conversations, and no bot joins the call.

OpenAI describes it as bringing meeting context into ChatGPT so you can act on next steps faster. Because the notes live inside ChatGPT, you can ask it to draft a follow-up from what was said instead of copying text between apps.

Older guides describe ChatGPT’s Record mode, a different feature. This post covers the Meetings plugin as documented in the current OpenAI help article.

Who can use the ChatGPT Meetings plugin, and on which devices?

As of September 30, 2026, the ChatGPT Meetings plugin works only in the ChatGPT desktop app on macOS, and only on Pro and Business plans, where it is labelled beta. Enterprise access is a limited alpha arranged through your account manager. Windows, iOS and Android are listed as coming soon.

That is a narrow starting group. If your team runs on Windows laptops, you cannot use it yet. Plan prices also change, so check current ChatGPT pricing before you upgrade just for this feature.

For where the saved pages live and who can edit them, see our guide to ChatGPT Space.

How do you set up the ChatGPT Meetings plugin on a Mac?

Open the ChatGPT desktop app on your Mac, choose Plugins in the sidebar, install Meetings, complete the onboarding, and grant microphone and system audio permissions. Connecting Google Calendar or Outlook is optional. The whole process takes a few minutes, and you can take notes without any calendar connection.

Step 1: Open the ChatGPT desktop app on your Mac

Make sure you are on a Pro or Business account and signed in to the desktop app, not the browser version. The plugin does not run on the web or on Windows at the moment.

Step 2: Find Plugins in the sidebar and install Meetings

Choose Plugins in the ChatGPT sidebar, look for Meetings, and install it. Plugins are OpenAI’s extension system, and Meetings adds note-taking to your desktop app.

Step 3: Complete the onboarding

The plugin walks you through a short onboarding the first time you open it. Read the consent reminder. OpenAI says you must tell everyone in the meeting that you will be taking notes and get their consent, and the reminder is visible only to you, not to other participants.

Step 4: Grant microphone and system audio access

macOS will ask for microphone access and system audio access. You need both: the microphone picks up your voice and the room, and system audio picks up the other people on a video call.

Step 5: Optionally connect Google Calendar or Outlook

Connecting a calendar is optional, and you can skip it if you would rather not share calendar data.

Step 6: Start taking notes and check Space afterwards

When the meeting ends, your notes take a few minutes to appear as a page in ChatGPT Space, where you can read and edit them. Buttons may change during the beta, so follow the prompts in the app.

Do you need to connect Google Calendar or Outlook?

No. The help article says calendar connection is optional and that you can take notes manually without it. The trade-off is convenience, since you start each session yourself. For client calls or sensitive projects, starting without a calendar link is a reasonable default, and you can add it later.

What does the ChatGPT Meetings plugin produce after a meeting?

After a meeting the ChatGPT Meetings plugin produces a personalised summary and a list of suggested action items, saved as an editable page in ChatGPT Space. You can keep the page private, share it with teammates, edit it like any document, and ask ChatGPT questions about the meeting later.

OpenAI says the summaries are personalised. Treat them as a draft, not minutes: AI notes can miss nuance or misattribute a comment, so read the page before you send it on.

According to the OpenAI release notes, you can also ask ChatGPT Work to update a project plan or draft follow-ups from the notes. Our post on the ChatGPT Slack and Teams integration covers how ChatGPT reaches into team chat.

What are the limits of the ChatGPT Meetings plugin?

The main limits are platform and plan: macOS only, Pro and Business only, and still in beta. OpenAI also documents a four-hour cap per session, automatic stopping after a long silence or when you close your laptop, and a wait of a few minutes before notes appear.

• A full-day workshop will not fit in one session, so split it into blocks.
• Closing your laptop lid ends the session, which matters if you walk between rooms.
• You cannot replay the audio later, because it is deleted once notes are ready.
• Enterprise teams cannot rely on it yet, since access is an alpha through an account manager.

Some third-party write-ups mix the plugin up with older ChatGPT recording features and quote different session lengths. This post follows OpenAI’s help article.

Is the ChatGPT Meetings plugin private, and what happens to the audio?

Audio streams to OpenAI servers for processing, then is deleted from your Mac and OpenAI’s servers once your notes are ready. Meeting pages are private by default, and you choose whether to share them. Recipients see the notes, not the audio. Offline audio may sit on your Mac briefly until it uploads.

OpenAI’s release notes put it plainly: audio is deleted once your notes are ready and cannot be accessed or replayed. Engadget’s report on ChatGPT Space says the same, that the tool deletes the audio it captured once the notes are generated.

Deleting audio does not delete the notes. The summary and action items stay in Space until you remove them, and they may contain names and decisions, so apply your normal retention rules. For wider privacy announcements such as Private Intelligence, read the OpenAI DevDay 2026 recap for the wider privacy announcements such as Private Intelligence.

Do you need consent to record a meeting with ChatGPT?

Yes, get consent from everyone before you start. OpenAI’s own instruction is to get everyone’s consent before you begin, and the reminder in the app is shown only to you. In some jurisdictions recording without every participant’s agreement can also be unlawful. This is general information, not legal advice.

According to Reed Smith’s analysis of AI recording and transcription, US federal law allows recording when one participant consents, but 13 states require all-party consent, including California, Florida, Illinois and Washington. If one participant sits in an all-party state, the safe route is to get consent from everyone.

The same analysis notes that voice recordings and transcripts count as personal data under laws such as GDPR and CCPA, and that tools that create voiceprints can raise biometric privacy issues in places like Illinois. The CalChamber guidance on AI recording in workplace meetings adds that AI transcripts may paraphrase and contain errors, so give people a chance to correct them when the notes will be used for anything serious.

A simple habit covers most cases:

1. Say in the invitation that you will use AI notes.
2. Repeat it out loud at the start and wait for objections.
3. Stop or switch to manual notes if anyone says no.
4. Share only the notes people need, not everything.

With external guests or learners in other countries, ask your legal or privacy team first.

How does the ChatGPT Meetings plugin compare with Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and Granola?

The ChatGPT Meetings plugin has no bot and no separate price, but it is limited to Mac, Pro and Business. Otter, Fireflies, Fathom and Granola work on more platforms, have free tiers and offer more integrations, so a dedicated tool still fits teams outside the Mac and ChatGPT world. Figures below are as of September 30, 2026.

Prices come from each vendor’s pricing page and change often. Granola says meeting audio is deleted and only a transcript remains. Bot-free capture, in Granola or the ChatGPT plugin, has a consent side effect: nobody sees a notetaker join, so you must announce it yourself.

How do Zoom, Teams and Google Meet built-in notes compare?

Built-in tools cost nothing extra in some setups but depend on your licence. Zoom’s core AI features come with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans, Microsoft Teams recaps need a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and Google Meet notes need an eligible Google Workspace edition or Google AI plan. Details as of September 30, 2026:

Zoom has retired the AI Companion name for its Workplace features, so older guides may be outdated. If your organisation lives in one platform, the built-in option is the simplest start. The ChatGPT plugin suits meetings that span several platforms, or notes you want to feed into ChatGPT work.

How can L&D teams use the ChatGPT Meetings plugin?

L&D teams can use the ChatGPT Meetings plugin to capture subject matter expert (SME) interviews, training needs analysis calls and cohort retrospectives, then turn the notes into draft learning objectives, storyboards and action lists. It saves note-taking time, but a person must verify every technical claim before it reaches learners.

SME interviews. An SME talks faster than you can type. With consent, the plugin captures the conversation so you can stay in it. Afterwards, ask ChatGPT to list the key steps, common mistakes and terms the SME used, then send that list back to the SME to confirm. The summary is a draft, not a verified source.

Needs-analysis calls. When you interview managers about performance gaps, ask ChatGPT to group what you heard by skill, role and business outcome. That gives you a starting point for learning objectives, but you keep the judgement on root cause and whether training is the right fix.

Should you record learners in a cohort retrospective?

Only with clear consent, and ask whether you need to. A retrospective on what worked in a programme suits a Kirkpatrick Level 1 reaction review, but people speak more freely when not recorded.

Learners may also live under stricter rules than yours. If you do use it, say what happens to the notes, offer a manual-notes option and share only a cleaned-up summary. For distributed cohorts, our guide to training software for remote teams covers the wider toolkit.

For more on using OpenAI’s models in learning design, see GPT-6 Astra for learning and development, and browse our complete guide to AI tools for alternatives.

Conclusion

Try the ChatGPT Meetings plugin on one low-risk internal meeting this week, with everyone’s agreement. Follow the setup steps, read the summary line by line, and note what it missed. That one test will tell you more than any feature list.

Before a wider rollout, write down your consent wording, where notes live in Space and who may share them, and have your legal or privacy team review it.

If your team is not on Mac, Pro or Business, use the built-in notes in Zoom, Teams or Google Meet, or one of the dedicated tools in the table above, and revisit the plugin when OpenAI adds Windows.