Yes, Read AI is free with Teams, within limits. The Free plan includes the Microsoft Teams integration for anyone with a work or school Microsoft account, but it covers only 5 meeting reports a month (reports other people share with you count too) and stops recording each meeting after 1 hour. If you need more than about one meeting a week, Pro costs $15 per user a month billed annually or $19.75 month to month.
The catch most people hit is not the price. It's Teams itself. The free Read AI app for Teams needs a paid Microsoft Teams or Microsoft 365 account to run inside meetings, and your company's Teams settings decide whether the Read Assistant can get past the lobby at all. This guide covers what the free plan really gives you, how to use Read AI in a Teams meeting, and what to check when it won't join. Everything below was checked on October 29, 2026 against Read AI's pricing page, the Read Help Center and Microsoft Learn. We did not install Read AI or run it in a live Teams meeting for this guide.
Is Read AI free with Teams? What the free plan covers
Read AI's Help Center says the Teams integration "is available to all Read users with a work or school Microsoft account, including those on the Free plan." So you don't pay extra for Teams support. You get the same Free plan everyone gets, and its limits apply to Teams meetings like any other.
| Item | Free | Pro | Enterprise | Enterprise+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price per user a month | $0 | $15 billed annually, $19.75 monthly | $22.50 billed annually, $29.75 monthly | $29.75 billed annually, $39.75 monthly |
| Meeting reports and transcripts | 5 a month | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Longest meeting recorded | 1 hour | 4 hours | 4 hours | 8 hours |
| Audio and video uploads | None | 100 minutes a month | 200 minutes a month | 300 minutes a month |
| Integrations | Basic | Premium | Premium | Premium |
| Audio and video playback | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Prices and limits come from Read AI's plans help article and pricing page. Enterprise+ needs at least 5 licenses. Premium integrations on Pro and above include Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot, Jira, Confluence, Zapier and webhooks.
Each free report still includes the parts most people want from a Teams call: a transcript, a summary, action items and meeting metrics. The Free plan also includes unlimited Ask Read searches, Topic Readouts, the personal meeting coach and apps for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.
How the 5 report limit works
Three details matter more than the headline number:
- Shared reports count. Read AI's out of quota article says reports you own and reports shared with you both count toward the 5. If a colleague with Read AI shares two reports with you, you have three left for your own meetings.
- Over the limit, reports lock. New reports show "Out of quota" until you upgrade. If you upgrade, Read AI reprocesses your reports from the past 30 days, which releases the ones that were over quota.
- Long meetings get cut. On the Free plan Read leaves a meeting after 1 hour and builds the report from what it captured up to that point.
There's also a retention rule. For free users, Read AI keeps the text version of past reports for at least 1 year and deletes meeting recordings 180 days after the meeting. Paid users' reports are kept indefinitely.
What you need before Read AI works in Teams
Most failed setups come down to accounts and permissions, not Read AI's plan. Check these first.
- A work or school Microsoft account. Personal accounts such as outlook.com or hotmail.com addresses can be connected, but Read AI says functionality is limited.
- A paid Teams or Microsoft 365 account for the in meeting app. Read AI's Teams app install guide says free personal Teams accounts can't add apps to meetings. The Read AI app itself is free.
- The right meeting role. To add an app during a meeting you have to be the organizer, a co organizer or a presenter. If you're an attendee in someone else's meeting, you can't add Read from the Teams app.
- Admin approval, sometimes. Your Microsoft admin may need to allow the Read AI app, and channel access for daily summaries often needs a Teams admin to approve it. Read AI generates an approval link you can send to the admin, who doesn't need a Read AI account.
Only one person in a meeting needs a Read AI account. That person's plan decides what the report contains. Other people can view a shared report after creating a free account, or without one if the link is set to anyone with the link.
How to use Read AI in a Teams meeting
There are three ways to get the Read Assistant into a Teams call. Read AI recommends the first and treats the other two as backups.
Option 1: connect your calendar (best)
The calendar route works best. Link an Outlook or Google calendar in Read AI, then pick the meetings it should join. Read joins scheduled meetings automatically, 3 to 5 minutes before the start time. For Teams and Google Meet, Read can join even if you don't attend, which helps when you're double booked. This is the only route where Read names the report after your calendar event and shares it with the other participants automatically.
Option 2: add Read from the Teams app
For an ad hoc meeting, use the Read AI app inside Teams. The manual add guide lists these steps:
- During the meeting, select Apps in the meeting toolbar and open Read AI.
- If a window pops up, select Save, then sign in to Read AI if asked.
- Copy the meeting link from More (the three dots), then Meeting info.
- Paste the link in the side panel and select Add Read.
- Admit the Read Assistant from the lobby when it arrives.
You can't add Read to a direct Teams call, because a call isn't a meeting and has no meeting link.
Option 3: the website or browser extension
Signed in to Read AI on the web, select Add to live meeting and paste the Teams link. The Chrome extension can also prompt you to add Read when you open a Teams meeting link, after you grant it extra permissions. Both manual routes share two drawbacks: the report gets a generic "Teams Meeting" title (the extension lets you rename it), and only you get the report at first.
How to use Read AI meeting notes in Teams
Once Read AI is connected to Teams, the notes come to you inside Teams rather than only in the Read web app. Read AI's Teams integration article lists these options on the Integrations page:
- Meeting reports in Teams. After a meeting ends, a card with the summary, chapters and a View Full Report button arrives in the Read AI app chat. You can also get a short brief before your next recurring meeting.
- Live meeting dashboard. During a call, the Read AI app sidebar shows a running transcript, summary and metrics.
- Daily summaries. Choose Teams channels to receive daily recaps of chat and channel activity, as a direct message, in the channel, or both.
- Ask Read over Teams data. With the Incorporate Teams Data into Read setting on, your Teams chats and channels feed Ask Read, so you can ask questions across meetings and messages.
Each Teams meeting Read records still uses one of your 5 free reports. Daily channel summaries and Ask Read searches are not meeting reports, and the Free plan lists Ask Read as unlimited.
Why Read AI won't join your Teams meeting
If Read never shows up, or your incomplete reports page says it was "not admitted to the meeting within 10 minutes of scheduled start time," the organizer's Teams settings are usually the cause. Read AI's Teams troubleshooting article says Read joins as an anonymous, unverified guest. That means:
- Guest access and the Anonymous users can join a meeting setting have to be on for the organizer's organization.
- The organizer's meeting policy needs Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified turned on. Read can't pass the CAPTCHA style verification check.
- Someone in the meeting has to be allowed to admit people from the lobby.
Microsoft has also made bot admission stricter. Microsoft Learn's page on managing external bots says the default policy, When detected, require approval before joining, keeps detected bots in the lobby even when the meeting lets other people bypass it, until an organizer admits them. Microsoft's lobby help page adds that the lobby notification won't show an Admit button for an identified bot, and admitting one brings up a confirmation message.
Read AI suggests admins pick Do not detect bots, while Microsoft recommends keeping detection on unless there's a specific business reason. That's a call for your IT team, not for you. If you're the organizer, the practical fix is to open the lobby list and admit the Read Assistant there yourself.
None of these settings depend on your Read AI plan. A paid Pro license won't get Read past an organization that blocks anonymous guests.
Is Read AI worth paying for, or is a free option better?
Stay on free if you have a handful of important Teams meetings a month, each under an hour, and you mostly want a summary and action items. Upgrade to Pro once you hit "Out of quota" more than once, or your meetings regularly run past an hour. Look elsewhere in two cases:
- Your company already pays for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Copilot works inside Teams without an outside bot in the lobby. Our guide on how to transcribe a meeting with Copilot covers live transcription and recaps, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot page has the basics.
- You want more free meetings or no bot at all. Our best AI note taker for meetings roundup compares Read AI with Fathom, Otter and Granola, which records from your device instead of joining as a participant. If your calls are on Google Meet, see our AI note taker for Google Meet guide.
Whatever you pick, tell people when a note taker is in the room. Teams now flags detected bots, so a surprise assistant in the lobby tends to get denied. If you'd rather switch a note taker off entirely, our guide on how to turn off the Krisp AI note taker shows what that looks like for another tool.
FAQ
Is Read AI free?
Yes. The Free plan costs nothing, needs no credit card, and includes 5 meeting reports a month of up to 1 hour each. It also includes unlimited Ask Read searches and basic integrations. Paid plans start with Pro at $15 per user a month billed annually.
Is the Read AI app for Teams free?
The app is free to install from Microsoft AppSource or the Apps section in Teams. To use it inside a meeting you need a paid Microsoft Teams or Microsoft 365 account and the organizer, co organizer or presenter role. Free personal Teams accounts can't add apps to meetings.
How do I use Read AI in a Teams meeting I don't host?
The calendar route is your best bet here. Read arrives from your invite and waits in the lobby until the organizer lets it in. As an attendee you can't add apps in the meeting itself, and the organizer's settings may keep anonymous guests out entirely.
Do all participants need a Read AI license?
No. One person with Read AI on any plan, including Free, can create the report and share it. Viewers need a free Read AI account unless the report link is open to anyone with the link. On the Free plan, reports shared with you count toward your 5 a month.
How do I remove Read AI from a Teams meeting?
Deny it from the lobby notification or from the People panel. To stop it ahead of time, open your Read Calendar and turn off Add Read? for that meeting at least 15 minutes before it starts, per Read AI's admitting and removing article.
What happens when I hit the free limit?
New reports show "Out of quota" for the rest of the month unless you upgrade. Upgrading reprocesses the last 30 days of reports, so the ones marked over quota become available.
