Basil AI: On-device AI note taker for Apple devices that transcribes and summarizes meetings entirely offline, with no cloud upload. Tongyi Tingwu: Alibaba Cloud's AI assistant that transcribes, translates, and summarizes meetings and lectures in real time. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Basil AI when transcribing confidential client meetings where data must stay on-device matters most, and Tongyi Tingwu when students and educators turning lectures into searchable summarized notes matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
On-device AI note taker for Apple devices that transcribes and summarizes meetings entirely offline, with no cloud upload.
Alibaba Cloud's AI assistant that transcribes, translates, and summarizes meetings and lectures in real time.
Basil AI (Basil Private AI Note Taker) is a privacy-first AI transcription and note-taking application that processes all audio locally on Apple devices using Apple's on-device speech and machine-learning frameworks. Because recordings, transcripts, and summaries never leave the device and no cloud servers are involved, Basil is positioned for privacy-conscious professionals handling sensitive conversations, including lawyers conducting client meetings and other client-services practitioners where confidentiality matters. The app records live meetings and can also process uploaded audio and DRM-free video files, then generates transcripts with speaker diarization plus AI summaries and key takeaways. It supports a large set of languages and can work offline, including in airplane mode. Outputs can be exported to formats such as text, PDF, CSV, and JSON, and integrated with Apple's ecosystem (Apple Notes, iCloud Drive, Files). Basil is distributed on the Apple App Store by TONSOR LLC and is available as a universal app across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision, with recent iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS versions required. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Tongyi Tingwu is an AI assistant from Alibaba Cloud focused on audio and video content for work and study, including meetings and lectures. It transcribes spoken audio into text, translates speech, and generates summaries using large language models, helping users record, organize, and analyze multimedia content. The service operates in real time, transcribing meetings and lectures as they happen, and it separates speakers so transcripts can attribute statements to different participants. Beyond core transcription and summarization, Tongyi Tingwu can extract structured information from recordings, including pulling slide content from video, which is useful for capturing presentations alongside spoken discussion. It supports multiple languages for transcription and translation, with strong coverage of Chinese and English among other major languages. The tool is accessible through a web interface and a browser extension, and it integrates with Alibaba's cloud ecosystem, including cloud storage. Tongyi Tingwu is aimed at professionals, students, and content creators in the Chinese market who need to efficiently turn meetings, lectures, and other audio or video into organized, searchable, and summarized text rather than reviewing recordings manually. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Basil AI is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Tongyi Tingwu is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Basil AI | Tongyi Tingwu |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | 100% on-device transcription with no cloud upload | Real-time transcription of meetings and lectures |
| Standout feature | Speaker diarization to separate participants automatically | Speech translation across multiple languages |
| Team usage | AI-generated summaries, minutes, and key takeaways | LLM-based summarization of audio and video content |
| Integrations | Support for recording live meetings and uploading audio/video files | Speaker separation for attributed transcripts |
| Languages & capture | Multi-language support and offline (airplane-mode) operation | Slide/PPT extraction from video content |
| Best-fit workflow | Export to text, PDF, CSV, and JSON, plus Apple Notes/iCloud/Files | Web interface and browser extension access |
Basil AI
Choose Basil AI if you need transcribing confidential client meetings where data must stay on-device — strengths include strong privacy posture since data never leaves the device.
Tongyi Tingwu
Choose Tongyi Tingwu if you need chinese professionals transcribing and summarizing meetings in real time — strengths include backed by alibaba cloud with llm-powered summarization.
Basil AI
Tongyi Tingwu
It depends on your workflow. Basil AI is strong for transcribing confidential client meetings where data must stay on-device, while Tongyi Tingwu is strong for chinese professionals transcribing and summarizing meetings in real time. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Basil AI is a free tier with paid upgrades and Tongyi Tingwu is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
You can — some teams pair them when each covers a different part of the meeting workflow.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Basil AI and Tongyi Tingwu.
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