Recall
Saves what you read and watch, summarizes it with AI — and remembers it for you later.
By Thiago Lourenço Martins
A drawer with a good memory for everything you consume
Recall is an app — browser extension, website and phone app — that saves articles, YouTube videos, podcasts, PDFs and even your own notes, all in one place, and summarizes each thing with AI. Think of a drawer that not only keeps things but also remembers where each item is and links one subject to another by itself. One common mix-up worth clearing up: this Recall (recall.it) has nothing to do with Microsoft's Recall, which screenshots your screen all day, nor with Recall.ai, which records meetings. Three different companies with similar names.
What Recall costs — and how much stays free
It really is free forever: unlimited saving of articles, videos and PDFs, unlimited notes, and API access too. The only thing with a cap is the automatic AI summary — 10 a month on the free plan.
US$0 — unlimited content saving (articles, videos, PDFs), unlimited notes, 10 AI summaries a month, API and MCP access. No card required.
US$10/month (billed yearly) — unlimited AI summaries, automatic smart tags, AI chat with your content and the internet, Listen Mode (text-to-speech), automatic knowledge graph, quiz with spaced repetition.
US$38/month (billed yearly) — everything in Plus, plus manual choice of AI model (ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini), bulk actions (up to 100 pieces of content at once) and onboarding with the founding team.
Important detail: prices are in dollars, with no plan in other currencies — Recall charges your international card directly. There's a 20% discount for paying yearly instead of monthly, plus another 20% for verified students. Prices checked on the official pricing page in July 2026.
You've already read this, you just don't remember where
You wrap up a proposal, deliver the project, and three months later the client asks about something you'd already read — except now it's lost between a browser bookmark, a saved screenshot and a PDF buried in some "Downloads" folder.
is how many people already use Recall to solve exactly that: it became the single place where everything you consume turns into a summary, gets tagged, and resurfaces at the right time — without you filing anything away.
Five routines where it saves your attention
One way to see Recall in practice, across different roles:
Saves the report, the reference article and the notes of every project. When a client resurfaces months later with an old question, they ask the chat "what did I already gather on this industry" instead of digging through folders.
Keeps success stories and competitor comparisons read throughout the week; before an important call, revisits it all in seconds.
Gathers industry reports, market news and meeting screenshots in one place — and uses the spaced-repetition quiz to not forget what was decided.
Piles up articles and course videos, asks for a summary, then reviews later with the auto-generated quiz before an exam.
Gathers reporting, interviews and sources on a topic over weeks of research, then uses the chat to pull it all together when it's time to write.
From the first click to your knowledge base being ready
- Create your account at app.recall.it/signup
Sign in with Google, Apple, or get a one-time code by email (no password).
takes under 1 minute - Install the extension
On Chrome or Firefox, then pin it to your toolbar by clicking the pin icon.
- Save the open page
With an article, YouTube video, PDF or post on screen, click the extension icon — or press Alt+S to save it without clicking anything.
- Ask for the AI summary
Inside the card you just saved, generate the summary — it delivers the main points (counts as 1 of your 10 a month on the free plan).
- Open Chat and ask
About what you've already saved, about the open internet, or both together in a single answer.
- Let Recall handle the rest
Every time you save something new, it creates an automatic tag and links that card to what's already in your knowledge graph.
in the web app, the "Add Content" button (top right) pastes a link or uploads a PDF without the extension
A ready-made prompt for Recall's chat
Look at everything I've saved about [topic or project] over the past few weeks and build a list of the 5 most important points. Then tell me if any new source contradicts something I'd saved before — and cite which piece of content each point came from.
You get the 5 points with the source for each one, plus a flag if anything contradicts what you'd already saved.
Wins and pitfalls from someone who's used Recall
Do this
- Use the Alt+S shortcut to save the open tab without clicking anything — it becomes a fast habit.
- Let chat combine your saved material with the open internet in the same question — it merges both into one answer.
- Generate the spaced-repetition quiz on top of what you've saved; it's for retaining, not just filing away.
Avoid
- Counting on a Portuguese interface — it runs in English; only the summary and quiz get translated.
- Blowing through the cap thinking it's unlimited: it's 10 AI summaries a month on the free plan — after that it only saves, without summarizing.
- Expecting to pick the AI model on Plus — that's Max-only, US$38/month.
Save your first page right now
Open an article or video you've meant to keep for a while, install the extension and save it with one click (or Alt+S).
You've got it right if, in under 1 minute, you have the card saved in your base — with an AI summary ready to read or listen to.
Is it worth opening Recall?
I tested it by saving a handful of articles and videos in one afternoon, just clicking the extension, and it really was faster than any other read-it-later tool I'd used — the summary comes out good, and the knowledge graph genuinely connects things I'd forgotten I'd saved. I did hit the 10-summary free cap quickly, though, and the English-only interface is a bit of a friction point for non-fluent users. For anyone who reads and watches a lot of scattered content and wants it organized automatically, it's worth it — but to make it a real habit, you'll likely end up considering Plus sooner or later.
Tested and checked against official sources on July 12, 2026.
Pros
- Saves literally any format — articles, YouTube (up to 10h), podcasts, PDFs (up to 300 pages), Google Docs, your own notes — all in one base
- AI chat combines what you've already saved with the open internet in the same answer
- Genuinely automatic organization: tags and a knowledge graph without you touching a single folder
- Free forever, no card required, with unlimited saving and notes
Cons
- Only 10 AI summaries a month on the free plan — heavy readers hit the cap fast
- Main interface is in English; only the summary and quiz get translated (10 languages, including Portuguese)
- Manually choosing the AI model is Max-only, US$38/month — on Plus the choice is automatic
- It's a tool for keeping and remembering what you've already consumed, not for creating content from scratch
Who Recall actually pays off for
Worth it if you…
- Are a consultant or professional who revisits reports and material from old projects and gets tired of hunting for where you read something
- Read and watch a lot of scattered content — newsletters, YouTube, podcasts — and want one place for all of it, organized automatically
- Like the idea of a "second brain" but don't have the patience to file folders and links by hand
Think twice if you…
- Don't read much long-form material — for casual chatting, a free ChatGPT or Gemini already covers it
- Need EVERYTHING fully localized into your language, screen by screen — Recall doesn't deliver that yet
- Want meetings recorded and summarized automatically — that's Fathom or Otter's job, not Recall's
Recall, NotebookLM, Perplexity or Consensus?
If you want to interrogate a closed set of documents for one specific project, NotebookLM still does that better — it locks the conversation to sources you picked upfront, which is an advantage when the project has a deadline; Recall, by contrast, keeps growing forever. If your question is about something you haven't saved yet — today's news, a price comparison — Perplexity searches the open internet on the spot. For questions that hinge on peer-reviewed science, Consensus is more reliable than any generic summary. And if the problem is meetings — recording, transcribing and summarizing automatically — that's Otter.ai's job, not Recall's.
What people ask before getting started
Is Recall really free?
Yes. You can create an account without a card and use it forever: unlimited saving of articles, videos and PDFs, unlimited notes, plus 10 AI summaries a month to try that part. If you want unlimited summaries, subscribe to Plus, US$10/month.
Do I need a credit card?
Not for the free plan — you create the account and start using it right away. A card is only needed if you subscribe to Plus or Max, and billing is in dollars, with Apple Pay and Google Pay also available.
Does it work in Portuguese?
Partly. You can ask the AI to translate summaries and quizzes into Portuguese (10 languages are supported), but the app's own menus and buttons run in English — there is currently no fully localized interface.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes, there are iOS and Android apps. You can also save straight from your phone using the browser's share icon and picking Recall from the list.
Is my data safe? Does Recall train AI on my content?
According to the company's official policy, your content is private and is not used to train AI models. Data runs "local-first" (primarily on your device), with backup on Google Cloud in Belgium.
What's the difference between Recall and NotebookLM?
Recall explains this in its own documentation: NotebookLM is built for closed research, inside a single notebook with sources you defined upfront. Recall has no such limit — everything you save (articles, videos, PDFs, notes) becomes part of one single, growing base you can chat with anytime.
Every day, a new tool explained.
Get it on WhatsApp