Plaud NotePin vs Gilbert: an honest comparison

Updated on 27 September 2026 with the prices, hosting and terms published by Plaud (sources at the end).

We are often asked: "Plaud is good, right? It is that little gadget you see everywhere on LinkedIn." True, and it is a good product. But for a European company, how does it compare with software like Gilbert? Here is our comparison, no punches pulled.

Two opposite philosophies

Plaud is a physical device: on its French store, the NotePin and the Note cost €169.90, the NotePin S €179.00, the Note Pro €189.00 and the Plaud One €249.90. The Starter plan includes 300 transcription minutes a month; beyond that, the Pro plan costs €110.99 a year (or €19.99 a month) for 1,200 minutes. A user with a Note and the Pro plan therefore spends €280.89 in the first year, then €110.99 a year.

Gilbert is pure software: no hardware, one account, 2 free hours a month, then €19.90 a month billed annually. Plaud is cheaper from the second year for heavy individual use; Gilbert avoids buying and managing devices when a whole team needs equipping.

The key differences

Hosting

• Plaud: Plaud Inc., a US company; European accounts hosted on AWS in Frankfurt, with servers also in the United States, Japan and Singapore
• Gilbert: Lexia France; hosted in France by OVHcloud on a SecNumCloud-qualified, HDS-certified instance

GDPR and transfers

• Plaud: DPA with standard contractual clauses; the DPA allows processing in the United States; no training without explicit consent
• Gilbert: DPA (Article 28), no transfer outside the EU, audio deleted after processing, no training on your content

Artificial intelligence

• Plaud: summaries produced by models from major providers (GPT, Claude, Gemini according to its trust center)
• Gilbert: open-weight models (Whisper for transcription, Mistral Small for summaries) run by OVHcloud in the EU; 98.2% accuracy in French (internal benchmark)

Remote meetings

• Plaud: the Plaud Desktop app captures meetings without a bot, but requires a device linked to the account
• Gilbert: the desktop app (macOS and Windows) captures Teams, Zoom and Meet without a bot and without hardware

Target users

• Plaud: individual, mobile, personal use
• Gilbert: team meetings, client meetings, public bodies and regulated sectors

Plaud's real advantage

To be fair: Plaud shines in person and on the move. A device that records without a phone or a computer makes real sense for a journalist, a field salesperson or a consultant going from interview to interview. And its annual plan is cheap.

Sovereignty: what to check

For law firms, healthcare providers and public bodies, three points deserve a review with the DPO: a US publisher, a DPA that allows processing in the United States, and summaries handled by US AI providers.

Gilbert is hosted in France by a French provider, on a SecNumCloud-qualified, HDS-certified instance. No data leaves the European Union and no model is trained on your conversations.

Verdict

Plaud is a fine tool for individual, mobile use. Gilbert is built for organisations that want team meeting minutes without hardware, with data that stays in France.

Plaud sources consulted on 26 September 2026: fr.plaud.ai (store, plans, trust center), plaud.ai (privacy policy, DPA, about), support.plaud.ai (security and compliance, AI data use, Plaud Desktop).