Fieldy vs Plaud comes down to one question most spec tables skip. Do you want the recording to exist afterward? Fieldy 3 transcribes what it hears and throws the audio away. Plaud Note Pro keeps every second. Battery, price, privacy, and what happens when the transcript gets a name wrong all follow from that choice. Prices and specs below are from fieldy.ai and plaud.ai, checked on September 18, 2026.
I've used both. The Fieldy 3 lives on a lanyard and came out at rank 4 of 8 in my hardware note taker ranking, and the long version is in the Fieldy 3 review. The Plaud Note Pro scored 3 out of 5 in my Plaud Note Pro review. My daily device is neither of them, which I'll get to near the end.
Fieldy vs Plaud at a glance
| Spec | Fieldy 3 | Plaud Note Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $129 ($179 MSRP) | $189 |
| Form factor | 17 g pendant, clip, or watch ($19 band) | 1.06 oz card with a 0.95-inch AMOLED screen |
| Stores audio | No, encrypted transcript only | Yes |
| Transcription | Real time, through your phone | After sync |
| Battery | Up to 7 days typical use | 30 to 50 hrs recording, 60-day standby |
| Microphones | Built for close, worn capture | 4 mics, up to 16.4 ft |
| Free plan | 150 voice-detected min a month | 300 min a month |
| Mid tier | None | Pro, $8.33 a month billed annually, 1,200 min |
| Unlimited, billed yearly | $15.99 a month | $19.99 a month |
| AI model choice | No, model not disclosed | Yes, on paid plans |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes, since May 2026 |
| Languages | 100+ | 112 |
| Returns | 14 days | Varies by seller |
| Get it | Get Fieldy 3 | Plaud on Amazon |
The short answer
- You work where a stored recording is a liability. Fieldy. Therapy notes, legal intake, HR conversations. There's no audio file to leak or hand over.
- You need the exact words later. Plaud. Interviews, disputes, quotes, anything where you'll replay the tape.
- You hate charging things. Fieldy. I charge mine about once a week.
- You record whole rooms. Plaud. Four microphones and a 16.4 foot range suit a conference table better than a pendant does.
- You talk all day and want the cheapest unlimited plan. Fieldy, by about $108 in year one.
- You care which AI writes the summary. Plaud's paid plans let you choose. Fieldy doesn't tell you.
The real difference is whether the audio exists
Every wearable microphone eventually gets asked "are you recording this?" With Fieldy the answer is no. It listens, transcribes in real time through your phone, and discards the sound. What's kept is an end-to-end encrypted transcript. Saying "it takes notes, there's no recording" to a room lands differently than asking people to trust your storage habits, and I've found it makes the device easier to wear around other people.
Plaud is a recorder in the traditional sense. The audio is saved to the card, synced to the app, and transcribed from the file. You can replay it, re-run the transcription, and export it.
The cost of Fieldy's approach shows up when the transcript is wrong. Fieldy claims 95%+ accuracy in most environments. That still leaves room for a wrong name, number, or dosage in a loud room, and there's no recording to check it against. With Plaud you scrub back and listen. So decide which risk worries you more, a recording that exists when you wish it didn't, or a transcript you can't verify.
What Fieldy and Plaud cost over a year
| Scenario | Fieldy 3 | Plaud Note Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan, year one | $129 (150 voice-detected min a month) | $189 (300 min a month) |
| Mid tier, year one | No mid tier | About $289 (Pro, 1,200 min a month) |
| Unlimited, year one | About $321 ($129 plus $15.99 x 12) | About $429 ($189 plus $19.99 x 12) |
| Unlimited, year two onward | About $192 a year | About $240 a year |
| Unlimited, billed monthly | $19.99 a month | $29.99 a month |
Fieldy is cheaper at the free level and at the unlimited level. The $129 is the real price, with $179 shown struck through as the MSRP. Plaud wins one scenario. If you need more than the free allowance but nowhere near unlimited, Plaud Pro's 1,200 minutes for $8.33 a month billed annually has no Fieldy equivalent, and year one lands about $32 under Fieldy Unlimited.
The free plans are closer than the numbers look. Fieldy only counts minutes when it detects a voice, so a two-hour lunch with twenty minutes of talking costs twenty minutes. Plaud counts the recording you transcribe. Fieldy's free plan has other limits though. Per fieldy.ai, AI chat is capped at 5 uses a day, search only reaches back 7 days, and there's no cloud backup until you pay.
- Both vendors change prices. Check fieldy.ai/memberships and plaud.ai before you buy.
- Plaud's $189 is the plaud.ai price. Amazon's listing can differ.
- Fieldy's return window is 14 days from delivery and you pay return shipping.
Battery, hardware, and how you wear them
Fieldy 3 weighs 17 grams and uses twist-lock accessories, so it can be a pendant, a clip, or a watch with the $19 band. It's rated IP65 against dust and rain, charges over USB-C, and has a stealth mode that turns the LED off. The battery claim is up to 7 days of typical use. In my wear that's held up. I charge it roughly weekly and don't think about it in between.
Plaud Note Pro is a 1.06 ounce card, 0.12 inches thick, that rides in a magnetic case on your phone or sits on the table. It has a 0.95-inch AMOLED screen that shows you it's recording, which Fieldy can't match, and a four-microphone array rated to 16.4 feet. Battery is 30 hours of recording in Enhance mode or 50 in Endurance, with 60 days of standby. It charges through a magnetic USB-C cable, and that cable is the one accessory you don't want to lose on a trip.
They suit different days. Fieldy is for wearing from morning to night and catching whatever happens. Plaud is for putting on the table when a meeting starts.
What each one needs from your phone
Fieldy leans on the phone. The device captures, and the phone does the AI work, so the live transcript, summaries, and tasks appear once the two are connected over Bluetooth. Away from the phone, Fieldy stores what it captures on the device and syncs when it's back in range. You get notes later instead of notes now.
Plaud records to its own storage with nothing nearby, then transcribes after it syncs to the app. It also handles phone calls with a dual-mode recorder that switches between in-person audio and calls when the card is against the phone. Fieldy has no call-specific mode, so it picks up a call the way it picks up any other conversation in the room.
Both cover the laptop too. Fieldy has a free desktop app for Windows and macOS that transcribes online meetings and files them with the wearable's captures. Plaud's desktop access comes with its paid plans.
Summaries, model choice, and MCP
Fieldy's app is built around three things, Memories, Chat, and Tasks. Conversations arrive summarized, Chat answers questions against your history, and Tasks pulls out the commitments it heard with reminders attached. It's tight and opinionated. What it won't tell you is which AI model writes those summaries, and there's no way to change it. That's the main reason it ranked 4th for me and not higher.
Plaud has the bigger toolbox. The pricing page lists 10,000+ summary templates on paid plans, names GPT-5.5, Gemini 3.1 Pro, and Claude Sonnet 4.6 as available models, and the Unlimited plan adds automation. The free Starter plan gets basic templates.
Both let your notes out of the app. Fieldy runs an MCP server at api.fieldy.ai/mcp with one-click Claude Desktop setup and a public REST API. Plaud shipped an official MCP server in May 2026 that connects to Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP clients. If you run Claude Code, either one can feed it.
Privacy and compliance
Fieldy states it's HIPAA compliant on every plan, including Free, with end-to-end encryption and data that's never sold or shared. Add the no-audio design and it's the easier device to defend in healthcare, legal, and HR settings. One of the reviews on Fieldy's own site is from a therapist drafting SOAP notes with it.
Plaud publishes the longer certification list, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and EN 18031. If your company runs a vendor security review, that list does a lot of the work.
Neither one changes consent law. Rules on recording and transcribing conversations vary by state and country, and some require everyone's permission. I tell people at the start of the conversation, every time.
Where each one falls short
Fieldy 3. A mis-heard word is permanent because there's no audio. The summary model is undisclosed. Speaker separation wobbles in rooms with several voices, which shows up in Fieldy's own customer reviews, and speaker profiles are the fix it offers. The AI side needs your phone. The details are in the full Fieldy 3 review.
Plaud Note Pro. The 300 free minutes go faster than buyers expect. The app is closed compared to what I'm used to, desktop access is paid, and the magnetic cable is a single point of failure. Those are why it got 3 out of 5 from me. If you're choosing between Plaud's own models, see Plaud Note vs Note Pro, and if Plaud's out, the Plaud alternatives list covers the field.
The one I wear instead
My daily device is Pocket. It keeps the audio like Plaud, its free tier has unlimited standard-accuracy transcription (per heypocket.com), it lets me pick the model that writes the summary, and it's $129 as of September 2026. It ranked first in my hardware list for those reasons. I'm an affiliate for it, so weigh that. If no stored audio is the point for you, ignore this section and buy the Fieldy. Otherwise Pocket vs Fieldy and Pocket vs Plaud cover each matchup.
Pocket, $129 with unlimited free transcription
Keeps the audio, no minute cap on the free tier, and you pick the summary model. Subscription optional, 30-day returns.
The bottom line on Fieldy vs Plaud
Buy the Fieldy 3 if you want notes without a recording, a battery you charge weekly, and the lowest price in the category. It's $129, the unlimited plan is the cheapest available, and the no-audio design is a real advantage in rooms where a recording would be a problem.
Buy the Plaud Note Pro if you need the tape. It costs $60 more up front and about $108 more in an unlimited year, and for that you get replayable audio, a better microphone array, a screen, model choice, and a mid-priced plan that fits moderate use.
Neither is a bad purchase. They're built for different kinds of conversations, so pick based on whether you'll ever need to press play.