Record a Lecture and Turn It Into Notes

To record a lecture in Scholarly, open New → AI Meeting Notes (or Start Recording on Home) in your browser on a laptop or phone, allow the microphone, and press Finish when the class ends. You can also upload a recording you already have. Scholarly shows the transcript while the lecturer is still speaking. When you finish, it writes study notes from the transcript: the big picture, core concepts, the lecturer's own examples, key takeaways, and what is likely to be tested, plus timestamped topics. From the same recording you can then make flashcards, a quiz, or a narrated video lecture. The Free plan includes 3 recordings, each transcribed up to 60 minutes, with notes included and no AI Creation Credit used.

The catch: the recording, transcript, and notes are free, but anything you make from them is not. Flashcards, a quiz, or a video each use AI Creation Credits, and Free has 1 AI Creation Credit in total. On Free you can turn one recording into one study set. Free's 3 recordings and 1 credit are lifetime allowances and never reset.

What you get

• A live transcript in the Transcript tab while you record. Lines land within seconds, and you can search it during the lecture or after.
• Study notes in the Summary tab, written only from what was said, using the lecturer's terms, examples, names, and numbers. A lecture gets Big Picture, Core Concepts, Key Examples (when there are worked problems or cases), Key Takeaways, and Exam Focus.
• Timestamped topics in the Topics tab. Click one to jump the audio to that part of the lecture.
• An audio player with playback from 0.5x to 2x. Click a transcript line's timestamp to hear that moment.
• An AI chat beside the recording that answers questions about what was said.
• A title written for you from the lecture.
• A "Turn this meeting into…" row of one-click starting points: Summary, Quiz, Flashcards, Video lecture, SOP, and Training doc.

Before you start

• Use a browser that can record. Live recording works in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Older Safari versions cannot record audio. If yours can't, Scholarly tells you before you start and offers Upload audio instead.
• Sit near the speaker or use a better microphone. Scholarly records what your device's microphone hears. Use Choose microphone in the recording bar to switch to a headset or a USB mic.
• Ask first. Many schools and employers require permission before you record a lecture or training session.
• Keep the tab open. You can move around Scholarly while recording, but closing the tab ends the capture. On a phone, keep the screen on and Scholarly in front. Scholarly asks the browser to keep the screen awake while you record.

Step by step

1. Start a recording

On a laptop, open New and choose AI Meeting Notes, or pick Start Recording from the tools on Home. On a phone, open Scholarly in your browser and tap the same option. You don't need to install an app. Allow microphone access when the browser asks.

A small recording bar appears at the bottom of the screen and stays with you as you move around Scholarly. It shows the elapsed time, a level meter that moves when sound arrives, a pause button, and Finish. Open brings you back to the recording page. You can run one recording at a time.

2. Watch the live transcript

The Transcript tab fills while you record. Under the newest line, a status line reads Listening… or Transcribing…. If no sound reaches the microphone, it tells you within seconds, with what to check: the microphone permission in the address bar, the right input, and whether another app is using the mic. Scroll back to reread something, and Jump to live returns you to the newest line.

Pause whenever you need to, for example during a break, and resume afterwards. Audio uploads in small pieces as you go, so a dropped connection doesn't lose what you already recorded.

3. Press Finish

Press Finish when the lecture ends. The page shows Transcribing your recording and writing its notes. The work runs on Scholarly's servers, so you can leave the page. If the recording reaches your plan's length limit first, Scholarly warns you as you get close (Recording stops in about … minutes), then saves the audio and starts transcribing on its own.

4. Or upload a recording you already have

If you recorded the class on another device, choose Upload audio instead in the recording bar, or drop the audio file into New → Upload. Supported formats: MP3, M4A, WAV, WebM, and OGG (the recording bar also takes MP4). An upload gets the same recording page, transcript, notes, and chat as a live recording, and it counts as one of your recordings. The file has to fit your plan's upload size (8 MB on Free). A long lecture saved as WAV will usually be too big for Free, so record live or save it as M4A or MP3.

5. Read the notes

When processing finishes, the Summary tab holds the notes. The copy button in the tab's header copies them for pasting somewhere else. Rename the recording by clicking its title. Notes are written in the language that was spoken, so a lecture given in Spanish gets Spanish notes.

6. Turn it into something to study

A finished recording leads with Turn this meeting into…. Pick what you need:

• Flashcards. Opens the flashcard creator with the recording already selected as the source, so cards are written from its notes and full transcript. Past recordings also appear in the Library tab of the flashcard creator.
• Quiz. Opens the quiz creator with the notes and transcript added as text.
• Video lecture. Opens the video lecture creator with a prompt written from the recording's title and notes (or the start of the transcript when there are no notes). You choose the language and voice (and, on a paid plan, the length), then press Create. See AI Video Lectures.
• Summary. Opens the summary creator with the recording as its source.

The creator shows the cost before you press Create. Everything you make appears under the recording's AI Creations tab. A creation that fails returns its credit automatically.

Plan limits

A few rules behind those numbers:

• Recordings are counted when you start them. A recording that fails or is deleted still counts, unless no speech was detected in it. Then it gives the slot back.
• Longer uploads are kept whole. If an uploaded file runs past your plan's length, the full audio stays on the page, but only the first 60 minutes (Free) or 10 hours (paid) are transcribed.
• Credits by model. On Auto, a flashcard deck, a quiz, or a video lecture costs 1 AI Creation Credit, as do most models. A few cost more: Kimi K3 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 cost 2, GPT 6.1 Sol, GPT 6 Astra, and Claude Opus 5.5 cost 3, and Gemini 4 Argon and Muse Wonder cost 4. A video longer than 15 minutes adds 1 credit, and one longer than 30 minutes adds 2.
• Short decks are free. A finished flashcard deck with fewer than 15 cards gives back its credit.
• Weekly allowances reset every Monday at 00:00 UTC. Prices shown are US prices; your checkout shows the price for your country.

See Plans and Limits for everything else.

Languages

You don't pick a language before recording. Scholarly detects the spoken language, and the notes, topics, and title come back in it. The flashcards, quiz, or video you make next can be in another language: the video lecture creator offers over 70 narration languages, so an English lecture can become a Spanish recap video. See Languages in Scholarly.

Tips for a good result

• Place the device near the lecturer, not next to a talking neighbour or a noisy projector. Clear audio does more for the transcript than anything else.
• Check the meter in the first minute. If it isn't moving, or you see No microphone audio detected, fix the input before the lecture gets going.
• One recording per lecture. Separate sessions give sharper notes and keep flashcards and quizzes for each topic apart.
• Add the slides. On a paid plan, add the lecture's PDF slides as a second source in the flashcard creator so the cards can use the diagrams and definitions on the slides.
• Steer the video. The video prompt is written from the notes. Before you press Create, add what you want it to focus on, for example "Exam revision: the three models the lecturer compared."
• Ask the chat for what the notes skipped: "What did she say about the second case?" or "List every formula from this lecture."

What it does not do

• No app to install, and no separate desktop recorder. Recording runs in your browser.
• It does not join Zoom, Teams, or Meet calls. It records your device's microphone. It doesn't capture another app's audio directly or send a bot into a call.
• No recording in a closed tab or while the device sleeps. Closing the tab ends the capture, and you can still finish and process what was captured. If the device sleeps, nothing is recorded until it wakes. Scholarly then restarts the microphone where it can and shows roughly how much time went unrecorded.
• No transcript editor. You can rename, search, and copy the transcript and notes, but you can't correct transcript lines in place.
• No more than one recording at a time. Finish the active one before starting another.
• The video doesn't read the whole transcript. It starts from a prompt written from the notes, so the notes decide what the video covers.
• No credit-free artifacts. The transcript and notes are included, but flashcards, quizzes, and videos use AI Creation Credits on every plan.

Facts at a glance

• Where: in the browser on a laptop or phone, from New → AI Meeting Notes or Start Recording on Home.
• Inputs: live microphone recording, or an uploaded MP3, M4A, WAV, WebM, or OGG file.
• Output: live transcript, study notes, timestamped topics, audio player, and AI chat.
• Allowance: 3 recordings on Free (60 minutes each); 20 a week on Premium and 100 a week on Laureate (up to 10 hours each).
• Cost: transcript and notes use no AI Creation Credit. Flashcards, a quiz, or a video cost 1 credit each on Auto.
• Next steps: Flashcards, Quiz, Video lecture, Summary, SOP, or Training doc from the same recording.

Frequently asked questions

Can I record a lecture on my phone?

Yes. Open Scholarly in your phone's browser and start AI Meeting Notes. You don't need an app. Keep the screen on and Scholarly in front for the whole lecture.

How long can a recording be?

Up to 60 minutes on Free, and up to 10 hours on Premium and Laureate. Scholarly warns you before the limit and then saves and transcribes automatically.

Does recording use my AI Creation Credit?

No. The transcript and notes are included with every recording on every plan. Credits are used only when you make something from the recording, such as flashcards, a quiz, or a video.

Can I upload a lecture I recorded with my phone's voice memo app?

Yes. Choose Upload audio instead or New → Upload and pick the file. M4A, MP3, WAV, WebM, and OGG are supported, up to your plan's file size (8 MB on Free, 300 MB on Premium, 1 GB on Laureate).

What if the lecture is in another language?

Scholarly detects the spoken language, and the notes come back in that language. You can still make flashcards, a quiz, or a video in a different language.

What happens if my laptop goes to sleep mid-lecture?

Scholarly notices the gap, restarts the microphone where it can, and shows roughly how much time went unrecorded. Everything captured before and after the gap is saved and processed.

Can I make flashcards from a recording I made last week?

Yes. Open the recording and choose Flashcards, or open the flashcard creator and pick the recording from its Library tab.

Related

• AI Meeting Notes: every recording feature, notice, and setting in full.
• Transcription: a downloadable .txt or .vtt transcript file from audio, video, or YouTube.
• Flashcards: what the flashcard creator does with your recording.
• Quizzes and Exams: practising from what you recorded.
• AI Video Lectures: length, voice, and language settings for the recap video.
• Scholarly on Mobile: recording and studying on a phone.
• Plans and Limits: credits and allowances per plan.
• AI Lecture Recorder: the recording tool and a sample of its output.