Meeting Notes vs Meeting Minutes: What’s the Difference?

Clear documentation keeps teams aligned, but many people still mix up meeting notes and meeting minutes.
They serve different purposes, follow different structures, and are used by different types of teams.

This guide breaks down the difference with simple examples to help you choose the right format every time.

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What Are Meeting Notes?

Meeting notes are informal, flexible, and meant for personal or team reference.

Common traits:

• Lightweight and unstructured
• Capture ideas, reminders, observations, and rough details
• Great for brainstorming sessions, internal check-ins, and working meetings

Example (Meeting Notes)

• Rough ideas for Q2 roadmap
• Feedback from early user tests
• Reminder: check integration timelines
• Notes for follow-up discussion

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What Are Meeting Minutes?

Meeting minutes are structured, formal records meant for alignment, accountability, and documentation.

Common traits:

• Uses a fixed template
• Captures decisions, action items, and owners
• Required for project meetings, client calls, stakeholder reviews, and formal committees

Example Structure

• Meeting info
• Attendees
• Agenda
• Discussion points
• Decisions
• Action items with owners

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When to Use Meeting Notes vs Minutes

Scenario	Use Notes	Use Minutes
Brainstorming	✅	❌
Daily stand-ups	✅	❌
Client meetings	❌	✅
Project reviews	❌	✅
Internal planning	✅	❌
Compliance or formal meetings	❌	✅

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How StenifyAI Helps Generate Both Automatically

StenifyAI automatically:

• Detects meeting type
• Generates either informal notes or formal minutes
• Identifies speakers
• Structures decisions & action items
• Saves everything in a clean, shareable format

Perfect for teams that want clarity without manual effort.

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Happy transcribing!