Omi
Open-source AI memory pendant, with MIT-licensed app, firmware and backend
Overview
Omi is a wearable AI pendant from San Francisco's Based Hardware. It records conversations for a companion app (iPhone, Android, Mac, web) that transcribes, summarises and builds searchable memories. The device lists at $179 ($129 with a current discount); a free plan includes unlimited on-phone transcription and 300 cloud minutes a month. The code is MIT-licensed and can be run locally.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 12 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- Unlimited on-phone transcription
- 300 cloud minutes a month
- Usable on a phone without the device
- Unlimited transcription
- 1,000 Ask Omi questions a month
- Real-time transcription and speaker identification
- 10-14 hours battery
- 2 microphones; Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
- 30-day money-back guarantee; one-year warranty
- Always-on camera and audio smart glasses for developers
- Firmware development hardware
Use cases
What you can produce with Omi
- Hands-free conversation capture for 10 to 14 hours, with transcripts, summaries and to-dos afterwards
- Answers to questions about anything Omi heard, and search across past conversations
- Offline recording synced later, or on-phone transcription on the free plan
- The app, firmware and backend to read, modify or self-host under the MIT licence
- Conversations connected to calendars, Notion, Zapier and other apps from the Omi App Store
- Camera-and-audio wearable prototypes with the $499 Omi Glass Dev Kit
- The same memory on iPhone, Android, Mac and the web
Omi's case is the licence, not the price. At $179 list it is no longer the bargain it launched as, but the app, firmware and backend are MIT-licensed and self-hostable, which no closed AI pendant offers. The free plan is real, and the app works on a phone without the device.
Read the compliance claims carefully: the trust centre lists SOC 2 Type I and HIPAA, with Type II still in progress, and cloud processing goes to OpenAI and Anthropic. Best for developers and privacy-first buyers willing to self-host.
What we found
Omi is a small disc you wear on a cord, clip or wrist band. It records conversations for a companion app that turns them into transcripts, summaries, tasks and a searchable memory you can question later. Based Hardware, a San Francisco company led by Nik Shevchenko, first sold the idea to developers as "Friend" and relaunched it as Omi at CES in January 2025. Its distinguishing feature has not changed: the app, firmware and backend sit in a public GitHub repository under the MIT licence, and the company says you can run it locally rather than in its cloud.
The price has moved. Omi launched at $89, the figure earlier versions of this page still gave; the pendant now lists at $179, with a $50 discount applied at checkout when we checked. A free plan comes with every device, and the app also runs on a phone without one: unlimited on-phone transcription plus 300 cloud minutes a month. Unlimited costs $29.99 a month or about $269 a year and adds real-time transcription, speaker identification and 1,000 questions a month. The specification is modest and stated plainly: two microphones, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, 10 to 14 hours of battery.
Read the security claims at the precision of the source. Product pages say "SOC 2 + HIPAA compliant", while the privacy policy says only that the programme is aligned with SOC 2 and HIPAA requirements. The company's Vanta trust centre lists SOC 2 Type I and HIPAA, with SOC 2 Type II and GDPR still in progress, and names OpenAI and Anthropic among its AI subprocessors, so cloud transcripts reach third-party models unless you self-host.
The line has widened to an Omi Glass developer kit at $499 and a $59.99 firmware kit, and a desktop app now reads your screen as well as your conversations.
Omi suits developers and privacy-minded buyers who want to inspect or host the stack. Anyone wanting a polished, set-and-forget recorder should compare closed rivals first.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Omi's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Omi unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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