Unlock Unlimited Translation and AI Meeting Notes with Groq, Gemini, or Your Own LLM

Most AI translation and meeting-notes apps keep the "AI" firmly in their own hands: they decide which model you can use, how many words you can translate, and how much you pay each month—and once your quota runs out, you're stuck. You don't own that engine; you just rent it.

Traverba does the opposite. The foundational features—transcription and live subtitles—run on your device by default: free, with no limits. And the smarter layer on top—summaries, chat, and translation—is powered by an AI source you pick yourself. You can plug in your own free Groq API key or Gemini API key, or point it at a local model running entirely on your own computer.

What does that mean? It means you set the ceiling. With your own free quota or local hardware, you can unlock near-unlimited real-time translation and AI meeting notes—without being tied to someone else's monthly plan. This guide covers the three ways to connect, and how to choose between them.

The 30-second version

1. Open Traverba and go to Settings → AI source.
2. Pick a way to power the AI features:
   • Groq—a free Groq API key, blazing fast, with the lowest latency.
   • Gemini—a free Gemini API key, Google's models, with excellent quality and language coverage.
   • Bring Your Own LLM—point at a local model running on your own computer, so your data never leaves your hardware.
3. Paste the key (or enter your local endpoint) and hit Test Connection.
4. Done. Summaries, chat, and translation are now powered by the source you chose—on your own quota, with no per-use fees added by Traverba.

Here's the breakdown.

First, get clear on this: what runs on-device vs. what needs an AI source

To pick the right connection, it helps to understand how Traverba splits the work into two layers:

• On your device (always free, always unlimited): speech-to-text (transcription) and live subtitles. This layer needs no API key—open the app and it just works, with no audio uploaded.
• Powered by the AI source: three more advanced features—
  1. AI summaries—condense a whole meeting into a few sentences, key decisions, and action items.
  2. Chat—ask the AI questions about your notes, such as "pull together all the action items for me."
  3. Translation—convert content into another language.

That second layer needs a language model (LLM) to do the work. Rather than locking you into a fixed engine, Traverba lets you connect your own—which is exactly what makes the source "unlimited": the quota is yours, and the model can be yours too.

In one line: transcription is always on your device and always free; summaries, chat, and translation follow whichever AI source you choose.

Three ways to connect—how to choose?

The key thing all three share: you're using your own quota or your own hardware. Traverba doesn't sit in the middle, doesn't add per-use fees, and doesn't set a monthly word cap. Your ceiling is the limit of the Groq/Gemini free tier, or the compute power of your own machine—which, for most people, is effectively "unlimited" in everyday use.

Option 1: Groq API key—for raw speed

Groq is known for astonishing inference speed. If what matters most to you is that real-time translation keeps pace with the speaker and summaries come out in seconds, a free Groq API key is the top pick.

1. Go to groq.com and sign up for free (no credit card needed).
2. Create a Groq API key in the Groq Console and copy it.
3. In Traverba: Settings → AI source → Cloud provider → select Groq.
4. Paste the Groq API key into the API key field and hit Test Connection.
5. When you see the success message, you're done.

Your Groq API key lives on your own device and in your Groq account—Traverba never owns it. For a fully illustrated walkthrough, see our guide on how to get a free Groq API key.

Option 2: Gemini API key—for quality and language coverage

Google's Gemini models are strong on translation quality and coverage of less common languages. If your meetings span multiple languages or you need more nuanced summaries, a free Gemini API key is a solid choice.

1. Go to Google AI Studio and sign in with your Google account.
2. Create a free Gemini API key, confirm it's within the free tier, and copy it.
3. In Traverba: Settings → AI source → Cloud provider → select Gemini.
4. Paste the Gemini API key into the API key field and hit Test Connection.

Again, the Gemini API key is yours and the quota is yours. For the full steps, see how to get a free Gemini API key.

Tip: You can switch between Groq and Gemini anytime—one for speed, one for quality. Try whichever you like and just keep both keys on hand.

Option 3: Bring Your Own LLM—for total privacy, zero billing

This is the most advanced and most thorough path: connect no cloud at all, and instead point at a model running on your own computer. Summaries, chat, and translation all run on your hardware, and audio and notes never leave the device you own—no third-party AI cloud, no per-use billing, no monthly fee.

The rough flow is:

1. On your computer, use LM Studio to download and run an open-source model (Gemma, Qwen, Llama, DeepSeek, and other GGUF/MLX models all work).
2. Use Tailscale to connect your computer and phone to the same private network.
3. In Traverba's AI source settings, enter the local model's endpoint and key, then hit Test Connection.

Once the model is downloaded, it runs free on your hardware—with, in the truest sense, no usage cap at all. This path takes about 20 minutes of one-time setup, and we've written a fully illustrated walkthrough: Bring Your Own Local LLM.

Who's it for? Teams handling sensitive material (legal, medical, financial, M&A), people who care about data autonomy, or simply heavy users who don't want to pay for AI usage anymore.

What you unlock once it's connected

Once your AI source is connected, the AI layer across all three of Traverba's meeting-notes features switches on:

• Live Notes—record in real time. Hit record, put your phone where it can pick up the sound, and live subtitles appear sentence by sentence, with summaries, decisions, and action items ready right after.
• Group Notes—multilingual team meetings. Attendees join on their own devices, each following along live in their own language, with notes labeled by named speaker. Especially handy for Hong Kong meetings mixing Cantonese, English, and Mandarin.
• Media Notes—import existing recordings. Already have an audio file? Import it and it's transcribed, translated, summarized, and organized just the same.

Because the AI is powered by your own source, these features aren't subject to any Traverba-side word or usage cap—how much you translate and how many meetings you record is entirely down to your own quota or hardware.

Our recommended way to choose

• Most people, chasing speed: connect Groq. Free, blazing fast, done in three minutes.
• Value translation quality, multilingual settings: connect Gemini. Also free, with broader model coverage.
• Handling confidential material, or want full control of your data: go Bring Your Own LLM. Spend a bit more on one-time setup in exchange for zero cloud, zero billing, and total privacy.

All three can coexist and be switched anytime—it's not either/or. Start with the simplest, Groq, to get going, and upgrade to a local model later if you need to.

Why this beats "using someone else's engine"

• The ceiling is yours—no Traverba-side monthly word or usage limits; your quota is your ceiling.
• The cost is yours—use a free tier or local hardware, with no hidden per-use markup.
• The choice is yours—Groq for speed, Gemini for quality, local for privacy, and you can switch anytime.
• Privacy is under your control—with a local LLM, the AI compute never leaves your device; transcription is already done on-device.

The value of AI meeting notes and real-time translation shouldn't be boxed in by a fixed monthly plan. Put the choice of engine back in your hands, and you can record and translate every meeting the way that suits your situation best.

Give it a try

Traverba is free—open it and get started. Transcription and live subtitles work with no setup at all; to unlock summaries, chat, and translation, head to Settings → AI source and connect your free Groq or Gemini key, or point at your own local model.

At your next multilingual meeting, stop getting stuck on someone else's usage cap. Connect your own AI source, use your own quota, and take translation and meeting notes all the way.

Further reading: How to Use Live Notes for Meetings: A Practical Playbook for Summaries, Decisions and Action Items and The Future of Translation Is Not in the Cloud.