The Limitless Pendant is gone. Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025 and ended sales, with support running through late 2026, which leaves a lot of people holding a device on a countdown and no obvious replacement. The closest substitutes are Bee Frontier at $74.99, sold through Amazon, for the cheapest capture, Plaud NotePin S at $179 for the best transcription accuracy, Omi at $129 on omi.me as of 2 October 2026, a limited-time price down from its $179 list price, if you want to own and modify it, Vibe Dot at $199 for the longest continuous recording time and a free tier you can genuinely live on, and Legend at $499 USD for always-on capture that turns your conversations into text, with no audio to play back and none kept in your account. Which one is right depends on one question: did you want the Pendant listening all day, or only when you told it to?

Update, 30 October 2026: about two months of support left. Limitless says it will support existing Pendant customers “throughout 2026”, and existing customers now get the Unlimited plan free. It has not said what happens after that, so export your transcripts now rather than in December.

What Happened to the Limitless Pendant?

Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025 and stopped selling the Pendant. CEO Dan Siroker confirmed the change directly: Limitless will "continue to support existing Pendant customers for at least another year, but we'll no longer sell the Pendant to new customers." Existing devices keep working with support committed through late 2026, so this is a wind-down rather than an overnight shutdown, but the direction is clear.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Limitless had raised $33 million from investors including First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and Sam Altman, and Siroker said the team would be joining Meta to build AI-enabled wearables. Limitless also said it would sunset Rewind, its earlier software product. What Meta chose to buy is telling in itself: a company built around remembering conversations, not around feeds or screens.

The Pendant was the most recommended device in this category for most of two years, which is why so many outdated guides still point at it. It ran $99 with a free tier covering 1,200 minutes a month and a $19 monthly Pro plan. Advertised battery was 100 hours, though real-world use with recording enabled landed closer to 6 to 14. Its most thoughtful feature was Consent Mode, which used voice identification to pause capture for people who had not agreed to be recorded.

Two things matter for anyone shopping now. Get your data out before support ends. And understand that Limitless going to Meta, Bee going to Amazon, and Humane shutting down entirely are the same story: this category consolidates fast, and the device you buy may outlive the company behind it. Meta also moved into this category from another angle, with its own hardware in the Muse Charm, which shipped around the same window the Limitless acquisition closed.

The Best Alternatives to the Limitless Pendant, Compared

Device Price Capture Subscription Closest to Limitless on
Bee Frontier $74.99, sold through Amazon Button to start; stays on until a silence timeout you set (5 minutes to 24 hours) Some features need Bee Pro; price not shown on the Frontier page Price
Omi $129 (limited-time price, list $179) Always-on Free 300 min/mo; Plus $19/mo or $161.91/yr; Unlimited $29/mo or $269.91/yr Open source control
Plaud NotePin S $179 Press to record Free tier, Pro $99.99/yr Transcript quality
Vibe Dot $249, currently $199, which Vibe describes as 20% off Tap to record, press and hold, or double-tap; automatic mode is Beta Starter free forever, 300 min/mo; Pro $9/mo, stated as $108/yr; Max $29/mo, stated as $348/yr Recording time and a usable free tier
Friend 2.0 $249 Always-on $10/mo optional Nothing, different job entirely
Sandbar Stream $249 Press and hold Free tier, $10/mo Pro Discreet capture, ring form
Pocket $139 (list $199) Press the side button to record Free tier with unlimited standard-accuracy transcription; Pro $19.99/mo or $239.88/yr A free tier you can live on
soundcore Work $159 (8GB) Press to record Pro $15.99/mo or $99.99/yr; Unlimited $239.99/yr Nothing specific, a press-to-record recorder
SwitchBot AI MindClip $119.99 Not stated by SwitchBot 300 free minutes plus a 3-month Pro trial for new users; then Pro $15.99/mo, $69.99 for 6 months or $99.99/yr; Unlimited $239.99/yr Hardware price
Memoket Gem $199 Press to record Starter free, 300 min/mo; Pro $8.33/mo or $99.96 for 12 months, 1,500 min/mo; Unlimited $19.99/mo or $239.88 for 12 months Monthly minutes on the Pro plan
Legend $499 USD Always-on First year included, $499/yr Always-on capture and privacy design

If You Bought Limitless for the Price

Bee is the obvious landing spot. The Bee Frontier is $74.99 on Amazon. You start it with a button, and it keeps listening until a period of silence you choose, from 5 minutes to 24 hours, so a long day can feel close to the Pendant. It comes with a wristband and a clip rather than a necklace.

Be careful with the running cost. Bee says some features need a Bee Pro subscription, but the Frontier page does not show its price, so check it before you buy.

Bee lists up to 7 days of battery (up to 160 hours), IP67 water resistance and more than 40 languages. You are also swapping one acquired company for another, so if Meta owning your transcripts bothered you, ask yourself the same question about Amazon. We put the two head to head in Plaud NotePin S vs Bee.

Omi at $129 is no longer a budget option, but it is the better answer if you want control. It is genuinely open source across hardware, firmware, and app, with a plugin store and an active community. Nobody else in this category lets you change what the device does. Its plans are a free tier with 300 cloud transcription minutes a month, Plus at $19 a month or $161.91 a year, and Unlimited at $29 a month or $269.91 a year, so three years on Unlimited is $129 plus $269.91 three times, about $939 all in.

If You Bought Limitless for Meeting Notes

Plaud NotePin S at $179 is the upgrade. Plaud publishes support for 112 languages with speaker labels and describes its transcription as industry-leading without attaching a percentage to it, so treat any specific accuracy figure quoted elsewhere with caution. Its predecessor, the NotePin, won a Tom's Guide AI Award in 2025. The free tier covers 300 minutes a month, with Pro at $99.99 a year and Unlimited at $239.99.

The real change is behavioral. Plaud records when you press it. For scheduled conversations that is arguably better than always-on, since you get clean session boundaries and no clutter. For the hallway exchange you did not know mattered, it captures nothing at all. We set the two capture styles side by side in our device comparison.

If You Bought Limitless for the Battery Life

Vibe Dot is the closest thing on this list to a straight replacement. It lists at $249 and is currently $199, which Vibe describes as 20% off, so that is a launch discount off the full price rather than a deposit against a device that ships later. Vibe's own battery wording is "30+hours non-stop recording", and the qualifier is the point: that is continuous recording rather than standby, which is precisely the number the Pendant advertised well and delivered badly.

The free tier is the other reason it lands. Starter is free forever with 300 AI transcription minutes a month, and Vibe states that core recording, storage and basic AI summaries are free. Pro is $9 a month, which Vibe states as $108 a year, and Max is $29 a month, stated as $348 a year. That is a lower running cost than the Pendant's former $19 Pro plan, and unlike Bee it is actually published, so you can plan around it.

Two things to know before you buy. Capture is hybrid and you pick the mode: tap to record, press and hold, or double-tap. There is an automatic mode that "Stays ready in the background and auto-records conversations you take part in", plus a scheduled-recording option, but Vibe labels that mode Beta. If hands-off capture is the specific habit you are replacing, treat it as something to test rather than assume. The second thing is the audio. Vibe Dot keeps a file: it "stores your audio locally and syncs it to the Vibe AI App on your phone via Bluetooth", with 64GB onboard. If you want the recording as well as the transcript, that is a real advantage over Legend, which turns your conversations into text and has no playback. If the existence of a recording is what made you uneasy about the Pendant, it cuts the other way.

If You Bought Limitless to Never Miss Anything

This is the group with the hardest replacement problem, because always-on capture is exactly what most of the market moved away from. Omi covers it cheaply, Bee Frontier comes close with its long silence timeout, and Vibe Dot covers it too, though its automatic mode is still labelled Beta. The other option worth understanding is what happens to the audio afterward.

The Pendant's Consent Mode showed that Limitless took the social problem seriously. If that was part of why you bought it, the successor question is not just whether a device listens continuously, but whether it retains recordings and whether the people around you can tell it is running. Those two design choices separate the current field more than price does, and we walk through how to handle it in Is It Creepy to Wear an AI Pendant?

New Options Since Limitless Ended

Pocket is an AI recorder you start by pressing its side button, and it is $139 (list $199) with a free tier of unlimited standard-accuracy transcription. It suits you if you want a low running cost and can live with pressing a button, with Pro at $19.99 a month or $239.88 a year if you want more; we compare it in Pocket vs Plaud.

soundcore Work is a press-to-record recorder at $159 for the 8GB model. It suits you if you want a yearly plan rather than a monthly one, with Pro at $15.99 a month or $99.99 a year and Unlimited at $239.99 a year; see soundcore Work vs Plaud NotePin S.

SwitchBot AI MindClip is a clip-on recorder at $119.99, the lowest hardware price on this list after Bee. It suits you if you want to try the category cheaply, since new users get 300 free minutes plus a 3-month Pro trial before Pro at $15.99 a month or $99.99 a year; more in What Is SwitchBot AI MindClip?

Memoket Gem is a press-to-record device at $199 that keeps an audio file, stored encrypted in AWS. It suits you if you want the recording as well as the transcript, with a free Starter plan of 300 minutes a month, Pro at $8.33 a month with 1,500 minutes, and Unlimited at $19.99 a month; more in What Is Memoket?

Limitless vs Bee: Two Memory Devices, Two Acquisitions

Limitless and Bee were the two best-known voice-first memory devices before big tech bought them. Amazon acquired Bee in July 2025, and Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025. Limitless was a pendant built around searchable transcripts and recaps of meetings and conversations. Bee was a wristband or clip built around summaries, reminders and a running log of your day. The difference now is that Bee is still sold, as the Bee Frontier through Amazon, and the Pendant is not. For Bee’s current rivals, see Bee alternatives.

Before You Switch: Export Your Data

Support ends in late 2026, and the safest assumption is that access to your transcripts ends with it. Whatever the shutdown timeline turns out to be, exporting is a one-time task that costs you an hour now and is impossible later. Do it before you decide on a replacement, not after, because the export is the part with a deadline attached.

It is also worth deleting what you do not want retained. If your Pendant history is moving into a larger company's infrastructure, the transcripts you actively want are a much smaller set than the transcripts you happen to have.

We also keep a standalone guide to what happened to Limitless, how to export your data and the current alternatives at limitlessalternative.com, which our team also runs.

The Takeaway

Buy Bee Frontier at $74.99 if price drove your original decision and you want long, hands-off capture back cheaply. Buy Plaud NotePin S at $179 if what you actually valued was clean, accurate meeting transcripts and you can live with pressing a button. Buy Vibe Dot at $199 if the thing you want back is long continuous recording time and a free tier you can genuinely live on, accepting that its automatic capture mode is still Beta. Buy Omi at $129 if you want to own and modify the thing. And before any of that, export your Limitless data, because support ends this year.

If the reason you wore a Pendant was that you did not trust yourself to remember to hit record, Legend is built for that exact case. It is a voice-first pendant made for people with ADHD, worn at chest height, always on with no button to press, transcribing conversations to text instantly and without waiting to be triggered. It is not a medical device and does not treat ADHD. Audio is used only to create the transcript and isn't kept in your account. If your pendant is away from your phone, audio is held on the pendant until it syncs, then deleted. There's no audio to play back. Our page on how Legend works walks through each step. A Halo light shows when it is active, which answers the same social problem Consent Mode was reaching for. Everything arrives as daily summaries and auto-generated to-dos in the Legend App. It is $499 USD including the first year of membership, renewing at $499 a year, which is $1,497 over three years, with a 30-day money-back window. That makes it the most expensive option here by a distance, and it is worth it only if always-on capture with no audio kept in your account is the feature you would miss most. If you want the longest battery, Vibe Dot beats it. If you want the lowest price, Bee beats it. If you want to play the audio back, Legend is the wrong device.

Keep Reading

FAQ

Why was the Limitless Pendant discontinued? Meta acquired Limitless in December 2025 and ended Pendant sales. Support for existing devices runs through late 2026.

Who bought Limitless, and for how much? Meta, in December 2025. The terms were not disclosed. Limitless had raised $33 million from investors including First Round Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA and Sam Altman, and its team joined Meta to work on AI wearables.

What is the cheapest Limitless Pendant alternative? Bee Frontier at $74.99, sold through Amazon. Some features need a Bee Pro subscription, and Bee does not show its price on the Frontier page. Omi is next at $129 (limited-time price, list $179) and is fully open source.

Does my Limitless Pendant still work? Yes, for now. Limitless says it will support existing Pendant customers throughout 2026, which leaves about two months, and existing customers get the Unlimited plan free. Export your data before then.

What are the best alternatives to the Limitless Pendant? Bee Frontier at $74.99 for the lowest price, Plaud NotePin S at $179 for the most accurate meeting transcripts, Omi at $129 (limited-time price, list $179) if you want open source control, Vibe Dot at $199 for 30+hours non-stop recording and a free tier with 300 AI transcription minutes a month, and Legend at $499 USD for always-on capture that turns your conversations into text, with no audio to play back and none kept in your account.

Which alternative is closest to Limitless? For long, hands-off capture at low cost, Bee Frontier, which stays on until a silence timeout you set. For the longest continuous recording time and a free tier you can live on, Vibe Dot, though its automatic capture mode is still Beta. For the same always-on behaviour with no audio kept in your account and no playback, Legend. For accuracy on meetings specifically, Plaud NotePin S, though it records only when pressed.

Should I export my Limitless data before support ends? Yes. Access to transcripts should be assumed to end with support in late 2026, and exporting is not something you can do afterwards.

Sources: CNBC: Meta acquiring AI wearable company Limitless; SiliconANGLE: Meta acquires Sam Altman-backed AI wearable startup Limitless; AI Business: Meta acquires wearable AI startup Limitless; Big Guy on Stuff: AI Wearables Review 2026; Layer3Labs: Best AI Wearable Pendants 2026. Vibe Dot pricing, battery, capture modes and storage verified at vibe.us on 7 September 2026. Omi plan pricing verified at omi.me on 17 September 2026, and Omi hardware price rechecked at omi.me on 2 October 2026. Limitless's continued-support timeline and Pendant sales status reverified at limitless.ai on 26 September 2026. Deal terms, funding and investors verified on 29 September 2026. Pocket price and plans verified at heypocket.com on 2 October 2026. Memoket Gem price and plans checked at memoket.ai on 6 October 2026. Bee, Plaud NotePin S, Vibe Dot, soundcore Work, SwitchBot AI MindClip and Legend One prices checked against each maker's own site as of 6 October 2026. Limitless support status rechecked at limitless.ai, and Bee Frontier price and capture at bee.computer, on 30 October 2026.

0 comments
Gold Legend pendant Batch 3 now taking orders Introducing Legend. The AI pendant that remembers your day. See the pendant →