Otter vs Fireflies vs Fathom: AI meeting note-takers compared

Anyone picking an AI note-taker for Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams calls is really choosing between how much they want to pay per seat, how much free usage they actually get, and whether they trust a bot to sit in every meeting. Fireflies wins on per-seat price for teams, Otter wins on a clean transcript archive for individuals, and Fathom wins on the most usable free plan of the three. Bluedot and two more specialized picks below cover what those three don't.

Key takeaways

• Fireflies costs less per seat than Otter or Bluedot, but its free plan tightened in September 2026 to just 3 transcription credits for new sign-ups.
• Otter's free Basic plan caps at 300 transcription minutes a month, which a weekly meeting habit burns through in under a month.
• Fathom is not in Toolio's directory yet, but its free plan has no seat limit and is worth checking against the paid options here before you commit.
• Bluedot's free tier only covers five meetings for the life of the account, so treat it as a trial rather than an ongoing free plan.
• None of these tools handles heavy cross-talk or accented speech as reliably as clean, single-speaker audio, whatever the marketing copy claims.

Otter, Fireflies and the free-tier tradeoffs

The three most-searched names in this category price and cap themselves differently enough that the right pick depends more on your meeting volume than on transcription quality, which is broadly similar across all of them.

Otter.ai

Otter.ai joins Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex calls, transcribes them live, and turns the transcript into a searchable, summarized record with an AI chat layered over your meeting history.

It suits sales teams, educators and content creators who run many recurring calls and want one archive to search across all of them, across web, desktop and mobile.

The free Basic plan includes 300 transcription minutes a month. Pro costs $16.99 a month billed monthly, or $8.33 a month billed annually; Business runs $19.99 a month per user billed annually, as of September 2026.

Its main drawback is that 300-minute cap: a single weekly hour-long meeting alone uses roughly 240 minutes a month, leaving almost no room for anything else before you hit Pro.

Fireflies AI

Fireflies AI records and transcribes calls across the same major platforms, then adds searchable AI summaries, action-item extraction and integrations into CRMs and team chat tools.

It suits medium and large remote teams that want to standardize on one note-taker across many seats and pull meeting data into a CRM automatically.

Pro costs $10 a seat a month billed annually, or $18 a seat a month billed monthly; Business runs $19 a seat a month billed annually, or $29 billed monthly, as of September 2026.

Its free plan changed in September 2026: accounts created on or after September 1 get only 3 transcription credits rather than the previously unlimited free transcriptions, with an 800-minute storage cap. Long-time free users on older accounts keep their old limits, but anyone signing up now should expect the tighter version.

Fathom

Fathom is not currently listed on Toolio, but it comes up often enough in this comparison that leaving it out would be dishonest. It records and transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, generates instant AI summaries, and syncs highlights into a CRM without a paid plan being required to do any of that.

It suits solo users and small teams who want a genuinely free plan rather than a time-limited trial, plus teams willing to pay per seat for more CRM automation.

The individual Free plan has no seat limit and includes unlimited recordings and transcripts. Premium for individuals runs $20 a month, or $16 a month billed annually. Team plans start at $19 a user a month billed annually with a two-user minimum, and Business runs $34 a user a month billed annually, as of September 2026.

Its drawback is the built-in nudge toward inviting a bot into every call - some IT policies block meeting bots outright - and the deepest data controls sit behind the priciest tier.

Bluedot

Bluedot is an AI note-taker for Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams with a bot-free capture option and direct integrations into Slack, Notion, Zapier and Make.

It suits meeting coordinators and sales teams who already live in Slack or Notion and want meeting notes routed there automatically rather than exported by hand.

The free plan covers five meetings for the lifetime of the account - a trial, not an ongoing free tier. Basic costs $14 a user a month, Pro runs $20 a user a month, and Business runs $32 a user a month, as of September 2026.

Its own listing on Toolio flags the main drawback: it does not automatically update CRMs, so that integration needs manual setup rather than working out of the box.

Two options for different needs

Neither of the next two tools is a direct swap for the four above, but each solves a problem the mainstream note-takers don't.

Assembly AI is not a meeting note-taker you sign into and use day to day - it is the speech-to-text API several note-taking products are quietly built on. New accounts get $50 in free credits, then pricing runs on a pay-as-you-go basis per hour of audio processed. It only makes sense if you or your team wants to build a custom transcription pipeline rather than buy a finished app.

Anything LLM is a free, open-source desktop app for running language models locally. It is not built specifically as a meeting note-taker, but because everything runs on your own machine rather than a vendor's cloud, it is worth knowing about if your meetings cover material you cannot send to a third party. It takes real setup work and is not a plug-and-play notetaker like the four above.

How to choose

If cost per seat matters most and your team is large, Fireflies is the cheapest of the paid options here, though budget for its tighter free tier if you are just trying it out.

If you are one person who wants a clean, searchable archive of every call and doesn't mind paying a bit more, Otter Pro is built around exactly that.

If you want to try a real note-taker without paying anything and without a seat limit, start with Fathom's free plan before comparing it against the others.

If your team already lives in Slack or Notion and wants notes to land there automatically, Bluedot is worth the setup time its CRM gap costs you elsewhere.

If your meetings involve material that cannot leave your organization's machines - legal, clinical or similarly sensitive conversations - none of the four above is built for that. Look at Anything LLM paired with a local transcription model instead, and accept that it takes more work to set up.

FAQ

Is Otter.ai actually free?

Yes, but only up to 300 transcription minutes a month on the Basic plan. That is roughly five hour-long meetings before you need Pro.

Does Fireflies still offer unlimited free transcription?

No. As of September 2026, new sign-ups get 3 free transcription credits and an 800-minute storage cap rather than the unlimited free transcription some older accounts still have.

Which of these works without a bot joining the call?

Fathom has a bot-free capture beta on Mac, and Bluedot offers a bot-free capture option too. Otter and Fireflies both rely on a bot joining the meeting.

Can I take AI meeting notes without sending audio to a vendor's cloud?

Not with Otter, Fireflies, Fathom or Bluedot - all four process audio in their own cloud. Anything LLM run locally is the option here that keeps everything on your machine, at the cost of a much more manual setup.