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Fathom
- Best for
- Individuals and small teams who want a generous free plan
- Price from
- Free; Premium $16 a month billed annually ($20 monthly)
Fathom’s pricing page lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, unlimited call storage and instant AI call summaries on the free plan. Premium adds advanced summaries, AI action items and a conversational assistant. For a person who mainly wants reliable notes from video calls, the free plan is the most generous of the three.
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Fireflies.ai
- Best for
- Teams that want searchable meeting records across many calls and tools
- Price from
- Free; Pro $10 per seat a month billed annually
Fireflies lists unlimited transcription on every plan, with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat on Pro and unlimited storage on Business at $19 per seat billed annually. The free plan is limited: 400 minutes of storage per team and limited AI summaries. It suits teams that want to search across a library of calls rather than read notes one by one.
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Otter.ai
- Best for
- People who mostly want live transcription and simple notes on mobile and desktop
- Price from
- Free for 300 minutes a month; Pro $8.33 a month billed annually ($16.99 monthly)
Otter’s free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month, capped at 30 minutes per meeting, which rules it out for longer calls. Pro raises that to 1,200 minutes and 90 minutes per meeting. Its Business plan lists unlimited monthly minutes and 4-hour meetings. It is a sound choice if meetings are short, and a poor one if they run long and you stay on free.
AI note takers join your meetings, record and transcribe them, then produce summaries and action items. Used well, they remove the worst part of meetings: the person who has to take notes instead of taking part.
This page compares three of the best-known tools using each vendor’s own pricing page, read on 12 October 2026. We have not run calls in all three, so the page is labelled as researched. See how we test for what that means. Other tools exist; we will add more as we check them.
How we compared them
Meeting tools are priced on different limits, so a headline price can mislead. We recorded four things from each pricing page:
- What the free plan allows, including minutes per month, meeting length and storage.
- The first paid price, both billed annually and monthly where the page showed it.
- Limits that matter in real use, such as the length of one meeting and how much AI summarising is allowed.
- Who the tool is built for.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Free plan | First paid plan (annual billing) | Key free-plan limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Yes | Premium $16 a month | Advanced summaries and AI action items are paid |
| Fireflies.ai | Yes | Pro $10 per seat a month | 400 minutes storage per team; limited AI summaries |
| Otter.ai | Yes | Pro $8.33 a month | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per meeting |
Prices are in US dollars, per user, as listed on 12 October 2026. Monthly billing costs more: Fathom lists $20, Otter lists $16.99. Fireflies’ monthly prices were not clearly labelled on the page we read.
Details that decide it
Meeting length. Otter’s free plan caps each meeting at 30 minutes and its Pro plan at 90 minutes. If your calls run an hour or two, that limit matters more than the price.
Storage. Fireflies lists 400 minutes of storage per team on free, 8,000 minutes per seat on Pro and unlimited on Business. Fathom’s page lists unlimited recordings and call storage.
Summary quality tiers. All three offer AI summaries, but the deeper features sit on paid plans. Fathom’s Premium adds advanced summaries, action items and an assistant. Fireflies lists unlimited AI summaries from Pro. Otter’s Pro adds advanced AI workflows and meeting templates.
Integrations. Otter’s Pro plan lists Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations. Fathom’s Business plan lists CRM field sync. Check that the tool connects to whatever you use before paying.
Privacy and consent
Recording a meeting is not only a software choice. Laws on recording conversations vary by country and, in some places, by state, and many companies have their own rules. The simple standard is to tell everyone at the start of the call that it is being recorded and transcribed, and to skip recording where anyone objects. For client or sensitive calls, check the vendor’s data-retention and security terms and ask whoever owns compliance at your company.
Our recommendation
If you want to try one tool today with no card, start with Fathom’s free plan, then compare Fireflies if you want a searchable library for a team. Choose Otter if your meetings are short and you value live transcription on mobile. For any of them, run it on three real meetings before paying and check the summaries against what was actually decided.
Related reading: our Fireflies review.
Common questions
What is the best free AI meeting note taker?
On the pricing pages we read, Fathom’s free plan is the most generous: unlimited recordings, transcriptions and storage with instant AI summaries. Fireflies’ free plan has unlimited transcription but 400 minutes of storage per team and limited summaries. Otter’s free plan allows 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per meeting.
Do AI note takers need to join the call as a bot?
Many join as a visible participant, which makes recording obvious to everyone. Fathom’s page also lists a bot-free option in beta. Whatever tool you use, tell attendees you are recording and get their agreement where the law or your company policy requires it.
Are these tools safe for confidential meetings?
That depends on the vendor’s security terms and your company’s rules. Read the vendor’s privacy and data-retention pages, and ask your IT or legal team before recording client or internal-sensitive calls. Enterprise plans typically add controls such as SSO and custom data retention.