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Meetings · Comparisons
Otter vs. Fireflies: Which AI Note Taker Should You Use?
Otter.ai is the better pick for most individuals and in-person meetings, with cheaper annual pricing and unlimited storage on Pro. Fireflies.ai is the better pick for teams that live in a CRM or care most about stated AI-training policies.
The better pick for individuals and in-person meetings
Otter is cheaper per user on annual billing, includes unlimited storage on Pro and has a mature phone app with live transcription for meetings in a real room.
The stronger platform for teams, CRMs and multilingual meetings
Fireflies offers broader integrations, conversation analytics on Business, video recording from Pro, more languages and a stated policy against training AI on your meeting data.
The Research Score rates each product on its own merits. Our picks also weigh price and who the product is for, so a pick can rank above a higher-scoring product. How we score
Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai are two of the best-known AI note takers. Both send a bot into Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls, both have phone apps for recording meetings in a real room, and both turn conversations into searchable transcripts with AI summaries. On paper they look almost interchangeable, which is why “Otter vs. Fireflies” is such a common question.
The differences show up in the details: how the free plans are limited (minutes per month for Otter, total storage for Fireflies), how far each tool goes into CRM and sales workflows, which languages they support and what each company says about training AI on your recordings.
Our short answer: if you mostly take notes for yourself, including in person, Otter is the better buy. If you are a sales, recruiting or customer team that wants call notes flowing into Salesforce or HubSpot, Fireflies is the stronger platform.
Unlimited transcription, 400 min storage, limited AI summaries, 20 AI credits
Pro: $10/seat/mo annually or $18 monthly
Business: $19/seat/mo annually or $29 monthly
English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian; 100+ more in beta
Salesforce, HubSpot and others from Pro
✓ : iOS and Android app
Says it does not train on meeting data by default
8.1
Why you should trust us
We compared Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai using their official pricing pages, help-center articles, security pages and app-store listings, all checked on October 26, 2026, plus user reviews on Trustpilot and news coverage of Otter’s privacy lawsuit (see Sources). We rated both tools with our published Research Score, which weighs features, value, privacy, compatibility and support. We did not run hands-on recording tests for this comparison; where we describe how a feature works, we say whose documentation it comes from.
Who this is for
This comparison is for anyone choosing between the two most familiar names in AI meeting notes: freelancers and students who want a transcript of every conversation, managers who are tired of writing minutes, and sales or customer teams that want call notes to land in their CRM automatically. If you are still deciding whether you need a third-party note taker at all, the AI features built into Zoom, Teams and Google Meet may be enough; our guide on how to use AI to take meeting notes explains what each one requires.
The short answer
Pick Otter.ai if you are mostly taking notes for yourself, record a lot of in-person conversations, or want the lowest annual price with unlimited storage.
Pick Fireflies.ai if you work in a team that runs on Salesforce, HubSpot or a phone dialer, need conversation analytics, meet in languages beyond Otter’s six, or want a vendor that says it does not train AI on your meetings by default.
How we compared
Price and plan limits: monthly and annual prices, free-plan limits, minutes, storage and per-conversation caps, all taken from the official pricing pages.
Meeting coverage: which video platforms each tool joins, and how well it handles in-person recording on a phone.
Integrations: CRMs, dialers and collaboration tools.
Languages: what each company lists as supported, and what it labels beta.
Privacy: encryption, certifications, AI-training policies and data deletion, from each company’s security page.
User sentiment: recurring praise and complaints in Trustpilot reviews, described in general terms.
Best for individuals · The better pick for individuals and in-person meetings
O
Otter.ai
7.7/10
Otter is cheaper per user on annual billing, includes unlimited storage on Pro and has a mature phone app with live transcription for meetings in a real room.
Otter’s main advantage for individuals is price and simplicity. At the time of research, Otter Pro cost $8.33 per user per month billed annually ($16.99 billed monthly) and included 1,200 transcription minutes per month, conversations of up to 90 minutes, 10 audio or video file imports per month and unlimited storage. Fireflies’ cheapest paid plan cost $10 per seat per month billed annually and capped storage at 8,000 minutes per seat.
Otter is also built around recording in the room, not just on calls. According to its pricing page and App Store listing, the iOS and Android apps transcribe live while you record, take audio from the built-in mic, Bluetooth headsets or AirPods, and can start a recording from a home-screen widget or a Siri shortcut. That makes it easy to put a phone on the table at a client meeting or lecture and walk away with a transcript and summary. The same account also joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.
For people who outgrow Pro, the Business plan ($19.99 per user per month billed annually, or $30 billed monthly, at the time of research) removes the monthly cap on meeting and in-app recording minutes, allows conversations of up to four hours and lets Otter join three meetings at once.
On Trustpilot, reviewers frequently praise Otter’s support staff and the time the summaries save; the most common complaints concern plan limits running out and getting help with account issues.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The free Basic plan is tight. It includes 300 transcription minutes per month, but each conversation stops at 30 minutes, you can import only three files in total, and only your 25 most recent conversations stay available. That is enough to try Otter, not to run a weekly team meeting on it.
Privacy is the bigger caveat. Otter’s security page says it de-identifies user data and then uses it to train its own models, while not sharing customer data with third-party AI providers for training; the page does not describe a way to opt out. A proposed class action filed in August 2025 alleges that Otter’s notetaker recorded meeting participants who had not consented and used those recordings for training. Those are allegations, and we could not verify the current status of the case, but anyone in a regulated field should read Otter’s policies closely.
Who it’s for
Students, consultants, journalists and other individuals who record a mix of online and in-person conversations.
Who should skip it
You need deep CRM automation, broad language support or a vendor that says it does not train its own models on your data.
Pros
Pro costs $8.33 per user per month billed annually (at the time of research)
Unlimited storage and conversation history on paid plans
Live transcription in the iOS and Android apps, with widget and Siri shortcut support
Cons
Free plan caps each conversation at 30 minutes and keeps only your 25 most recent conversations
Trains its own models on de-identified user data; no opt-out is described on its security page
Six transcription languages, fewer than Fireflies lists
Research Score
7.7/10
Features (30%)8
Value for money (25%)9
Privacy & security (20%)6
Compatibility (15%)7
Docs & support (10%)8
Free Basic plan; Pro $8.33/user/month billed annually or $16.99 billed monthly; Business $19.99/user/month billed annually or $30 billed monthly (at the time of research)
Affiliate link · price at the time of research, may have changed
Best for teams · The stronger platform for teams, CRMs and multilingual meetings
F
Fireflies.ai
8.1/10
Fireflies offers broader integrations, conversation analytics on Business, video recording from Pro, more languages and a stated policy against training AI on your meeting data.
Fireflies is built for teams. Its integrations page lists CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot, dialers including Aircall, RingCentral and Zoom Phone, and collaboration tools like Slack, alongside Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoToMeeting. Integrations are part of the paid plans, and the Business plan (at the time of research, $19 per seat per month billed annually or $29 billed monthly) adds conversation intelligence, team analytics for admins, multi-language mode and unlimited storage.
The free plan is structured differently from Otter’s. Fireflies lists unlimited transcription on the free tier, but with limited AI summaries, 20 AI credits and 400 minutes of total storage. Fireflies’ help center stresses that storage is a total cap, not a monthly allowance, so the free plan works for trying the tool rather than keeping an archive. Pro raises storage to 8,000 minutes per seat and adds video recording, downloads and unlimited AI summaries.
Fireflies also has iOS and Android apps for in-person meetings: according to its help center, you tap the record button, optionally name the recording, and it is processed and saved to your notebook, where it also appears in the web app. Its help center says mobile-app recordings are not subject to upload rate limits.
On Trustpilot, reviewers frequently describe Fireflies’ transcripts and summaries as accurate and fast and mention its integrations; recurring complaints include the bot joining calls it should not, missed recordings and a setup that asks for broad calendar access.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
Storage caps are the catch. Even on Pro, Fireflies stores 8,000 minutes per seat, roughly 133 hours of meetings, after which you need to delete recordings or move to Business. Heavy individual users who want an indefinite archive will get more from Otter Pro’s unlimited storage.
Fireflies is also more complex. Many of its newer features, such as AskFred and AI apps, draw on a pool of AI credits (20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise at the time of research). And its language support is broader on paper than in practice: the company calls English its primary language and labels most of the 100+ additional languages as beta.
Who it’s for
Sales, recruiting and customer success teams that want meeting notes synced to a CRM and searchable across the whole team.
Who should skip it
You are an individual on a budget who wants to keep years of recordings: Pro caps storage at 8,000 minutes per seat.
Pros
Free plan has no monthly transcription cap (storage is the limit)
Integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, dialers like Aircall and RingCentral, and Slack
Says it does not train AI on meeting data by default; SOC 2 Type II and ISO 42001 listed
Lists English plus Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, with 100+ more languages in beta
Cons
Pro costs more than Otter Pro ($10 vs. $8.33 billed annually, $18 vs. $16.99 billed monthly)
Free plan stores only 400 minutes of meetings; Pro caps storage at 8,000 minutes per seat
Advanced AI features draw on a limited pool of AI credits
Research Score
8.1/10
Features (30%)9
Value for money (25%)7
Privacy & security (20%)8
Compatibility (15%)9
Docs & support (10%)7
Free plan; Pro $10/seat/month billed annually or $18 billed monthly; Business $19/seat/month billed annually or $29 billed monthly; Enterprise $39/seat/month, annual only (at the time of research)
A few details matter more than the headline prices:
Otter limits minutes; Fireflies limits storage. Otter’s free and Pro plans meter how many minutes you transcribe each month (no rollover), while Fireflies meters how many minutes you can keep in total. If you record a lot and never delete, Otter Pro’s unlimited storage is the better deal; if you want to transcribe everything but only keep recent meetings, Fireflies’ model can work.
Otter showed promotions. At the time of research Otter’s page displayed an introductory discount on monthly Business billing and separate discounted prices that it says apply only to India-issued cards. We list the regular US prices.
Fireflies AI credits are extra. Its AI assistant and AI apps draw from a pool of AI credits (20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise), so heavy use of those features may need more.
Students: Otter lists an education discount for .edu email addresses on Pro.
Privacy compared
Both companies encrypt stored data with AES-256, and both point to SOC 2 Type II audits. The bigger difference is AI training.
Otter.ai says on its privacy and security page that it uses a proprietary method to de-identify user data before training its own models, that the process is automated without human review of audio or transcripts, and that no customer data is used to train third-party AI providers’ models. The page does not describe an opt-out from training Otter’s own models. It says it follows HIPAA requirements and offers HIPAA compliance as an Enterprise add-on. Deleted conversations go to the trash and are removed automatically after 30 days. A proposed class action filed in August 2025 in federal court in California alleges that Otter’s notetaker recorded people who had not agreed to it and used the recordings for training; those claims have not been proven, and we could not confirm the case’s current status.
Fireflies.ai says on its security page that it does not train on your data by default, keeps a zero-day data retention policy with its vendors and partners, and lets customers delete their data at any time. It lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and ISO 42001 (a standard for managing AI systems). HIPAA and FERPA agreements, private storage and custom data retention are limited to Enterprise.
Whichever tool you choose, the person running the note taker is responsible for telling others they are being recorded. Recording-consent laws vary by state and country, and some require every participant’s consent.
The bottom line
For most individuals, Otter.ai is the easier recommendation: the lowest annual price, unlimited storage on Pro and a phone app that makes in-person recording a one-tap job. Its weak spots are a cramped free plan and a training policy that privacy-minded users should read carefully.
For teams, especially in sales, recruiting and customer success, Fireflies.ai is the stronger platform, with CRM and dialer integrations, conversation analytics on Business, more languages and a clearer stance against training on your meetings. Just watch the storage caps on Free and Pro.
For individuals and in-person meetings, Otter is the better value, with Pro at $8.33 per user per month billed annually and unlimited storage. For sales and CRM-driven teams, Fireflies offers more integrations, conversation analytics and broader language support.
Is Otter cheaper than Fireflies?
On annual billing, yes: at the time of research Otter Pro cost $8.33 per user per month versus $10 per seat for Fireflies Pro. At the team tier the two are close: Otter Business was $19.99 and Fireflies Business $19 per user per month billed annually.
Which free plan is better, Otter or Fireflies?
It depends on how you meet. Otter’s free plan gives 300 minutes per month but stops each conversation at 30 minutes. Fireflies’ free plan does not cap transcription but stores only 400 minutes in total, so you will run out of room quickly.
Do Otter and Fireflies use my meetings to train AI?
Otter says it trains its own models on de-identified user data and does not let third-party AI providers train on customer data. Fireflies says it does not train on your data by default and has a zero-day retention policy with its vendors. Check both policies before recording sensitive meetings.
Can Otter and Fireflies record in-person meetings?
Yes. Both have iOS and Android apps that record through the phone’s microphone. Otter’s app shows a live transcript while you record. Tell everyone in the room that you are recording; consent laws vary by location.
