Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai: Best AI Meeting Notetaker

Otter.ai is the better AI meeting notetaker for individuals, students and anyone who wants accurate live transcripts at the lowest price: Pro costs $8.33 a month on annual billing for 1,200 minutes. Fireflies.ai is the better pick for sales and customer-facing teams that want unlimited transcription, CRM-style integrations, video recording and conversation analytics. If you mostly need notes you can read during and after meetings, choose Otter; if you need searchable meeting intelligence across a team, choose Fireflies.

Below we compare both tools on transcription limits, AI summaries, integrations, pricing per seat, education discounts and security, so you know exactly which plan to buy.

Quick verdict: Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai

Both tools join your Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams calls, record and transcribe them, and produce AI summaries, action items and searchable notes. The differences are in the details. Otter built its name on live transcription you can follow, highlight and comment on during the meeting. Fireflies built its name on automated capture across a whole team, with integrations that push notes into CRMs and project tools, plus analytics on talk time and topics.

For a wider view of the category, including assistants built into Notion, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, see our list of the best AI meeting assistants and note takers.

Transcription quality and meeting limits

In everyday use, both tools produce accurate English transcripts in clear audio, and both struggle in the same places: heavy crosstalk, poor microphones and strong accents on bad connections. Otter’s advantage is its live transcript view, which lets you read along, highlight key moments and add comments while the meeting is happening. That makes it popular with students in lectures and with journalists and researchers doing interviews.

The bigger practical difference is limits. Otter meters minutes: 300 a month on Basic, 1,200 on Pro, and unlimited meetings only on Business. It also caps each conversation, at 30 minutes on Basic, 90 minutes on Pro and 4 hours on Business. Fireflies Pro removes the transcription cap entirely and instead limits storage, at 8,000 minutes per seat, with unlimited storage on Business.

AI summaries, search and features

Otter.ai features

Otter produces automatic summaries, action items and an AI chat you can use to ask questions about a meeting (“What did we decide about the launch date?”). Its assistant can join calendar meetings automatically. Business adds custom AI workflows and lets the assistant attend up to 3 meetings at the same time, which helps managers with overlapping calls. Enterprise adds an API and webhooks so you can pipe transcripts into other systems.

Fireflies.ai features

Fireflies covers the same summary and Q&A basics, then goes further for teams. Business adds video recording, conversation intelligence (metrics such as talk-to-listen ratio, questions asked and topic tracking) and team analytics. That makes it useful for sales managers coaching reps or customer success leads reviewing account calls. Fireflies also meters some advanced AI features with AI credits: 20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business and 50 on Enterprise. The pricing page does not say how often credits refresh, so check before relying on them.

If your notes end up in a knowledge base, compare these tools with built-in options. Notion Business includes AI Meeting Notes; our guide to Notion AI pricing explains which plan includes it, and our Notion AI review covers how well it works. Google Workspace users can also try Gemini, covered in our guide on using Gemini in Gmail, Docs and Sheets.

Pricing compared: what a team really pays

Otter.ai plans

Confirm current numbers on the official Otter.ai pricing page.

Fireflies.ai plans

Check the official Fireflies.ai pricing page for the latest limits.

Worked example: a 5-person team on annual billing

• Otter Pro: 5 x $99.96 = $499.80 a year, with 1,200 minutes per person per month.
• Fireflies Pro: 5 x $10 x 12 = $600 a year, with unlimited transcription.
• Otter Business: 5 x $19.99 x 12 = $1,199.40 a year.
• Fireflies Business: 5 x $19 x 12 = $1,140 a year.

At the Pro level, Otter saves about $100 a year for five people, but only if each person stays under 1,200 minutes (20 hours) of meetings a month and under 90 minutes per call. Heavy meeting users often get better value from Fireflies Pro. At the Business level, the two are within about $60 a year of each other, so choose on features. Our guide to when AI team plans actually save money explains how to make this call for other tools too.

Student and education pricing

Otter gives 20% off Pro to students and teachers with a .edu email: $6.67 a month billed annually ($79.99 a year) or $13.59 monthly. Fireflies does not list a student or nonprofit discount. For more student deals across AI tools, see our roundup of AI tool student discounts and free plans and our list of the best AI tools for students.

Pricing in India

We could not confirm official INR pricing for either tool, so Indian users generally pay the USD price by international card, plus any forex charges and GST that apply. Note that the Otter education discount is tied to a .edu address, which many Indian institutions do not use, so check eligibility before counting on it.

Integrations and automation

Both tools connect to the big three video platforms and to calendars so the assistant can join meetings automatically. Fireflies leans harder into downstream integrations, sending notes and action items into CRMs, project tools and team chat, which is why sales teams like it. Otter Enterprise adds API and webhook access for custom pipelines.

If you want to go further, for example turning every summary into CRM tasks or Slack posts, an automation tool can glue things together. Our comparison of Zapier vs Make vs n8n explains which tool fits which budget, and our guide on automating repetitive tasks with Zapier and AI shows a simple setup.

Privacy, consent and security

Meeting recorders capture what other people say, so consent is essential. Always tell participants when an AI notetaker is recording, and follow local recording laws, which vary by country and state. Many companies now require a clear policy for AI notetakers; our AI usage policy template includes a section you can adapt.

For regulated industries, both tools offer enterprise controls. Otter Enterprise includes SSO, SCIM and a HIPAA add-on. Fireflies Enterprise includes SSO, SCIM, HIPAA and custom data retention at $39 per seat per month on annual billing. If you handle patient, legal or financial conversations, speak to each vendor about data processing terms before rolling out.

Choose Otter if, choose Fireflies if

Choose Otter.ai if you

• Are a student, teacher, researcher or solo professional.
• Want to read and annotate the transcript live during meetings.
• Have fewer than 20 hours of meetings a month, mostly under 90 minutes.
• Want the lowest paid price on annual billing.

Choose Fireflies.ai if you

• Run a sales, customer success or recruiting team.
• Need unlimited transcription without watching minute counts.
• Want call analytics, video recording and coaching insights.
• Push meeting notes into CRMs and project tools.

Real estate agents recording client calls may also like our guide to AI tools for real estate agents, which covers follow-up workflows built on meeting notes.

Frequently asked questions

Our verdict

Otter.ai is our pick for individuals, students and small teams with moderate meeting loads: it is cheaper on annual billing, its free plan is genuinely useful, and its live transcript is the best way to follow a conversation in real time. Fireflies.ai is our pick for sales-led and customer-facing teams that want unlimited capture, analytics and integrations more than a live transcript. Try both free plans on the same week of meetings, compare the summaries you actually use, and then pick the paid plan. Pricing and limits change often, so confirm the latest details on each vendor’s site before you subscribe. If you are also comparing general assistants for summarizing transcripts, see our ChatGPT vs Claude comparison.