Otter vs Fireflies: which AI note taker should you pick?

Otter vs Fireflies at a glance

We checked both companies' pricing pages in October 2026. Prices are per user (Otter) or per seat (Fireflies), per month. Both companies change plans and run discounts often, so confirm on their sites before you buy.

Otter's pricing page showed limited-time discounts when we checked; the list prices are shown above. Sources: otter.ai/pricing, fireflies.ai/pricing.

Free plans compared

Otter's free plan is easy to understand: 300 transcription minutes a month, with each conversation capped at 30 minutes. That's enough for a few short check-ins a week, but an hour-long meeting gets cut off. You also keep only your 25 most recent conversations.

Fireflies' free plan doesn't count minutes the same way. It caps storage at 400 minutes for the whole team and gives you limited AI summaries and 20 AI credits. Once storage fills up, you delete old meetings or upgrade.

In practice, both free plans are tasters. If you have several long meetings a week, budget for a paid plan with either one.

Bot vs no bot

Both tools started as meeting bots: you connect your calendar, and a notetaker joins your Zoom, Teams or Google Meet calls as an extra participant. Everyone sees it in the participant list. Some people like that because it's an obvious signal that the call is recorded. Others find it awkward, and some meeting hosts block bots outright.

Both companies now offer bot-free options too. Otter's desktop app for Mac and Windows records Zoom, Google Meet, Slack huddles and in-person conversations without a bot. Fireflies has a Chrome extension that captures Google Meet calls without its bot and a new desktop app that says it can take notes without a bot on the call (it shows an indicator so participants know). If bots are the main thing bothering you, our guide to an AI note taker without a bot covers every option.

Privacy and data handling

Both are cloud services: your meeting audio goes to their servers for transcription and storage. Here is what each company says publicly.

Otter

• Its privacy policy (effective June 16, 2026) says Otter trains its AI on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions, and shares data with data labeling providers to create training data.
• Data is stored with US-based cloud providers including Amazon Web Services.
• Its trust center lists SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR and CCPA.
• Otter is the defendant in a pending privacy class action about its meeting bot. We cover what is and isn't known in Is Otter AI safe?

Fireflies

• Its security page says "We don't train on it by default" and describes a zero-day data retention policy with its vendors and partners.
• It lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA; HIPAA, SSO and custom data retention are Enterprise features on the pricing page.
• It encrypts notes and transcripts at rest with 256-bit AES and uses TLS in transit, according to the same page.

Whichever you choose, remember that recording laws differ by place. Some states and countries require everyone on the call to agree. Tell people you're recording and get their consent.

Integrations and team features

This is where Fireflies pulls ahead for teams. Its paid plans unlock all of its app and CRM integrations, an API on every plan, team workspaces, topic trackers, sentiment and talk-time analytics, and video capture. Sales and recruiting teams who live in a CRM tend to like that.

Otter's strength is the reading experience. The live transcript is easy to follow, and in virtual meetings it can take screenshots of what's shared on screen. It offers Zapier, Salesforce and HubSpot on paid plans, and an MCP server so AI assistants can read your conversations.

Who should pick which

A third option: Hark (no bot, local transcription)

Otter and Fireflies are cloud services: their value comes from processing your calls on their servers. If you'd rather keep recordings on your own computer, Hark takes a different approach.

• No bot. Hark records your microphone and your computer's audio, so it works with Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex or anything else, and nobody sees a notetaker join.
• Transcribes on your computer. Speech recognition runs locally, so audio isn't uploaded for transcription and there are no minute limits.
• Knows who spoke. Name a voice once and Hark recognises it in future meetings (as a suggestion you confirm).
• Free forever for recording, transcription, speaker recognition, notes and export. AI meeting notes by Claude and cloud sync are $12 per month.

Be aware of the trade-offs. Hark transcribes English only. On a Mac it records the microphone only, so the other side of a call is captured only if it plays through your speakers. There's no team workspace, no CRM sync and no mobile app. And the AI features send transcript text (not audio) to Claude. If those limits matter, Otter or Fireflies is the better choice. If they don't, see how Hark compares as an Otter alternative or a Fireflies alternative, or browse the best AI note takers.