Free AI meeting notetaker with instant summaries, action items and CRM sync.
Fireflies.ai vs Otter.ai
Features, pricing, strengths and trade-offs — and which one fits your situation.
The verdict
Editor’s verdict
Fireflies.ai is built around broad integrations, many languages and team-wide meeting search, while Otter.ai focuses on a polished live transcript for English and a handful of other languages. Both offer a meeting bot, bot-free desktop apps, mobile apps for in-person recording, file uploads, cross-meeting AI chat and CRM syncing on paid plans. Choose Fireflies.ai if your meetings happen in many languages, if you want transcripts pushed into a wide range of CRMs, project tools and dialers, or if you need conversation analytics across a sales or support team. Choose Otter.ai if you mostly meet in English and want to follow a live transcript during the call, or if you record lectures, interviews and in-person conversations on your phone. Otter's six-language limit is the main dealbreaker for international teams, while Fireflies' extra languages are partly in beta. If you only need occasional file transcription with translation, a dedicated transcription service may suit you better than either.
Both Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai offer a free plan, so you can try each before paying.
Which should you choose?
Choose Fireflies.ai if…
- You need teams that want a meeting bot with broad integrations, CRM sync and cross-meeting AI search
- You're one of: sales and customer success teams, recruiters, remote teams with many recurring meetings
- Wide platform coverage including dialers and file uploads
Choose Otter.ai if…
- You need english-first live transcription for meetings, lectures and in-person conversations
- You're one of: students and educators, journalists, sales and account teams
- You want something quicker to learn
- Mature live transcript with editable speaker tags
At a glance
| Fireflies.ai | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Teams that want a meeting bot with broad integrations, CRM sync and cross-meeting AI search | English-first live transcription for meetings, lectures and in-person conversations |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Starting price | From $10/seat/mo | From $8.33/user/mo |
| Learning curve | Medium | Low |
| Platforms | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, API | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension |
| Ideal for | Sales and customer success teams, Recruiters, Remote teams with many recurring meetings, Operations teams building workflow automations | Students and educators, Journalists, Sales and account teams, English-speaking remote teams |
Feature comparison
| Fireflies.ai | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Records without a bot joining | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting platforms | Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex, 10+ more | Zoom, Meet, Teams |
| Transcription languages | 100+ (many in beta) | 6 languages |
| CRM sync | Paid plans only | Paid plans only |
| Ask AI across meetings | Yes | Yes |
| Speaker identification | Yes | Yes |
| In-person / mobile recording | Yes | Yes |
| Transcribe uploaded files | Yes | Yes |
| Translation | Limited | — |
IncludedLimited / higher plansNot available— Not confirmed
Security & enterprise
| Fireflies.ai | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Business / enterprise plan | Yes | Yes |
| SSO (SAML / OIDC) | Enterprise plan | Enterprise plan |
| SCIM user provisioning | Enterprise plan | Enterprise plan |
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | — | — |
| HIPAA (BAA available) | Enterprise plan | Enterprise plan |
| GDPR DPA | Yes | — |
| Data residency options | — | — |
| No training on your data | Yes | De-identified data only |
| Audit logs | — | — |
| Admin controls | Yes | Enterprise plan |
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
From each vendor's security documentation. "—" = not confirmed. What to ask vendors · Compare all tools
What each tool does
Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai records, transcribes and summarizes meetings across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and other platforms, either via its notetaker bot or bot-free through its desktop app and Chrome extension. Its AskFred assistant answers questions across your meeting library, and higher tiers add conversation intelligence, CRM sync and API access.
Key features- Notetaker bot for Zoom, Meet, Teams and 10+ other platforms
- Bot-free recording via Mac/Windows desktop app or Chrome extension
- AskFred AI chat across all meetings
- Transcription in 100+ languages with multi-language detection
- Upload and transcribe audio and video files
- Mobile apps for in-person recording
Otter.ai
Otter.ai transcribes meetings in real time through its OtterPilot bot on Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, via a bot-free desktop app, or through its mobile apps for in-person conversations. It generates summaries and action items, and Otter AI Chat answers questions within and across meetings. Higher tiers add CRM syncing and admin controls.
Key features- Live transcription with speaker identification by name
- OtterPilot bot for Zoom, Meet and Teams
- Bot-free recording via Mac and Windows desktop app
- Otter AI Chat within and across meetings
- Salesforce and HubSpot note syncing
- Import of audio and video files
Pricing
Fireflies.ai
Free plan; Pro $10/seat/mo annual ($18 monthly)
Otter.ai
Free Basic plan (300 min/mo); Pro $8.33/user/mo annual ($16.99 monthly)
Prices last checked September 2026. Plans change often — confirm on each vendor's site.
Pros and cons
Fireflies.ai
Strengths- Wide platform coverage including dialers and file uploads
- Large integration library including CRMs, Slack and project tools
- Both bot and bot-free capture options
- Speaker talk-time and conversation analytics
- Many languages beyond the main few are marked beta
- CRM integrations and conversation intelligence require higher tiers
- Free plan has limited storage and AI credits
- Bot joining calls can be off-putting to external guests
Not ideal for: People who only want lightweight personal notes without a meeting bot or a large feature set may find a simpler notepad-style tool easier.
Otter.ai
Strengths- Mature live transcript with editable speaker tags
- Works for online meetings, in-person recordings and imports
- Mobile apps suited to lectures and interviews
- Cross-meeting AI chat included on paid plans
- Transcribes only six languages
- Free plan limits file imports to three in total
- AI Chat queries are capped per month on lower tiers
- No built-in translation of transcripts
Not ideal for: Teams that hold meetings in languages beyond English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese or Chinese should choose a tool with wider language support.
Integrations
Fireflies.ai
Otter.ai
FAQ
What is the main difference between Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai?
Fireflies.ai is built for teams that want a meeting bot with broad integrations, CRM sync and cross-meeting AI search; Otter.ai is built for english-first live transcription for meetings, lectures and in-person conversations.
Is Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai cheaper?
Fireflies.ai starts from $10/seat/mo and Otter.ai starts from $8.33/user/mo (as of September 2026). On entry price, Otter.ai is cheaper — but compare what each plan includes, since limits differ. Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Do Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai have free plans?
Both Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai offer a free plan, so you can try each before paying.
Which is easier to use, Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai?
Otter.ai is generally quicker to learn (Fireflies.ai: medium, Otter.ai: low learning curve).
What are good alternatives to Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai?
Other meetings tools worth comparing include Fathom, tl;dv and Granola.
