Best AI Meeting Assistants: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, tl;dv and More Compared

Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom and tl;dv compared on features, free plans and pricing. Find the best AI meeting assistant for sales teams and sharers.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-11T13:20:32+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-11T13:20:32+00:00

Best AI Meeting Assistants: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, tl;dv and More Compared

The best AI meeting assistant depends on how you meet. Otter.ai suits individuals who want simple transcripts. Fireflies.ai suits sales teams that review calls. Fathom suits anyone who wants a generous free plan. tl;dv suits teams that clip and share meeting moments. This guide compares the four on features, free plans, pricing, and the trade-offs that matter.

Best AI meeting assistants at a glance

Otter.ai: the simple transcript specialist

Otter.ai is the oldest name in this group. Its Notetaker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet calls. It transcribes live, identifies speakers, and produces a summary with action items. Otter AI Chat lets you ask questions about a meeting after it ends.

The free Basic plan covers 300 transcription minutes a month. Each conversation stops at 30 minutes. You also get three lifetime file imports and 20 AI Chat questions a month. That is enough for about ten short calls a month. Anything longer pushes you toward a paid plan.

Pro costs $16.99 per user a month, or $8.33 billed annually. It raises the allowance to 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per meeting. It adds 10 file imports a month, advanced templates, and CRM sync for one user. Business costs $30 a month, or $19.99 billed annually, with unlimited meetings and four hours per meeting. Enterprise is a custom quote.

Otter caps the size of small teams. Pro allows up to five billed users. A team of ten must buy Business. Students and teachers get 20 percent off Pro. The main weakness is the minute meter. Even Pro stops at 1,200 minutes, which is 20 hours a month. Heavy meeting users can burn through it fast.

Fireflies.ai: the sales team pick

Fireflies.ai records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings. Its strength is conversation intelligence. Business and Enterprise plans analyze calls across a team, track topics and talk patterns, and feed coaching workflows. It also offers AskFred, an assistant that answers questions about past meetings.

Fireflies prices by storage, not by minutes. The free plan costs $0 and stores 400 minutes of recordings per team. Pro costs $18 a seat a month, or $10 billed annually, and stores 8,000 minutes per seat. Business costs $29 a month, or $19 billed annually, with unlimited storage. Enterprise costs $39 a seat a month on annual billing only, with SSO, SCIM, and HIPAA support.

Every plan includes a small allowance of AI credits for extra features such as summaries and analysis. Free and Pro include 20 credits. Business includes 30. Enterprise includes 50. Credits are bought separately when you run out.

Fireflies fits sales and customer teams best. The Business tier is the usual landing spot for a team that reviews calls together. At ten seats, Business costs $2,280 a year on annual billing. The free plan is a trial in practice. Four hundred minutes across a whole team lasts about a week of normal use.

Fathom: the most generous free plan

Fathom is the free-plan leader in this category. The free tier includes unlimited recording, unlimited transcription, and unlimited storage. It works on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. It also offers clips, playlists, and search across your own calls.

The catch is narrow. Advanced AI summaries cover only your first five calls each month on Free. After that, you get the basic template. AI action items and follow-up email drafts are paid features. Even so, no rival free plan comes close on raw recording volume.

Premium costs $20 a month, or $16 billed annually. It adds advanced summaries, AI action items, follow-up emails, unlimited Ask Fathom, and a custom bot name. Team costs $19 a seat a month, or $15 billed annually, with a two-seat minimum. It adds shared search, team folders, comments, and custom vocabulary. Business costs $34 a month, or $25 billed annually, also with a two-seat minimum. It adds CRM field sync, Deal View, and coaching scorecards.

One change to note: Superhuman acquired Fathom in September 2026. The app still works the same way for now. Buyers who plan years ahead should watch for changes to pricing or packaging as the two products merge.

tl;dv: the clip and share specialist

tl;dv records meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. It produces AI notes, timestamps, and clips you can share. It supports more than 30 languages. Its Business plan adds multi-meeting insights, playbooks, and team automations for revenue teams.

The free plan is generous on capture and tight on intelligence. Recordings and transcription are unlimited. Full AI notes cover only your first 10 meetings for the life of the account. Recordings are kept for three months. You also get 40 web recordings a week and five uploads.

Pro costs $29 a seat a month, or $18 billed annually. It adds unlimited AI notes, custom note templates, premium transcription, and developer access through an API, MCP server, and webhooks. Business costs $39 a month, or $29 billed annually. It adds multi-meeting insights, scheduled AI reports, playbook monitoring, and coaching features. Enterprise is custom priced with SCIM, custom SSO, and privately hosted AI.

Every plan caps a single recording at three hours. tl;dv prices in US dollars on its pricing page, though some older roundups quote euros. The free plan suits someone who records a lot but only needs AI notes sometimes. Regular users will hit the 10-meeting cap within weeks.

Best AI meeting assistants: pricing compared

Prices are per user or per seat, in US dollars, as listed in October and November 2026. Vendors change prices often. Confirm the live pricing page before you buy. Also check the limit that matters to you. A cheap plan with a 300-minute cap costs more than a pricier plan with unlimited meetings if you meet all day.

How to choose the right meeting assistant

Start with your meeting volume. If you take a handful of short calls a month, Otter Basic or Fathom Free covers you. If you meet for hours every day, you need unlimited recording. Fathom Free gives it away. Otter Business charges $19.99 a user a month for it.

Next, check how the tool joins calls. All four send a bot into the meeting by default. The bot is visible to other participants. Some people find that awkward. Fathom offers a bot-free capture mode in beta on Mac, which records system audio instead. Ask your team how they feel about a bot joining client calls before you commit.

Then match the tool to the job. Sales teams should weigh Fireflies Business or Fathom Business for call review and coaching. Solo professionals should weigh Fathom Premium or Otter Pro. Teams that share clips with clients or colleagues should weigh tl;dv, which is built around shareable moments.

Finally, check consent and privacy rules. Recording laws differ by place. Some regions require every participant to agree. Tell participants before you record. Check each vendor's data retention and security pages if you handle sensitive calls. Fireflies Enterprise and Fathom Business both offer stronger controls for regulated work.

Bottom line: our verdict

Fathom is the best free pick. Unlimited recording and transcription at $0 is unmatched. Otter.ai is the best simple pick for individuals who want clean transcripts and a chat interface. Fireflies.ai is the best pick for sales teams that coach from call data. tl;dv is the best pick for teams that clip and share meeting highlights.

For most people, start with Fathom Free. If you need advanced summaries on every call, upgrade to Premium at $16 a month billed annually. If your team reviews calls together, compare Fireflies Business at $19 a seat with Fathom Team at $15 a seat. The right choice is the one whose limit you never hit.