Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai: Features, Pricing and Verdict

Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai: Otter meters transcription minutes, Fireflies meters storage. Compare plans, prices and features to pick the right meeting notetaker.

By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-12T01:26:10+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-12T01:26:10+00:00

Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai: Features, Pricing and Verdict

Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai both turn meetings into searchable notes. They record calls, transcribe them, and write summaries. The difference is what they meter. Otter limits transcription minutes. Fireflies limits storage. This Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai comparison covers features, pricing, and who each tool suits. Prices come from the vendors' pricing pages and checks of them in October 2026.

Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai at a glance

Otter.ai: plans and limits

Otter sells four plans. Basic is free forever. It includes 300 transcription minutes a month. Each conversation is capped at 30 minutes. It allows three lifetime file imports. It keeps only the 25 most recent conversations. It includes 20 AI Chat queries a month. One meeting can be joined at a time. The Notetaker joins Zoom, Teams, and Meet calls and transcribes live.

Pro costs $16.99 per user a month, or $8.33 a month billed yearly. That is $99.96 a year. Pro raises the allowance to 1,200 minutes a month. Each meeting can run 90 minutes. It allows 10 file imports a month. History is unlimited. Two meetings can run at once. Pro adds advanced templates and search, plus Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier integrations. Students and teachers with a .edu address get 20% off Pro.

Business costs $30 per user a month, or $19.99 billed yearly. That is $239.88 a year. It removes the cap on meeting transcription. Each conversation can run four hours. It allows 6,000 import minutes a month. Three meetings can run at once. It adds custom workflows, admin tools, and usage analytics. Enterprise is a custom quote. Pro stops at five billed users. A team of ten must buy Business.

Fireflies.ai: plans and limits

Fireflies also sells four plans. Free costs $0. It offers unlimited bot transcription for meetings the bot auto-joins through calendar sync. Storage is capped at 400 minutes for the whole team. That cap never resets. It is a cumulative limit, not a monthly one. At 30 minutes per call, 400 minutes holds about 13 recorded calls. New signups from September 2026 who do not use calendar auto-join get only three transcriptions. AI summaries are limited on Free. The plan includes 20 AI credits.

Pro costs $18 per seat a month, or $10 billed yearly. That is $120 a year per seat. Pro includes unlimited transcription and AI summaries. Storage rises to 8,000 minutes per seat. Recordings can run two hours. Pro adds video recording, downloads, smart search, topic trackers, and talk-time analytics. It includes 20 AI credits. Business costs $29 per seat a month, or $19 billed yearly. It adds unlimited storage, three-hour recordings, conversation intelligence, team analytics, and private channels. It includes 30 AI credits. Enterprise costs $39 per seat a month on annual billing only. It adds compliance features and 50 AI credits.

Fireflies does not meter transcription minutes on any plan. It meters storage and AI credits. That is the key difference from Otter. A team that records many short calls can hit the storage cap fast. A team that records few long calls may never notice it.

Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai: transcription quality and features

Both tools transcribe accurately in clear audio. Both identify speakers. Both write summaries and action items. The differences sit in the workflow around the transcript. Otter is built for individuals who want clean notes and a chat interface over their meetings. Its AI Chat answers questions about what was said. Its live transcription is strong for people who take notes during a call.

Fireflies is built for teams that review calls together. Its conversation intelligence tracks talk time, topics, and sentiment across calls. Its integrations are wider, with Zapier, a public API, bulk audio upload, and dialer support. Its AskFred search finds answers across all recorded meetings. For sales teams, that review layer matters more than the transcript itself.

Integrations and platforms

Both tools work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Both offer mobile apps. Otter integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier on Pro. Fireflies integrates with a wider set, including CRMs, dialers, and project tools, and its API access starts on the free plan. If your stack is unusual, Fireflies connects more easily. If you live in Salesforce or HubSpot, Otter Pro covers you.

Privacy: read this before you record

Both tools join meetings as a visible bot or notetaker. Tell participants before you record. Laws on recording consent differ by place. Some require every participant to agree. In August 2026, a federal judge let wiretap claims against Otter move forward. The plaintiffs allege its Notetaker records calls without every participant's consent. Otter denies the allegations. The case is a reminder, not a verdict. Get consent, and check the rules where your team works.

Which tool costs less in practice

For one person, Otter Pro at $8.33 a month billed yearly is cheaper than Fireflies Pro at $10 a seat a month. The gap is small. The real cost driver is the meter. Otter Pro stops at 1,200 minutes a month. A heavy meeting user can hit that in three weeks. Fireflies Pro gives 8,000 minutes of storage per seat. That lasts far longer for most users, but it is a total cap, not a monthly refill. Check your monthly meeting hours before you pick. A team with 20 hours of meetings a month fits Otter Pro. A team with 40 hours needs Otter Business or Fireflies.

How to test both free plans

1. Record the same meeting in both tools. Compare the transcripts side by side.
2. Check speaker labels on a call with four or more people. That is where errors show up first.
3. Ask each tool's chat feature the same question about the meeting. Compare the answers.
4. Count your monthly meeting minutes. Otter Basic gives 300 fresh minutes a month. Fireflies Free gives 400 minutes of storage in total, which never refills.
5. Decide after two weeks of real meetings. A single test call tells you little.

The free plans are not equal. Otter's free tier resets every month. That makes it usable for light, steady use. Fireflies' free tier is a fixed pool. Once the 400 minutes of storage are used, you must delete recordings or pay. Test with that difference in mind.

Bottom line

Pick Otter if you are an individual or a small team that wants simple notes, live transcription, and a low price. Its free plan is the more useful of the two, with 300 fresh minutes every month. Pick Fireflies if you are a sales team that reviews calls together. Its conversation intelligence, wide integrations, and storage-based pricing fit that job better. For most solo users, Otter wins. For most sales teams, Fireflies wins. If you record under five hours of meetings a month, either free plan can carry you while you decide. Above that, check the meter before you commit.