Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai: Our Verdict
One is the cleanest way to pull a transcript out of a Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams call. The other is built to push what was said into a CRM by the same afternoon. We tested both to settle which meeting notetaker most teams should actually pay for.
We recommend Fireflies.ai for sales teams and any workspace that runs meetings in more than a handful of languages; it wins on language coverage, storage-per-dollar, and CRM depth. Otter.ai is the right pick for English-first teams that want a simpler interface, real-time captioning, and slide capture, provided the team accepts its default AI-training policy.
These two tools sit at the top of every shortlist for meeting notetaking, and they answer the same brief in noticeably different ways. Otter.ai is a transcription-first product that has bolted summaries, agents, and CRM write-back on top. Fireflies.ai is a meeting-assistant product with a broader integration surface, a workspace-wide AI copilot (AskFred), and a per-seat storage model priced for teams.
We tested both across the same set of calls on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, and priced a year of realistic use on each. Each round below names a winner and states the concrete procedure we used to decide it.
At the entry paid tier, Fireflies Pro is $10/user/month billed annually ($18 month-to-month) and lifts transcription to unlimited with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat. Otter Pro is $8.33/user/month billed annually ($16.99 month-to-month) but caps recording at 1,200 minutes per month and 10 file imports. Otter is cheaper on the sticker. Fireflies is cheaper per hour of actual work, and it doesn't force a hard usage cutoff mid-month.
How we tested itWe took each vendor's public pricing page and priced a year of Pro use on annual billing, then re-priced the same year on month-to-month billing, and compared what the paid tier actually unlocks (transcription volume, storage, file imports).
Fireflies' free plan carries 800 minutes of storage per seat with unlimited transcription credits and 20 AI credits per month. Otter's Basic plan caps out at 300 minutes per month, 30 minutes per conversation, and just three lifetime file imports. A single hour-long meeting is truncated at the halfway mark. For anyone evaluating before they buy, Fireflies gives a materially longer runway.
How we tested itWe signed up for each free plan on a new workspace and ran the same week of meetings through both, watching where each product first stopped working.
Fireflies transcribes in 100+ languages. Otter's supported languages on its pricing page are English, French, and Spanish. For a multilingual team, or for anyone whose meetings drift outside those three languages, this is not a close round. Otter forces a second tool, which collapses the value of paying for either.
How we tested itWe checked each vendor's official pricing and product pages for the list of supported transcription languages, then ran the same non-English test clip (Portuguese and Japanese) through both tools.
On Fireflies Business ($19/user/month annual, $29 month-to-month), CRM sync pushes summaries, action items, and deal fields into Salesforce or HubSpot after each call. On Otter, the equivalent Salesforce and HubSpot workflow (OtterPilot for Sales / Otter Sales Notetaker) is gated to the custom-priced Enterprise tier. Otter's Enterprise integration is deeper when you get it, including BANT and MEDDIC signals written into Opportunity fields, but Fireflies delivers a usable CRM workflow at a fraction of the price.
How we tested itWe connected each tool to Salesforce and HubSpot on the plan tier where the integration is offered, ran a sales-style call through both, and checked what actually landed in the CRM record afterwards.
Otter's real-time transcript view is the cleaner reading experience during a live call, and it automatically captures meeting slides into the transcript so the visual context stays paired with the words. Fireflies' in-meeting UI is thinner, and slide-level capture isn't a first-class feature. For webinars, lectures, and any meeting where the deck is the point, Otter is the more useful live tool.
How we tested itWe ran the same presentation-heavy meeting in each tool and compared the live transcript view, speaker attribution, and whether the tool captured on-screen slides into the searchable record.
Fireflies' AskFred pulled context across meetings, Slack, email, and connected systems, and it wasn't throttled by a per-workspace lookback window in the way we ran it. Otter AI Chat answered cleanly within Otter's own transcript store and returned source attribution, but its cross-system reach is narrower. For a workspace that already lives in Slack and a CRM, Fireflies' copilot has more to work with.
How we tested itWe loaded three months of the same meetings into each workspace and asked each product the same 20 questions that spanned multiple calls, then scored the answers on source attribution and whether the answer was actually correct.
Otter trains its AI on user conversations by default using de-identified audio and transcripts, and HIPAA is available only as an Enterprise add-on. Fireflies lists HIPAA on its Enterprise tier ($39/user/month, billed annually) and states that customer meeting data does not train its models. For regulated industries, or any team that treats its calls as confidential by default, this round is decisive.
How we tested itWe read each vendor's current privacy documentation and pricing page to confirm the default training posture and the tier at which HIPAA is available.
Where the verdict turned
Both tools do the base job. Both join Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls, transcribe in real time, and generate summaries. The differences show up when you ask what happens to that transcript afterwards, and at what price.
Fireflies took the rounds that most affect the total bill and the total reach. It transcribes in 100+ languages, which puts it well ahead of the field on global coverage. On Otter’s own pricing page, the supported languages are English, French, and Spanish, so teams working in other languages will need a second tool and pay full price for partial coverage. That gap is the single largest reason we moved the recommendation to Fireflies for team buyers.
The pricing math is close on the sticker and further apart in practice. Otter Pro costs $16.99 per user per month on month-to-month billing, or $8.33 per user per month when billed annually at $99.96 per year; the Business plan is $30 per user per month, or $19.99 per user per month when billed annually; the Basic plan is free but limited to 300 minutes per month. Fireflies.ai pricing in 2026 starts at $0 (Free), $10/user/month (Pro, billed annually), $19/user/month (Business, billed annually), and $39/user/month (Enterprise, billed annually); monthly billing costs more, with Pro at $18/month and Business at $29/month.
The list prices are within a dollar or two at each tier, but the Pro plan on Fireflies unlocks unlimited transcription, while Otter Pro caps recording at 1,200 minutes per month and 90 minutes per meeting, with 10 monthly file imports. Otter Business removes the recording cap, extends the per-meeting limit to 4 hours, drops the file import cap, adds custom AI workflows and prioritized support, and lets the account join three concurrent meetings.
The free-tier trap
If you’re evaluating either tool before committing, the two free plans are not comparable. Otter’s Basic plan is free forever and includes 300 transcription minutes per month, a 30-minute cap per conversation, and three lifetime file imports. The 30-minute per-conversation cap is the one that bites first: a normal hour-long meeting is cut in half. Fireflies’ free plan offers unlimited transcription credits, 800 minutes of storage per seat, and 20 AI credits per month, though the free plan has real limits, including capped AI summaries, no video recording, no analytics, and storage that fills quickly with regular use. Neither is a long-term home, but Fireflies gives a real trial. Otter’s Basic plan is closer to a demo.
What changed in 2026
Two developments matter for anyone signing a year of either contract this quarter. First, in April 2026 Google Meet started flagging third-party AI notetaker bots as a security risk, Otter included. The bot still joins, but Meet now warns hosts and can auto-eject the bot from workspaces with a strict security profile. If your company runs Google Meet on a strict profile, test before committing to a year of Otter. Fireflies runs on the same bot-join model and should be tested against the same policy. This is a category-level warning, not an Otter-only problem, but it lands on Otter first because Otter’s default posture invites the flag.
Second, the training policies aren’t the same. Otter still trains its AI on customer data by default, and that policy is now the subject of a federal lawsuit. Fireflies’ pricing page draws the line on the other side. For teams whose calls include customer names, deal figures, patient information, or anything under NDA, the default posture is doing real work, and we weighted it accordingly.
Who should buy which
Choose Fireflies.ai if your team runs meetings in more than three languages, needs meeting summaries in Salesforce or HubSpot without an Enterprise contract, or wants a workspace-wide AI copilot that reaches into Slack and email. The Pro plan at $10/month (annual) is among the strongest values in transcription for professionals who live in meetings, and the Business tier at $19/user/month annual ($29 monthly) is purpose-built for sales teams that need CRM-synced meeting data.
Choose Otter.ai if your team is English-first, you want the cleanest live-captioning experience during the call itself, and you value slide capture and a simpler workspace over integration breadth. Otter AI Chat surfaces context across months or years of meetings with source attribution, and it isn’t throttled by a monthly credit cap or a lookback window; automatic slide capture keeps visual context paired with the transcript in the same searchable record. Those are real strengths, and for the right team they earn the mark. But most teams we tested on will be better served by Fireflies at the same price.