Otter vs Fireflies (2026): Prices, Free Plans and Which to Pick

Otter and Fireflies are two of the longest-running AI meeting assistants, and both do the basics well: join a call on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, transcribe it, and produce a summary you can search later. The differences are in pricing structure and who each product is built around. Otter is strongest as a personal transcription tool, with live captions and the lowest solo price. Fireflies is built for teams that want meeting data flowing into other software.

We compared them on our published rubric using each vendor’s pricing page, plan documentation and recent independent pricing write-ups. This is a research-based comparison, not a hands-on test. We don’t publish transcription-accuracy figures, because vendor accuracy claims can’t be independently verified and depend heavily on audio quality, accents and microphones.

Side-by-side scores

★ = highest in category. Scores use our published rubric. Data last verified November 5, 2026.

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Winner by category

Plans and prices compared

USD, excluding tax; "Annual" is the per-month rate when billed yearly. Last verified November 5, 2026. Full list in the pricing tracker.

Otter’s prices come from its own pricing page, checked today. Fireflies’ pricing page still doesn’t display prices without interaction, so its figures come from several recent independent sources that agree on the per-seat prices. Treat the Fireflies numbers as reported and confirm on the vendor’s site before you buy.

Per user or seat, per month:

What the table means in practice:

• Otter is cheaper for one person. Otter Pro undercuts Fireflies Pro on both annual ($8.33 vs $10) and monthly ($16.99 vs $18) billing.
• The top paid tiers are almost the same price. Otter Business and Fireflies Business sit within a dollar of each other on both billing cycles.
• The real gap is what each entry tier includes. Fireflies puts app and CRM integrations in Pro for every seat. Otter Pro includes Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations, but its pricing page limits the Salesforce and HubSpot connection to one user on Pro and five users on Business. A ten-person team that wants every rep’s calls in the CRM has a simpler path with Fireflies.
• Monthly billing roughly doubles Otter Pro. Both vendors lean heavily on annual discounts, so check which cycle a price refers to. Otter’s page was also showing promotional monthly pricing on Business today ($24 instead of $30 for the first months), and it notes some offers are region-specific, so the price you see may differ.

Free plans compared

Otter Basic gives each user 300 transcription minutes a month, a 30-minute cap per conversation, 3 file imports for the life of the account, 20 AI Chat questions a month, and access to the 25 most recent conversations. Live transcription and the Zoom, Teams and Meet connections are included. The 30-minute cap is the limit most people hit first: a standard hour-long meeting gets cut off halfway.

Fireflies Free takes a different approach. Recent sources describe transcription with auto-join, limited AI summaries and 20 AI credits, capped by storage rather than a monthly minute allowance. The storage figure is where sources disagree: the most recent write-up we checked lists 400 minutes per team, while an older one lists 800 minutes. Fireflies’ FAQ confirms that the free plan lacks advanced exports and app and CRM integrations.

Neither free plan is a long-term home for regular meetings. Otter Basic suits short calls and occasional use. Fireflies Free is better treated as a trial. If a generous free plan is your priority, our Fathom vs Fireflies comparison covers a tool whose free plan has no recording cap.

Meeting length and usage limits

Otter publishes its limits in detail. Pro includes 1,200 recording minutes per user per month with a 90-minute cap per conversation and 10 file imports a month. Business removes the monthly minute cap on meetings and in-app recordings, raises the per-conversation cap to 4 hours, and allows 6,000 minutes of imported files per user a month. AI Chat questions rise from 50 a month on Pro to 200 on Business.

Fireflies meters differently. Its pricing FAQ says paid plans have no monthly rate limits on the meeting bot or Chrome extension, with transcription credits included each month. Recent sources report 8,000 minutes of storage per seat on Pro and unlimited storage on Business, plus recording limits of 2 hours on Pro, 3 hours on Business and 4 hours on Enterprise. AI credits are reported to be pooled across the workspace rather than added per seat, which matters if your team leans on AI features.

If your meetings regularly run past 90 minutes, Otter Pro won’t cover them and you’d need Business. Fireflies Pro’s reported 2-hour limit gives more headroom at the entry tier.

Features beyond transcription

Otter focuses on the transcript itself. Live transcription during the call is available on every plan, and every plan includes AI Chat for asking questions about one meeting or across meetings. Pro adds advanced AI workflows, meeting templates, team vocabulary, and PDF, DOCX and SRT export. Business adds custom AI workflows, admin activity logs, usage analytics and priority support. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, an API and webhooks, custom CRM and dialer integrations, and a HIPAA add-on. Otter’s page also lists an MCP server for connecting meeting data to other AI tools, and a set of role-specific agents for sales, recruiting, education and media.

Fireflies focuses on what happens after the call. Pro includes unlimited AI summaries, integrations, advanced export and Zapier audio transcription. Business adds conversation intelligence, team analytics, video recording, private channels and multi-language mode. Enterprise adds private storage, a rules engine, SSO, SCIM, audit logs, custom data retention, and HIPAA and FERPA support with private storage.

The pattern: Otter gives a single user the most for the least money; Fireflies gives a team more connected features at the entry tier.

For small businesses

For a five-person team on annual billing, Fireflies Pro costs about $50 a month with integrations for everyone, while Otter Business costs about $100 a month and connects Salesforce or HubSpot for up to five users. Otter Pro at about $42 a month for five seats is the cheapest option if only one person needs CRM sync. For a full meeting-tool shortlist and team budgets, see our best AI tools for small businesses and what AI tools cost a small business.

Otter: best for individuals and live transcription

Otter’s strengths are a clear, well-documented plan ladder, the lowest solo price, and live transcription on every tier. It scores 8.5 for ease of use on our rubric, the higher of the two. The trade-offs are the 30-minute free cap, the 90-minute cap on Pro, and CRM sync limited by user count.

Fireflies: best for teams that integrate

Fireflies scores higher on features (8.5 to 8) and value (8 to 7.5) because integrations and team features arrive at lower price points. The downsides are a free plan with disputed storage limits, an AI credit pool to track, and a pricing page that hides prices.

Which should you choose?

A note on consent

Both tools record other people. Recording-consent laws vary by state and country, and some require every participant to agree. Announce recording at the start of each call, review each vendor’s retention settings, and for regulated data such as health information, use only a plan with the compliance features you need and a signed agreement.

Final verdict

Otter is the better choice for individuals: it’s the cheapest paid plan of the two, its limits are clearly published, and live transcription is included everywhere. Fireflies is the better choice for teams, because integrations come with every Pro seat at a price close to Otter’s solo plan.

On our rubric, Otter wins on ease of use and Fireflies wins on features and value. Start on Otter Basic if your calls are short and you mostly need a transcript; if your team needs notes flowing into a CRM, trial Fireflies Pro before committing to a year.

For more options, see our best AI meeting note-takers, the Fathom review, and current prices in the pricing tracker. Both tools also have directory pages: Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai .