Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai 2026: Pricing and Which to Pick

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes. Last verified: August 2026.

Key takeaways

• Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai both auto-join Zoom/Meet/Teams, transcribe, summarize, and let you chat over meetings. The buying difference is how free tiers meter and which paid features you need (CRM sync, conversation intelligence, video).
• Otter Free: 300 transcription minutes/month, 30-min cap per conversation. Pro $8.33/user/month annual ($16.99 monthly) for 1,200 minutes. Business $19.99/user/month annual ($30 monthly) for unlimited in-app recordings.
• Fireflies Free: unlimited transcription + summaries, but 400 minutes storage/team and limited AI credits. Pro $10/seat/month annual ($18 monthly). Business $19/seat/month annual ($29 monthly). Enterprise $39/seat/month annual only.
• Heavy meeting teams often prefer Fireflies' unlimited transcription framing, then pay Business for CRM/analytics. Individuals who want a simple notepad often start on Otter.
• Use the visible slug otter-ai (not the hidden duplicate otter-ai-1).

Table of contents

1. Platform overview
2. Pricing comparison
3. Features that actually decide deals
4. Which should you choose?
5. FAQ

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Platform overview

Otter.ai

Otter.ai is a meeting notetaker with live transcription, summaries, speaker ID, AI chat across meetings, templates, and integrations (Salesforce/HubSpot/Zapier on higher plans). It also exposes an MCP server on current pricing pages.

Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai is a meeting assistant plus conversation intelligence platform: auto-join bot, unlimited transcription on all plans including Free, AskFred assistant, 100+ languages, and deeper analytics/CRM on Business+.

One-line difference: Otter meters minutes early; Fireflies meters storage and advanced AI credits while advertising unlimited transcripts.

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Pricing comparison

	Otter.ai	Fireflies.ai
Free	300 min/mo, 30-min meetings, 3 lifetime imports	Unlimited transcription/summaries, 400 min storage/team
Entry paid	Pro $8.33/user/mo annual ($16.99 monthly), 1,200 min	Pro $10/seat/mo annual ($18 monthly), 8,000 min storage/seat, video
Mid	Business $19.99/user/mo annual ($30 monthly), unlimited in-app recordings	Business $19/seat/mo annual ($29 monthly), unlimited storage, CRM, CI
Enterprise	Custom (SSO, SCIM, HIPAA add-on)	$39/seat/mo annual (SSO/SCIM, HIPAA options)

Sources: otter.ai/pricing and fireflies.ai/pricing verified August 2026.

Student note: Otter offers about 20% off Pro with a .edu email (annual Pro cited around $6.67/mo on their FAQ).

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Features that actually decide deals

Need	Better default
Free unlimited transcripts for light storage needs	Fireflies Free
Simple personal notepad with clear minute budget	Otter Free/Pro
Sales CRM sync + conversation intelligence	Fireflies Business
Otter-centric templates / MCP into other agents	Otter paid
Video recording of meetings	Fireflies Pro+
HIPAA / SSO	Enterprise on both

Both bots can feel intrusive to external guests. Have a meeting policy before auto-joining customer calls.

Related: voice-to-text hub, best AI productivity tools.

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Which should you choose?

Choose Fireflies if you want unlimited transcription on free/paid and you will grow into CRM analytics.

Choose Otter if you like its UX/templates, need .edu pricing, or your usage fits cleanly inside minute caps.

For noisy audio or broadcast-grade transcripts, evaluate specialist ASR (AssemblyAI and similar) instead of meeting bots.

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FAQ

Is Fireflies free unlimited? Transcription and summaries are unlimited on Free, but storage is capped (400 minutes/team) and advanced AI features use AI credits.

Is Otter cheaper than Fireflies? Otter Pro annual ($8.33) undercuts Fireflies Pro annual ($10) on sticker price. Total cost depends on whether you hit Otter's minute caps or Fireflies' storage/credit gates.

Which is better for sales teams? Usually Fireflies Business for CRM sync and conversation intelligence. Otter can work with HubSpot/Salesforce on paid plans with user limits. Pilot both on the same week of calls.