# Fireflies.ai vs Otter.ai

Updated 2026-10-15. Compared from independent Reddit comments only. Methodology: https://gtmranked.com/methodology/

**Is Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai better?** Independent users prefer Fireflies.ai (58/100 from 23 rated comments) over Otter.ai (42/100 from 27 rated comments). Fireflies.ai is best for People in back-to-back meetings who want transcripts, summaries and action items without taking notes; Otter.ai is best for Individuals who want transcripts of their own meetings or in-person conversations recorded on a phone.

**Is Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai cheaper?** Fireflies.ai: Free plan ($0; unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team). Pro is $10/seat/mo billed annually or $18 monthly; Business is $19/seat/mo billed annually or $29 monthly; Enterprise is $39/seat/mo, annual only. No free trial mentioned. Otter.ai: Free Basic plan (300 transcription minutes per user per month, 30 minutes per conversation). Pro is $8.33/user/mo billed annually or $16.99 monthly; Business is $19.99/user/mo billed annually or $30 monthly; Enterprise is sales-led. No free trial mentioned. Prices are from each vendor's pricing page and change often.

| | Fireflies.ai | Otter.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58/100 | 42/100 |
| Rank in category | #3 | #5 |
| Rated comments | 23 | 27 |
| Best for | People in back-to-back meetings who want transcripts, summaries and action items without taking notes; Teams that want meeting notes pushed into Drive, a CRM or a task tool; Individuals who want a free or low-cost recorder, including on a phone for in-person conversations | Individuals who want transcripts of their own meetings or in-person conversations recorded on a phone; Users who export transcripts into ChatGPT or other tools for their own summaries |
| Starting price | $10/seat/mo | $8.33/user/mo |

## #3 Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai is an AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls (or uploads, mobile and desktop recordings), then produces summaries, action items and searchable notes that can be pushed into other apps. Website: fireflies.ai. Category: [Call Recording & Notetakers](https://gtmranked.com/best/conversation-intelligence/). Score 58/100 (16 positive, 4 mixed, 3 negative of 23 independent comments).

**Verdict:** Independent users who name a preference mostly like Fireflies: 16 of 23 non-promotional opinions are favourable, chiefly from people with heavy meeting loads who say it replaces their own note-taking, lets them query past meetings, and pushes notes into Drive, CRMs or task tools, with some running happily on the free tier. The trade-off is reliability of the output and the app: users report AI notes that get details wrong or miss words, one calls it the buggiest software they have used, and others dislike a bot joining their calls. Over a quarter of the 100 matched comments were promotional, mostly rival notetakers naming Fireflies as the thing to switch from, and are discounted here.

**What users like:**
- Heavy meeting users say it takes note-taking off their plate and catches actions and next steps they would otherwise lose [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1i303w3/_/m7ius6m/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1h8ca10/_/m0uzu6h/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1p74irj/_/nqvpacj/) [4](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1jwby4w/_/mminibi/) [5](https://www.reddit.com/r/remotework/comments/1tyct8h/_/oq2cvs0/)
- Past meetings become a searchable record: users ask it what was discussed, and one pulls answers from it through an MCP connection [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1jwby4w/_/mminibi/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1t1n33t/_/ojl2y3y/)
- Integrations push notes and to-dos into Google Drive, CRMs and planners, and one team gets a prep email before recurring meetings [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1l13hss/_/mvjkzxl/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/remotework/comments/1tyct8h/_/oq2cvs0/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1ueshsr/_/otngwk1/)
- Cheap enough to justify personally: one user says the free version does all they need, another pays about $25 a month out of pocket [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1lysled/_/n2wllns/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1nnoo71/_/nfn42bc/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1i303w3/_/m7ius6m/)
- Works from a phone for in-person use: a sign company dictates site measurements into it and gets summarised measurements emailed to the team [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1irahig/_/md86p89/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1l13hss/_/mvjkzxl/)

**What users complain about:**
- AI notes can be wrong: a consultant says a client's Fireflies auto-posts incorrect notes after every call, and another user says it catches only about 80% of spoken words [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1lc6g4j/_/mxzd3k1/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1je3qf4/_/miffc6d/)
- Stability complaints: one user who wanted to like it calls it the buggiest web and production app they have used, crashing constantly despite a good UI [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1lysled/_/n2wllcq/)
- The bot joining calls is a reason users leave: one switched to a bot-free tool for that reason [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1s6sljj/_/ouk70xv/)
- CRM auto-posting can misfire: with Zoho it posted a call note to hundreds of deals [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1ueshsr/_/otngwk1/)
- Video recordings are lower quality than Zoom's own, so one team records separately when the recording will be shared [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/1hedcfq/_/m252obr/)

**Best for:** People in back-to-back meetings who want transcripts, summaries and action items without taking notes; Teams that want meeting notes pushed into Drive, a CRM or a task tool; Individuals who want a free or low-cost recorder, including on a phone for in-person conversations.
**Skip it if:** Teams that would share AI notes with clients without a human check; Calls where a visible bot participant is unwelcome.
**Pricing (vendor-stated, checked 2026-10-15):** Free plan ($0; unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team). Pro is $10/seat/mo billed annually or $18 monthly; Business is $19/seat/mo billed annually or $29 monthly; Enterprise is $39/seat/mo, annual only. No free trial mentioned.

Full review: https://gtmranked.com/tools/fireflies/

## #5 Otter.ai

Otter.ai is an AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Teams meetings or conversations captured in its apps, producing searchable transcripts, summaries and an AI chat over past conversations. Website: otter.ai. Category: [Call Recording & Notetakers](https://gtmranked.com/best/conversation-intelligence/). Score 42/100 (15 positive, 3 mixed, 9 negative of 27 independent comments).

**Verdict:** Independent opinion is split: of 27 non-promotional opinions, 15 are favourable, from individuals who say it saves note-taking time, records in-person conversations from a phone, and transcribes accurately once speakers are tagged. The criticism centres on how it behaves in other people's meetings: users and admins describe it auto-joining calendars, emailing invitees, being hard to remove and confusing permissions, and one cites a class action over recording without consent; others report weaker summaries, trouble with accents and mixed languages, and a price rise that cut transcription hours. About a sixth of the comments were promotional, including repeated tool-stack lists and three plugs for an unrelated "Vibe Otter" website builder, and are discounted here.

**What users like:**
- Takes over note-taking so users can stay in the conversation; several call it a game changer or big time saver [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1l2mws1/_/mvuqvd4/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1gcla13/_/ltyz6ap/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1mdr7qs/_/n697l2z/) [4](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1v9qg6n/_/p4xnz67/) [5](https://www.reddit.com/r/remotework/comments/1psou00/_/nvbkb1g/)
- Records in-person or from a phone without inviting a bot into the meeting [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1l13hss/_/mvi7cgh/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1l2mws1/_/mvuqvd4/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zoom/comments/1v9j2as/_/p0ldbae/)
- Transcripts are searchable or easy to export: users ask what a client said about a topic, or paste transcripts into ChatGPT for summaries [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1l2mws1/_/mvuqvd4/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1k6fwdo/_/mopvjnd/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1kx3vkm/_/mup3b19/)
- Accurate transcription once trained: long-time users praise accuracy after tagging speakers, building a dictionary or correcting words, which it then applies elsewhere [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1uuevre/_/ox37qqw/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1rw875x/_/oayum13/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zoom/comments/1v9j2as/_/p0ldbae/) [4](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/1hedcfq/_/m22tens/)

**What users complain about:**
- Intrusive defaults: it can auto-join every calendar meeting, email invitees to sign up, keep inviting itself after being blocked, and send notes to people who did not know they were signed up; one user cites a class action over recording without consent [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zoom/comments/1vbm1c9/_/p0uqexy/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zoom/comments/1o1watj/_/nikv5zj/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1v3fox6/_/ozjowyk/) [4](https://www.reddit.com/r/Zoom/comments/1wr9pab/_/pchwlzy/)
- Transcription struggles with accents and mixed languages and can split one speaker into two; one user moved to Grain for accuracy [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1nrm7y7/_/ngfkeo1/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1gcla13/_/ltyz6ap/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1l13hss/_/mvi9fz9/)
- Summaries are weaker than alternatives: users find them worse than Zoom's, so-so, or walls of text that need cleanup [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1lc6g4j/_/mxyk05x/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1l13hss/_/mvid8g0/) [3](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1myxksl/_/nafe3qx/)
- Pricing: a paying user saw prices rise while transcription hours were cut, and another found the paid tier too expensive [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1nrm7y7/_/ngfkeo1/) [2](https://www.reddit.com/r/projectmanagement/comments/1gcla13/_/ltyz6ap/)
- Recording cannot be paused and resumed, so one user had to remove it when clients shared privileged information [1](https://www.reddit.com/r/sales/comments/1l2mws1/_/mw0kz0f/)

**Best for:** Individuals who want transcripts of their own meetings or in-person conversations recorded on a phone; Users who export transcripts into ChatGPT or other tools for their own summaries.
**Skip it if:** Organisations that need tight control over who is recorded and who receives meeting notes; Meetings with strong accents or more than one language; Users who need to pause recording mid-call.
**Pricing (vendor-stated, checked 2026-10-15):** Free Basic plan (300 transcription minutes per user per month, 30 minutes per conversation). Pro is $8.33/user/mo billed annually or $16.99 monthly; Business is $19.99/user/mo billed annually or $30 monthly; Enterprise is sales-led. No free trial mentioned.

Full review: https://gtmranked.com/tools/otter/