Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai

The short answer

They meter different things, and that decides most cases.

Choose Fireflies.ai if you want an archive. Transcription and AI summaries are unlimited even on the free plan, and what you pay for is storage: 400 minutes per team free, 8,000 minutes per seat on Pro at $10 per seat per month billed annually.

Choose Otter.ai if you want the record during the meeting and you take a lot of calls yourself. It meters minutes, with 300 free per month, 1,200 per user on Pro at $8.33 per user per month billed annually, and unlimited on Business at $19.99.

Where Otter.ai wins

Otter wins on the live experience. Notes scroll as people speak, several participants can annotate in real time, and you can mark a moment while it happens rather than hunting for it afterwards. For interviews, research calls and lectures, that changes how you use the meeting itself.

It wins on price for an individual. Pro at $8.33 per user per month billed annually with 1,200 minutes is cheap for someone whose day is calls, and the personal plan is genuinely aimed at one person rather than at a team buying seats.

It also wins on the immediate output: AI summaries with action items, editable transcripts and speaker identification, delivered in a form you can send to participants the same day.

Where Fireflies.ai wins

Fireflies wins on its free tier, which is unusual in this category: unlimited transcription and unlimited AI summaries at no cost. The limit is 400 minutes of storage per team, so you can transcribe everything and keep the summaries rather than rationing the recording itself.

It wins on the archive as a resource. Searchable meetings plus AskFred, an assistant that answers questions across them, means a decision from months ago is retrievable, which is the benefit that grows rather than fades.

And it wins on team economics at the top: Business at $19 per seat per month billed annually gives unlimited storage, which for a team recording every client call is the shape that stays predictable.

Verdict

If your meeting load is heavy and you want everything kept and searchable, choose Fireflies, and treat storage rather than transcription as the number to plan around.

If you are one person taking many calls, or you want live notes you can mark during the conversation, choose Otter and estimate your monthly minutes honestly, since 300 free minutes is about five hours.

Whichever you pick, the obligations are identical and are yours: recording colleagues and clients needs a lawful basis under GDPR and, in practice, a clear announcement at the start of the call rather than a bot appearing silently. Set a retention period too. An indefinite archive of every conversation your company has had is a liability as much as an asset.