Bottom line: Fireflies.ai is the better pick for most teams in 2026, with unlimited transcription even on its free plan, support for 100-plus languages, and API access at every tier. Otter.ai is the stronger choice for live, in-the-room capture and teams that want more AI features in the free tier, as long as you can live with its monthly minute caps.
These are the two most-compared AI meeting assistants, and they make opposite trade-offs on their free plans. Fireflies gives you unlimited transcription but limits storage and summaries. Otter caps your minutes but exposes more AI features up front. Both have shifted their marketing toward autonomous AI agents, but the core record-and-summarize product is intact at each. This is a research comparison built on each vendor’s published pricing and feature pages in June 2026, not a hands-on test, so confirm the current limits on each site before you commit.
Quick Summary
- Otter starts at: free (300 min/mo), then $8.33/user/mo Pro (billed annually)
- Fireflies starts at: free (unlimited transcription, 400 storage min), then $10/seat/mo Pro (billed annually)
- What both offer: transcription, AI summaries, action items, an ask-AI chat, and Zoom, Meet, and Teams support
- Otter edge: live real-time capture and captioning, more AI features exposed on the free plan
- Fireflies edge: unlimited transcription, 100-plus languages, and API access on every tier
Otter vs Fireflies at a Glance
| Feature | Otter.ai | Fireflies.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 300 min/mo, 30 min/convo | Unlimited transcription, 400 storage min/team |
| Entry paid (annual) | $8.33/user/mo (Pro) | $10/seat/mo (Pro) |
| Business tier | $19.99/user/mo | $19/seat/mo |
| Enterprise | Custom | $39/seat/mo |
| Languages | 6 | 100+ |
| API access | Enterprise | All tiers, including free |
| Ask-AI chat | ✅ (query caps by tier) | ✅ AskFred |
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Where Fireflies Wins
Unlimited transcription and 100-plus languages. Fireflies does not cap your transcription minutes, even on the free plan, and it handles over 100 languages compared with Otter’s six. For teams that run a lot of meetings or work across languages, that alone is decisive. The real free-plan constraint is storage (400 minutes pooled across the team) and limited summaries, which nudges active users to Pro at $10/seat/mo.
API on every tier. Fireflies exposes API access at all levels, including free, so teams that want to pipe transcripts into other tools can do it without paying for Enterprise. Pro adds unlimited AI summaries, AskFred, and 8,000 storage minutes per seat; Business at $19/seat removes the storage cap.
Best for: teams with heavy meeting volume, multilingual calls, or a need to integrate transcripts via API.
Where Otter Wins
Live capture and captioning. Otter is strongest at real-time transcription, including in-person meetings and live captions, which makes it the better tool when you want to follow along as the conversation happens rather than read a transcript afterward. Its free plan also exposes more AI features, including AI Chat and custom workflows, where Fireflies keeps more behind the paywall.
Cheaper entry, with a catch. Otter Pro is $8.33/user/mo (annual), a little under Fireflies, but the free plan caps you at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation, and Pro at 1,200 minutes a month. If your meetings are long or frequent, those caps bite sooner than Fireflies’ storage limit. Business at $19.99/user removes the meeting cap.
Best for: people who want live, real-time transcription and captioning, and more AI in the free tier.
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Where Both Break Down
Neither free plan is truly unlimited in practice. Otter’s minute caps (300 a month, 30 per conversation) are tight for anyone with back-to-back calls, and Fireflies’ 400-minute shared storage plus limited summaries pushes teams to paid quickly. Both price strictly per seat, so team cost scales fast as you add people. And both have leaned hard into AI-agent marketing, which can make the core transcription product harder to find on their sites than it should be. Accuracy on heavy accents and crosstalk is still imperfect on both, so do not treat either transcript as a verbatim legal record.
Who Should Pick Which
Pick Fireflies if you run many meetings, need languages beyond English, or want API access without paying for Enterprise. Pick Otter if live captioning and real-time capture matter, or you want the most AI you can get on a free plan. If you are not sure either is the right category, the best free note-taking apps guide covers the manual side, and the note-takers category has the wider field.
The Recommendation
On published pricing and features, Fireflies is the better default for most teams: unlimited transcription, far more languages, and API on every tier give it the wider envelope, and the per-seat prices are close enough that the extras tip it. Otter remains the better tool for live, real-time use and for squeezing the most AI out of a free plan. Run both free on a week of real meetings, and the choice usually comes down to whether you value live capture (Otter) or unlimited volume and languages (Fireflies).
Bottom line: Fireflies for unlimited transcription and languages, Otter for live capture. Both are worth trialing free before you pay per seat.
FAQ
Is Otter or Fireflies cheaper?
Otter Pro is slightly cheaper at $8.33/user/mo versus Fireflies Pro at $10/seat/mo, both annual. But Fireflies includes unlimited transcription where Otter caps minutes, so the better value depends on how much you transcribe.
Which has the better free plan?
It depends on your priority. Fireflies gives unlimited transcription but limits storage and summaries. Otter caps minutes but exposes more AI features. High-volume users lean Fireflies; feature-curious users lean Otter.
Which supports more languages?
Fireflies, by a wide margin: 100-plus languages versus Otter’s six. For multilingual teams, Fireflies is the clear pick.
Do they work with Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams?
Yes, both integrate with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams on all tiers, including their free plans, and both offer browser extensions and mobile apps.
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