Fireflies vs Otter

Both turn meetings into searchable notes, but they go about it differently. Fireflies is the integration and sales-workflow machine: it auto-logs calls to your CRM, transcribes dialer calls, and hands you AI summaries and action items — a lot of it on the free plan. Otter is the real-time transcriptionist: live captions during the call, a polished auto-notetaker, and an AI chat that searches across your meetings. The winner depends on whether you want meeting intelligence after the fact or live text in the moment.

The bout at a glance

Pricing and allowances change often; verify current plans on each vendor's site before deciding. Fireflies' free transcription is effectively unlimited for auto-joined meetings (per its own guide); uploaded files consume credits. Otter's free tier caps every conversation at 30 minutes and only keeps the 25 most recent. Sources: fireflies.ai and otter.ai pricing pages, checked 2026-09-09.

When Fireflies is the better pick

Pick Fireflies when the point of the notetaker is to feed the rest of your stack. It's the only one of the two that logs calls to your CRM and transcribes dialer conversations on the free plan, so sales and ops teams get Salesforce, HubSpot, and Aircall/RingCentral coverage without paying for it first. Its free plan also keeps AI summaries and action items, and all 50+ integrations are available at $0. If you work across many languages or want to ask questions of your past meetings (AskFred, 200+ AI skills), Fireflies is the stronger, cheaper default.

When Otter is the better pick

Pick Otter when you need the words on screen while the meeting is still happening. Live captions for Zoom and Google Meet are Otter's genuine differentiator — Fireflies produces notes after the fact. Otter also has the cleaner collaboration story (folders, shared workspaces, an AI chat that searches meetings and connected apps), and its Business tier removes the transcription caps entirely with 4-hour meetings and three concurrent sessions. If real-time captions or polished team collaboration is the job, Otter is the better fit.

The verdict

Choose Fireflies for most teams — deeper integrations, CRM and dialer auto-logging, and AI summaries plus action items on a free plan make it the better value for turning meetings into workflow. Choose Otter specifically if you want live in-meeting captions or a stronger shared-workspace experience.