Fireflies vs Otter: Which AI Note Taker Should You Pick?

Fireflies vs Otter comes down to two questions: what languages are your meetings in, and how long are they? Fireflies.ai transcribes 100+ languages and lists unlimited transcription on every plan, capping storage and recording length instead. Otter.ai transcribes six languages and meters minutes per month and per conversation, but it gives you a live transcript and a meeting assistant that now preps you before calls and coaches you during them.

The short version:

• Pick Fireflies if your calls aren't all in English, your meetings run long, or your notes need to reach a CRM, a project tool and Slack.
• Pick Otter if you want to follow a live transcript during the call, and your meetings are in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese or Chinese.
• On a free plan, Fireflies is more forgiving for long meetings. Otter's free plan stops transcribing a conversation after 30 minutes.
• Both now record without a bot from a desktop app, both offer live coaching during calls, and both connect your meeting history to ChatGPT and Claude through an MCP server.

Older Otter vs Fireflies comparisons describe products that have changed a lot in 2026, so everything below was checked against each vendor's own pricing pages and help docs.

Quick comparison

Languages and long meetings

This is the biggest practical difference, and it's the one most people only notice after a month of use.

Fireflies advertises 100+ transcription languages with auto-detection. Its supported languages guide lists each one with a language code, plus a Multi-Language (Auto-Detect) option that's still marked Beta. On the pricing page, Multi-Language Mode, for meetings where people switch languages mid-call, sits on the Business plan and up.

Otter lists six transcription languages on its pricing page: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. If your team runs calls in Portuguese, Hindi or Korean, Otter isn't an option, and that settles the comparison.

Meeting length is the second filter. Otter meters transcription two ways:

Fireflies lists unlimited transcription on every plan (on Free, its pricing page scopes that to bot meetings, the Chrome extension and the mobile app) and caps a single recording instead: 2 hours on Free and Pro, 3 hours on Business, 4 hours on Enterprise. Its limits show up as storage (400 minutes per team on Free, 8,000 minutes per seat on Pro, unlimited from Business) and AI credits.

What that means in practice: a weekly 60-minute client call works on Fireflies' free plan but gets cut at the 30-minute mark on Otter's free plan. A workshop of up to two hours needs Otter Business, or any Fireflies plan; past two hours, Fireflies needs Business or Enterprise.

Bot or no bot

Both tools started as a bot that joins Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams as a participant. Both now offer a botless desktop app too, which matters if clients object to an extra name in the attendee list.

Otter's desktop app is available on macOS 13 or later and Windows 10 or later. Otter's desktop page says you "can record with your headphones on and no bot in the meeting."

Fireflies' desktop app also runs on Windows and Mac. Its guide to recording without a bot is unusually candid about the trade-offs:

• Bot-free mode "does not save audio or video files." You get a transcript and summary, not a recording.
• Speakers appear as "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2" rather than by name.
• Sales Assist doesn't work, because it needs the bot.
• You can't switch to the bot mid-meeting.

Fireflies also records through a Chrome extension without the bot, and captures phone calls through dialer integrations like Aircall and RingCentral.

Consent is on you either way. A bot announces itself. A desktop recorder doesn't. Fireflies' desktop app shows consent messages by default, and its guide says that if you turn them off, informing participants is your responsibility. Our guide to choosing an AI notes maker covers consent rules in more detail.

What each does after the meeting

Here's where the two have drifted apart in 2026. Otter is moving toward a meeting assistant that works before, during and after the call. Fireflies is moving toward automations and integrations.

Otter: briefs, coaching and follow-ups

Otter now calls itself a "Conversational Knowledge Engine." Its October 27, 2026 announcement of Work Mode and Live Assist describes three pieces:

• Pre-meeting briefs built from past conversations, open action items and recent files from connected apps like Google Drive.
• Live Assist, private real-time coaching that appears as a small prompt in the Zoom, Teams or Meet window. The post says it's "available today to enterprise customers and will roll out to all paid users over the next few weeks."
• Follow-ups that draft emails, update CRM records and produce documents such as proposals. Work Mode "is available today for all paid users."

Otter AI Chat answers questions across your meetings, with a monthly query limit on each plan (20 a month on Basic, rising to 200 on Business and Enterprise). The Otter MCP server, listed even on the free plan, lets ChatGPT and Claude read your meeting history.

Fireflies: integrations and AI Skills

Fireflies lists unlimited integrations from the Pro plan up, covering CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, project tools, Slack and Notion. On top of that sit:

• AI Skills, a library of 200+ automations such as drafting follow-up emails or scoring candidates.
• AskFred, its assistant for questions about your meetings.
• Live Assist, real-time suggestions during calls.
• Conversation intelligence on Business: speaker talk-time, sentiment and topic trackers.
• Fireflies MCP, which connects meeting data to Claude, ChatGPT and other agents.

Each plan also includes a monthly allowance of AI credits, which is larger on Business and Enterprise.

The honest read: if you want the tool to tell you what to say next on a sales call, Otter is putting more of its product weight there. If you want notes to land automatically in five other tools, Fireflies has the wider integration story.

Pricing model and plan limits

Both have a free plan and three paid tiers with similar names. Rather than repeat prices that change often, here's how each one charges and where the important features sit. Check both vendors' pricing pages for current numbers.

Two details catch people out:

1. Otter's free plan keeps only your 25 most recent conversations and allows 3 file imports per user, ever. It's a trial more than a working plan.
2. Fireflies' free plan has limited AI summaries and a small shared storage pool. It works for occasional use, not for a team that meets daily.

Security and data use

Both sell to companies with compliance requirements, so both offer SSO, admin controls and HIPAA options at the top tier.

Fireflies makes more specific public claims. Its site lists SOC 2 Type II, ISO 42001 and GDPR compliance, says customer data is "never used for AI training," and offers private storage and custom data retention on Enterprise. Otter's homepage refers to enterprise "security, governance, and compliance controls" and lists HIPAA as an add-on on its pricing page.

If your legal team needs written answers on training data, retention and where audio is stored, request each vendor's security documentation and DPA before you roll either out. Homepage claims aren't a contract.

Which should you choose?

Still not sold on either? Our Fireflies alternatives and Otter.ai alternatives guides cover local-first notetakers, sales tools, and the AI notes already built into Zoom, Meet and Teams. If cost is the deciding factor, Fathom's alternatives guide explains where Fathom, now part of Superhuman, fits.

The fastest way to decide: run both on the same three real meetings for a week. Compare speaker labels, how each handles your team's jargon, and whether the summary is something you'd actually send.

Where Taku fits

A notetaker gives you the transcript. Turning a week of calls into a research brief or a follow-up plan is usually a pile of one-off prompts you rebuild every time. Taku is an AI-native desktop workspace where you can mirror ready-made AI apps and workflows, run them on your own files, and keep the ones that work. It isn't a meeting recorder. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now.

FAQ

Is Fireflies better than Otter?

For multilingual teams and long meetings, yes. Fireflies supports 100+ languages and lists unlimited transcription on every plan. Otter is better if you want a live transcript during the call and coaching inside the meeting window, and your meetings are in one of its six languages.

Otter vs Fireflies: which is more accurate?

Accuracy depends heavily on audio quality, accents and jargon, and there's no shared benchmark that settles it. Test both on your own recordings. Otter lets you add custom vocabulary on every plan, which helps with names and product terms.

Is there a free version of Fireflies or Otter?

Both have free plans. Otter's Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month and stops at 30 minutes per conversation. Fireflies' free plan lists unlimited transcription for bot meetings, the Chrome extension and the mobile app, with limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team.

Can Fireflies or Otter record without joining the meeting?

Yes. Both have desktop apps for Mac and Windows that capture audio from your computer with no bot. Fireflies' bot-free mode doesn't save audio or video files, only the transcript and summary.

Does Otter.ai support languages other than English?

Yes, five more: Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. For anything else, Fireflies is the better fit.

Fireflies.ai vs Otter.ai for sales teams?

Fireflies has broader CRM and dialer integrations plus conversation intelligence on Business. Otter is pushing harder into live coaching and pre-call briefs, with an Otter Sales Notetaker on Enterprise. If your reps need guidance during the call, trial Otter. If managers need data in the CRM, trial Fireflies.