Otter Pro costs $16.99/mo per user. The free tier's 300 minutes a month disappear fast, and several newer note-takers now give away what Otter charges for.
Fathom is the best free alternative: unlimited recordings, transcripts and instant AI summaries. Circleback gives unlimited free AI notes too, with 30 days of history. For uploaded recordings instead of live calls, TurboScribe transcribes without a minute cap for a flat $20/mo.
| App | Free tier | Paid from | Top plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Yes | $16.99/mo | $30/mo | Teams already living in Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet who want automatic notes and searchable transcripts |
| Fathom | Yes | $20/mo | $34/mo | Sales call review, CRM-synced recaps, hiring interview notes |
| Circleback | Yes | $15/mo | $35/mo | Teams that want unlimited free AI meeting notes and only want to pay for deeper history and CRM automations |
| tl;dv | Yes | $29/mo | $39/mo | Sales and customer-facing teams that want unlimited free recording plus deep CRM and workflow integrations |
| Fireflies.ai | Yes | $18/mo | $39/mo | Sales and ops teams who want meeting data piped automatically into CRM, Slack, and analytics tools |
| Granola | Yes | $14/mo | $35/mo | Teams that want meeting notes wired into their existing tools (Slack, Notion, HubSpot) plus MCP access to Claude/ChatGPT |
| TurboScribe | Yes | $20/mo | $20/mo | Solo researchers, journalists, and students transcribing large volumes of pre-recorded audio or video cheaply |
Monthly prices in US dollars before tax, from each vendor's official pricing (US list price; weekly-billed plans converted to a monthly figure). Updated October 7, 2026
Fathom's free plan covers unlimited recordings and transcriptions with instant AI summaries, clips and playlists, with no 300-minute ceiling.
Pick it if: you want Otter's core job done for free on Zoom, Meet or Teams calls.
Full Fathom pricing →Unlimited online and in-person meetings, AI notes and action items on the free plan; Pro ($15/mo) adds unlimited history and Notion, HubSpot and Salesforce automations.
Pick it if: you want free notes now and CRM automations once your team pays.
Full Circleback pricing →tl;dv records and transcribes unlimited meetings in 30+ languages for free and connects to 5,000+ apps; Pro unlocks unlimited AI notes and cross-meeting search.
Pick it if: you want recordings and notes pushed into your CRM.
Full tl;dv pricing →Fireflies' free plan has unlimited transcription and summaries (with 400 storage minutes), and paid tiers pipe meeting data into CRM, Slack and analytics tools.
Pick it if: you run sales or ops and need meeting data flowing into other tools.
Full Fireflies.ai pricing →Granola blends what you type with the transcript into a shareable summary; Business ($14/mo) is cheaper than Otter Pro and adds MCP and API access.
Pick it if: you take your own notes in meetings and want AI to fill in the rest.
Full Granola pricing →No meeting bot, just upload: Unlimited ($20/mo) removes the monthly minute cap and takes files up to 10 hours in 98+ languages.
Pick it if: you transcribe interviews, lectures or podcasts rather than live calls.
Full TurboScribe pricing →Yes. Fathom's free plan has unlimited recordings and transcriptions, and Circleback and tl;dv also offer unlimited free meetings.
TurboScribe: unlimited transcription of uploaded audio or video for a flat monthly price, while Otter Free allows only 3 lifetime file imports.
How we choose: prices come from each vendor's official pricing page and are re-checked every week. We take no affiliate fees, so rankings aren't for sale.