Pick Otter.ai if…
you want live transcripts during Zoom, Teams or Meet calls and AI Chat to query past meetings.
Otter meters by minutes: 300 a month free, 1,200 on Pro, unlimited only on Business. Circleback meters by history: unlimited meetings and action items free, but notes older than 30 days need Pro. Otter's extras are live transcription and AI Chat; Circleback's are action items and CRM automations.
Pick Circleback (Pro $18/mo per user) if you have more meetings than Otter's minute caps allow and want action items pushed to Notion, HubSpot or Salesforce. Pick Otter.ai ($16.99/mo per user) if you want a real-time transcript and AI Chat over your notes.
| 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 |
| Circleback | Yes | $18/mo | $35/mo | Teams that want unlimited free AI meeting notes and only want to pay for deeper history and CRM automations |
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 November 2, 2026
| Otter.ai | Circleback | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 300 transcription minutes/mo | Unlimited meetings, 30-day history |
| Entry paid plan | Pro: 1,200 minutes/mo, up to 90-min meetings | Pro: unlimited history, 1-year recording storage |
| Standout | Live transcription, AI Chat | AI action items, speaker-labeled transcripts |
| Business plan | Unlimited meetings up to 4 hours, 3 concurrent bots | Roles, unlimited free viewers, 2-year storage |
| Enterprise | Custom security & compliance, contact sales | SSO, SCIM, HIPAA, unlimited storage |
you want live transcripts during Zoom, Teams or Meet calls and AI Chat to query past meetings.
you sit in many meetings, online or in person, and mainly want notes and action items without a minute count.
Circleback's, if you have lots of meetings — they're unlimited, with 30 days of history. Otter's 300 minutes a month covers only a handful of hour-long calls, though it also gives 3 lifetime file imports.
For heavy meeting schedules, Circleback: Pro ($18/mo per user) has no minutes cap, while Otter Pro ($16.99/mo per user) stops at 1,200 minutes a month. Both discount annual billing, so compare on the cycle you'll use.
Yes — its free plan covers unlimited online and in-person meetings.
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.