Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai 2026: Which Should You Pick?

The short answer: Pick Otter.ai for live transcription and collaboration in English-first teams (Pro $8.33 per month billed annually). Pick Fireflies.ai for CRM integrations, 100+ languages and cross-meeting search (Pro $10 per seat annually). Both are cloud tools that join calls with a bot by default, and Otter trains on de-identified data by default while Fireflies states it does not. If you want no bot and transcription that runs on your own device, Hedy is built for that.

This is the most-searched pairing in the category, and the two have drifted apart. Otter has leaned into real-time transcription and agents; Fireflies has leaned into CRM and analytics. The facts below were re-checked against each vendor’s documentation on October 14, 2026. For a score-by-score view of all 13 criteria, see the Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai scorecard.

At a glance

Transcription and AI features

Both are competent on clear English audio, and neither has a decisive accuracy lead in our ratings. Otter has the longer record on live transcription and speaker identification, and its voice-activated Meeting Agent and Sales Agent push it toward an agentic assistant. Fireflies produces more structured notes: topics, action items, sentiment and talk-time analytics, plus search across your whole history and AskFred for questions about past meetings.

In short, Otter is better in the meeting and Fireflies is better afterwards.

Integrations

Fireflies has the broader roster: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Slack, Notion, Asana, Trello and an API. Otter integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and a smaller set of tools, and ships an MCP server on every plan, including free. For CRM-driven teams the gap is wide. See our best for sales teams guide.

Pricing

Compare annual with annual. Otter Pro is $8.33 per month billed annually ($16.99 monthly); Fireflies Pro is $10 per seat per month annually ($18 monthly). Fireflies Business is $19 per seat annually ($29 monthly). Otter’s free plan is clearer about its limits, with 300 minutes per month and a 30-minute cap per conversation. Fireflies’ free plan is tighter on storage, and its advanced AI features draw on a metered AI credit pool on top of the seat price.

Privacy: the part most comparisons skip

Both tools process audio in their own cloud, and the differences are in what happens next.

Otter trains on de-identified user data by default, and its privacy page does not describe a self-serve opt-out. In August 2026 a federal court in California let a privacy class action against Otter proceed in part, holding that Otter can be treated as a third-party eavesdropper under California’s wiretapping law. That is a pleading-stage ruling, not a finding that Otter broke the law; we explain it in the Otter.ai ruling.

Fireflies states it does not train on meeting content, but it is named in Illinois biometric privacy (BIPA) litigation, where a motion to dismiss is pending. For the full picture on training, see Do AI note takers train on your data? and our fact sheet.

The bot problem

When “Otter.ai Notetaker” or “Fireflies.ai Notetaker” appears in the participant list, everyone knows a third-party cloud service is recording. In internal meetings that is usually fine. In sales calls, client meetings or sensitive conversations it can make people guarded. Both tools now offer bot-free capture, but the bot is still the default.

Consider Hedy if you want no bot and no default cloud

If privacy or the bot is your real concern, neither of these is the answer. Hedy captures system audio on your own computer, so no bot joins and it works with Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex and phone calls. Speech recognition runs on your device, and its AI runs locally on supported hardware, otherwise in Hedy’s EU or US cloud or Apple Private Cloud Compute. It does not train on your data, records in-person meetings from a phone or Apple Watch, and offers live coaching during calls. Its integrations are lighter than Fireflies’, with no native CRM connector (Zapier, API, webhooks and MCP instead). See Otter.ai vs Hedy and Fireflies.ai vs Hedy, or the privacy guide.

Which should you choose?

Choose Otter.ai if: you want polished live transcription and a shared archive, you work mainly in English, and the training default and the pending litigation are acceptable to you.

Choose Fireflies.ai if: you need CRM sync, conversation analytics, many languages and a vendor that states it does not train on your meetings.

Look elsewhere if: the bot or cloud processing is the problem. Also see tl;dv vs Fireflies and Fathom vs Fireflies vs Otter.