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Quick verdict: Fathom is the best free AI note taker for most small business owners, with a generous free plan for recording and summarising your own Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls. Fireflies is best if you want deep integrations and searchable call history across a team. Otter is best for live transcription, including in-person meetings.
AI note takers join your calls, record and transcribe them, then give you a summary and a list of action items a few minutes after the meeting ends. For a small business that means no more scribbling notes while trying to listen to a client, and no more "what did we agree?" emails.
Quick picks
| Tool | Best for | Free plan | Paid from | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Best free option | Unlimited recordings, limited AI summaries | See site | Zoom, Meet, Teams |
| Fireflies | Integrations and teams | Limited storage and AI credits | See site | Zoom, Meet, Teams, Webex + more |
| Otter | Live transcription, in-person | Limited minutes per month | See site | Zoom, Meet, Teams, mobile app |
Try Fathom free · Try Fireflies free · Try Otter free (affiliate links)
Accuracy
In general, all three handle clear audio with one or two speakers well. Accuracy drops with poor microphones, crosstalk, strong accents and industry jargon. Adding a custom vocabulary (names, product terms) helps where the tool supports it.
Free plans compared
- Fathom: the most generous free plan for individuals: unlimited recording and transcription with a limited number of AI summaries per month.
- Fireflies: free plan with limited AI summaries and storage. Fine for testing, but most business users upgrade.
- Otter: free plan with a monthly minutes cap and a per-conversation limit. Good for occasional use.
If you have fewer than a handful of calls a week, a free plan may be all you need.
Integrations
Where your notes end up matters as much as how good they are.
| Integration | Fathom | Fireflies | Otter |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) | See site | Yes | See site |
| Slack | See site | Yes | See site |
| Notion | See site | Yes | See site |
| Zapier | See site | Yes | See site |
| Calendar auto-join | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fireflies has the widest range of integrations. With Zapier you can send any tool's summary to your CRM, project tool or a Notion database (see our guides to automating your business with Zapier and ChatGPT and Notion for small business).
Summaries and action items
All three generate an AI summary, key points and action items. The differences:
- Fathom produces clean, well-structured summaries and lets you highlight moments during the call with one click.
- Fireflies offers "AskFred" (an AI assistant you can ask questions about any past meeting) and topic tracking across calls, useful for spotting recurring customer objections.
- Otter shows a live transcript during the call, so you can follow along or catch up if you join late, and its AI chat can answer questions about meetings.
Prompt to get more from any transcript:
> Here is a meeting transcript: paste. Write: 1) a 5-bullet summary, 2) every decision made, 3) action items with owner and deadline, 4) open questions, 5) a short follow-up email to the client confirming next steps.
Privacy and consent
Recording calls has legal and trust implications:
- Always tell participants the call is being recorded and transcribed. Many places require consent from everyone on the call.
- Check data storage and training policies. Look for whether your recordings are used to train AI models and where data is stored.
- Use admin controls on team plans to manage which calls are recorded automatically.
- Avoid recording sensitive calls (health, legal or HR matters) unless you're sure the tool meets your obligations.
Pick by use case
| You are... | Choose |
|---|---|
| A solo consultant or coach with client calls | Fathom |
| A small sales team that lives in a CRM | Fireflies |
| Someone who needs notes for in-person meetings or lectures | Otter |
| On a zero budget | Fathom free plan |
| Wanting to search across all past calls for insights | Fireflies |
Free: get 50 ChatGPT prompts for your business, sent straight to your inbox. Get the free prompts ()
Final verdict
For most small businesses, start with Fathom's free plan. If you need your notes flowing into a CRM or want a searchable library of every call across a team, upgrade to Fireflies. Choose Otter if live or in-person transcription matters most.
Want the rest of your AI toolkit? See the best AI tools for small business.
FAQ
Which AI note taker is free?
Fathom, Fireflies and Otter all have free plans. Fathom's is the most generous for individuals, with unlimited recordings. Otter and Fireflies limit minutes, storage or AI summaries on their free plans.
Are AI note takers accurate?
With clear audio and a small number of speakers they're very accurate. Accuracy drops with background noise, crosstalk, heavy accents and jargon, so always check names, numbers and commitments before sending notes to a client.
Is it legal to record meetings with an AI note taker?
It depends on where you and the participants are. Many places require everyone's consent. The safe approach is to announce the recording at the start of every call.
Can AI note takers work for in-person meetings?
Otter's mobile app is the strongest option for in-person meetings. Others focus mainly on video calls.
Do AI note takers join meetings automatically?
Yes. Once you connect your calendar, they can auto-join scheduled meetings. You can usually choose which meetings to record.
