Fathom
AI Meeting Notes
Fathom is the free-first AI notetaker — unlimited recording and transcription on the $0 tier, sales-friendly CRM auto-fill, Premium entry at $16/mo annual for the teams tier.
★★★★☆4.3
Docs-based · official check ← All tools
Best Free AI Meeting Notes Tools 2026
The five free tiers of this cluster are not interchangeable, and the free tier is where the real difference shows. We compared all five against their official pricing pages (verified 2026-09-21) on the axes that decide the pick: how much free recording and transcription you actually get, the cheapest paid entry, whether the tool stores your audio, and how far the team features go. Fathom is the standout — unlimited recording and transcription at $0, the only one with no volume limit — and paid only adds depth: Premium $16/mo annual ($20 monthly), Team $15/mo annual ($19 monthly) for CRM field sync and deal views, and Business $25/mo annual ($34 monthly), with annual saving 20-26% and a 90-day guarantee. Otter's Basic tier is genuinely usable at 300 min/month with a 30-minute per-meeting cap; Pro is $8.33/mo annual ($16.99 monthly) for 1,200 min/month and a 90-minute cap, Business $19.99/mo annual ($30 monthly) for unlimited live plus 6,000 imported minutes and a 4-hour cap. Fireflies gives unlimited transcription and AI summaries on every plan and meters storage instead: free gets 400 min per team, Pro $10/seat/mo annual ($18 monthly) lifts that to 8,000 min/seat, and Business $19/mo annual ($29 monthly) is unlimited, with per-seat billing the real bill driver. Granola's free Basic tier limits how far back you can search notes; Business is $14/user/mo for unlimited history, integrations and MCP support, and Enterprise $35/user/mo adds SSO — with audio processed locally and deleted after transcription. Tactiq is a Chrome extension with no bot and no audio storage: free allows 10 transcripts/month plus 5 AI credits, and Pro is the cheapest paid entry in the cluster at $8/user/mo annual ($12 monthly) for unlimited transcripts with no per-meeting cap. The free tiers are windows, not lanes — they let you evaluate the output, and the team and CRM features are where the bill starts.
How we rated
- What the $0 tier actually includes
- The meter that forces the upgrade
- Privacy of the free capture
- Path to a paid team plan
Fathom
Best free tier (unlimited)★★★★4.3
The only $0 plan with unlimited recording and transcription. Paid unlocks advanced summaries, action items and CRM auto-fill; Team is $15/mo annual.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $15/mo (Team, annual) (Free tier is unlimited recordings + transcription (the most generous in the set). Paid tiers add advanced summaries, action items and conversational assistant; team tiers gate CRM field sync, deal views and coaching. Annual ~20-26% off. 90-day guarantee.)
Otter.ai
Best free summaries★★★★★4.5
Basic $0 = 300 min/mo with a 30-min per-meeting cap, live transcription and speaker ID. The upgrade meter is the per-meeting length wall, hit before the monthly pool.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $8.33/mo (Pro, annual) (Per-user minutes pool: Basic 300 min/mo, Pro 1,200 min/mo, Business/Enterprise unlimited live + 6,000 imported. Per-meeting caps: 30 min Basic, 90 min Pro, 4h Business. Annual saves ~51% on Pro / ~33% on Business.)
Otter.ai
AI Meeting Notes
Otter.ai is the AI notetaker standard for auto-join transcription and summaries — bot joins Zoom/Meet/Teams, free Basic tier gives 300 min/month, Pro entry at $8.33/mo annual.
★★★★★4.5
Docs-based · official check Fireflies.ai
Best free unlimited transcription★★★★4.4
Free = unlimited transcription and AI summaries, AskFred chat, but 400 min/team of storage and no video recording or downloads. Storage is the meter.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $10/mo (Pro, annual) (Unlimited transcription and AI summaries on every plan; the meter is storage + automation depth. Free 400 min/team, Pro 8,000 min/seat, Business/Enterprise unlimited. Per-seat billing is the bill driver. Annual saves ~44% Pro / ~34% Business.)
Fireflies.ai
AI Meeting Notes
Fireflies.ai is the integrations-heavy meeting recorder — one auto-join bot across Zoom/Teams/Meet plus 30+ CRM/Slack apps, unlimited transcription on every tier, Pro from $10/mo annual.
★★★★☆4.4
Docs-based · official check Granola
Best free no-bot privacy★★★★4.2
Free with no bot joining — local audio capture, AI-enhanced notes, but limited meeting history. The history cap is the meter; Business $14/user/mo removes it.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $14/mo (Business) (Freemium. Basic free with limited meeting history; Business adds unlimited history, integrations (Notion/Slack/HubSpot/Zapier), MCP support and admin controls; Enterprise adds SSO and org-wide opt-out of model training. Audio processed locally and deleted after transcription.)
Granola
AI Meeting Notes
Granola is the no-bot AI notepad — it transcribes local system audio on Mac/Windows and enhances the notes you already take, not a full transcript; Business from $14/mo, privacy-first local processing.
★★★★☆4.2
Docs-based · official check Tactiq
Best free lightweight★★★★4.0
Free = 10 transcripts/month, no per-meeting cap, no audio stored. Five AI credits/mo cover summaries; Pro removes the cap from $8/mo annual.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $8/mo (Pro, annual) (Chrome-extension, no bot joins, no audio storage (privacy). Free = 10 transcripts/mo + 5 AI credits. Pro = unlimited transcripts; Team adds unlimited AI credits + auto-share; Business adds SSO/SAML. Cheapest paid entry of the cluster. No per-meeting minute cap.)
Tactiq
AI Meeting Notes
Tactiq is the lightweight Chrome-extension notetaker — no bot, no download, real-time captions on Google Meet/Zoom/Teams, free 10 transcripts/month, Pro from $8/mo annual.
★★★★☆4.0
Docs-based · official check Bottom line
Bottom line: Bottom line: Fathom's free tier is the only one you can run heavy on — unlimited recording and transcription at $0 — which is why it is the free pick. Otter is the most structured free summary but its 30-minute per-meeting cap is the wall. Fireflies transcribes without limit but meters storage. Granola is the privacy pick (no bot) but caps note history; Tactiq is the no-download entry. Treat every free tier as a trial window, not a permanent lane.
FAQs
Which free tier has no usage limit?
Fathom — unlimited recording and transcription at $0. Every other free tier meters something: Otter by minutes (300/mo, 30-min per meeting), Fireflies by storage (400 min/team), Granola by note history, Tactiq by transcript count (10/mo).
Do the free tiers store my audio or use it for training?
Tactiq stores no audio (transcript only). Granola processes locally and deletes audio after transcription. Otter and Fireflies cloud-store recordings; Granola's paid/Enterprise tiers offer an opt-out of model training.
Is there a real free option, or just trials?
All five ship a permanent free plan, not a timed trial. The free tiers are usable but metered — the team, CRM and unlimited features are the paid upgrade.