The short answer
Otter vs Fireflies: for most teams Fireflies.ai is the better pick in November 2026, because it transcribes in more than 100 languages, says meeting content is never used to train AI models and records without a bot on its desktop app. Otter.ai wins for English-speaking sales teams that want prep and follow-up, through Work Mode launched on 27 October 2026. Otter trains on de-identified recordings with no simple opt-out and faces a privacy class action.
| Otter.ai | Fireflies.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | Otter.ai (Mountain View, California) | Fireflies.ai (San Francisco dateline, remote-first) |
| Free plan | Basic: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 20 AI Chat queries a month | 400 minutes of storage, 20 AI credits a month and a 2-hour recording limit; new accounts need Auto-join on for unlimited transcription |
| Paid plans | Pro, Business, Enterprise | Pro, Business, Enterprise |
| Transcription languages | English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese | More than 100, with automatic language detection |
| Training on your meetings | Trains its own AI on de-identified recordings and transcripts; no opt-out toggle described | Says meeting content is never used to train any AI models |
| Consent notices | Pre-recording email 5 to 10 minutes before; enforcing it for everyone is Enterprise only | Email one hour before with a decline link that stops Fireflies joining; pinned chat notice |
| Recording without a bot | Otter for Desktop on Mac and Windows records conversations across apps | Desktop Take Notes captures system audio on Mac and Windows; no audio or video saved |
| Prep and follow-up | Work Mode: pre-meeting briefs, follow-up emails, CRM updates (all paid users) | Email Assistant on Pro, AI Skills, Live Assist |
| Connects to ChatGPT and Claude | MCP server, listed on the free Basic plan | Fireflies MCP for Claude, ChatGPT and Devin |
| Legal | Class action pending (In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation); no finding of liability | No case covered on this page |
The short verdict
Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai do the same basic job: a notetaker joins your Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet call, transcribes it and writes a summary with action items. Pick Fireflies if you work in more than one language, care about whether your recordings train an AI, or want to record without a bot. Pick Otter if your meetings are in English and the value you want is preparation before the call and follow-through after it. Full details are in our Otter guide and Fireflies guide.
Free plan for regular hour-long meetings: Fireflies wins
Otter's free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month but stops each conversation at 30 minutes, keeps only your 25 most recent conversations and allows 3 file imports in total. If your meetings run an hour, half of every one goes unrecorded.
Fireflies' free plan allows recordings of up to 2 hours, so an hour-long meeting fits, but it has two catches. Storage is 400 minutes (the Fireflies guide says per seat, the pricing card says per team), so fewer than seven one-hour meetings fit before you must delete or upgrade. And for accounts created on or after 1 September 2026, unlimited transcription only applies while the Auto-join calendar meetings toggle is on; with it off you get 3 meeting transcriptions. Downloading transcripts needs a paid plan. Even so, a full hour recorded beats half an hour, so Fireflies takes this one.
Meetings in more than one language: Fireflies wins clearly
Otter's pricing page lists six transcription languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. Fireflies says it supports more than 100 languages with automatic language detection, and its Business plan adds Multi-language Mode. For a team in Berlin talking to clients in Milan and Warsaw, Otter is simply not an option.
Privacy and training on your recordings: Fireflies wins
This is the biggest difference. Otter's privacy policy (effective 16 June 2026) lists training its proprietary AI on de-identified audio recordings and transcriptions. Its privacy and security page says de-identification is automatic, recordings are not manually reviewed for training and no customer data is used to train its AI providers' models. No in-app toggle to stop training is described; privacy requests go to privacy@otter.ai or Otter's online form.
Fireflies says meeting content (audio, video, transcripts and summaries) is never used to train any AI models, internally or externally, and that its AI vendors, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, work under a zero data retention policy. It cites SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 42001 and GDPR, with a HIPAA BAA available. Otter is SOC 2 Type 2 and offers a HIPAA add-on on Enterprise. If your meetings include client data, the Fireflies policy is the easier one to defend to a client.
Consent and telling people they are recorded: Fireflies wins
Both makers put the legal duty on you. Otter says users must comply with local laws, ask for consent and indicate when they are recording, and its help centre names California, Illinois and Florida as all-party consent states and suggests applying all-party practice everywhere. Fireflies says that if you disable a consent or notification option, you are responsible for informing participants and complying with recording laws.
The tools differ in what they give you:
- Otter can email every calendar guest 5 to 10 minutes before the meeting (Account Settings > Meetings > Send pre-recording emails), but the disclaimer is not customisable and enforcing the email for everyone is Enterprise only. Notetaker appears as a named participant and posts a chat link to the live transcript. The host can remove it like any attendee.
- Fireflies sends an editable email one hour before (Settings > Compliance Notification), with a decline link that stops Fireflies joining, and can apply it at Team level. It pins a chat notice, and on Zoom it does not join if anyone declines Zoom's own consent pop-up.
A decline link that actually keeps the bot out is the stronger control. One warning about Fireflies: the free plan nudges you to leave Auto-join on for every calendar meeting, which is the setting that makes consent hardest to manage. Check who is invited before a sensitive call either way.
Recording without a bot: Fireflies wins
Fireflies' desktop app for Mac and Windows has a Take Notes mode that captures system audio so no bot joins. It works with Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Discord and phone calls, saves no audio or video, and labels speakers as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2. It plays an audio consent message by default (Settings > Meeting Preference > Recording). Otter launched Otter for Desktop on Mac and Windows in April 2026, which records conversations across applications, not only scheduled meetings. Fireflies documents its no-bot mode and its consent defaults in more detail, so it takes this round. Without a visible bot, telling people matters even more.
Preparing for calls and following through: Otter wins
Otter's Work Mode, launched on 27 October 2026 for all paid users, writes pre-meeting briefs from past calls, open action items and connected apps. After the call it drafts follow-up emails, updates CRM records and produces documents such as proposals or scorecards. Live Assist gives private real-time coaching prompts inside Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, starting on Enterprise and rolling out to all paid users. Otter Pro syncs with Salesforce and HubSpot for one user. Fireflies offers an Email Assistant on Pro, more than 200 AI Skills and Live Assist suggestions, but Otter's single prep-to-follow-up flow is more complete for a seller or recruiter with back-to-back calls.
Using your meetings inside ChatGPT or Claude: Otter wins, narrowly
Both tools offer an MCP server, so ChatGPT and Claude can read your meeting history. Otter lists its MCP server on the free Basic plan, and on the Enterprise plan its pricing page lists AI Chat with Gmail, Google Drive, Notion and Jira, marked New or Coming Soon depending on the billing view. Fireflies connects to Claude, ChatGPT and Devin through Fireflies MCP and links to more than 100 tools. Otter wins narrowly because its pricing page lists the MCP server on the free Basic plan, while Fireflies' pricing page does not say which plans include its MCP connection.
The Otter lawsuit: what has actually happened
Otter faces a class action, In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation, No. 25-cv-06911-EKL, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, before Judge Eumi K. Lee. The plaintiffs allege that Otter Notetaker recorded and transcribed calls without the consent of all participants and used conversations and voiceprints to train its models. On 13 August 2026 the court granted Otter's motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part. The claims that survive include the federal ECPA claim, unjust enrichment, declaratory judgment, the California CIPA section 631 claim, the California UCL claim and two Illinois BIPA claims (sections 15(a) and 15(b)); intrusion upon seclusion and the California constitutional privacy claim survive for plaintiff Theus only. Other claims were dismissed, some with leave to amend. There has been no finding of liability. For your own use, the practical point is the one both makers already make: get consent from everyone on the call.
Same task, both tools: a weekly client call
Here is how one weekly one-hour client call runs in each tool, based on what each maker documents. It is a walkthrough of the steps, not a test.
With Otter
- Turn on Send pre-recording emails in Account Settings > Meetings, so guests hear about Notetaker 5 to 10 minutes before.
- On a paid plan, open the Work Mode brief for open action items from last week.
- Notetaker joins as a named participant and transcribes in English. On Basic it stops at 30 minutes.
- Afterwards, Work Mode drafts the follow-up email and updates the CRM record; check both before sending.
With Fireflies
- Set the Compliance Notification email so guests get it one hour before, with the option to decline.
- Fireflies Notetaker joins and transcribes in the call's language, or use Take Notes on the desktop app for no bot.
- Afterwards, read the summary and action items and ask AskFred for anything specific, using AI credits.
- Send the summary through a connected tool such as Slack or your CRM. On Free, the recording counts against 400 minutes of storage.
Who should pick which
- Pick Fireflies if you meet in several languages, handle client or personal data, want people to be able to refuse the bot, or want to record without one.
- Pick Otter if you run English-language sales or recruiting calls all day and want briefs, CRM updates and follow-up emails done for you, and you are comfortable with its training policy.
- Pick neither yet if your company already pays for Microsoft 365 Copilot, Zoom Workplace or a Google Workspace edition with Gemini: their built-in recaps may be enough. See our Otter alternatives and best AI for meeting notes.
Prompts to copy
Action items with owners
From this meeting, list every action item as a table with three columns: task, owner, due date. If no owner or date was said out loud, write "not agreed" rather than guessing. Then list any decision that was discussed but not settled.
You get: A clean action list that flags gaps instead of inventing owners
Follow-up email for the client
Write a follow-up email to [client name] from this meeting. Start with the two most important decisions, then the next steps with dates, then one question we still need answered. Under 150 words. Do not include anything said about pricing or internal opinions.
You get: A send-ready recap that leaves out what the client should not see
What changed since last week
Compare this week's meeting with last week's meeting on [project]. What moved forward, what is stuck, and which action items from last week were not mentioned at all?
You get: A progress check across two meetings, with dropped tasks surfaced