Before comparing AI meeting note apps, ask one awkward question:
Do you want an AI bot sitting in the meeting?
That choice matters more than most feature tables.
The 10-second answer
Want botless by default → Granola
Want a very generous free plan → Fathom
Want live transcription and flexible capture → Otter
Want team analytics and sales workflows → Fireflies
Granola: the invisible notepad
Granola deliberately avoids meeting bots. It captures the meeting from your device, then combines the transcript with the notes you typed yourself.
That makes it feel less like inviting another attendee and more like upgrading your notebook.
The free plan has limited meeting history. Business is $14/user/month and adds unlimited history, advanced AI features and integrations.
Best reason to choose it: you hate the little AI bot joining your calls.
Fathom: the free-plan monster
Fathom used to be an easy example of the “bot joins your call” approach. That is changing.
Its current free plan includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions, and Fathom now offers a choice between bot capture and bot-free capture in beta on supported setups.
So its biggest advantage is not the bot anymore. It is how much you can do before paying.
Best reason to choose it: you want to see how far “free” can actually take you.
Otter: the flexible middle
Otter’s Notetaker can join Zoom, Google Meet and Teams as a visible participant.
But Otter also offers botless recording through its desktop app.
The free plan includes 300 transcription minutes per month. Pro is $16.99 monthly, or about $8.33/month when billed annually.
Best reason to choose it: you want live transcription without committing to one recording style.
Fireflies: when meetings become data
Fireflies goes further into team workflows: summaries, integrations, conversation intelligence, analytics and sales-oriented features.
Its Pro plan is $10/user/month billed annually, while Business is $19/user/month billed annually.
It can use its meeting assistant, but its Chrome extension can also record without the Fireflies bot.
Best reason to choose it: the meeting itself is only the start, and you want to analyze what happens across many calls.
So which one?
Don’t start with transcription accuracy percentages.
Start with the social experience.
If an AI bot appearing beside your client’s name already sounds annoying, check the botless mode first.
Granola is botless by design. Fathom, Otter and Fireflies now also offer bot-free capture in at least some setups. Botless is becoming a mode, not a product category.
Then compare price, summaries and integrations.
Because the best meeting note app is not the one with the longest feature list.
It is the one you will actually let into every meeting.
Pricing and product capabilities checked against official Granola, Fathom, Otter and Fireflies documentation in September 2026. Features and prices can change.