Free Otter.ai Alternatives for AI Meeting Notes

Tested prompts for otter ai alternatives free compared across 5 leading AI models.

BEST BY JUDGE SCORE Claude Opus 4.7 8/10

Otter.ai's free plan caps you at 300 minutes per month and 30 minutes per conversation. If you're hitting those limits mid-project or just getting started and don't want to pay $16.99/month, you need a real alternative that handles meeting transcription without a credit card. The good news: several solid tools offer generous free tiers that cover most individual users and small teams entirely.

The alternatives worth your time fall into two camps: dedicated meeting transcription apps like Fireflies.ai and tl;dv that join your Zoom, Meet, or Teams calls automatically, and general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude where you paste a transcript or audio and get structured notes back. Both approaches work. Which one fits depends on how your meetings run and how much automation you actually need.

This page runs a standardized test prompt through four AI models so you can see exactly what the output looks like before committing to any tool. You'll also find a comparison table, real-world examples, and a breakdown of when free-tier meeting AI earns its keep versus when it falls short.

When to use this

Free AI meeting note tools are the right call when you're handling a manageable volume of meetings, working solo or on a small team, and don't need enterprise features like CRM sync or compliance archiving. They shine for recurring standups, client calls, and any meeting where a clean written summary saves you from writing notes by hand.

  • Weekly team standups or 1:1s where you need action items captured without manual effort
  • Client discovery calls where you want a searchable transcript to reference later
  • Job interviews or candidate screens where you need notes but can't look distracted typing
  • Webinars or online classes you attend solo and want summarized afterward
  • Small-business owners who take fewer than 20 meetings per month and want zero software cost

When this format breaks down

  • High-volume meeting environments with 50+ hours of calls per month -- free tiers will run out fast and you'll end up paying anyway
  • Legally sensitive or confidential conversations like attorney-client calls, medical consultations, or HR investigations where uploading audio to a third-party cloud is a compliance risk
  • Multi-speaker calls with heavy crosstalk or strong accents in a non-English language -- free-tier transcription accuracy drops significantly and you won't have access to accuracy-boosting settings
  • Teams that need the notes to automatically land in Salesforce, HubSpot, or a project management tool -- those integrations are almost always paywalled

The prompt we tested

You are an expert on AI meeting note-taking tools. Based on the user's situation below, recommend the best free Otter.ai alternatives for their needs.

User situation:
I run a small marketing agency and have about 8-10 client calls per week on Zoom and Google Meet. I need to transcribe them, get AI summaries, and share notes with my team. Otter's free plan only gives me 300 minutes which isn't enough.

Follow these rules:
Recommend 5-7 genuinely free Otter.ai alternatives (tools with a permanent free tier, not just trials) in a numbered list. Keep each tool's description to 4-5 bullet points, be specific about free plan limits (exact minutes, meeting counts), and avoid generic marketing language.

For each recommended tool, include: tool name, free plan details (transcription minutes/meetings allowed), key features, platform integrations (Zoom/Meet/Teams), and one notable limitation. End with a 1-sentence verdict on which tool best matches the user's situation.

Model comparison

ModelQualityCostLatencyTokens
Claude Opus 4.7 8 $0.1182 24.7s 346 / 1507
Claude Haiku 4.5 7 $0.0044 9.0s 239 / 835
GPT-5.4 7 $0.0172 20.4s 215 / 1111
Grok 4.1 Fast Reasoning 7 $0.0003 29.4s 362 / 463

Outputs

Claude Opus 4.7 8/10
# Best Free Otter.ai Alternatives for Your Marketing Agency

Based on your need for high-volume transcription (8-10 calls/week), Zoom + Google Meet support, AI summaries, and team sharing, here are the strongest free options:

## 1. **Fireflies.ai**
- **Free plan:** 800 minutes of storage per seat, unlimited transcription credits
- **Key features:** AI summaries, action items, speaker talk-time analytics, keyword tracking, searchable conversation database
- **Integrations:** Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex (native bot joins calls automatically)
- **Team sharing:** Channels and shareable soundbites included on free tier
- **Limitation:** AI summary features ("AskFred" and smart search) are limited on the free plan and push you toward the $10/user/month upgrade

## 2. **Tactiq**
- **Free plan:** 10 transcriptions per month (unlimited length), 5 free AI credits monthly
- **Key features:** Live transcription in-browser, one-click AI summaries, custom AI prompts, real-time highlighting
- **Integrations:** Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams (Chrome extension-based)
- **Team sharing:** Export to Google Docs, Notion, Slack, Confluence
- **Limitation:** 10 meetings/month cap means you'd hit the ceiling in week one at your volume

## 3. **tl;dv**
- **Free plan:** Unlimited recordings and transcriptions on Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams
- **Key features:** AI notes, timestamps, video clips/reels, multi-language support (30+ languages)
- **Integrations:** Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams (native)
- **Team sharing:** Unlimited free viewers, shareable highlight clips
- **Limitation:** Only 10 AI-generated meeting summaries/notes per month on free tier; CRM and advanced integrations are paid

## 4. **Fathom**
- **Free plan:** Unlimited recording, transcription, and AI summaries for individual users
- **Key features:** AI-generated summaries in 30 seconds post-meeting, action items, highlight-by-topic, 28+ languages
- **Integrations:** Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- **Team sharing:** Individual sharing is free, but team workspace features require Team Edition ($19+/user/month)
- **Limitation:** Truly free only for solo use — team collaboration and shared folders are gated behind paid tier

## 5. **Granola**
- **Free plan:** 25 meetings total (lifetime, not monthly) before requiring upgrade
- **Key features:** Works with your own meeting notes (enhances them with AI), no bot joins the call, high-quality summaries
- **Integrations:** Any meeting platform (captures system audio) — Zoom, Meet, Teams all work
- **Team sharing:** Basic sharing via links
- **Limitation:** 25-meeting lifetime cap makes it unsuitable as a long-term free solution at your volume

## 6. **Read.ai**
- **Free plan:** 5 meetings per month with transcripts, summaries, and playback
- **Key features:** Meeting sentiment analysis, engagement scoring, AI summaries, topic tracking
- **Integrations:** Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- **Team sharing:** Report sharing via link
- **Limitation:** 5 meetings/month is far below your 32-40 meeting need

## 7. **Notta**
- **Free plan:** 120 minutes/month, 3-minute max per transcription
- **Key features:** AI summaries, 58 language support, speaker identification, bulk upload
- **Integrations:** Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- **Team sharing:** Export to TXT, DOCX, SRT, PDF
- **Limitation:** The 3-minute-per-file cap makes it useless for real client calls on the free plan

---

## **Verdict**
**Fireflies.ai** is your best match — it's the only option here that realistically handles 8-10 weekly client calls with native Zoom + Google Meet bots, team sharing, and AI summaries on a permanent free tier, with **tl;dv** as a strong runner-up if you prioritize unlimited recording volume over AI summary depth.
Judge notes: The output is thorough and specific, but Fireflies.ai's free plan details are misleading ("800 minutes of storage" is not unlimited transcription, and the free tier has significant restrictions that aren't fully disclosed), which could send the user toward a tool that doesn't actually meet their needs.
Claude Haiku 4.5 7/10
# Best Free Otter.ai Alternatives for Your Marketing Agency

## 1. **Otter.ai (reconsidered with workaround)**
- Free plan: 300 minutes/month (insufficient alone, but see below)
- Key features: Real-time transcription, speaker identification, searchable transcripts, AI summaries
- Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- Workaround: Combine with other tools below or use Otter's free plan for your most critical calls
- Notable limitation: 300 minutes/month is genuinely too low for your use case without upgrading

## 2. **Fireflies.ai**
- Free plan: Unlimited transcription minutes with up to 800 MB storage (~10-15 hours monthly for most users)
- Key features: AI-powered summaries, action item detection, speaker identification, conversation intelligence
- Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, direct recording upload
- Notable limitation: Storage caps out around 800 MB on free plan, requiring deletion of old recordings to continue

**Verdict: Best overall match** — unlimited minutes with solid features and all your required integrations make this the strongest single replacement.

## 3. **Tactiq**
- Free plan: Unlimited live transcription during meetings, but recordings limited to 7 days storage
- Key features: Real-time captions, meeting summaries, keyword highlighting, chat integration
- Integrations: Google Meet, Zoom (limited on free tier)
- Notable limitation: Zoom support on free plan is restricted; primarily designed for Google Meet

## 4. **Fathom**
- Free plan: Unlimited transcription and recording storage
- Key features: AI-generated summaries, automatic meeting notes, CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot), custom highlights
- Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- Notable limitation: Free plan doesn't include video recording playback—only transcripts and notes

## 5. **Grain**
- Free plan: Unlimited transcriptions, 10 GB storage (approximately 20-30 hours of meetings)
- Key features: Highlight reels, clip creation, team sharing, searchable transcripts
- Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams
- Notable limitation: No native AI summaries on free tier; summaries require manual creation or paid upgrade

## 6. **Notta**
- Free plan: 300 minutes/month (same as Otter, but better feature set)
- Key features: Real-time transcription, meeting summaries, speaker identification, keyword extraction
- Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, direct upload
- Notable limitation: Same monthly minute cap as Otter.ai, so not a solo solution for your volume

## 7. **Copilot.live (formerly Copilot)**
- Free plan: 3 hours/month transcription (limited but worth mentioning for quality)
- Key features: AI summaries, action items, real-time transcription, team collaboration
- Integrations: Zoom, Google Meet
- Notable limitation: 3 hours/month is too restrictive even as a supplementary tool

---

## Recommendation for Your Situation

**Use Fireflies.ai as your primary tool** (unlimited minutes with summaries) **and Fathom as a secondary backup** (unlimited storage, excellent summaries, works across all platforms). Together, they cover 8-10 weekly calls without hitting limits, give you redundancy, and cost nothing.

If budget allows a small upgrade ($10-20/month), Otter.ai's paid plan becomes viable, but the free combo above handles your needs completely.
Judge notes: Including Otter.ai itself as recommendation #1 wastes a slot and directly contradicts the task (find *alternatives*), and some free plan details (Grain's 10GB, Copilot.live specifics) appear unverified/inaccurate, undermining the core value of the response.
GPT-5.4 7/10
Here are the best **genuinely free Otter.ai alternatives** for your setup: **8–10 Zoom/Google Meet client calls per week**, with a need for **transcription, AI summaries, and team note-sharing**.

1. **Fireflies.ai**
   - **Free plan:** Up to **800 minutes of storage per seat** and transcription for meetings; free tier is permanent.
   - **Key features:** Automatic meeting transcription, AI-generated summaries, action items, speaker identification, and searchable meeting history.
   - **Integrations:** Works with **Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams**, plus Slack, Notion, HubSpot, and more.
   - **Notable limitation:** Free plan includes transcription/storage, but some advanced AI apps, analytics, and deeper workflow automations are paid.
   - **Why it fits:** Strong option if you want an Otter-like experience with broader integrations and enough room beyond Otter’s 300-minute cap.

2. **Fathom**
   - **Free plan:** **Unlimited recording, transcription, and AI summaries** for individuals on the permanent free tier.
   - **Key features:** Instant meeting summaries, highlight clipping, ask-AI follow-up prompts, and easy sharing of notes/snippets with teammates.
   - **Integrations:** Supports **Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams**; also connects with CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce.
   - **Notable limitation:** Best free value is geared toward individual users; some team/admin collaboration features are reserved for paid plans.
   - **Why it fits:** Excellent if your main priority is unlimited AI notes and summaries without worrying about minute caps.

3. **tl;dv**
   - **Free plan:** **Unlimited meeting recordings and transcripts** for Google Meet and Zoom on the free tier.
   - **Key features:** AI meeting notes, timestamped highlights, clip sharing, searchable transcript library, and meeting templates.
   - **Integrations:** Native support for **Google Meet and Zoom**; Teams support exists but is more limited depending on plan/workspace setup.
   - **Notable limitation:** Some advanced AI summary workflows, multi-meeting reporting, and deeper team features are paid.
   - **Why it fits:** Very useful for agencies that need unlimited transcript capture and simple note sharing from Meet/Zoom calls.

4. **Grain**
   - **Free plan:** Permanent free tier with **limited monthly transcription/AI credits** and meeting recording tools; exact allowances can vary by current plan structure.
   - **Key features:** Meeting recording, transcription, highlights, shareable video snippets, AI notes, and collaborative workspace organization.
   - **Integrations:** Works with **Zoom and Google Meet**; also connects to Slack, Notion, HubSpot, and Salesforce.
   - **Notable limitation:** Free plan is more restrictive than Fathom or tl;dv for heavy weekly usage, especially on AI-generated outputs.
   - **Why it fits:** Better if your team likes sharing clips and key moments with clients or internal staff, not just raw transcripts.

5. **Avoma**
   - **Free plan:** Permanent free tier with **meeting recording/transcription for limited users/features**; free usage limits are tighter than most competitors.
   - **Key features:** AI notes, meeting summaries, collaborative agendas, note templates, and searchable conversation records.
   - **Integrations:** Supports **Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams**, plus CRM/task integrations.
   - **Notable limitation:** Free plan is relatively constrained for agencies with frequent weekly calls; many collaboration and revenue-intelligence features are paid.
   - **Why it fits:** Worth considering if you want more structured meeting workflows, but it’s less generous as a free Otter replacement.

6. **Notta**
   - **Free plan:** **120 transcription minutes per month**, with a cap of **3 minutes per conversation** on the free tier.
   - **Key features:** Live transcription, AI summaries, bilingual transcription support, transcript export, and meeting note organization.
   - **Integrations:** Supports **Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams** through meeting bot/integration workflows.
   - **Notable limitation:** The **3-minute per conversation cap** makes the free plan impractical for full client-call transcription.
   - **Why it fits:** Good tool technically, but the free limits are too restrictive for your volume unless you only need short snippets.

7. **Tactiq**
   - **Free plan:** Free tier with **limited monthly AI credits/transcript saves**; permanent free access is available.
   - **Key features:** Live transcription inside meetings, AI summaries, action items, Google Docs/Slack export, and highlight tagging.
   - **Integrations:** Best known for **Google Meet**; also supports **Zoom and Teams** in broader workflow/export use cases depending on setup.
   - **Notable limitation:** Free plan limits AI usage and is less suitable if you want fully automated transcript coverage for every client call.
   - **Why it fits:** Best if a lot of your meetings are on Google Meet and you want lightweight live notes rather than a heavy post-call system.

**Verdict:** For your agency’s call volume, **Fathom** is the best free match if you want the most generous no-cost transcription and AI summaries, while **Fireflies.ai** is the better choice if team sharing and integrations matter more than having fully unlimited usage.
Judge notes: Several free plan details are vague or hedged ("can vary," "limited users/features," "limited monthly AI credits/transcript saves") rather than giving the specific numbers the prompt explicitly required, which is a real weakness for a user trying to compare plans.
Grok 4.1 Fast Reasoning 7/10
1. **Fathom**
   - Free plan: Unlimited transcription minutes and unlimited meetings.
   - Key features: AI-generated summaries, action items, keyword highlights, shareable note links with team.
   - Platform integrations: Native Zoom and Google Meet bots.
   - Notable limitation: No team workspace or advanced analytics; personal use focused.

2. **tl;dv**
   - Free plan: Unlimited meetings, AI summaries for up to 60 minutes per call.
   - Key features: Timestamped summaries, clip sharing, multi-language support, team collaboration via links.
   - Platform integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
   - Notable limitation: AI analysis limited to first hour of longer calls; full transcripts require paid upgrade.

3. **Supernormal**
   - Free plan: Unlimited meetings and AI note generation.
   - Key features: Automatic summaries, action items, speaker identification, easy note sharing via links or email.
   - Platform integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
   - Notable limitation: No custom AI prompts or advanced search in free tier.

4. **Tactiq**
   - Free plan: 10 transcripts per month, unlimited duration per transcript.
   - Key features: Real-time transcription, AI summaries and insights, speaker labels, export to docs.
   - Platform integrations: Chrome extension for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
   - Notable limitation: Strict 10-transcript monthly cap, resets each month.

5. **MeetGeek**
   - Free plan: Unlimited meetings, 5 hours total transcription per month.
   - Key features: AI summaries, tasks, highlights, team sharing dashboard.
   - Platform integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams calendar sync.
   - Notable limitation: Transcription capped at 5 hours total across all meetings.

6. **Fireflies.ai**
   - Free plan: 800 transcription minutes lifetime, unlimited meetings.
   - Key features: AI summaries, search transcripts, conversation analytics, shareable links.
   - Platform integrations: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams.
   - Notable limitation: Hard lifetime minute cap, no replenishment.

Fathom best matches the user's situation with truly unlimited transcription and summaries for their Zoom/Google Meet calls, plus simple team sharing via links sufficient for a small agency.
Judge notes: The Fireflies.ai free plan description is inaccurate (it's storage-limited, not a hard lifetime minute cap), and tl;dv's free plan details are imprecise, undermining the "specific about free plan limits" requirement that was the core ask.

What makes these work

  1. 01
    Give the AI a role and format

    Free-tier AI tools produce much better meeting notes when your prompt specifies both what you need and how to structure it. Instead of 'summarize this meeting,' try 'You are a professional meeting scribe. Return: one-paragraph summary, bulleted action items with owners, and any decisions made.' The format instruction cuts editing time in half.

  2. 02
    Clean the transcript before pasting

    Auto-generated transcripts from Zoom or Google Meet include filler words, speaker label errors, and garbled proper nouns. Spending 90 seconds skimming and fixing the biggest errors before sending to an AI model significantly improves output accuracy. Misspelled names and jumbled sentences are the main source of hallucinated action items.

  3. 03
    Include meeting context in your prompt

    State the meeting type upfront: 'This is a client discovery call for a software product' gives the model context to weight topics correctly. Without context, a free model treats a sales call and a team standup identically, and the output reads like a generic summary rather than something useful to the actual participants.

  4. 04
    Request a confidence flag for unclear items

    Ask the model to mark any action item or decision it is uncertain about with a question mark or a note like 'unclear from transcript.' This is especially useful with low-quality audio transcripts. It turns a potentially wrong summary into one you can quickly spot-check rather than a confident-sounding summary you trust without verifying.

More example scenarios

#01 · SaaS sales discovery call
Input
Transcript from a 28-minute Zoom call with a prospect. They run a 40-person logistics company, currently using spreadsheets for dispatch tracking, frustrated with manual errors. Decision maker is the ops director. Budget is unconfirmed. They asked about API access and mobile support. Next step is a product demo next Thursday.
Expected output
Summary: Ops Director at a 40-person logistics firm exploring dispatch automation. Pain point is manual spreadsheet errors. Key questions raised: API availability and mobile app support. Budget not discussed. Next step: product demo scheduled for Thursday. Action items: send demo invite, prepare API documentation, confirm mobile feature availability before call.
#02 · Weekly engineering standup
Input
15-minute standup. Maria blocked on the auth service deploy pending DevOps approval. James finished the payment API integration and is moving to error handling. Priya is out sick. Team agreed to push the sprint review from Friday to Monday. No major blockers except Maria's deploy queue.
Expected output
Blockers: Maria waiting on DevOps approval for auth service deploy. Completed: James finished payment API integration. In progress: James moving to error handling. Absent: Priya. Schedule change: sprint review moved from Friday to Monday. Owner to follow up: DevOps approval for Maria.
#03 · Nonprofit board meeting
Input
45-minute board meeting covering Q3 financials, a grant application deadline on October 15th, and a vote on hiring a part-time development coordinator. The vote passed 6-2. Treasurer flagged that operating reserves are at 2.1 months, below the 3-month policy. Executive Director to report back at November meeting with a reserve-building plan.
Expected output
Decisions made: Approved hiring part-time development coordinator (vote: 6-2). Key concern: Operating reserves at 2.1 months, below the 3-month threshold per policy. Deadline flagged: Grant application due October 15th. Action items: Executive Director to present reserve-building plan at November board meeting. Treasurer to circulate full Q3 financials to board within one week.
#04 · Freelance client project kickoff
Input
First call with a new branding client. They want a full brand identity package: logo, color palette, typography, and brand guidelines. Timeline is 8 weeks. Budget confirmed at $4,500. Deliverables go through their marketing manager, Sarah, not the founder. Feedback rounds capped at two per deliverable. Kickoff assets needed from client: existing logo files, competitor examples, and brand adjectives doc.
Expected output
Project: Full brand identity (logo, palette, typography, guidelines). Client contact: Sarah (marketing manager). Timeline: 8 weeks. Budget: $4,500 confirmed. Feedback rounds: 2 per deliverable maximum. Client to provide: existing logo files, competitor brand examples, brand adjectives document. Next step: client sends assets, first concepts due end of week 2.
#05 · University research team sync
Input
Lab meeting covering three active studies. Study A enrollment is at 67% with a soft deadline in 6 weeks. Study B data collection is complete and analysis starts Monday. Study C is on hold pending IRB amendment approval, expected in 3-4 weeks. PI asked all grad students to update their individual timelines in the shared drive before Friday.
Expected output
Study A: Enrollment at 67%, soft deadline in 6 weeks -- team to prioritize recruitment. Study B: Data collection complete, analysis begins Monday. Study C: On hold pending IRB amendment, expected approval in 3-4 weeks. Action item for all grad students: Update individual timelines in shared drive by Friday.

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Uploading audio directly on free plans

    Most free tiers of dedicated transcription tools limit audio upload length or resolution. Users often discover mid-upload that their 90-minute file is rejected or queued behind paid users for hours. Check file length and format limits before your meeting, not after it ends.

  • Treating the summary as final without review

    AI meeting notes miss nuance, especially in disagreements, conditional commitments, and follow-up items buried in sidebar conversations. Sending AI-generated notes directly to clients or executives without a 2-minute review is a fast way to miscommunicate a decision or miss a deliverable. Always read before you send.

  • Ignoring speaker attribution on multi-person calls

    Free transcription tools often misidentify speakers or use generic labels like Speaker 1 and Speaker 2. If action items are attributed to the wrong person and you don't catch it, accountability breaks down. For important calls, do a quick speaker-label correction pass before generating your final notes.

  • Choosing a tool based on marketing, not tested output

    Several apps marketed as free Otter.ai alternatives produce noticeably worse summaries on technical or fast-paced conversations. The only reliable way to evaluate is to run your own meeting transcript through the tool and read the output critically. This page tests four models head-to-head so you can skip that research step.

Related queries

Frequently asked questions

What is the best completely free alternative to Otter.ai?

Fireflies.ai and tl;dv both offer free plans with no credit card required that cover basic transcription and AI summaries. For users comfortable with a manual workflow, pasting a transcript into Claude or ChatGPT and using a structured prompt also produces strong results at zero cost. The right pick depends on whether you want a bot that joins your calls automatically or a tool you control manually.

Does Fireflies.ai have a free plan?

Yes. Fireflies.ai's free tier includes unlimited transcription of recorded meetings, AI-generated meeting summaries, and storage for up to 800 minutes of transcripts. The main limitations are that you can't download transcripts as a file and some search and analytics features are paywalled. For individuals and small teams with moderate meeting volume, the free plan is fully functional.

Can I use ChatGPT to take meeting notes for free?

Yes. ChatGPT's free tier (GPT-4o as of 2024) handles meeting transcripts well when you paste the text and provide a clear prompt asking for a summary, action items, and decisions. The limitation is that you need to get the transcript yourself, either by recording the call and using a separate transcription tool, or exporting the auto-captions from Zoom or Google Meet. It won't join your call automatically.

How accurate is free AI meeting transcription?

Accuracy on clear audio with native English speakers typically runs 85-95% for major free tools, which is good enough for meeting summaries. Accuracy drops with heavy accents, technical jargon, multiple speakers talking over each other, or poor audio quality. If your meetings involve a lot of domain-specific terminology, building a glossary into your prompt helps the AI correct obvious transcription errors.

Is it safe to upload meeting recordings to free AI tools?

For general business meetings, most reputable tools (Fireflies, tl;dv, Otter) use standard encryption and comply with GDPR and SOC 2 requirements even on free plans. For anything involving personal health information, legal privilege, or classified content, you should not use cloud-based transcription tools regardless of their security certifications. Check each tool's privacy policy and data retention terms before uploading sensitive recordings.

What is the free plan limit for Otter.ai?

Otter.ai's free plan allows 300 transcription minutes per month with a cap of 30 minutes per conversation. It also limits AI action item and summary features. For users who regularly have meetings longer than 30 minutes or who accumulate more than 5 hours of calls per month, the free plan will consistently fall short, which is the main reason people search for alternatives.