Fireflies vs Otter: $10 or $8.33 a month for meeting notes

Otter Pro costs $8.33 a month on annual billing (Otter.ai pricing page, November 2026). It stops recording each conversation at 90 minutes. Fireflies Pro costs $10 a month (Dupple pricing guide, October 2026). Picture a board meeting that runs two hours. The cheaper plan would stop before the decisions land.

This guide compares the two for a dyslexic director who has to produce minutes. It covers plan limits, finding things fast, and keeping notes private. All prices are in US dollars.

What Otter costs, and the 90-minute cap

Otter has four plans. Basic is free and gives 300 minutes a month, with a 30-minute cap per conversation (Otter.ai pricing page, November 2026). Pro costs $8.33 a month on annual billing or $16.99 month to month. It gives 1,200 minutes a month and a 90-minute cap per conversation.

Business costs $19.99 a month on annual billing or $30 month to month. It gives unlimited meetings and a 4-hour cap per conversation. Pro adds team vocabulary, advanced search and advanced playback.

Do the sums for your own week. Say you record 10 hours of meetings a week. That is about 43 hours a month, and Pro covers only 20 of them (1,200 minutes).

So what for you: add up your meeting hours for one typical week. If the total is over 5 hours, or any single meeting runs past 90 minutes, Pro is the wrong plan.

What Fireflies costs, and where the price comes from

Fireflies' own pricing page showed no prices when I fetched it. So I used Dupple, a software pricing site, which dates its figures 28 October 2026. Treat them as a guide. Check the checkout page before you pay.

Dupple lists Pro at $10 a month per seat on annual billing, or $18 month to month. Business is $19 on annual billing or $29 monthly. The free plan stores 400 minutes per team.

Pro stores up to 8,000 minutes per seat, which is about 133 hours (Fireflies help guide, November 2026). The pages I opened list no per-meeting length cap. I could not confirm that officially, so ask Fireflies support first.

AI credits cost extra. Pro includes 20 free one-time AI credits per seat (Fireflies help guide, November 2026). More credits are not in the base price. Automatic highlight clips, called Soundbites, use those credits.

So what for you: for long meetings, Fireflies Pro at $10 a month looks like the cheaper way past 90 minutes. Email support and get the limit in writing.

Finding the one decision you need

A raw transcript is a wall of words. That is the same wall you fight in every long email. The skill is jumping straight to the moment that matters.

Fireflies has a Search Transcript box. Type a keyword, press Enter, and the recording plays from that point (Fireflies help guide, November 2026). Playback controls change the speed. The pricing page lists speeds from 1x to 3x (Fireflies, November 2026).

Otter Pro includes advanced search, export and playback (Otter.ai pricing page, November 2026). The page does not say which speeds you get, so test it in the free trial.

Listening beats re-reading for many dyslexic adults. Let a reader speak the summary while you follow the text. Our best text-to-speech tools guide covers the options.

So what for you: never scroll a transcript line by line. Search for the word "agreed" or the name of the decision, and listen to that 30 seconds.

Three settings to change before your first meeting

1. Turn off auto-sharing. A University of Waterloo IT page (March 2025) warns that Otter defaults to sharing transcripts with meeting guests. Check the sharing settings before your first recording.
2. Add names and jargon. Otter Pro includes team vocabulary (Otter.ai pricing page, November 2026). I found no vocabulary feature on the Fireflies pages I opened. Expect to fix names by hand there.
3. Decide about the bot. The Fireflies desktop app records "with or without a bot" on Mac and Windows (Fireflies help guide, November 2026). A custom bot name is a paid add-on (Fireflies pricing page, November 2026).

Tell the room before you record. Recording rules vary by country and US state. Check with your legal or HR team first.

So what for you: spend 10 minutes in the settings before your first board meeting. Send a test recording to yourself only.

What both tools get wrong

An AI summary is a draft. Fireflies says its summaries show "key points, decisions, and next steps" (Fireflies help guide, November 2026). That describes the format. It does not promise the summary is right.

Check every action item against the transcript before you send minutes. Search for the moment, listen once, then fix the line. It is slow work, but it protects your name.

You may not need to pay at all. Microsoft Teams can transcribe meetings. The file saves to the organizer's OneDrive for Business (Microsoft Support, November 2026). Only the organizer and people in the same organization can start it. Our Otter vs Teams comparison has the detail.

So what for you: before you send AI-written minutes, search the transcript for each decision and listen to it once.

Who pays for it

In the UK, you can ask your employer for reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010. Access to Work can also help fund support. Our Access to Work guide explains how to apply.

In the US, ask for a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Job Accommodation Network (askjan.org) gives free advice. Name the law where you work.

Name the task, not the tool. Write "minutes for long board meetings" and offer the tool as one way to do it. The reasonable adjustments builder turns your failed tasks into a draft email in about two minutes.

So what for you: write down the three meetings last month where notes went wrong. Attach them to your request.

Which one to buy

If your meetings are under 90 minutes and you pay yourself, buy Otter Pro. At $8.33 a month it is about $100 a year (my arithmetic from the annual price). It has team vocabulary for names.

If your meetings run longer, there are two routes. Fireflies Pro at $10 a month is about $120 a year, once support confirms no length cap. Otter Business at $19.99 a month is about $240 a year and stretches the cap to 4 hours.

Start with a free plan on a short call. Otter Basic gives 300 free minutes a month, and Fireflies has a free plan too. Use one week to test search and playback on your real meetings.

So what for you: sign up for one free plan today. Record your next short call and search it for one decision.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Otter.ai cost for meeting notes?

Otter Pro is $8.33 a month on annual billing or $16.99 monthly. Business is $19.99 annual or $30 monthly. Basic is free (Otter.ai pricing page, November 2026).

Does Otter Pro have a meeting length limit?

Yes. Pro caps each conversation at 90 minutes and Business at 4 hours. Basic caps at 30 minutes (Otter.ai pricing page, November 2026).

How much is Fireflies Pro?

Dupple lists Pro at $10 a month per seat on annual billing or $18 monthly (Dupple pricing guide, October 2026). Check the checkout page, because Fireflies' own page showed no prices when I looked.

Can my employer pay for AI meeting notes as an adjustment?

You can ask. In the UK, cite reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 and look at Access to Work. In the US, ask for a reasonable accommodation under the ADA and use the Job Accommodation Network for advice.