# Best AI meeting note-takers (Otter, Fireflies, Granola, tl;dv)

> Fireflies is the default meeting AI for teams: a real free tier, CRM sync, and searchable transcripts across every call. Otter is the mature choice for individuals in Zoom. Granola is the pick for people who resent bots in the participant list. tl;dv wins for product teams that live on clips.

Human page: https://testedactually.com/ai-meeting-notes/
Mirror: https://testedactually.com/ai-meeting-notes.md
Updated: 2026-09-20

## Picks

- **Fireflies** — best for teams that want every call transcribed, searchable, and synced to the CRM. Don't use it if you want notes without a bot joining the call, Fireflies' assistant is visible in the participant list
- **Otter** — best for individuals living in Zoom who want mature live transcription. Don't use it if you need CRM wiring or team-wide meeting intelligence, Otter's plans centre the individual
- **Granola** — best for people who hate bots joining calls and want notes on their own machine. Don't use it if you need transcription of what participants said verbatim, Granola blends your notes with audio rather than producing a full transcript
- **tl;dv** — best for product and customer teams clipping and sharing meeting moments. Don't use it if you need enterprise-grade compliance certifications on the cheap plan, check the terms first

**AI meeting notes — compared**

| Tool | Free tier | Paid from | Free plan cap | CRM sync | Call recording | AI crawlers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Fireflies](/ai-meeting-notes/fireflies/) | Free plan with storage and AI credit limits (400 mins storage, 20 credits) | $10/user/mo | Storage and AI credit limits on free (400 mins storage, 20 credits) | Yes, Salesforce and HubSpot on paid tiers | Yes, Zoom, Meet, and Teams | open |
| [Otter](/ai-meeting-notes/otter/) | Free plan, 300 transcription minutes per month | $8.33/user/mo | 300 transcription minutes per month | Yes, native CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot) | Yes, Zoom, Meet, and Teams | open |
| [Granola](/ai-meeting-notes/granola/) | Basic free tier with limited meeting history | $14/mo | Limited meeting history on free | No | No, captures system audio for notes, not a video record | open |
| [tl;dv](/ai-meeting-notes/tldv/) | Free plan with unlimited recordings and AI limits | $18/user/mo | Unlimited meetings, limited AI credits on free | Yes, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive on paid | Yes, video recording with clip sharing | open |

## Don't use it if

- **Fireflies**: a visible bot joining every call would annoy your clients, its assistant appears in the participant list.
- **Granola**: you need a verbatim transcript of everyone, it blends your notes with audio rather than transcribing the room.
- **Otter**: you need meeting intelligence wired into a CRM, its plans centre individuals rather than teams.

## The fork: transcript or notepad

This category splits by what the tool thinks a meeting is. Otter, Fireflies,
and tl;dv treat the meeting as a recording to be transcribed and mined, so a
bot joins your call. Granola treats it as something you attend, capturing
system audio to enrich your own notes. That single design decision decides
the comparison: teams need transcripts and CRM sync (Fireflies), individuals
who host calls want zero friction (Granola), and everyone else is choosing
between free caps.

## The free-tier arms race

Free caps move quarterly. Otter publishes 300 minutes a month; Fireflies and
tl;dv meter credits; Granola caps meetings. We record the caps as dated
claims rather than prose, because stale free-tier numbers are the most common
lie on comparison pages. Check the dots on the table: anything unconfirmed
is queued in our public claim list.

## Original data

We benchmark AI-crawler access across these four vendors: who blocks
GPTBot, ClaudeBot, or Google-Extended, who ships an /llms.txt, and how fast
the pages respond. Methodology and limitations are on the benchmark page.
It matters more than it sounds: a vendor that blocks answer engines is
choosing not to be quoted, and that choice shapes which tools LLMs
recommend to you.

## What we did not test

We have not benchmarked transcription accuracy against a reference
transcript, which is the benchmark this category deserves. It is scoped:
same audio sample, word error rate per tool, published method. Until we run
it, accuracy claims stay out of our tables entirely.

## FAQ

### What is the best AI meeting notes app?

Fireflies for teams (free tier, CRM sync, searchable transcripts), Otter for individuals in Zoom, Granola for bot-free personal notes, tl;dv for clipping and sharing customer research.

### Is there a free AI meeting transcription tool?

Yes. Otter's free plan covers 300 transcription minutes a month, Fireflies and tl;dv both have free tiers with limits, and Granola has a free tier with meeting caps. Limits change often; every number on this page carries the date we checked it.

### Which meeting AI syncs to a CRM?

Fireflies (Salesforce, HubSpot) and tl;dv (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) on paid tiers. Otter added native CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot) in 2026; Granola has none by design, and both target individuals rather than sales teams.

### Can I take meeting notes without a bot joining the call?

Yes; Granola captures system audio on your machine and blends it with your typed notes, so nothing joins the participant list. The trade-off is that you do not get a verbatim transcript of other speakers.


## Sources

- https://fireflies.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://fireflies.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://fireflies.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://otter.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://otter.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://otter.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://www.granola.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented
- https://www.granola.ai/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://www.granola.ai/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://tldv.io/pricing — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://tldv.io/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: unconfirmed
- https://tldv.io/ — checked 2026-09-20, confidence: documented