AI Meeting Notes in 2026: Fathom's Free Tier Changed the Market
Otter quietly cut its Pro minutes, Fireflies doubled down on integrations, and Fathom made unlimited recording free. Where each fits now.
By Editorial team · July 17, 2026 · 1 min read
The meeting-notes market shifted under buyers' feet this year. Three changes matter.
What changed
Otter reduced Pro from 6,000 to 1,200 monthly minutes without lowering the $16.99 price ($8.33 annual) — the most-cited complaint in 2026 reviews. It also still transcribes only English, French, and Spanish, and its terms allow no refunds.
Fathom made unlimited recording free. Unlimited meetings and transcripts at $0, with AI summaries as the paid unlock (~$15/month annual). It now tops G2's category ratings, and for individuals it has simply reset the price floor.
Fireflies leaned into automation. 100+ integrations, CRM autofill into HubSpot and Salesforce, 69+ languages, and a free API — at ~$10/seat/month annual. When a transcript needs to trigger work elsewhere, nothing else matches it.
Quick picks
Individuals wanting reliable notes: Fathom free, upgrade only if you want unlimited AI summaries. Sales teams: Fireflies — the CRM autofill pays for itself. Teams already living in Notion: the Notion AI add-on ($10/member/month) puts meeting notes where your docs are. Multilingual users on a budget: Notta at $9/month covers 50+ languages that Otter simply can't.
Otter remains fine for what it always did — live transcripts with clean UX — but buy it for what it includes today, not what reviews from 2024 remember.