Otter or Fathom? Free plans, AI summaries and seat prices

The short answer

The two free plans limit opposite things. Otter Basic limits how much you transcribe: 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation. Fathom Free records and transcribes without a cap, but limits the AI features on top.

Fathom records live Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls, and has an iPhone app for in-person meetings. It doesn't accept uploaded recordings. Otter imports audio and video files, and has iOS and Android apps.

Plans and prices side by side

Prices are list prices in US dollars per user per month, as shown on each vendor's pricing page. The lower figure is the per-month price when billed annually. Otter also shows promotional offers, so check both pages before you buy.

	Otter	Fathom
Free plan	Basic: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 25 most recent conversations, 3 lifetime file imports	Free: unlimited recordings, storage and transcription; advanced summaries on 5 calls a month; no AI action items
Individual paid plan	Pro: $16.99 monthly or $8.33 billed annually; 1,200 minutes a month, 90 minutes per meeting, up to 5 billed users	Premium: $20 monthly or $16 billed annually; unlimited advanced summaries, AI action items, follow-up emails, Ask Fathom
Team plan	Business: $30 monthly or $19.99 billed annually; unlimited meetings, 4 hours per meeting, up to 25 billed users	Team: $19 monthly or $15 billed annually, 2-user minimum; team folders, comments, search across team calls
Sales tier	Pro adds Salesforce and HubSpot integrations, subject to user limits; Enterprise adds Otter Sales Notetaker and custom CRM integrations	Business: $34 monthly or $25 billed annually, 2-user minimum; CRM field sync, Deal view, coaching metrics
Enterprise	Schedule a demo; SSO and SCIM need a 100-user minimum license; API and webhooks; HIPAA as an add-on	Talk to sales; SSO, Okta SCIM, custom data retention, signed HIPAA BAA
Where it records	Zoom, Teams and Google Meet; Mac and Windows apps; iOS and Android apps; file imports	Live Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls; Mac and Windows desktop apps; iPhone app for in-person meetings; no uploads
Transcription languages	English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese	38 languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Korean and Portuguese

What "free" gets you on each

Otter Basic is a trial-sized plan. Each conversation stops transcribing at 30 minutes, minutes don't roll over, and you only keep your 25 most recent conversations. AI Chat allows 20 questions a month, and 3 per conversation.

Fathom Free keeps every recording and transcript. The limits are on AI: advanced summary templates on your first 5 calls each month, then the general summary only. Ask Fathom is limited, and action items and follow-up emails need Premium.

Seats and team features

Fathom's Team plan costs less per seat than its individual Premium plan, but needs at least two users. It adds shared folders, comments and search across team calls. CRM sync of notes is capped at 3 users per domain until Business.

Otter's seat caps are firm. Pro stops at 5 billed users and Business at 25. Business adds activity logs, usage analytics and joining 3 meetings at once. SSO and SCIM need Enterprise and a 100-user license.

How to choose

Neither pricing page tells you how accurate transcripts will be for your accents, vocabulary or audio. Run both on a few real meetings before committing a team.

Pick Fathom if you mostly need a full record of every video call at no cost.
Pick Fathom if your meetings run in languages beyond Otter's six.
Pick Fathom Business if sales notes must land in specific CRM fields.
Pick Otter if you need to transcribe uploaded files, or record on an Android phone.
Pick Otter Business for a team of up to 25 with long meetings, up to 4 hours each.

Where Bridge fits

Bridge is a meeting workspace, not only a notetaker, and you can bring your Fathom or Otter history with you.

Host meetings on Bridge with live transcription, then get a speaker-labeled transcript, notes and recording.
Capture Zoom, Google Meet or Teams calls with Bridge Agent, which the host admits, or bot-free with the Mac desktop app.
Connect Fathom to import past transcripts and notes. On paid plans, upload a transcript file, such as one exported from Otter.
Export transcripts as PDF, Word or Markdown, or let Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini read them through the Bridge MCP (not on Starter).

Sources & further reading

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