Quick Verdict
For most people, the answer is Fireflies.ai. It's the best value — accurate transcription, decent AI summaries, generous free tier, and excellent search across your meeting history. If you need real-time live transcription that you can read during the call, use Otter.ai. If you take notes manually but want an AI sidekick that enhances them instead of replacing them, try Granola.
Ranked List
- Fireflies.ai — Best overall value. Generous free tier, strong AI summaries, 60+ integrations.
- Otter.ai — Best real-time transcription. The category's incumbent; live notes you can follow during the call.
- Granola — Best for manual note-takers. Your notes + AI augmentation, not an automated bot.
- Fathom — Best free tier for individuals. Unlimited recording on free plan.
- tl;dv — Best for async video highlights and clip sharing.
- Read.ai — Best meeting analytics (sentiment, engagement, talk-time ratios).
- Grain — Best for customer-facing teams (sales calls, UX research).
- Zoom AI Companion / Google Meet Gemini / Teams Copilot — Free if you already pay for the platform, good enough for casual use.
How We Tested
Each tool recorded at least 15 real meetings across multiple platforms (Zoom, Meet, Teams). We measured: (1) transcription word-error-rate against human-verified ground truth, (2) speaker-diarization accuracy, (3) action-item extraction precision and recall, (4) summary quality judged blind by 3 reviewers, (5) search accuracy across a 50-meeting corpus, and (6) privacy behavior — what gets stored, where, and for how long.
The Core Trade-Off: Bot vs Sidekick
Every AI meeting assistant falls into one of two camps. Bots (Fireflies, Otter, tl;dv, Read, Grain, Fathom) join the call as a named participant, record audio, and produce notes afterward. Sidekicks (Granola, native Zoom/Meet/Teams AI) run locally or use the platform's own audio capture, so there's no bot in the participant list. If you work with clients or in regulated industries, the sidekick approach is usually safer — see our privacy guide for the full breakdown.
Accuracy Benchmarks (April 2026)
In our tests on clear audio, most tools now achieve 94-96% word accuracy. The differentiator is no longer raw transcription — it's how well each tool handles overlapping speakers, technical jargon, and accented English. Otter was strongest on crosstalk; Fireflies had the best jargon adaptation (likely because it fine-tunes on your company's meeting history); Granola's accuracy depends on whatever Whisper-class model it's using that week.
Pricing Snapshot
| Tool | Free Tier | Paid (Solo) | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireflies | Yes (generous) | $10/mo | Most people |
| Otter | Yes (limited) | $17/mo | Real-time live notes |
| Granola | Trial | $18/mo | Manual note-takers |
| Fathom | Yes (unlimited!) | $19/mo | Free-only users |
Privacy & Compliance
Before you install any of these, read our meeting assistant privacy guide. The short version: (1) tell your meeting participants, every time; (2) check whether the tool stores audio or only transcripts; (3) verify the data residency matches your jurisdiction; (4) confirm the AI provider isn't training on your meeting content; (5) in EU/UK, ensure GDPR Article 6 lawful basis.