Otter.ai is the best standalone AI note-taker for most people — it works across platforms and has a useful free tier. Fireflies.ai is better for teams who want CRM integration and searchable meeting archives. Zoom AI Companion is the easiest choice if your team already uses Zoom and has a paid plan.
Taking notes during a meeting is hard. You're trying to listen, contribute, and write at the same time — and something always gets missed. AI note-takers solve this by transcribing the meeting automatically, then summarizing the key points and action items.
The three most widely used tools are Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, and Zoom AI Companion. They solve the same core problem but work quite differently. Here's what each one actually does.
A note on recording etiquette
Before comparing tools, this needs to be said clearly: always tell everyone in a meeting that you are recording it. Most AI note-takers join calls as a visible bot — participants will see it — but a verbal heads-up at the start is both polite and legally required in many jurisdictions. For sensitive conversations (HR, legal, medical, client negotiations), check whether recording is appropriate before you start.
The tools compared
Otter.ai — Best all-around for individuals
Otter joins your Zoom, Meet, or Teams calls as a bot and produces a live transcript as the meeting happens. After the call, it generates a summary, highlights key moments, and creates a list of action items. You can search across all your meeting transcripts for specific topics — useful when you need to find who said what three weeks ago.
The free plan includes a set number of transcription minutes per month and basic summaries. The paid plan raises that limit, adds integrations with tools like Notion and Slack, and lets multiple teammates share a workspace.
Otter works best for: individuals who attend lots of meetings across different platforms and want one place to search all their notes.
Limitations: the AI summaries are good but sometimes miss context that was implied rather than stated. Action items occasionally get attributed to the wrong person. Always review before sharing.
Fireflies.ai — Best for teams with CRM or workflow integration
Fireflies takes a similar approach — it joins as a bot, transcribes, summarizes, and extracts action items — but its strength is integrations. Fireflies connects directly with Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Notion, Asana, and several other business tools. After a sales call, for example, Fireflies can automatically log notes to a Salesforce contact record.
The team workspace features are also more developed than Otter's. Managers can search across all team meetings, track whether action items from one meeting showed up in the next, and build a searchable meeting library over time.
The free plan is more limited than Otter's for individual use. Fireflies really shines on a team plan.
Fireflies works best for: sales teams, customer success teams, or any organization that wants meeting notes to flow automatically into existing tools.
Limitations: more complexity than most individuals need. Setup requires more time, especially if you're connecting CRM integrations.
Zoom AI Companion — Best if your team is already on Zoom paid
Zoom AI Companion is built into Zoom and available to all Zoom accounts with a paid subscription at no extra charge. It produces meeting summaries, transcripts, and action items without any setup — it's just there when you need it.
The advantage is simplicity. You don't need to add a bot, set up an account on a separate service, or manage another tool. The summary appears in Zoom's meeting recap after the call ends, and it's integrated with Zoom's team chat.
The limitation is equally clear: it only works in Zoom. If your team uses Google Meet or Microsoft Teams for some meetings, Zoom AI Companion won't cover those.
Zoom AI Companion works best for: organizations that already use paid Zoom and want the lowest-friction way to get meeting summaries.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Works on | Best for | Free tier | Key extra feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Zoom, Meet, Teams | Individuals, cross-platform | Yes, limited minutes | Searchable archive |
| Fireflies.ai | Zoom, Meet, Teams | Teams with CRM needs | Yes, more limited | CRM/workflow integrations |
| Zoom AI Companion | Zoom only | Existing Zoom teams | Included with paid Zoom | Zero extra setup |
Which one should you choose?
Start with Otter.ai if you're an individual or small team who wants to try AI note-taking with minimal commitment. The free tier is enough to evaluate whether the concept works for you. Move to Fireflies if you're managing a sales or customer-facing team and want notes to flow into your existing tools. Choose Zoom AI Companion if your whole organization is on paid Zoom and you want the simplest possible solution.
What to try next: if you want to understand what AI meeting features do more broadly across different platforms, the guide to AI features in Zoom, Teams, and Meet explains what each platform actually offers and how far to trust the automated summaries.
