You do not have a note-taking problem; you have a 300-minutes-per-month problem. AI meeting notetakers all promise to capture everything, but their free plans behave very differently once you rely on them daily. I compared Granola, Fathom, and Otter on what actually matters: what the free tier really gives you, how each tool captures your meetings, and where each one quietly falls short.
The short version
- Fathom has the most generous free tier: unlimited recordings, transcription, and storage on Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, with advanced AI summaries capped at 5 per month. The catch is a visible bot joins every call.
- Granola is the bot-free option: it captures audio through a desktop app, merges your own typed notes with what it heard, and gives unlimited notes on the free plan — but notes older than 30 days are locked until you pay.
- Otter.ai gives 300 transcription minutes per month (30 minutes per recording) and remains the best at searchable archives and live, collaborative transcription.
How each one captures meetings (and why it matters)
The biggest practical difference between these three is not the AI model — it is the capture model.
Fathom and Otter are bot-joiners. You install a browser extension or connect your calendar, and a visible participant (something like "Fathom Notetaker") joins your Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams call. Everyone sees it, and on some platforms the host must admit it. Since mid-2026, Microsoft Teams has shown third-party bots separately in the meeting lobby, so the organiser has to let each one in — an extra friction step on external calls.
Granola is bot-free. It runs as a desktop app on Mac and Windows (plus iOS and Android mobile apps) and captures your computer's system audio directly. Nothing appears in the participant list, nothing needs host approval, and it works in any app — browser calls, Slack huddles, even in-person conversations picked up by your microphone. Because it deletes the audio after processing, there is no playback if the transcription misses a detail — a deliberate privacy choice that removes your safety net. Speaker identification also uses generic labels rather than names on larger group calls.
The practical takeaway: for client calls where a visible bot looks unprofessional, Granola's invisibility is the point. For internal team standups where everyone already expects a notetaker, Fathom or Otter's bot is a non-issue.
Granola: bot-free notes that build on your own
Granola's standout trick is hybrid note-taking. You type your own rough notes during a meeting — bullet points, questions, things you want flagged — and after the call Granola merges your input with what it heard into one polished summary. The output reflects your attention, not just a generic recap of everything said. You can also chat with the transcript afterwards to pull out specific details, and it includes custom templates and multi-language support.
Free plan (Basic): unlimited AI meeting notes, AI chat, shared folders, custom templates, and multi-language support. The limit is on history: notes older than 30 days are locked until you upgrade. Older notes are hidden, not deleted, and the free CSV export can still reach them.
Paid plans: Business at $14/user/month unlocks unlimited meeting history, advanced AI models, CRM integrations (HubSpot, Attio, Affinity), native Slack and Notion integrations, Zapier, MCP access for AI agents, and API access. Enterprise at $35/user/month adds SSO, audit logging, admin controls, and org-wide auto-deletion.
Honest trade-offs: no audio or video playback, so you cannot go back and check a tone of voice; battery drain is noticeable during back-to-back calls; and the custom jargon feature can be flaky in multi-language mode. Also note Granola changed its free tier during 2026 — older guides cite a 25-lifetime-meeting cap and 14-day history, but current plan details show unlimited notes with the 30-day history lock. Treat the current homepage terms as the source of truth.
Best for: solo consultants, freelancers, and anyone doing frequent external calls where a bot in the meeting would be awkward.
Fathom: the best free tier, full stop
Fathom gives away what rivals charge for. On the free plan you get unlimited recording, transcription, and summaries across Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, with summaries ready in well under a minute — and it is genuinely free for individuals, not a trial. The free-plan limits are on the advanced features: advanced AI summaries are capped at 5 per month, and AI action items are a paid feature.
Paid plans: Premium at $20/month for single users, Team at $19 per user/month, and Business at $34 per user/month, with lower annual rates ($16, $15, and $25 respectively). Paid tiers add shared call libraries, CRM sync, custom templates, and admin controls.
Trust and compliance: Fathom holds SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance and states HIPAA compliance for healthcare teams, with SSO and SCIM provisioning on higher tiers. If your security team needs documented controls, Fathom is the easiest of the three to get through review.
Best for: individuals and small teams who want reliable, unlimited meeting notes at no cost and do not mind a bot in the call.
Otter.ai: the searchable archive
Otter is the oldest name here, and its strength is what happens after the meeting. The free plan gives 300 transcription minutes per month with a 30-minute cap per recording, plus Otter AI Chat so you can ask questions across your notes. Paid plans start at $8.33/user/month billed annually — the cheapest paid entry of the three.
Otter's real-time transcription and searchable archive are still the benchmark for a specific workflow: building a knowledge base from past calls. If your week involves digging up "what did we decide about pricing in March," Otter's full-text search across months of conversations and its live collaborative notes are hard to replace. It also supports live captions, which Fathom and Granola do not emphasise.
Free-plan watch-outs: the 300-minute monthly cap runs out fast — that is roughly five one-hour meetings — and the 30-minute per-recording limit means a long workshop gets cut off mid-flow. Heavy meeting loads push you to the paid tier quickly.
Best for: teams that treat meetings as a searchable knowledge base, and anyone who wants live transcription they can edit and share during the call.
Head-to-head: Granola vs Fathom vs Otter
| Granola | Fathom | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capture model | Bot-free (system audio) | Bot joins call | Bot joins call |
| Platforms | Mac/Windows desktop, iOS/Android | Zoom, Meet, Teams | Zoom, Meet, Teams |
| Free recordings | Unlimited notes | Unlimited | 300 min/month |
| Free summaries | Unlimited (notes) | Unlimited basic; 5 advanced/month | Included |
| Free history | 30 days visible | Unlimited | Limited recent conversations |
| Key free limit | History older than 30 days locked | 5 advanced summaries/month | 30 min per recording |
| Paid from | $14/user/month | $16/user/month (annual) | $8.33/user/month (annual) |
| Standout feature | Merges your own notes | Most generous free tier | Searchable archive + live captions |
How to test all three in one afternoon
1. Fathom first (10 minutes). Install the Fathom browser extension, connect your Google or Outlook calendar, and run it on one internal call. Check whether the summary beats what you would have typed.
2. Granola second (one real meeting). Install the Granola desktop app, connect your calendar, and type rough notes during your next call. Compare the merged summary to your raw notes — the merge quality is the whole selling point.
3. Otter third (search test). Import a past recording or run one meeting, then use Otter AI Chat to ask a question about a decision from that call. If you find yourself wanting this across months of meetings, you have your answer.
Run all three on the same meeting type (standups, sales calls, interviews) — comparing across different meeting formats skews the result.
Which one should you pick?
- Most meetings free, forever: Fathom. Unlimited recordings and transcription with no bill is unmatched — accept the bot.
- Client calls where a bot looks bad: Granola. Invisibility is the feature; just know the 30-day history lock is waiting on the free plan.
- A searchable record of everything: Otter. Nothing else matches its archive and live collaboration, but budget for paid once you pass 300 minutes a month.
- Tightest budget for a paid tier: Otter at $8.33/user/month annual is the cheapest paid plan of the three; Granola at $14 and Fathom at $16 are next.
- Back-to-back meeting days: Fathom and Otter's bot model does not drain your laptop battery the way Granola's local capture can.
There is no single winner — only the tool whose free-plan limits do not collide with your week. For most individuals starting from zero, Fathom's unlimited free tier is the obvious first stop, Granola is the upgrade path when bots become a problem, and Otter is where you land when your meeting history becomes a knowledge base.