Last updated: March 2026
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Jump to comparison table → See the full free tier breakdown
Most “best free AI meeting assistant” roundups just slap a green checkmark next to “has free plan” and call it research. That’s useless. What matters is: how many meetings, how many minutes, how long do recordings last, and what gets locked away the moment you try to use it with your team?
We signed up for the free plan of each tool listed here and cross-referenced pricing pages (March 2026). Here’s what “free” actually means for each one — and when it stops being enough.
Free Tier Comparison Table
| Tool | Free Meetings/Mo | Minutes/Meeting | Recording Retention | CRM Sync on Free | Team Members on Free | Watermark/Bot Label | Paid Starts At |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | ❌ No | Individual only (no team features) | ❌ No | $15/seat/mo (Team, annual) |
| tl;dv | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited (free forever) | ❌ No (paid only) | Individual (team features on paid) | ❌ No | $18/seat/mo (Pro, annual) |
| Fireflies | Unlimited* | No per-meeting cap* | 800 min total storage/seat | ⚠️ Basic only | Limited | ✅ Yes (Fireflies bot label) | $10/seat/mo (Pro, annual) |
| Otter.ai | No hard meeting limit | 30 min/conversation cap | 25 most recent conversations | ❌ No | Max 5 workspace members | N/A | $8.33/user/mo (Pro, annual) |
| Avoma | ❌ No free plan | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | $19/seat/mo (Startup, annual) |
Free tier details verified March 2026. Check vendor site — free tiers change frequently.
*Fireflies asterisk: “Unlimited transcription” is the stated offer on free, but Fireflies has rate limits — see their rate limits page for current caps. The 800 min storage/seat limit is the effective hard cap.
Quick read: If you want the genuinely best free plan in this category, it’s Fathom — and it’s not close. If you care about CRM sync on a free plan, none of these tools give it to you in a meaningful way (and you probably shouldn’t expect them to).
#1 Best Free Plan: Fathom
Verdict: The most generous free plan in the AI meeting assistant category. By a wide margin.
Fathom’s free plan gives you unlimited recordings, unlimited transcriptions, unlimited storage, and basic AI summaries. There is no meeting minute cap, no monthly recording limit, and no expiring data. You can use it forever and never pay a cent.
That’s genuinely unusual. Every competitor either caps your monthly minutes, limits your storage, or expires your recordings after 30–90 days. Fathom does none of these.
What you actually get on Fathom free:
- ✅ Unlimited recordings and transcriptions
- ✅ Unlimited storage (recordings don’t expire)
- ✅ Basic AI call summaries
- ✅ Clips, playlists, and search across your own meetings
- ✅ No watermark or “Fathom bot” label in meetings
- ❌ No CRM sync (requires Business plan at $25/seat/month annual)
- ❌ No CRM field auto-fill (Business plan only)
- ❌ No coaching metrics or AI scorecards (Business plan only)
- ❌ No advanced summaries or AI-generated action items (requires Premium at $16/seat/month annual)
- ❌ No shared team workspace (Team plan at $15/seat/month annual, 2-user minimum)
The catch — and it’s important for teams: Fathom’s free plan is genuinely individual-first. There are no team features, no shared workspace, no manager dashboards. If you’re an individual AE or a solo founder, this is the best free tool in the market. If you have a team of 5 and want a shared view of calls, you’ll hit the wall fast.
When will it ask you to pay? The moment you want to: (a) sync meeting notes to your CRM automatically, (b) give your manager visibility into team calls, or (c) get AI-generated action items instead of a basic summary.
Who stays on Fathom free forever: Individual AEs, solo founders, consultants, freelancers who just want clean notes.
Who upgrades: Sales teams of 3+ where the manager wants to see activity. For that, the Team plan ($15/seat/month annual) unlocks shared call libraries, keyword alerts, and collaboration — but CRM field sync still requires Business at $25/seat/month.
→ Try Fathom free | When you outgrow it: Best Fathom alternatives for teams →
#2: tl;dv Free Plan
tl;dv offers a “Free forever” plan with 2M+ users — and the free tier is genuinely usable for individual recorders.
What tl;dv includes on free (verified March 2026, tldv.io/app/pricing/):
- ✅ Unlimited recordings and transcriptions (30+ languages)
- ✅ AI meeting notes — capped at 10 meetings with AI notes per month
- ✅ Ask AI — capped at 10 queries per month
- ❌ CRM sync: No (requires paid plan)
- ❌ Coaching clips and highlight reels: Requires paid plan
- ✅ Recording retention: Unlimited (“Free forever” — recordings don’t expire)
- ✅ Individual use; team-wide features require paid
When will it ask you to pay? When you exceed 10 AI-summarized meetings per month, or when you want CRM write-back, coaching clips, or team-wide features.
The upgrade path (verified March 2026 from tldv.io/app/pricing/):
- Pro: $18/seat/mo (annual) — unlimited AI notes, custom templates, AI action items, 5,000+ integrations, unlimited storage
- Business: $29/seat/mo (annual) — multi-meeting AI insights, team-wide integrations + automations, API + webhooks. CRM team-wide sync requires Business tier.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
→ Visit tldv.io/app/pricing/ for current plan details and to sign up
#3: Fireflies Free Plan
800 minutes of storage. That’s your real limit — not the “unlimited transcription” headline.
Fireflies advertises “unlimited transcription” on the free plan, but the operative constraint is 800 minutes of meeting storage per seat. That’s roughly 13 hours of meetings. For a rep running 8–10 hours of calls per week, you’ll hit the storage ceiling in less than two weeks. Older meetings get removed first.
What you actually get on Fireflies free:
- ✅ Unlimited transcription (within storage limit)
- ✅ Limited AI summaries
- ✅ 800 mins of storage per seat (effective hard cap)
- ✅ AskFred AI assistant (basic queries)
- ✅ Meeting search
- ✅ API access
- ✅ Works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and more
- ❌ No video recording (Business plan only at $19/seat/month annual)
- ❌ No download of transcripts or recordings (Pro plan required)
- ❌ No conversation intelligence or team analytics (Business plan)
- ❌ “Unlimited integrations” including deep CRM: Pro plan ($10/seat/month annual)
- ⚠️ Bot label: Fireflies’ bot joins your meetings with a visible “Fireflies Notetaker” label
The catch: The 800 min storage limit is the one nobody in their sales funnel highlights, but it’s what determines how long your call history exists. On a free plan, old calls disappear as new ones push them out. For teams trying to reference a deal call from 3 weeks ago, this matters.
When will it ask you to pay? When you want to: (a) download your transcripts, (b) run unlimited summaries, (c) connect to your CRM, or (d) watch the video recording instead of reading the transcript.
The Pro upgrade ($10/seat/month annual, $18 monthly) adds: unlimited summaries, 8,000 mins of storage, transcript downloads, action item tracking, and talk-time analytics. It’s the lowest-cost meaningful paid tier in this category.
→ Try Fireflies free | Full Fathom vs. Fireflies comparison →
#4: Otter.ai Free Plan
The 30-minute cap per conversation will frustrate anyone running longer demos or QBRs.
Otter’s free plan is built around a monthly bucket: 300 minutes per month, with a hard cap of 30 minutes per conversation. If your customer call runs over 30 minutes, Otter stops transcribing. The transcript ends mid-sentence.
What you actually get on Otter free:
- ✅ 300 minutes/month total transcription (shared pool, no rollover)
- ✅ 30-minute cap per conversation — hard limit
- ✅ 25 most recent conversations stored (older ones disappear)
- ✅ Basic AI summaries and action items
- ✅ Live transcription in Google Meet (via browser extension)
- ✅ Max 5 workspace members
- ✅ Standard AI meeting templates
- ❌ No CRM sync (requires Business tier)
- ❌ No Salesforce or HubSpot integration on free
- ❌ 3 lifetime file imports (not per month — 3 ever)
- ❌ 1 concurrent meeting only
When will it ask you to pay? Immediately, if your meetings run long. A 60-minute customer demo hits the hard wall at minute 30. A 90-minute QBR gets cut off at 30% completion. This is the most aggressive free tier throttle in the category.
Who should still use Otter free: People who take lots of short notes (staff meetings, daily standups, internal syncs under 30 minutes). Otter’s live transcription in Google Meet is genuinely excellent even on free. It’s not the right tool for AEs running long discovery calls.
The upgrade path (verified March 2026, otter.ai/pricing, annual billing):
- Pro: $8.33/user/mo (annual) — 1,200 min/mo, up to 5 users, 90 min/meeting max, Zapier integration
- Business: $19.99/user/mo (annual) — unlimited recordings, up to 25 users, 4 hr/meeting max, admin controls; no native CRM integration
- Enterprise: Custom — adds native CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot), SSO, Otter Sales Notetaker
⚠️ Revenue team note: Native CRM integration requires the Enterprise plan (custom pricing). Business plan has no native CRM — keep this in mind when evaluating Otter for a sales team context.
The Team-on-Free Scenario: What Happens When 5 People All Use Free Plans?
This is the question nobody asks — and it matters.
Fathom: Five people, each on their own free account, each with unlimited individual recordings. No shared workspace, no cross-user visibility, no manager dashboard. The team lead cannot see other reps’ calls unless calls are manually shared. Each person’s data is siloed. Works fine for five individuals; fails as a team tool.
Fireflies: Five people, each with 800 minutes of storage. Same meeting notes visibility issue — you can use team workspaces on free, but the 800-minute limit applies per seat. Channels and team collaboration features are accessible, but integration depth and AI features are clipped.
Otter.ai: Max 5 workspace members on free. So technically, a 5-person team fits within the free workspace limit. But: 300 minutes per user per month is a hard constraint. For five reps each doing 10 hours of calls weekly, that’s 10 hours/week × 5 people = 50 hours against a collective limit that will be blown in days.
tl;dv: Individual use on free; team-wide features (team-wide integrations, automations, CRM sync) require the Business plan at $29/seat/mo. Multiple individuals can each have their own free accounts, but there’s no shared workspace dashboard on free.
The honest takeaway: Free plans in this category are built for individuals evaluating the tool, not teams operating at capacity. If you have 3+ reps and a manager who wants visibility across calls, you’ll be on a paid plan within a week. That’s not a flaw — it’s reasonable product design. The question is: which tool gives you enough free runway to know if it’s worth paying for?
When You’ll Hit the Wall on Each Tool
Concrete estimates for a typical AE doing 5–8 calls per week, averaging 45 minutes each.
Fathom: You probably won’t hit the wall — at least not on recording limits. There are none. You’ll hit the wall when your manager asks to see your calls and realizes they can’t access them without everyone being on a Team plan. For a solo user: months to years on free. For a team context: ~2 weeks.
Fireflies: 5 calls × 45 minutes = ~225 minutes/week. You’ll exhaust the 800-minute storage limit in roughly 3.5 weeks. Older calls start dropping off. You’ll notice when you try to pull up a call from 6 weeks ago and it’s gone.
Otter.ai: 300 minutes/month ÷ (5 calls × 45 min) = you’ll hit the monthly limit roughly 1.3 weeks into the month. Of those calls, any that run over 30 minutes get cut off at the 30-minute mark. For a typical AE, Otter’s free plan runs out mid-month, every month.
tl;dv: At 10 AI-summarized meetings per month and 10 Ask AI queries, you’ll hit the free plan caps in roughly 2–3 weeks for an active rep. Recordings continue, but AI summaries stop generating. Upgrade to Pro ($18/seat/mo annual) for unlimited AI notes.
Should I Just Pay From Day 1?
No — and here’s why trialing free first is the right move for most teams.
The biggest mistake teams make with AI meeting tools is committing to a paid plan based on a demo or a colleague’s recommendation, without knowing if the tool fits their specific workflow. Free plans exist exactly for this: to let you find out whether the AI summary format works for your team, whether the CRM sync direction is what you expected, and whether your reps will actually use it.
The exception: if your primary reason for adopting a tool is CRM field auto-fill (not just notes), then free plans will never demonstrate that — it’s consistently paywalled. In that case, take the free trial of a paid tier (Avoma offers 14 days with full features) rather than running a watered-down free plan and concluding the tool doesn’t work.
The better sequence:
- Use Fathom free for 2–3 weeks. Determine if the note quality and summary style fit your team.
- If it does: evaluate paid options for the CRM and team features you actually need.
- If it doesn’t: you’ve lost nothing. Try Fireflies free next.
When You’re Ready to Upgrade: What Each Tool’s First Paid Tier Unlocks
| Tool | First Paid Tier | Price | What Unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Premium (individual) | $16/seat/mo annual | Advanced summaries, AI action items, AI follow-up emails |
| Fathom | Team | $15/seat/mo annual (2-user min) | Shared workspace, team call library, keyword alerts, SSO |
| Fathom | Business | $25/seat/mo annual | CRM sync + field auto-fill, coaching metrics, deal view |
| Fireflies | Pro | $10/seat/mo annual | Unlimited summaries, 8,000 min storage, transcript downloads, unlimited integrations |
| Fireflies | Business | $19/seat/mo annual | Video recording, conversation intelligence, team analytics |
| Otter.ai | Pro | $8.33/seat/mo annual | 1,200 min/mo, 90 min/meeting max, up to 5 users |
| Otter.ai | Business | $19.99/seat/mo annual | Unlimited recordings, up to 25 users, 4 hr/meeting max — CRM integration requires Enterprise (custom) |
| tl;dv | Pro | $18/seat/mo annual | Unlimited AI notes, custom templates, AI action items, 5,000+ integrations, unlimited storage |
| tl;dv | Business | $29/seat/mo annual | Everything in Pro + team-wide CRM sync, multi-meeting AI insights, API + webhooks |
| Avoma | Startup | $19/seat/mo annual | Full AI meeting assistant + CRM sync — no free tier; 14-day trial |
Pricing verified March 2026. Check vendor site before purchasing.
Bottom line for teams evaluating paid options:
- Best value upgrade path: Fireflies Pro at $10/seat/month annual is the lowest-cost meaningful paid tier in this category — unlocks unlimited summaries, larger storage, transcript downloads, and CRM integration.
- Best overall free-to-paid progression: Fathom. Start free as an individual, upgrade to Team when you need shared visibility, add Business when CRM sync matters.
- Skip straight to paid if: You’re a sales team of 5+ with an active HubSpot or Salesforce instance and CRM hygiene is the core use case. In that scenario, the free tiers of every tool here will disappoint you — the features that matter are behind the paywall.
→ Ready to evaluate paid options for your revenue team? Best AI notetaker for sales teams →
→ See how HubSpot sync actually works: AI meeting assistant HubSpot integration →
→ At the startup stage? Stage-specific guide: AI meeting assistants for startups →
Our Pick by Use Case
| Use Case | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Individual AE / solo user who will never pay | Fathom | Unlimited everything, no expiry, no team features needed |
| Small sales team evaluating before committing | Fathom (individual free) + Fireflies (for integration test) | Fathom for note quality; Fireflies free for CRM integration preview |
| Team that needs even basic CRM notes on free | Fireflies | Basic CRM on free (limited); Fathom requires paid for CRM |
| Short meetings, Google Meet-heavy team | Otter.ai | Live Google Meet transcription is genuinely excellent |
| Startup evaluating before first paid plan | Fathom → Fireflies Pro | Start with Fathom free; upgrade to Fireflies Pro ($10/seat) when ready |
Free tier details verified March 2026. Check each vendor’s site before signing up — free tiers change without announcement.