Ranked by what it costs to use properly
The best meeting transcription software
Transcription is close to a commodity; what separates these tools is what happens when you use them a lot. Fireflies includes unlimited transcription on every tier including free, which is the most generous position here. Notta is the cheapest paid option at $97.99 a year but meters every tier. Otter is the most metered, with 300 free minutes a month and a 30-minute cap per conversation. Check the cap before the price: a conversation limit is what bites first.
§Our bias, stated. Scriben appears here because it transcribes, but it is hardware and it is not software — if you want an app for files you already have, one of the others is the right answer and the table says which. Every price below was read off the vendor’s own pricing page on 15 September 2026. Prices change — check theirs before you buy, and tell us if anything here has gone out of date.
The ranking
6 tools, in order, and why.
01 / Fireflies.ai
Meeting assistant · Free tier · Pro $18/mo ($10 annual); Business $29 ($19 annual); Enterprise $39
- Best for — Unlimited transcription on every tier including free. Storage runs out here, not minutes.
- Captures — Joins the call as a notetaker. Needs: a signed-in device.
- Limits — Unlimited transcription on every tier; free storage 400 min per team
- Against it — The notetaker is visible in the participant list, which changes how some rooms talk, and some organisations block bots outright.
02 / Notta
Transcription app · Free tier · Pro $97.99/yr; Business $199.99/yr
- Best for — The cheapest paid option, and metered on every tier — 120 free minutes a month with a three-minute cap per conversation.
- Captures — Web meetings and uploads. Needs: a signed-in device.
- Limits — Free 120 min/mo with a 3-minute cap per conversation; Pro 1,800 min/mo
- Against it — Metered on every tier, and the free tier’s three-minute cap excludes most real meetings.
03 / Otter.ai
Meeting assistant · Free tier · Pro $16.99/mo ($8.33 annual); Business $30 ($19.99 annual)
- Best for — The most metered of the group: 300 free minutes a month and a 30-minute conversation cap before you pay anything.
- Captures — Joins the call. Needs: a signed-in device.
- Limits — Free 300 min/mo, 30 min per conversation; Business unlimited
- Against it — Metered on every tier below Business, and the free tier’s 30-minute conversation cap is shorter than most real meetings.
04 / Fathom
Meeting assistant · Free tier · Team $19/mo ($15 annual); Business $34 ($25 annual). Two-seat minimum
- Best for — Unlimited recordings at $0, which makes volume a non-issue right up until you need a second seat.
- Captures — Joins the call. Needs: a signed-in device.
- Limits — Free plan covers unlimited recordings and summaries
- Against it — Both paid tiers state a two-user minimum, so one person cannot buy one seat.
05 / Granola
Meeting notepad · Free tier · Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35
- Best for — No minute meter at all. What the free tier limits is how far back your history goes.
- Captures — Your computer’s own audio. Needs: the app open on the machine.
- Limits — Basic limits how far back history goes
- Against it — Something has to be running in the conversation, and unlimited history is a paid tier.
06 / Scriben — ours
AI pen · $129 once · $0/mo Free plan; Pro $12.99/mo
- Best for — Nothing is metered, because transcription is not sold by the minute here. It is also hardware, so it is the odd one out on a software page.
- Captures — The room, offline. Needs: nothing running.
- Limits — No minute limits; 64GB, ~400 hours
- Against it — iOS app only today, so an Android-only user is not served yet. It does not join video calls and has no live-transcription view while you talk.
Side by side
The same facts, in a table.
- Fireflies.ai
- Free tier — Pro $18/mo ($10 annual); Business $29 ($19 annual); Enterprise $39. Unlimited transcription on every tier including free. Storage runs out here, not minutes. Source: fireflies.ai/pricing
- Notta
- Free tier — Pro $97.99/yr; Business $199.99/yr. The cheapest paid option, and metered on every tier — 120 free minutes a month with a three-minute cap per conversation. Source: notta.ai/en/pricing
- Otter.ai
- Free tier — Pro $16.99/mo ($8.33 annual); Business $30 ($19.99 annual). The most metered of the group: 300 free minutes a month and a 30-minute conversation cap before you pay anything. Source: otter.ai/pricing
- Fathom
- Free tier — Team $19/mo ($15 annual); Business $34 ($25 annual). Two-seat minimum. Unlimited recordings at $0, which makes volume a non-issue right up until you need a second seat. Source: fathom.video/pricing
- Granola
- Free tier — Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35. No minute meter at all. What the free tier limits is how far back your history goes. Source: granola.ai
- Scriben
- $129 once — $0/mo Free plan; Pro $12.99/mo. Nothing is metered, because transcription is not sold by the minute here. It is also hardware, so it is the odd one out on a software page. Source: scriben.ai
All figures checked on 15 September 2026 against each vendor’s own published pricing page, in a browser — several of these pages render their prices in JavaScript and return nothing to a plain fetch. Third-party pricing round-ups were not used as sources; two of the ones we looked at disagreed with the vendor by $10 a seat.
Where this comes from
We make one of these.
Scriben is a real ballpoint pen that records the room to its own storage for up to 18 hours, with no phone and no network, then turns the conversation into a transcript, a summary and the work that follows. $129 once, with a $0 software plan. We have tried to rank this page as if we did not make it.