Otter vs Fathom: Prices, Limits and Which to Pick in 2026

Leah runs a two-person consultancy, and she has two pricing pages open: Otter vs Fathom. (Leah is a composite, not a real person.)

Fathom's page says "Unlimited recordings" for free. Otter's says Pro costs $8.33 a month. Both notetakers join Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, both write a summary when the call ends, and both have a free plan and a phone app.

So which one is cheaper? It depends on what you're counting.

Otter meters time: monthly minutes and the length of one conversation. Fathom records as much as you like and holds back its better AI features, such as action items, for paid plans. Which bill stays small depends on how much you record.

This Otter vs Fathom comparison uses each vendor's own pricing page and help center, checked on October 5, 2026. You'll get the prices side by side, what each plan meters, a year-one cost for three kinds of buyer, a map of where each tool works, and a quick way to decide.

A disclosure: ParrotNotes publishes this blog and appears in one short section near the end, for meetings that happen across a table rather than on a call. If that's most of your week, you can try ParrotNotes free at your next in-person meeting.

Otter vs Fathom at a glance

Fathom is the better pick if you mostly meet on Zoom, Meet or Teams and want unlimited recording on a free plan. Otter is the better pick if you want live transcription, an Android app, or the cheapest paid seat for a small team. Otter Pro is $8.33 a user a month billed annually; Fathom Premium is $16 a month billed annually.

Sources: otter.ai/pricing, fathom.ai/pricing, Fathom's help center and Apple's App Store listing, all read on 2026-10-05.

Otter vs Fathom pricing, side by side

Both price in USD, per user, with a discount for paying a year up front. Fathom splits its plans into individual and team plans, and its team plans need at least two users.

Prices from otter.ai/pricing and fathom.ai/pricing, both billing tabs, checked October 5, 2026. Otter shows a time-limited "20% off for 3 months" price of $24 on Business monthly for first-time subscribers; the table uses the standard $30. Our Otter AI pricing guide covers every Otter plan in more depth.

Otter adds time and seats as you climb. Pro brings 1,200 minutes a month, 90-minute conversations, unlimited conversation history, 10 file imports a month, advanced meeting templates and Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations. It's capped at 5 billed users. Business removes the meeting-minute cap, allows 4-hour conversations and holds up to 25 billed users.

Fathom adds AI features and team tools as you climb. Premium brings advanced call summaries, AI action items, the Ask Fathom assistant and a custom bot name. Team adds global search across calls, shared playlists, comments and folders. Business adds CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics and AI scorecards.

What Otter and Fathom actually meter

Otter meters minutes and conversation length

Every Otter plan below Business has a monthly minute pool that doesn't roll over. Basic gives 300 minutes a user; Pro gives 1,200. Otter's comparison table marks the pool as shared across all transcription types, so imported files draw from it too.

Each plan also caps one conversation. Basic stops at 30 minutes, Pro at 90 minutes, and Business and Enterprise at 4 hours. A 45-minute discovery call on Basic loses its last 15 minutes.

Basic also keeps only your 25 most recent conversations and gives you 20 AI Chat questions a month, 3 per conversation. On Pro, history is unlimited and AI Chat rises to 50 a month.

Fathom meters features, not time

Fathom's Free plan lists "Unlimited recordings + transcriptions" and unlimited storage. There's no monthly minute pool and no per-call cap listed on its pricing page.

What you trade is AI depth. On Free, advanced summaries (Fathom's 15+ templates, including BANT and Sandler) and Ask Fathom are marked "limited use". AI action items start on Premium. CRM sync is capped at "Max 3 users/domain" on Free, Premium and Team, so a sales team of five that wants every call in the CRM needs Business.

In short: with Otter you watch the clock; with Fathom you watch which features your plan includes.

Year-one cost for three kinds of buyer

Here's what each realistic option costs over 12 months, at prices checked October 5, 2026. Each row names the limit that bites first.

Year-one figures are the per-user price times 12 times the seats. Otter's Pro minute pool would run out for the third buyer by mid-month, which is why Business is the option shown.

Owen manages the third kind of team: five SDRs and AEs on back-to-back calls. (Owen is a composite.) He started his reps on Otter Pro because it was the cheapest seat. By the second week of the first month, two reps had used their 1,200 minutes. Moving to Otter Business cost $1,199.40 for the year, still $300 less than Fathom Business, and the reps stopped thinking about minutes.

For a solo user, the gap runs the other way. Fathom Free costs nothing and never stops recording, while Otter Basic cuts every call at 30 minutes. If you need action items and better summaries, though, Otter Pro is $92 a year cheaper than Fathom Premium.

Where Otter and Fathom work: a meeting-type map

Price only matters if the tool can record the meeting. Fathom's compatibility article is unusually clear about where it stops, so here's the map.

Sources: otter.ai/pricing; Fathom's help center articles on supported devices and languages; fathom.ai/ios-app; Apple's App Store listing. All read on 2026-10-05.

Fathom's iPhone app is new, and its help center says it can "record in-person conversations". Older comparisons still call Fathom desktop-only, so check the date on what you read. Fathom lists no Android app, so Android users can't use it in the room.

A meeting bot announces itself, but a phone on the table doesn't. Ask permission before you record, and check our guide to one-party consent states for the rules in your state.

Features that matter day to day

Summaries and templates

Both write a summary after every meeting. Fathom's paid plans add advanced summaries from 15+ templates, including BANT and Sandler. Otter Pro adds advanced meeting templates, with custom templates capped at 15 meetings a user on Pro and 30 on Business.

Live transcript

Otter shows a live transcript while you talk, on every plan, and offers live notes and captions for Google Meet and Zoom. Fathom's pricing page doesn't list a live transcript; you get the recording, transcript and summary after the call.

Asking questions about your calls

Otter AI Chat works "within and across meetings", with monthly query caps of 20, 50 and 200 by plan. Fathom's Ask Fathom answers questions about one call: limited use on Free, included from Premium. An account-wide Ask Fathom across all calls is in beta.

CRM and integrations

Otter Pro and Business sync notes to Salesforce or HubSpot; Otter's pricing page notes these integrations are subject to user limits, so check the count for your team. Fathom syncs to the CRM for up to 3 users per domain below Business, and Business adds field-level sync.

If you'd rather turn a raw transcript into formal minutes yourself, our free meeting minutes generator works with output from either tool.

Otter vs Fathom: which should you choose?

Answer these about last month's meetings.

Choose Otter if:

• You want a live transcript while the meeting is happening.
• Someone on your team uses an Android phone.
• You're a team of up to five on calls under 90 minutes, and you want the cheapest paid seat.
• You need to import recorded audio files as well as capture meetings.

Choose Fathom if:

• You're one person who mostly meets on Zoom, Meet or Teams and wants a free plan that never runs out of minutes.
• Your meetings often run past 90 minutes: Fathom's pricing page lists no per-call cap, while Otter Pro stops at 90 minutes.
• You work in a language Otter doesn't transcribe, such as Portuguese, Italian or Dutch (all on Fathom's list).
• Your sales team wants CRM field sync and coaching scorecards in one tool.

Still torn? Our Otter vs Fireflies and Fathom vs Fireflies comparisons cover the third big name. And if either tool already isn't working for you, see our guides to an Otter.ai alternative and a Fathom alternative.

If you meet in person: a third option

Otter and Fathom were both built around the calendar invite with a video link. Rafael, a field rep for a building-supplies distributor, has meetings with no link at all. (Rafael is a composite.) He visits contractors on site with an Android phone, and half his customers switch between Spanish and English mid-conversation.

That's the job ParrotNotes is built for. You open the app on the phone you already carry, tap record and set it on the table. Recording works offline, and when you're back online you get a transcript, a summary, the action items and a drafted follow-up email.

Otter and Fathom facts from their pricing pages and Fathom's help center on 2026-10-05; ParrotNotes facts from parrotnotes.app/pricing.

ParrotNotes Free gives you 100 minutes of recording a month, an AI summary on every recording, and full AI insights on 5 recordings a month. ParrotNotes Pro is US$19.99 a month, or US$14.99 a month billed annually, with 3,000 minutes a month, every AI feature, multilingual transcription and translation in 99+ languages, speaker identification, AI semantic search across your notes and MCP connectors.

Rafael records three site visits a day at about 25 minutes each, roughly 1,600 minutes a month, well inside Pro's 3,000. Plenty of reps keep Otter or Fathom for video calls and use ParrotNotes for the room.

Meeting in person this week? Download ParrotNotes free and record your next site visit.

The verdict on Otter vs Fathom

Choose Fathom if you're a solo user on Zoom, Meet or Teams: its free plan records without limits, and Premium at $16 a month billed annually adds action items and advanced summaries. It also suits sales teams that want CRM field sync, at $25 a user on Business.

Choose Otter if you want a live transcript, use Android, or run a small team on short calls: Pro at $8.33 a user billed annually is the cheapest paid seat here. Busy teams should budget for Business, because Pro's 1,200 minutes go fast.

Prices move, so check both pricing pages on the day you buy.

And if your most important conversations happen across a table, not on a screen, download ParrotNotes free. You get 100 minutes a month with an AI summary on every recording, on the phone you already carry, with no bot to admit.