Comparing pricing for AI notetakers

Understanding AI notetaker pricing is crucial for making an informed decision. While free options might seem appealing, they often come with significant limitations that can hinder productivity. Paid plans typically offer more value through better transcription quality, unlimited recordings, and useful integrations. The right pricing tier should match your specific needs—whether you're an individual consultant recording occasional client meetings or an enterprise team managing hundreds of customer interactions weekly. Finding this balance ensures you don't overpay for unused features or underspend on essential capabilities that could save hours of manual work.

Understanding the AI notetaker landscape

AI notetakers typically offer a combination of recording, transcription, summarization, and integration capabilities. While their core function remains similar, pricing structures vary significantly based on features, usage limits, and target audiences.

Free vs. paid plans: What's available?

Most AI notetakers offer some form of free plan or trial to get users started. Here's how they compare:

Free tiers

• Otter.ai: Offers a generous free plan with 600 minutes of transcription per month and basic features.

• Avoma: Provides a limited free plan allowing approximately 10 meetings per month.

• Fireflies.ai: Offers a free tier with limited monthly meeting credits and summaries.

• Fathom: Provides unlimited meeting recordings with full AI summaries for 5 meetings per month (transcripts still available after that).

• Granola: Offers a free trial for 25 meetings.

• Krisp: Free forever for personal use with 60 minutes per day of noise cancellation and up to 2 meeting summaries daily.

• TLDV: Includes unlimited meetings and transcripts in the free tier.

• Read.ai: Limited to 5 meeting transcripts per month with basic summaries.

• Bluedot: Extremely limited free version with only 5 meetings lifetime total.

Entry-level paid plans

• Otter.ai: Premium plan at approximately $10/month (billed annually) for 6,000 minutes/month.

• Avoma: Starter plan at $19/user/month.

• Fireflies.ai: Pro plan at $10/user/month (annual billing) for unlimited audio recording and transcripts.

• Fathom: Premium (Individual) at $15/month for unlimited AI note-taking and storage.

• Granola: Individual plan at $18/month for unlimited meetings.

• Krisp: Pro plan at approximately $8/month (annual billing) for unlimited noise cancellation and transcription.

• TLDV: Pro plan at $18/month.

• Read.ai: Pro plan at $19.75 per user/month (annual).

• Bluedot: Basic plan at approximately $18 per user/month (monthly plan; about $14 if annual).

Value comparison: What do you get for your money?

Let's examine what features are available at different price points:

Under $15/month

At this price point, you can expect:

• Basic transcription capabilities

• Limited meeting minutes or recordings

• Simple AI summaries

• Some integration options

Example scenario: Sarah, a freelance consultant, needs to record client meetings twice a week. At this level, she can capture her meetings and receive automated summaries without breaking her budget. Using Krisp's Pro plan at $8/month gives her unlimited noise cancellation and transcription, which is perfect for her client calls from coffee shops.

$15-25/month

Mid-tier plans typically offer:

• Unlimited or significantly higher meeting quotas

• Enhanced AI summaries and action items

• More robust integrations with tools like HubSpot, Notion, etc.

• Team sharing features

• Advanced search capabilities

Example scenario: Marketing Team X has weekly strategy meetings and client presentations. Using Fireflies.ai Business plan at $19/user/month, they gain video recording capabilities, more integrations, and advanced analytics to review customer conversations and extract insights.

$25+ /month

Premium tiers generally provide:

• Enterprise-grade security and compliance

• Administrative controls

• Custom templates and workflow automation

• Advanced analytics on meeting participation

• Priority support

• Enhanced CRM integrations

Example scenario: Enterprise Sales Organization Y manages hundreds of sales calls weekly. With Avoma's Business plan at $79/user/month, they can automatically log call details into Salesforce, analyze conversation patterns, and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

Special consideration: Circleback for AI notetaking

Circleback offers a tiered pricing model:

• Free trial period for new users to experience the platform

• Standard plan starting at $25/user/month with core notetaking features

• Premium plan at $40/user/month with advanced workflow automation

• Enterprise solutions with custom pricing for large-scale deployments

What makes Circleback particularly valuable is its ability to:

1. Automatically categorize discussion topics

2. Generate follow-up emails based on meeting content

3. Create tasks and assign them to team members

4. Provide analytics on meeting effectiveness

Example scenario: Customer Success Team Z manages 200+ client accounts. Using Circleback's Premium plan, they automate the process of updating client records after each check-in meeting, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks and saving approximately 5 hours per team member each week.

Key factors that influence pricing

1. Recording limitations

Most platforms limit the number or duration of recordings in lower-tier plans:

• Some cap the total minutes per month (like Otter.ai's 600 minutes on the free plan)

• Others limit the number of meetings (like Fathom's 5 AI summaries per month)

• A few restrict meeting length (like Bluedot's 1-hour maximum per meeting on the Basic plan)

2. Transcription quality and language support

Pricing often correlates with transcription capabilities:

• Lower-tier plans might only support English

• Premium plans typically offer 20+ languages

• Enterprise plans can support 100+ languages (like Bluedot and Fireflies.ai)

3. Integration capabilities

The ability to connect with other tools significantly affects pricing:

• Basic plans usually offer limited or no integrations

• Mid-tier plans provide popular integrations (Zoom, Slack, Google Calendar)

• Premium plans offer deep CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce) and workflow automation

4. Local vs. cloud recording

Some tools require a bot to join meetings, while others record locally:

• Granola and Krisp work by capturing system audio locally

• Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai typically join as meeting participants

• This distinction can affect both pricing and privacy considerations

Hidden costs to consider

When evaluating AI notetakers, be aware of these potential hidden costs:

1. Annual vs. monthly billing: Most services offer significant discounts (20-30%) for annual commitments, but require larger upfront payments.

2. Per-user pricing: Team plans often charge per seat, which can add up quickly as your team grows.

3. Storage limitations: Some platforms limit how long they store your meeting recordings or transcripts.

4. Upgrade necessities: Free plans might be so limited that they effectively force an upgrade after minimal usage (like Bluedot's 5 lifetime meetings).

5. Integration add-ons: Some services charge extra for premium integrations with CRM or project management tools.

Making the right choice

When selecting an AI notetaker based on pricing, consider these guidelines:

1. Assess your volume: Estimate how many hours of meetings you need to record monthly to choose an appropriate tier.

2. Identify must-have features: Determine which capabilities are essential (transcription accuracy, integrations, offline recording).

3. Consider team size: For team usage, compare per-user costs across platforms at your required feature level.

4. Test before committing: Use free trials or tiers to evaluate the actual performance before purchasing.

5. Calculate ROI: Consider how much time the tool will save against its cost.