Memory Notch
OTTER.AI ALTERNATIVES
The best Otter.ai alternatives in 2026
Six meeting tools for people leaving Otter.ai, compared by where the words are made, whether a bot joins the call, speaker labels, platforms and price.
Short answer: For audio that never leaves your computer or phone, Memory Notch; for a free plan with AI summaries, Fathom; for team meeting intelligence and CRM sync, Fireflies.ai; for AI notes without a bot in the call, Granola; for transcription on your Mac, with summaries on request, Goodmeet; for open source, Meetily.
| Tool | Where speech becomes text | Bot in the call | Speaker labels | Platforms | Free option | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory Notch | On your computer or phone; nothing is uploaded | No; records your microphone and your computer’s own audio | Numbered live: Speaker 1, Speaker 2, in the trial too | Mac and Windows, on one licence; iPhone, iPad and Android apps sold separately | Not free to record: free recordings stop at 5 minutes | Free to try with 5-minute recordings; US$79 once or US$7.99 a month for Mac and Windows; a one-time US$5.99 unlock on iPhone, iPad or Android (US price) |
| Fathom | Cloud | Meeting bot, or bot-free capture (beta on Mac) | Says who said what, with the bot or bot-free | Works in the browser with a meeting bot; desktop app for Mac and Windows; bot-free capture on Mac only (beta) | Free plan: unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI call summaries | Free plan; Premium US$20 a month, or US$16 a month billed annually; Team and Business plans per user |
| Fireflies.ai | Cloud | Bot and bot-free capture options | Speaker labels and timestamps in the transcript | Web; desktop app for Mac and Windows; iOS and Android apps; Chrome extension | Free plan: limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage | Free plan; Pro US$10 per user a month billed annually (US$18 monthly); Business US$19 (US$29 monthly); Enterprise US$39 billed annually |
| Granola | Cloud transcription and summaries, with local capture | No | Me and Them by default; participant names for Meet, Zoom and Teams in the desktop app | Mac and Windows; iPhone, Android and Apple Watch apps | Basic: free, with 30 days of meeting history | Basic free with 30 days of meeting history; Business US$14 and Enterprise US$35 per user per month |
| Goodmeet | On-device transcription; summaries off the device, in confidential computing | No | Not stated on its site | Macs with Apple silicon, Windows 11 PCs with 16 GB of memory, and iPhone; 15 languages | Free for personal use | Free for personal use; team plans on its pricing page |
| Meetily | On-device transcription; summaries local or cloud, by configuration | No | Pro plan only | macOS, Windows | Community edition: free and open source; speaker labels need Pro | Community edition free (MIT licence); Pro US$10 per user per month, billed US$120 a year |
Checked November 9, 2026 against the vendors’ own pages; a source we could not re-read that day keeps the date we last read it. Sources: Otter.ai’s own page (November 9, 2026) · Otter: speaker identification (November 9, 2026) · Fathom’s own page (November 9, 2026) · Fathom: speaker attribution and bot-free capture (November 9, 2026) · Fireflies.ai’s own page (November 6, 2026) · Fireflies: real-time notes, with speaker labels (November 6, 2026) · Fireflies: the desktop app records without a bot (November 6, 2026) · Granola’s own page (September 28, 2026) · Granola: speaker tags (September 28, 2026) · Goodmeet’s own page (November 9, 2026) · Meetily’s own page (November 9, 2026).
Free Otter.ai alternatives
Each of these has a free option. Check the limit you keep hitting on Otter.ai, whether that’s minutes, length per conversation or history.
- Fathom: Free plan: unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI call summaries.
- Fireflies.ai: Free plan: limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage.
- Granola: Basic: free, with 30 days of meeting history.
- Goodmeet: Free for personal use.
- Meetily: Community edition: free and open source; speaker labels need Pro.
Google Meet’s built-in “Take notes for me” is not free: Google’s June 29, 2026 post names Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers and eligible Workspace business customers.
Memory Notch is not free for recording. Free recordings stop at five minutes and everything captured is saved (on iPhone and Android, your first two longer recordings run to the end); US$79 once or US$7.99 a month removes the limit on Mac and Windows, and a one-time US$5.99 unlock does on iPhone, iPad or Android (US price). Its dictation is free on Mac and Windows, with no licence.
Why people leave Otter.ai
Otter.ai transcribes in the cloud (capture: meeting assistant and desktop capture options). Its plans, checked November 9, 2026: Basic free (300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation); Pro US$16.99 a month, or US$8.33 a month billed annually; Business US$30 a month, or US$19.99 billed annually. People usually look elsewhere for one of three reasons: the 30-minute cap on a free conversation, the price of Pro, or not wanting a meeting’s audio in someone else’s cloud.
1. Memory Notch
A personal recorder for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. On a computer it records the microphone and the computer’s own audio; on a phone, the room. It writes a live transcript with numbered speakers on the device, and saves audio, transcript and a Markdown note as ordinary files. It writes no summaries.
Pick it if you want recording, transcription and speaker labels on your own device, with no bot and files you keep, and can do without AI summaries.
2. Fathom
Meeting recordings, summaries, and collaboration for individuals and teams, now owned by Superhuman.
Pick it if you want free cloud recordings with instant AI summaries, CRM sync or coaching metrics.
3. Fireflies.ai
Shared meeting intelligence, integrations, and CRM workflows.
Pick it if your team needs shared meeting intelligence, CRM sync and integrations.
4. Granola
A bot-free notepad with cloud transcription and enhanced notes.
Pick it if you want AI-enhanced notes and summaries and are fine with cloud transcription.
5. Goodmeet
A bot-free notetaker from Goodnotes’ parent company: transcription on the device, summaries in confidential computing.
Pick it if you want meeting summaries with next steps and don’t need to keep the audio.
6. Meetily
An open-source meeting assistant with local transcription and summaries.
Pick it if you want open source, or AI summaries written on your computer through Ollama.
Questions people ask
Is there a free Otter.ai alternative?
It depends on the limit you keep hitting. Fathom’s free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions with instant AI call summaries. Meetily’s Community edition is free and open source. Memory Notch is free to try on every platform, with recordings up to five minutes; US$79 once or US$7.99 a month removes the limit on Mac and Windows.
Is there an Otter.ai alternative that works offline?
Yes. Memory Notch records, transcribes and labels speakers on your device with no connection. Meetily transcribes locally too. Goodmeet transcribes on the device but writes its summaries off it.
Is there an Otter.ai alternative without a meeting bot?
Memory Notch, Granola, Goodmeet and Meetily never send a bot. Fathom offers bot-free capture in beta on Mac, and the Fireflies desktop app records without its bot. Otter.ai itself offers a meeting assistant and desktop capture options.
Does Memory Notch write summaries like Otter.ai?
No. It keeps the audio, the transcript and a Markdown note on your device. You can open those files with an AI tool you choose, which then handles the transcript under its own terms.