Granola vs Fathom vs Otter Which AI meeting note tool fits your work?

Bot-free is a capture option, not a privacy guarantee

A meeting bot joins the call as a named participant. Bot-free capture instead uses an app on your device. Older comparisons divide these tools into Granola without a bot and everything else with one. That distinction is out of date. Otter documents bot-free capture on Mac and Windows. Fathom offers it through a staged desktop rollout, while retaining its meeting bot. Granola captures device audio without joining as another participant.

Removing the extra name from the call does not make the processing local-only, prevent cloud storage, or settle who can read the notes. Tell participants what you are capturing and follow your organization's approval and recording requirements. An app's notification is not a substitute for that decision.

This comparison focuses on desktop work calls. Granola and Otter also offer mobile capture, and Fathom's October release notes announce an iOS app. For phone-first or in-room use, run the trial on that device rather than assuming desktop behavior carries over.

Before adding any of these, check the notes feature your organization already approves in its meeting platform. If it delivers the recap you need, a second subscription and another copy of the conversation may add little.

Granola: keep your judgment in the notes

A customer says the proposed deadline is “probably fine,” then spends five minutes explaining a dependency. Your useful note is not simply the date. It is that the date is still conditional. Granola's notepad approach makes sense when you want to mark that distinction yourself and let AI expand the surrounding context.

Its desktop app captures microphone and system audio; its mobile app supports in-person conversations. Granola stores notes and transcripts, but does not keep an audio recording for playback. That is a meaningful tradeoff for interviews: you can return to the text, but you cannot listen again to resolve an ambiguous word or tone.

Use it for personal follow-up, one-to-ones, and meetings where your annotations matter. If your team needs a playable customer quote, choose a recording workflow instead. A missing recording cannot be recovered by a better summary.

Fathom: start here when the recording is the deliverable

For a colleague who missed a demo, a short clip can be more useful than another page of notes. Fathom's free offering includes recordings, transcripts, standard summaries, and clips. That makes it our first trial for someone whose main job is to capture and share calls without paying immediately.

Be precise about capture mode. Transcript-only capture does not preserve a recording. Audio-only does not give you the screen demonstration. Fathom's current upgrade guide limits its new experience to eligible Mac users on macOS 14.2 or later, with account and language rollout conditions; Windows bot-free capture is described as a limited Teams alpha. Bot-free Zoom video has separate desktop-app requirements. Verify your exact setup before a call that cannot be repeated.

Paid plans become relevant for richer summaries, AI action items, and collaboration. Do not assume that “unlimited recordings” includes every AI feature. For sales handoffs, test the specific CRM fields you need, not just whether the vendor lists your CRM logo.

Otter: work from the transcript

Otter is the more natural starting point if you want to follow the conversation as text, find a phrase later, and play back the relevant audio. That suits interview review, internal research, and meetings where the wording matters.

You can use its calendar-connected Notetaker as a visible guest, or record through the Mac or Windows desktop app without that participant. The desktop documentation covers system-audio capture with headphones; the necessary permissions still have to be enabled.

The free plan is constrained enough to affect the choice: a 30-minute conversation limit can cut across an ordinary hour-long meeting. Do the capacity calculation before inviting the tool into your weekly routine. Also check speaker names and commitments yourself. A neatly separated transcript is not proof that the right person owns the action.

Price and limits

Compare the useful free plan, not just the entry price

USD list prices checked on 20 October 2026. Annual figures below are monthly equivalents billed annually; regional promotions and taxes are excluded. Check Granola, Fathom, and Otter before purchasing.

Fathom's bot-free availability depends on your device, account, and meeting setup. Its free price does not guarantee bot-free capture; check the capture-mode details above.

For a team, individual pricing is only the start. Fathom's Team plan has a two-user minimum. Granola puts organization-wide sharing controls on Enterprise. Check access controls and retention alongside the seat price; a cheap personal plan can be the wrong purchase for a shared customer archive.

Check where the conversation goes next

All three involve cloud processing. Granola and Fathom say their external AI providers cannot train on customer data, but both describe their own model improvement using anonymized or de-identified data, with opt-out controls. Granola says Enterprise training is off by default. Those are different promises from “no training at all.”

Otter's privacy page describes training its own models on de-identified data and separately prohibits its AI providers from training on customer data. Its feedback settings also govern access for product improvement and human review. Do not assume switching off feedback establishes every training restriction your organization requires; confirm the terms for the account you will use.

Before the first real call, inspect auto-join, automatic sharing, public-link access, retention, and connected apps. Send a test recap to a colleague and check exactly what they can open. After export to a CRM or document system, deletion in the notetaker does not necessarily remove that other copy.

The useful handoff is small: a verified decision, an owner, a due date, and a source link where appropriate. Review that before it becomes a task or customer promise.