Otter, Fireflies and Descript each ration a different thing, so the cheapest headline price is not the cheapest fit. Otter Pro limits recording minutes (1,200 a month) and meeting length (90 minutes). Fireflies Pro lists unlimited transcription but 8,000 minutes of storage per seat and 2-hour recordings. Descript sells media hours (10 to 40 a month) because it is an editor first. For a five-person team on annual billing, Otter Pro is $499.80 a year and Fireflies Pro $600.
The limit that bites first
| Attribute | Otter | Fireflies | Descript |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Meeting notes and transcripts | Meeting notes plus team analytics and integrations | Editing audio and video by editing the transcript |
| The counted unit | Recording minutes a month, imports counted separately | Storage minutes; transcription “unlimited” on paid plans | Media hours a month |
| Free plan | 300 minutes, 30 minutes a meeting, 3 lifetime imports | Unlimited transcription with an asterisk, limited summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team | 1 media hour, watermark |
| Entry paid, monthly / annual | Pro $16.99 / $8.33 per user | Pro $18 / $10 per seat | Hobbyist $24 / $16 |
| Allowance on entry paid | 1,200 minutes, 90 minutes a meeting, 10 imports a month | 8,000 minutes storage per seat, 2-hour recordings | 10 media hours, 400 AI credits |
| Next tier, monthly / annual | Business $30 / $19.99 | Business $29 / $19 | Creator $35 / $24 (30 hours) |
| Longest recording | 4 hours on Business | 3 hours on Business, 4 on Enterprise | Not stated as a per-file limit on the plan cards |
Fireflies’ page has a Monthly and Annual toggle: on monthly it shows Pro at $18 and Business at $29 per seat (“billed monthly”); on annual $10 and $19 (“billed annually”). Enterprise is $39 per seat and annual only.
Cost for a team of five, annual billing
Our arithmetic, per-seat annual price times 12 times 5 seats, list prices:
| Plan | Per seat per month | Per year, 5 seats |
|---|---|---|
| Otter Pro | $8.33 | $499.80 |
| Fireflies Pro | $10 | $600 |
| Otter Business | $19.99 | $1,199.40 |
| Fireflies Business | $19 | $1,140 |
Otter’s Pro workspace lists 5 billed users and Business 25. Descript is not in the table because its plan pages here give hours a month, not a seat rule we could read. Storage on Fireflies Pro works out to about 133 hours per seat (8,000 minutes); Business and Enterprise list unlimited storage.
Pick by the job
| Your job | Look first at | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Transcribing a few short calls | Otter Basic or Fireflies Free | Both free; check Otter’s 30-minute meeting cap against your calls |
| Two-hour interviews | Fireflies Pro (2-hour limit) or Otter Business (4 hours) | Otter Pro stops at 90 minutes a meeting |
| Sales calls flowing into a CRM, team analytics | Fireflies Business | Its plan list includes conversation intelligence and team analytics for admins; we did not compare Otter’s equivalents |
| Cutting a podcast or video from the transcript | Descript | An editor, priced on media hours |
| Bulk file imports | Otter Business | 6,000 imported minutes a month against 10 imports on Pro |
What no pricing page tells you
Transcript accuracy, speaker labelling and summary quality are not on any pricing page and we have not assessed them; use named independent tests on audio like yours. Recording bots that join meetings raise consent questions that depend on your jurisdiction. Details per tool: Otter, Fireflies, Descript, and the transcription and voice hub.
Method
Researched from the three pricing pages, read 29 Sep 2026 (Fireflies in a browser session). USD list prices. Seat totals are our multiplication and assume annual billing and list prices with no discounts. Nothing here comes from using the products.
Price per hour against API rates, with break-even hours a month: AI transcription cost per hour.