5 Free AI Meeting Minutes Tools for Small Teams (2026), Plus Tiro’s Trial: Which Limits Bind First?

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Best free AI meeting minutes tools for a meeting-heavy small team

• Compare tools by the ceiling that can interrupt your actual workflow: transcript minutes, per-meeting duration, AI summaries, or stored history.
• Granola offers continuing free access without a meeting-count cap, with a limit on how far back notes remain visible in the app.
• Fireflies.ai suits teams sharing searchable transcripts, with a stored-minute limit to manage.
• Otter.ai and tl;dv keep transcription available on free plans, with limits on individual transcripts or AI features.
• Tiro is a separate, three-week trial for teams evaluating real-time multilingual meetings; it has no ongoing free plan.

For a small team that records meetings often, the best free meeting-minutes tool is the one whose first limit arrives after the work you need it to do. Granola suits teams that want a continuing option without a meeting-count ceiling and can work from recent notes; tl;dv suits teams that need transcripts from many calls and can work with full AI notes for their first 10 meetings and notes covering the first 10 minutes of later meetings. Fireflies.ai fits teams that search and share a bounded collection of meeting records, Otter.ai suits teams whose calls fit its per-conversation allowance, and Fathom fits teams that can use its General/Enhanced summary after the advanced-summary allowance. Tiro belongs in a different decision: its trial lets a team evaluate multilingual capture before choosing a paid product.

The vendor pricing and help pages cited below were checked on October 12, 2026. The comparison uses ongoing access, transcript and recording ceilings, AI-feature allowances, and retained history, since each limit can stop a different part of a meeting workflow.

This guide checks published allowances against different small-team usage patterns. The linked official guides were reviewed on October 13, 2026; the workload examples illustrate which limit a team should inspect first.

Spot the limit that will bind first

An ongoing free plan remains available after its trial period, while a trial gives temporary access before a paid decision. For a meeting-heavy team, the practical question is what happens after the included allowance is used: recording may stop, a transcript may be cut short, AI notes may switch to a simpler format, or old meeting records may leave the searchable view.

Use these checks against your team’s expected meeting pattern:

• Minutes per billing period: Add the time the team expects to record, then compare it with the plan’s transcription or recording allowance. A free product with a generous meeting count can still stop fitting if each call is long.
• Longest call: Otter’s per-conversation cap can limit the transcript before the monthly allowance runs out, so compare it with your team’s longest recurring meeting. A weekly planning session or customer workshop can exceed this limit even when the team’s monthly total is low.
• AI notes and questions: Separate transcript access from generated summaries, action items, and meeting questions. A plan can keep transcripts available while limiting the AI features that turn them into follow-up work.
• Storage and lookback: Decide whether the team needs a searchable record of older decisions. A note that still exists but is hidden from the free in-app history cannot support routine discovery in the same way as a visible archive.

The useful comparison is the first ceiling that interrupts a real job. If a product keeps capturing but stops generating advanced notes, a team that needs searchable transcripts may still be fine. If it stops retaining the meeting record, the same plan may fail a product team that needs to trace old decisions.

Fathom: a fit when a basic summary is enough

Fathom’s pricing page lists a Free plan. Its individual-plan help guide lists recording, storage, and transcription on that plan. On the free plan, advanced summaries are limited each month; after that allowance is used, the simpler template remains available for later calls.

That structure fits a small team that wants a recurring record of meetings and values polished summaries for only some calls. Use the advanced-summary allowance for customer interviews, roadmap decisions, or launch reviews, then use the standard template for routine check-ins. Teams that need action items, follow-up emails, custom summaries, or Ask Fathom across every call need a paid feature set, according to the same help page.

Fireflies.ai: inspect the stored-minute limit for shared records

The Fireflies Free-plan guide describes keyword retrieval and sharing with teammates or guests. Its feature guide explains the starter transcription allowance and Auto Join for eligible meetings. Check that capture setup against the calls your team needs to record.

Free storage is 400 minutes per seat, pooled across the workspace according to the storage guide; teams reclaim capacity by removing older meetings. The Free-plan guide includes sharing with teammates or external guests and up to three additional public channels; unlimited private channels require Business. Transcript downloads require a paid plan.

The Fireflies comparison covers meeting transcription, ordinary keyword search, sharing, and stored meeting minutes. Advanced AI assistants, AI-generated highlights, and custom AI skills are outside this comparison. Assess whether colleagues can locate and open the meeting record using the capture, search, and access conditions described here.

Otter.ai: useful for recurring transcription within short-call limits

Otter’s Basic-plan support page describes continuing free access with a monthly transcription-minute ceiling and a separate per-conversation limit. The same page limits the number of file imports and the visible conversation history, with older conversations archived. For a small team, the per-meeting ceiling can bind before the monthly allowance if workshops or customer calls are long.

The free transcription page also describes sharing meetings, making Otter relevant when teammates need to review a shared transcript rather than keep notes separately. The key fit is regular transcription of shorter calls, with selective imports and a workflow that does not depend on keeping every past conversation in the main history view.

A small group with many short discussions can make better use of the plan than one whose regular sessions often run past that cap. For teams that need full transcripts of longer calls or a complete visible archive, another plan or a paid tier may fit better.

tl;dv: broad capture, with AI notes as the scarce resource

tl;dv's official Free-plan limits separate ongoing capture from finite AI allowances. The Free plan permits unlimited numbers of recordings, transcripts, and manually timestamped notes, with a three-hour ceiling per recorded or uploaded meeting. The first 10 meetings receive full-meeting automatic AI notes; later meetings receive automatic notes for their first 10 minutes. The account also receives 10 AI prompts and 10 AI reports. These allowances apply over the account's lifetime rather than resetting each month.

Video storage has two stages: after three days, recordings move to archived storage, while transcripts and notes stay accessible. Watching an archived video requires restoring it, which can take up to 90 minutes. Free recordings are retained for three months before deletion; users receive four weeks' notice and can download recordings during that window. Pro or Business unlocks features such as unlimited single-meeting AI summaries and instant access to older storage. For a free workflow, plan around the first 10 full-meeting summaries and export the records your team needs before the retention deadline.

Granola: ongoing free access with a short visible history

Granola’s official plan guide describes Basic as a continuing free plan without a meeting-count ceiling. It includes AI-enhanced notes, chat within and across meetings, shared folders, and multilingual support. Custom note templates are available on desktop, which matters if the team expects its meeting format to match a product-discovery or planning template.

The first meaningful limit is history visibility: older notes remain stored but become unavailable in the app’s visible history. Granola’s plan article says shared team folders keep meeting history searchable when colleagues leave, helping teams preserve context during handoffs. Teams that rely on past notes should decide whether their own record-keeping process preserves the history they need.

Tiro: a trial for evaluating real-time multilingual meetings

Tiro's free-trial guide gives a new eligible account 100 minutes at signup. Within the three-week trial, four onboarding tasks each add 50 minutes: create a first note, connect a calendar, install the desktop app, and install the mobile app. Completing all four raises the total to 300 minutes. The allowance is shared across live recording, offline recording, and audio uploads, is granted once per account, and ends after three weeks or when a paid plan starts.

The trial limits viewing to the first 50 minutes of each note and allows recording up to 120 minutes per note, subject to the remaining trial balance. Recording continues past minute 50; text beyond that point stays blurred until a paid upgrade. Recording stops at minute 120, so later audio is not captured. A paid upgrade unlocks the recorded text beyond minute 50.

For cross-language meetings, the live-recording guide explains how to select Multilingual for Listen In, choose a supported Write In language, and enable the live Translation display. Use representative meetings to assess translated decisions, specialist terms, and action owners before deciding on a paid plan.

Match the tool to the ceiling your team can live with

A meeting-heavy lead can make the choice in three steps. First, estimate the length and frequency of the team’s real calls, especially the longest recurring session. Next, decide whether the team needs a transcript, an AI-written summary, a searchable archive, or a task routed into another tool after each call. Then choose the free plan whose first ceiling still leaves that workflow intact.

The first binding limit depends on the workload: Granola’s visible history window, tl;dv’s lifetime advanced-AI allowances, Fireflies’ stored-minute allowance, Otter’s per-conversation cap, or Fathom’s advanced-summary allowance. Compare those limits against a normal week and the record the team must retain. Tiro belongs in a separate, time-bounded trial when live multilingual capture is the capability the team needs to evaluate.