Watch: Meeting capture creates privacy and consent risk whether...
Tool Notes freemium active 8-8.9
Fathom
Fathom is the aggressive free-tier leader in AI meeting...
8.5/10 Strong
Active
$0-$34/user/month
Best plan
$0-$34/user/month
Risk: Meeting capture creates privacy and consent risk whether...
Editorial · no paid placements
Should you use it?
Fathom is the aggressive free-tier leader in AI meeting notes. Unlimited recordings, transcriptions, and instant summaries cost $0 forever, with the advanced AI summary templates capped at 5 per month on free. Fathom now exposes bot-free capture in beta and June 1 Account-Wide Ask Fathom limits by plan. Pick it for solo work or as the default team tool. Skip it for Gong-depth call analytics or mature bot-free capture across every platform.
- Buy if Solo founders and consultants on constant meetings
- Pick $0-$34/user/month
- Skip if Workflows that need mature bot-free capture across every platform
Plan guidance
What to buy
Unchanged
Meeting capture creates privacy and consent risk whether...
Current pricing source: Fathom pricing
Fit
Use it for this, skip it for that
Best for
- Solo founders and consultants on constant meetings
- Sales reps wanting CRM-synced call summaries
- Teams replacing paid notetakers with a free tool
- Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams users
Avoid if
- Workflows that need mature bot-free capture across every platform
- Teams wanting Gong-depth revenue analytics
- Users who need non-English transcription accuracy
- Watch out
- Meeting capture creates privacy and consent risk whether bot-based or bot-free beta; compare Fathom by capture mode, recording controls, retention, CRM sync accuracy, Ask Fathom lookback, and team admin features.
Recent changes
Only what affects the decision
- All tiers
Re-verified June 23...
Fathom pricing - Premium
Verified on fathom.ai/pricing. Raised from $15/mo in early 2026
Fathom pricing - Team
Verified on fathom.ai/pricing
Fathom pricing
Alternatives
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$9.99/month annual or $12.99/month monthly for Reader + Readwise Full · 8.5/10 GranolaThe AI notepad for back-to-back meetings. Free tier covers unlimited summaries with limited visible history. Business at $14/use
$0 free / $14-$35/user/month · 8.3/10Proof and score math Verified Jun 25
Proof
Why this recommendation is trusted
Evidence Fathom official site
- Source
- Registered source
- Freshness
- Current
- Confidence
- High confidence
- Verified
- Review
- Volatility
- Volatile
High-volatility evidence needs frequent review.
Editorial score
Unweighted average of 4 axes · confidence high
- Utility 9/10
How much real work it can do for a competent operator, end to end.
- Value 10/10
What you get for the dollar relative to the closest alternative.
- Moat 7/10
How hard it would be for a competitor to replicate the underlying advantage.
- Longevity 8/10
How likely the product is to still be best-in-class 24 months out.
Verified facts
- Best For Best for teams that want a lightweight AI meeting notetaker with recording, summaries, clips, Ask Fathom search, and CRM/workflow follow-up support.
- Pricing Anchor Fathom has free and paid meeting-note packaging; verify team features, bot-free beta availability, Account-Wide Ask Fathom history limits, CRM sync, admin controls, recording limits, and annual/monthly pricing.
- Watch Out For Meeting capture creates privacy and consent risk whether bot-based or bot-free beta; compare Fathom by capture mode, recording controls, retention, CRM sync accuracy, Ask Fathom lookback, and team admin features.
- Workflow Surface The core workflow is meetings-to-notes, highlights, summaries, and follow-ups rather than general voice transcription API use.
- Integration Surface Implementation should test calendar/video-platform behavior, CRM sync, sharing permissions, and note ownership using help-center guidance.
Full review notes Long-form details, FAQ, and source history
Fathom is an AI meeting assistant that captures Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls, records audio and video, transcribes, and produces instant summaries. The free tier is the product’s defining feature. Unlimited recordings and transcriptions cost nothing, with no time cap on storage. The June 2026 caveat is capture mode: Fathom now lists bot-free capture in beta, while bot-based capture remains the standard workflow many teams will encounter.
Fathom Notetaker Inc. was founded in 2020 by Richard White (ex-Uservoice) and is headquartered in San Francisco. The company raised a $17M Series A led by Telescope Partners in September 2024. Note: often mis-reported as Khosla-led; Khosla led Spellbook, not Fathom.
The 2026 lineup: Free, Premium at $20/mo, Team at $19/user/mo (2-user minimum), and Business at $34/user/mo. All three paid tiers ship a 90-day money-back guarantee. The free plan stays generous: unlimited recording and transcription, instant summaries, call search, clips, and playlists. The catch: advanced AI summary templates are capped at 5 per month on free, and Account-Wide Ask Fathom search history has plan-specific limits from June 1, 2026. Fathom’s product-updates page also frames the beta app experience as a major April 2026 launch with bot-free capture, live summaries, and an app redesign.
System Verdict
Pick Fathom if you want the most generous free tier in AI meeting notes, or if you run back-to-back sales calls on a small team. Unlimited free recording plus transcription beats every competitor’s entry point. Fireflies starts charging at light volume, Otter caps free at 300 minutes per month, and Tactiq’s free tier is Chrome-extension only. Business at $34/user/mo unlocks Salesforce and HubSpot field sync, Deal View, and AI scorecards for revenue teams.
Skip it for Gong-depth revenue intelligence. Fathom’s analytics are capable but shallower than Gong or Clari. Be careful if third-party meeting bots are forbidden. Fathom now lists bot-free capture in beta, but the core product still commonly joins meetings as a named participant, so regulated teams need to validate platform coverage, consent UX, retention, and legal policy before rollout. Skip it for non-English-heavy meetings. Accuracy on accented or jargon-dense speech drops below dedicated transcription services.
Who pays which tier: Free for solo users and light teams, Premium $20/mo for individuals wanting the full 15+ AI summary template library, Team $19/user/mo for small teams needing shared search and SSO, Business $34/user/mo for sales orgs needing CRM field sync and scorecards.
Key Facts
| Company | Fathom Notetaker Inc., San Francisco |
| Founded | 2020 by Richard White |
| Funding | $17M Series A (Sept 2024), led by Telescope Partners |
| Meeting platforms | Zoom · Google Meet · Microsoft Teams |
| Free tier | Unlimited recording and transcription, 5 advanced AI summaries/mo |
| Languages | 28 transcription languages · 7 summary languages |
| CRM sync | HubSpot · Salesforce (Business tier) |
| API / automations | and MCP at developers.fathom.ai · Zapier · Make.com · ChatGPT/Claude integrations listed on pricing page |
| Capture modes | Bot capture plus bot-free capture in beta |
| Ask Fathom limits | Account-wide search limits apply from June 1, 2026 by plan/context |
| Team minimum | 2 users on Team and Business |
| Paid tiers (monthly) | Premium $20 · Team $19/user · Business $34/user |
| Paid tiers (annual) | Premium $16 · Team $15/user · Business $25/user |
| Special offers | 90-day money-back · free plan for nonprofits (10 seats) · Qualified Portfolio Program |
What it actually is
A meeting bot plus a web app. The bot auto-joins scheduled calls across Zoom, Meet, and Teams using calendar access. It records, transcribes, and generates summaries. Most paid competitors charge for exactly this scope.
Free tier users get unlimited recordings, unlimited transcriptions, call search, clips, and playlists. The cap sits on the advanced summary templates: 5 per month on free, unlimited on Premium and up. The basic chronological template stays unlimited on all plans.
Premium adds 15+ AI summary templates, AI action items, auto-generated follow-up emails, and a conversational meeting assistant (ask questions about past calls). Team adds team search, shared playlists, keyword alerts, custom vocabulary, and SSO. Business adds CRM field mapping, Deal View for pipeline coaching, AI-generated scorecards, custom data retention, and a public API seat. As of June 23, 2026, Account-Wide Ask Fathom has different lookback windows by plan and context: Free searches only the last 2 weeks of calls, Premium has unlimited personal history, Team has unlimited My Calls but limited Team/All Calls lookback, and Business has unlimited My Calls and Team Calls.
The moat is product positioning: Fathom built brand equity by refusing to meter the core transcription loop. Competitors charging $10 to $19 per seat for unlimited transcription have a hard time dislodging a free alternative that covers 90% of solo use.
When to pick Fathom
- You want the best free AI notetaker, period. Nothing else in the category gives unlimited recording and transcription at $0.
- You run a small sales team on HubSpot or Salesforce. Business at $34/user/mo (or $25 annual) sends summaries, action items, and custom fields into CRM records automatically.
- You live in Zoom, Meet, and Teams. Fathom’s native integration with the big three beats tools that require Chrome extensions or manual upload.
- You need to test bot-free capture without leaving Fathom. The pricing page now lists bot-free capture in beta; validate it on real meeting platforms before replacing bot-based capture.
- You want Zapier, Make, or MCP automations. The public API and MCP integration at developers.fathom.ai let you pipe transcripts into downstream tools.
- You are a startup in a qualified portfolio. The Qualified Portfolio Program grants up to 2 years of free Premium or Team access for affiliated startups.
When to pick something else
- Deep revenue intelligence: Gong or Clari. Fathom’s scorecards are a light layer on top of transcription, not a full call-review platform.
- Mature no-bot transcription: Tactiq runs as a Chrome extension inside the meeting, so no named participant joins the call. Fathom’s bot-free capture is promising but still beta.
- Audio or video editing workflows: Descript. Fathom records but does not edit.
- Cross-meeting team search baked into the free tier: Otter.ai ships cross-meeting AI chat on free, where Fathom reserves it for Team and up.
- Enterprise compliance with zero data retention: Fathom supports custom retention only on Business. Heavier compliance needs should look at enterprise-tier Fireflies or Otter Enterprise.
Pricing
Pricing via fathom.ai/pricing:
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Who’s it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Solo users, unlimited recording and transcription, 5 advanced summaries/mo |
| Premium | $20/mo | $16/mo | Individuals wanting full template library, AI action items, follow-up drafts |
| Team | $19/user/mo | $15/user/mo | Teams of 2+ needing shared search, playlists, SSO, custom vocabulary |
| Business | $34/user/mo | $25/user/mo | Sales teams needing CRM field sync, Deal View, AI scorecards, public API |
All paid plans include a 90-day money-back guarantee. Team and Business require a 2-user minimum. CRM sync features cap at 3 users per domain on Team and below.
Prices re-verified 2026-06-25 via fathom.ai/pricing, Fathom product updates, and Fathom’s Account-Wide Ask usage-limit help page. No core tier moved, but the buyer guidance changed because bot-free capture is still labeled beta and Account-Wide Ask Fathom limits started June 1.
Note on the 2026 price move: Premium was $15/mo as of late 2025; it moved to $20/mo monthly (or $16/mo annual) in early 2026. The free tier terms tightened at the same time: advanced summary templates dropped from unlimited to 5 per month.
Against the alternatives
| Fathom | Otter.ai | Fireflies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Unlimited recording and transcription | 300 min/mo | 800 min of storage |
| Entry paid tier | Premium $20/mo (user) | Pro $16.99/mo (user) | Pro $10/seat/mo |
| CRM sync tier | Business $34/user/mo | Business $30/user/mo | Business $19/seat/mo |
| Cross-meeting AI search | Premium and up | Free and up | AskFred, Pro and up |
| Bot-in-room? | Yes, named | Yes, OtterPilot | Yes, Fred |
| Native API / MCP | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| Best viewed as | Generous free default | Cross-meeting search specialist | CRM-sync sales tool |
Failure modes
- Advanced summary cap on free. 5 per month is enough for very light users. Anyone logging 3+ meetings per week will hit it in the first week.
- Bot-free capture is beta, not universal. Some legal, regulated, and enterprise meetings forbid third-party recording bots. Fathom now lists bot-free capture in beta, but buyers should prove exact platform coverage, consent behavior, and admin controls before relying on it.
- Shallow analytics vs Gong. Business tier scorecards read more like summary rubrics than full call intelligence. Do not compare to dedicated revenue platforms.
- CRM sync user cap below Business. Lower tiers limit CRM sync to 3 users per domain. Growing teams hit this ceiling fast.
- 2026 price increase, free-tier tightening, and Ask Fathom limits. Premium moved to $20/mo, free-tier advanced summaries dropped to 5/mo, and Account-Wide Ask Fathom now has history lookback limits by plan. Historical “unlimited everything” reviews are out of date.
- No video editing. Fathom records and clips. Any real video post-production needs Descript or equivalent.
- English-first accuracy. 28 transcription languages are supported, but accuracy is notably stronger in English. Jargon-heavy or accented speech drops below Otter.
Methodology
This page was produced by the aipedia.wiki editorial pipeline, an automated system that ingests vendor documentation, verifies pricing and model details against primary sources, and generates the editorial analysis you are reading. No individual human wrote this review. Scoring follows the four-dimension rubric at /about/scoring/ (Utility x Value x Moat x Longevity, unweighted average). Last verified 2026-06-25 against fathom.ai/pricing, Fathom product updates, Fathom Account-Wide Ask usage limits, and the TechCrunch Series A announcement. For a head-to-head pick against the newly tracked meeting-notes contender, see MeetGeek.
FAQ
Is Fathom really free forever? Yes. The free plan has no expiry, and unlimited recordings and transcriptions carry no time cap. The constraint is 5 advanced AI summary templates per month. Basic chronological summaries stay unlimited on free.
What changed in Fathom’s 2026 pricing? Premium moved from $15/mo to $20/mo monthly (or $16/mo annual). The free tier’s advanced summary templates dropped from unlimited to a 5-per-month cap. Unlimited recording and transcription on free did not change.
Which meeting platforms does Fathom support? Native integration with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Webex is not officially supported.
Does Fathom integrate with HubSpot or Salesforce? Yes, on the Business tier at $34/user/mo (or $25/user/mo annual). Business adds CRM Field sync that maps summary fields directly into CRM records, plus Deal View for pipeline coaching.
Does Fathom have an API? Yes. A public API and MCP (Model Context Protocol) endpoint are live at developers.fathom.ai. Zapier and Make.com automations are also supported, with usage limits scaling by plan.
Who owns Fathom? Fathom Notetaker Inc., a private company headquartered in San Francisco. Founded in 2020 by Richard White. Last known funding: $17M Series A in September 2024 led by Telescope Partners, with total funding in the $22M range.
Sources
- Fathom pricing: current Free, Premium, Team, Business, capture-mode, and guarantee details
- Fathom product updates: April 2026 beta app experience, bot-free capture, live summaries, and app redesign notes
- Fathom Account-Wide Ask usage limits: plan-specific Ask Fathom lookback limits
- TechCrunch Fathom Series A announcement: funding and company context
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According to aipedia.wiki Editorial at aipedia.wiki (https://aipedia.wiki/tools/fathom/) aipedia.wiki Editorial. (2026). Fathom: Editorial Review. aipedia.wiki. Retrieved July 2, 2026, from https://aipedia.wiki/tools/fathom/ aipedia.wiki Editorial. "Fathom: Editorial Review." aipedia.wiki, 2026, https://aipedia.wiki/tools/fathom/. Accessed July 2, 2026. aipedia.wiki Editorial. 2026. "Fathom: Editorial Review." aipedia.wiki. https://aipedia.wiki/tools/fathom/. @misc{fathom-editorial-review-2026,
author = {{aipedia.wiki Editorial}},
title = {Fathom: Editorial Review},
year = {2026},
publisher = {aipedia.wiki},
url = {https://aipedia.wiki/tools/fathom/},
note = {Accessed: 2026-07-02}
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