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Otter.ai vs Fathom

A feature-by-feature comparison of Otter.ai and Fathom across 7 capability categories.

First tool

Try Otter.ai (opens in a new tab)

Second tool

Try Fathom (opens in a new tab)

Modalities — Tie

Modalities: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
Text Input	Yes, requires free plan. Otter Chat and the transcript editor take typed questions over meeting notes.	Yes, requires free plan. Ask Fathom is typed Q&A over past calls.
Image Upload / Vision	No. Meeting transcription, not a vision model.	No. Meeting notes, not vision.
Image Generation	No. Does not generate images.	No. Does not generate images.
Voice Mode	Partial. Live captions and spoken meetings. It is not a two-way voice assistant like ChatGPT Voice.	Partial. Records spoken meetings. Not a conversational voice assistant.
Video Understanding	No. Joins Zoom/Meet/Teams for audio. It does not watch the video track as a vision model.	No. Audio of the call, not video-as-vision.
Video Generation	No. Not a video generation product.	No. Not a video generation product.
File Upload (PDF, DOCX)	Partial. You can import audio/video of meetings. Not a general PDF knowledge base.	Unknown. Import of recordings was not confirmed on the homepage fetch.
Code Execution	No. Not a code sandbox.	No. Not a code sandbox.
Audio Input	Yes, requires free plan. Core product: live and recorded meeting transcription. Basic includes 300 minutes/month.	Yes, requires free plan. Bot or bot-free meeting capture, then transcripts and summaries.
Canvas / Artifact Editor	No. Transcript editor, not a canvas/artifacts UI.	No. Notes UI, not a canvas.
Screen Sharing / Computer Use	No. No computer-use takeover.	No. No computer-use takeover.

Memory & Context — Tie

Memory & Context: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
Persistent Memory	Partial. Otter Chat over your meeting library. That is search over transcripts, not a personal-facts memory profile.	Partial. Ask Fathom searches past calls. Not a personal-facts memory profile.
Large Context Window	No. Not an LLM context-window product. Limits are minutes, not tokens.	No. Not an LLM token-window product.
Custom Instructions	Unknown. Custom vocabulary/vocabulary was not re-checked on the 2026 pricing page.	Unknown. Not specified on the homepage.
Conversation History	Yes, requires free plan. Meetings and chats are saved in your Otter account.	Yes, requires free plan. Call library persists.

Integrations — Tie

Integrations: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
Web Search / Browsing	No. Searches your meetings, not the live web.	No. Searches your calls, not the live web.
Plugins / Extensions	Partial. Zoom/Meet/Teams plus Zapier and an MCP server. Not a GPT-style plugin store.	Yes, requires free plan. Syncs to Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Asana.
API Access	Unknown. An Otter developer API was not confirmed on the pricing page this round.	Unknown. A public developer API was not on the homepage.
Zapier Integration	Yes, requires plus plan. Zapier is listed on paid/Basic materials as a meeting-notes automation path.	Unknown. No Zapier listing was checked this round.
Custom GPTs / Bots	No. No custom-GPT store.	No. No custom-GPT store.
Real-time Collaboration	Partial. Shared meetings and live notes. Not a multiplayer AI document.	Partial. Shared call notes into Slack/CRM. Not a multiplayer AI doc.
Live Social Data Integration	No. No live social firehose.	No. No live social firehose.
Live Citation Mapping	No. Citations are to your meeting, not the academic web.	No. Citations are to your meetings.

Developer — Tie

Developer: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
Function Calling	Partial. MCP server is listed. That is tool access for assistants, not a public function-calling chat API.	No. Not a developer function-calling API.
Streaming Responses	Yes, requires free plan. Live captions stream as people talk.	Yes, requires free plan. Live notes during the meeting.
Fine-Tuning	No. You do not train Otter’s speech model.	No. You do not train Fathom.
Embeddings API	No. Not an embeddings API.	No. Not an embeddings API.
Structured Output (JSON)	Partial. Summaries, action items, and speakers. Not arbitrary JSON schema.	Partial. Summaries and action items. Not JSON schema.
Reasoning / Thinking Mode	No. Not an LLM reasoning-mode product.	No. Ask Fathom is retrieval, not Deep Think.
Local Execution	No. Cloud SaaS. Desktop recorder still sends audio to Otter.	No. Cloud SaaS.
Open Weights	No. Closed speech models.	No. Closed product.
Multi-Agent Orchestration	No. Not an orchestrator.	No. Not an orchestrator.

Platforms — Otter.ai Wins

Platforms: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
Web App	Yes, requires free plan. otter.ai web app for notes and Otter Chat.	Yes, requires free plan. fathom.video web app.
iOS App	Yes, requires free plan. Official iOS app.	Unknown. Not confirmed on the homepage fetch.
Android App	Yes, requires free plan. Official Android app.	Unknown. Not confirmed on the homepage fetch.
Desktop App	Yes, requires free plan. Bot-free desktop recorder is advertised.	Unknown. Bot-free capture may be desktop; installer was not on the homepage.
Chrome Extension	Yes, requires free plan. Chrome capture extension.	Unknown. Not confirmed on the homepage fetch.

Privacy — Fathom Wins

Privacy: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
GDPR Compliant	Unknown. Needs a current DPA read. Not asserted from the marketing homepage.	Yes, requires free plan. Homepage lists GDPR (plus SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA).
Opt Out of Data Training	Unknown. Training-use toggle was not checked on a privacy policy this round.	Unknown. Training policy was not on the homepage snippet.
Enterprise Privacy Mode	Yes, requires enterprise plan. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, and a HIPAA add-on on the pricing page.	Yes, requires enterprise plan. SSO/SCIM plus SOC 2 / GDPR / HIPAA on the homepage. Used at 300k+ companies.

Workspaces — Fathom Wins

Workspaces: Otter.ai compared with Fathom
Feature	Otter.ai	Fathom
Projects / Folders	Partial. Meetings can be organized; workspace folders on paid were not fully mapped.	Yes, requires free plan. Call library persists.