The best call transcription tools for small teams

Call transcription turns a recorded call into text you can search, quote and summarise. For most small teams the choice comes down to three questions: how many minutes you need each month, which languages you speak, and whether you want a transcript only or meeting notes too. In short, Otter and Fireflies suit regular meetings, Rev suits English heavy work with a human option, Happy Scribe suits many languages, and Sonix suits people who pay by the hour.

Prices checked on each vendor's own page on 31 October 2026: Otter, Rev, Happy Scribe, Sonix and Fireflies. Prices change, so confirm before you buy.

The tools side by side

Fireflies' pricing page did not show prices when we read it, so its figures come from Fireflies' own blog and are less certain. We could not read a current Trint pricing page, so we leave it out rather than guess.

Otter

Otter has a free Basic plan with 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation and a small number of imported files. Pro costs $8.33 a month per user on yearly billing or $16.99 month to month, and raises the limits to 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per conversation. Business is $19.99 yearly or $30 monthly. Otter names English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese.

Good for: regular team meetings where you want notes without effort.

Falls short: the free plan limits imports, so call recordings you upload run out quickly.

Fireflies

Fireflies lists a free plan, a Pro plan around $10 a month per seat on yearly billing (about $18 monthly) and a Business plan around $19 yearly. It accepts uploaded audio on all plans, and says it supports more than 100 languages, with some still in beta. Uploads count against your storage.

Good for: teams that want one tool across many meetings and languages.

Falls short: we could not confirm the current prices on its pricing page.

Rev

Rev has a free plan with 45 AI minutes a month, English only. Essentials is $25.49 a month on yearly billing ($29.99 monthly) with 5,000 AI minutes per user, English and Spanish, and up to three users. Pro is $47.99 a month on yearly billing ($575.88 a year) or $59.99 on monthly billing, with 10,000 AI minutes, five users and 37 or more languages. Essentials on yearly billing is $305.90 a year. Both are per seat, checked 31 October 2026. Rev also sells human transcription at $1.99 a minute.

Good for: work where a person must check the text, such as interviews or legal style records.

Falls short: more expensive than the rest per user, and the cheapest paid plan covers two languages.

Happy Scribe

Happy Scribe lists Basic at 8.50 euros a month on yearly billing (17 monthly) with 120 AI minutes a month, Pro at 19 euros yearly (29 monthly) with 600 minutes, and Business at 59 euros yearly (89 monthly) with 6,000 minutes. Extra minutes on Basic cost 0.20 euros each. It covers more than 150 languages for speech to text, and human proofreading starts at 1.75 euros a minute.

Good for: interviews and calls in many languages.

Falls short: the lowest plan has few minutes, so a busy team buys Pro.

Sonix

Sonix charges $10 an hour pay as you go, or $25 a month (billed $275 a year) for Core with 5 hours a month, Advanced at $50 with 20 hours, and Pro at $80 with 40 hours. It has no free plan, only a 30 minute trial, and covers more than 54 languages.

Good for: people whose use is uneven and who think in hours, not seats.

Falls short: an extra seat costs $25 a month on Core.

What to check before you choose

1. Minutes you really need. Add up an average month. Ten one hour calls is 600 minutes, which already passes Otter's free plan and Happy Scribe's Basic.
2. Languages. If your calls are not in English, test a real recording in your language. A long language list does not guarantee good quality in every one.
3. File or live call. Some tools join the call, some only take a file. Confirm which one you get.
4. Where the audio goes. Calls often hold customer details. Read the privacy page and see whether the audio is used to train models.
5. Consent. Tell everyone on the call that it is recorded and transcribed.

Where nerix fits

We make nerix, so weigh this accordingly. nerix can turn a meeting recording into minutes with decisions and tasks, see meetings, and you can ask questions about the text in chat. Voice transcription as a stand alone tool is marked early, so if you need a transcript of a call recording today, a dedicated tool above is the safer pick. Plans are on the pricing page.

Getting a good transcript from any tool

The tool matters less than the recording. Four habits improve every result:

1. Record close to the voice. A phone on a desk picks up the room. A headset or a phone held near the mouth gives far cleaner text.
2. Say names and numbers slowly. Spell unusual names once at the start. Say amounts and dates clearly and repeat them at the end of the call.
3. Avoid talking over each other. Crosstalk is the biggest source of errors and of mixed up speakers.
4. Add a custom word list if the tool offers one, for product names and jargon.

After the call, read the transcript once while the call is fresh. Fix names and numbers, then share the cleaned version. A ten minute check turns a rough transcript into a record you can trust.

What to do with the transcript

A transcript is raw material. The useful outputs are short: a summary of three to five lines, a list of decisions, and a list of follow up tasks with an owner and a date. Put the follow ups where the work happens, for example in a task list, and file the full text with the customer record. If you promised a customer something on the call, copy the exact sentence into the follow up email so both sides see the same words.

Keep recordings only as long as you need them. Audio of a customer is personal data in most countries, and a long archive is a risk you carry for no benefit. Set a retention period, for example 90 days for audio and longer for the cleaned notes, and delete on schedule.

Cost in practice

Take a small sales team with three people who each hold ten one hour calls a month. That is 1,800 minutes in total, or 600 minutes per person. On Otter's Pro plan at $8.33 per user on yearly billing, that is about $25 a month for the team and inside the 1,200 minute limit for each person. On Happy Scribe, 1,800 minutes is the Pro plan (600 minutes) plus extra minutes, so the Business plan at 59 euros a month on yearly billing, with 6,000 minutes shared among five seats, is the better fit. On Sonix, 30 hours a month needs the Pro plan at $80 a month, since Advanced covers 20 hours. The same need can cost three times as much depending on how the plan counts minutes, so do this sum with your own numbers before you sign.

The short version

Start with the free plan of Otter or Fireflies if your calls are regular meetings, pick Rev when a human must check the text, Happy Scribe for many languages, and Sonix when you pay by the hour. Test one real recording in each, count your minutes, and check consent before you record.