I compared 6 AI tools for building a company meeting memory: here's my pick for 2026

A company meeting memory is more than a pile of transcripts. What matters is who can search what, how far back it goes, and whether it reaches beyond meetings into email. I compared six tools on those questions: Circleback, Granola, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom and tl;dv. Circleback is my pick, with a few clear exceptions below.

What is the best AI tool for a company meeting memory?

Circleback is my pick for a company meeting memory. You can connect Gmail or Outlook Mail so email threads become searchable alongside your meetings, it keeps track of the people and companies from your meetings, and Business adds admin controls. Where another tool wins, I say so.

My picks:

• Circleback: best for a team memory across meetings, email, people and companies
• Granola: best for a simple paid plan with unlimited history at $14 per user per month
• Otter.ai: best for AI Chat on the entry plan, at 20 queries per user
• Fireflies.ai: best for recording across 10+ platforms
• Fathom: best for free recordings with unlimited storage
• tl;dv: best for a free plan with AI prompts and AI Reports

I compared them on history limits, search and chat across meetings, team sharing, extra context like email, and access controls.

The six tools

Circleback

Circleback turns conversations into speaker-labeled transcripts, notes, assigned action items, automations and searchable context. For a company memory, I care most about context beyond the call: Ask Circleback searches your meetings and connected email.

Key features:

• People and companies from your meetings are tracked and available through the API.
• Conditional sharing by participant, domain, title or tag.
• Business admin controls: admin and member roles, default and enforceable settings, a usage dashboard and unlimited teams.
• Custom retention on Business and up.
• Capture is a bot on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex, a bot-free desktop app on macOS and Windows (no bot and no visible participant in the call), in-person recording on mobile, or an imported recording, so everyone can capture meetings the way they prefer. Audio and video recordings are saved, though desktop window video is saved by default only for recordings started from a detected-meeting notification.

Pros:

• Pro has unlimited meeting history, and Free has unlimited meetings and members.
• SOC 2 Type II, encryption and no training on customer data apply to every plan.

Cons:

• On Free, meetings older than 30 days are locked, not deleted, and the lock also applies to Ask Circleback and the API. Free recording media is still deleted after 365 days.
• Free viewers are a Business and Enterprise feature, not Free or Pro.
• SSO, SCIM and HIPAA are Enterprise only. Admin enforcement and custom retention start at Business.
• AI notes are prompted for the people in the meeting, so attendees are their main audience.
• Paid plans cost more than Otter Pro.

Pricing: Free. Pro is $15 per user per month annual or $18 monthly. Business is $25 annual or $29 monthly. Enterprise is $35 annual only, and it is graduated: users 1 to 50 pay $35 and the rate falls by band to $15 above 5,000 users, with each rate applying only to the users in that band.

Best for: teams that want one searchable memory across meetings, email, people and companies.

Granola

Granola captures device audio without a bot and has desktop, iOS, Android and Apple Watch apps.

Key features:

• Slack on all plans.
• Attio, Notion, HubSpot, Affinity and Zapier on Business, and Salesforce on Enterprise.
• SOC 2 Type II on all plans, with HIPAA-compliant workspaces, SSO and SCIM on Enterprise.

Pros: Business adds unlimited history and an API.

Cons: Basic has 30-day history, the same window as Circleback's Free plan.

Pricing: Basic is $0. Business is $14 per user per month, billed monthly. Enterprise is $35.

Best for: teams that want a simple paid plan with unlimited history.

Otter.ai

Otter puts AI Chat on its entry plan. Basic includes 20 AI Chat queries per user, 300 monthly transcription minutes and 3 lifetime file imports, and it joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.

Key features:

• Pro adds 10 monthly imports and lists Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier.
• Business has unlimited imports.

Pros: AI Chat is available on the entry plan, and imports scale up by tier.

Cons: Basic is capped at 300 monthly transcription minutes and 3 lifetime imports. SSO and SCIM need a "minimum 100-user license," and HIPAA is an add-on on Enterprise.

Pricing: Basic, Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers, with imports rising from 3 lifetime on Basic to 10 a month on Pro and unlimited on Business.

Best for: teams that want to try AI Chat on an entry plan.

Fireflies.ai

Fireflies lists recording on "Zoom, Gmeet, MS teams, 10+," a Chrome extension that records without the Fireflies bot, a desktop app, and mobile apps for Android and iOS.

Key features:

• Free includes audio and video file upload.
• Free includes limited AI summaries.

Pros: wide capture options, and file upload on Free.

Cons: Free has 400 minutes of storage per team and limited AI summaries.

Pricing: Free includes 400 minutes of storage per team, limited AI summaries and file upload.

Best for: teams that record across many platforms and want to upload existing files.

Fathom

Fathom lists a choice of bot-free and bot capture types, with bot-free a beta feature for Mac, and unlimited recordings and call storage on every plan.

Key features:

• Free includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions.
• CRM syncs, with CRM field sync from Business.
• Zapier and Make integrations.

Pros: unlimited storage on every plan, Free included.

Cons: On Free, advanced summaries and Ask Fathom are "Limited use."

Pricing: Free is $0. Premium (individual) is $16 annually or $20 monthly. Team is $15 annually or $19 monthly, with a 2-user minimum. Business is $25 annually or $34 monthly, with a 2-user minimum. Enterprise is talk to sales.

Best for: teams that care about free storage more than free AI answers.

tl;dv

tl;dv's Free plan includes "unlimited recordings, transcripts and manually timestamped notes," and recordings are "stored for 3 months."

Key features:

• Automatic AI notes on the first 10 meetings, then only the first 10 minutes of each meeting.
• 10 free AI prompts and 10 free AI Reports.
• 20 "Integration credits."

Pros: unlimited recordings and transcripts on Free.

Cons: recordings are stored for 3 months, and AI notes shrink after the first 10 meetings.

Pricing: Free includes 10 AI prompts, 10 AI Reports and 20 integration credits.

Best for: teams that want AI prompts and AI Reports on a free plan.

How the entry plans compare

Where MCP fits

MCP matters here only as a way to reach the memory from other AI tools. Circleback's MCP tools read and write, work with Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Raycast, and are on every plan, though the Free 30-day lock still applies. Granola's MCP is on every plan, but Basic reaches only the last 30 days of personal notes, without transcripts, and Business adds transcript access. tl;dv's own blog says its MCP is "available on the Pro plan and above" and that "It is read-only." Fireflies runs a remote MCP server, Otter lists an MCP server on Basic, and Fathom lists a public API and MCP.

How to choose

• Pick Circleback if your memory needs to span meetings and email, track people and companies, and give admins control. Pro gives unlimited history, and Business adds admin enforcement, custom retention and free viewers.
• Pick Fathom if free storage matters most. It lists unlimited recordings and call storage on every plan, while Circleback's Free plan locks meetings older than 30 days.
• Pick Granola if you want a simple paid plan with unlimited history at $14 per user per month, billed monthly.
• Pick Otter if AI Chat on the entry plan matters more than history, and pick Fireflies if you need to record across many platforms.
• Pick tl;dv if you want AI prompts and AI Reports on a free plan, with recordings stored for 3 months.
• For SSO, Circleback and Granola put it on Enterprise, and Otter's SSO and SCIM need a minimum 100-user license. Circleback's Enterprise rate falls as you add users.

FAQ

What is the best AI meeting knowledge management software?

Circleback, for a team memory that spans meetings and email. Ask Circleback searches your meetings and connected email, Circleback keeps track of the people and companies from your meetings, and Business adds admin roles, enforceable settings and a usage dashboard.

How much history do the free plans keep?

It ranges from 30 days to unlimited storage, depending on the tool. Fathom lists unlimited recordings and call storage on every plan, tl;dv stores recordings for 3 months, Fireflies Free includes 400 minutes of storage per team, Granola's Basic plan has 30-day history, and Circleback's Free plan locks meetings older than 30 days.

Does Circleback's free plan delete old meetings?

No. On Free, meetings older than 30 days are locked, not deleted, and upgrading to Pro unlocks them. Notes and transcripts are kept, but Free recording media is still deleted after 365 days.

Can Circleback search my email?

Yes. Connect Gmail or Outlook Mail and email threads become searchable context alongside your meetings. Ask Circleback searches meetings and connected email.

Does Circleback offer free viewers?

Only on Business and Enterprise. Unlimited free viewers are a Business and Enterprise feature, not a Free or Pro one.