Tool profile
Fathom: what it is, what it costs, where it breaks
Fathom is an AI meeting assistant made by Fathom Video that records Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, transcribes them and writes a summary with action items. It runs either as a bot that joins the call or, in beta on Mac, as a capture mode with no visible participant. It is aimed at individuals, sales teams and customer-facing staff.
What to know first
Fathom is easiest to understand as a free recorder with a ladder of paid layers above it. The free tier keeps recordings and transcription unlimited, and each step up adds a different kind of function: custom summaries, team search, then CRM field writes and coaching reports. Team and Business plans require two seats. The 'limited use' labels on the free tier are the part to read closely before relying on it for daily work.
Fathom at a glance
| Maker | Fathom Video, United States |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | $16 per user per month, billed annually |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Meeting Assistants in 2026, rank 1 of 9 |
| Website | fathom.ai |
Who Fathom is best for
Account managers and customer success staff
Fathom has a customer view that groups every meeting, summary and highlight for one account, so a handover or renewal prep does not mean reopening a dozen recordings.
Sales reps leaving a conversation-intelligence contract
Fathom's pricing page offers Business free through the remaining contract plus data migration for people switching from Gong or a similar product, which lowers the cost of testing it.
Nonprofits and early-stage startups
The page lists 10 free seats for nonprofits and up to two years of Team free for affiliated startups of select VCs and accelerators, subject to eligibility checks.
People who route notes through Claude or ChatGPT
Fathom lists Claude and ChatGPT integrations and a public API with MCP, so meeting context can be pulled into an assistant the user already works in.
Fathom plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited recordings and transcription, bot or bot-free (beta) capture, instant summaries, clips, playlists and search across calls. Action items and in-call questions are limited use. |
| Premium | $20 per user per month, or $16 billed annually | Everything in Free plus advanced summaries from over 15 templates, AI action items, the conversational assistant and a custom meeting bot name. |
| Team | $19 per user per month, or $15 billed annually, two-user minimum | Premium features plus global search across calls, team playlists, comments, folders and keyword alerts, with a free trial and a 90 day guarantee. |
| Business | $34 per user per month, or $25 billed annually, two-user minimum | Team features plus CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics with AI scorecards, custom summaries and the option to disable the in-meeting banner. |
| Enterprise | Talk to sales | Business features plus SSO, SCIM provisioning, custom data retention, organization-wide security controls, a signed HIPAA BAA, onboarding help and priority support. |
Prices as of October 2026; vendors change plans often, so confirm on the vendor's pricing page.
What Fathom does
- Two capture modes
- A bot can join the call, or a bot-free mode records from the Mac itself. The pricing page marks the bot-free option as beta and Mac-only, so a Windows user planning around it should confirm current support.
- Summary templates
- Paid summaries can follow more than 15 templates, including sales frameworks such as BANT and Sandler. Business adds custom templates for call and deal summaries, which suits teams that want every rep's notes in one shape.
- Trackers
- Trackers tag moments in future calls, such as competitor mentions, objections or feature requests, and send them to Slack, email or the app. The pricing table lists this among the search and discovery features.
- Ask Fathom
- A chat panel answers questions about a single call. An account-wide version that searches all meetings is marked beta, and lookback for team calls depends on the plan tier, while personal calls have unlimited lookback on paid plans.
- CRM sync tiers
- Every plan can push summaries and notes to a CRM, capped at three users per domain on the lower tiers. Writing meeting insights into specific CRM fields is a Business feature.
How Fathom handles your data
Fathom's privacy policy says that, depending on account settings, it may create de-identified data from meeting content to train its in-house AI models, and that users can opt out in account settings. It says it does not authorize third parties such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Google to train on meeting content. The service is hosted in the United States, and the policy cites the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework for transfers. After an account deletion request, it says it uses commercially reasonable efforts to delete recordings within 30 days. Certification details were not checked for this page.
Where Fathom falls short in practice
- Free tier gates the useful extras. Unlimited recording is real, but the pricing table marks action items and in-call questions as limited use on Free. Someone who wants consistent task lists after every call will end up on Premium.
- Teams pay for two seats up front. Team and Business both carry a two-user minimum, so a solo consultant who wants global search or CRM field sync cannot buy them alone. Premium is the only paid plan for one person.
- CRM field sync sits at the top paid tier. Notes can reach a CRM earlier, but field-level updates, Deal View and coaching scorecards all start at Business, so a sales team's real per-seat cost is the $25 to $34 band, not the entry price.
- Bot-free capture is still a beta. The no-participant mode is listed as a Mac beta. Clients who object to a recording bot may get the fully supported behavior only by accepting a visible participant in the call.
Works with
Alternatives to Fathom
Fathom: common questions
Is Fathom really free, and what does the free plan leave out?
Fathom's Free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcription, instant summaries, clips, playlists and search across calls, with no time limit as of October 2026. The pricing table marks action items and in-call questions as limited use, and advanced summaries, the custom bot name and team search are paid features.
Can Fathom record a meeting without a bot in the call?
Fathom's pricing page lists a choice between bot-free and bot capture, and marks the bot-free option as a beta feature for Mac. That means Windows users and anyone who needs a fully supported mode should check current availability. The Business plan can also disable the in-meeting banner.
Does Fathom train its AI on my meetings?
Fathom's privacy policy says it may use de-identified data from meeting content to train its in-house models depending on account settings, and that users can opt out in settings. It also says it does not authorize outside AI providers to train on meeting content. Admins at a company should confirm how the team account is set.
What does Fathom Business add over Team?
Business adds CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics with AI scorecards and custom summaries, plus options like disabling the in-meeting banner. As of October 2026 it lists $25 per user monthly on annual billing against $15 for Team, with a two-user minimum on both.
Does Fathom offer an API or integration with Claude?
Fathom's pricing page lists a public API and MCP, and a Claude and ChatGPT integration that surfaces meeting context in those assistants. Documentation sits at developers.fathom.ai, which was not opened for this page, so check it for endpoints and limits before building on it.