The Best Speech-to-Text and Conversation Intelligence Tools for Sales Teams in 2026

Your Sales Team Spends 60% of Its Time Not Selling. That Is the Problem Conversation Intelligence Solves.

The 2026 Salesforce State of Sales report puts the number at 40% -- that is how much of the average seller's week is spent actually selling. The other 60% disappears into CRM updates, internal meetings, post-call notes, and administrative busywork. For Gen Z reps, the selling percentage drops to 35%.

Conversation intelligence tools exist to claw that time back. They record, transcribe, and analyze sales calls automatically, converting hours of post-call documentation into seconds of AI-generated summaries, CRM field updates, and coaching insights. The category has matured fast: the conversation intelligence software market is projected to grow from $25.3 billion in 2025 to $55.7 billion by 2035, with 86% of adoption coming through cloud-based deployment.

But "conversation intelligence" has become a catch-all label covering everything from free meeting notetakers to six-figure revenue intelligence platforms. The real question when evaluating tools is not "which one is best?" -- it is "what is the gap between what I need and what I am paying for?" This guide breaks down 10 tools across the full spectrum, with pricing we verified in February 2026, honest feature assessments, and a decision framework to help you pick the right one.

How We Evaluated These Tools

Rather than ranking these tools 1 through 10 (which implies a universal "best" that does not exist), we organized them into three tiers based on their primary use case and price point:

• Tier 1: Free and Low-Cost Notetakers -- Best for individuals or small teams that need basic transcription and summaries without a budget commitment.
• Tier 2: Mid-Market Meeting Intelligence -- Best for growing sales teams that need CRM integration, coaching features, and team-wide analytics.
• Tier 3: Enterprise Revenue Intelligence -- Best for organizations that want conversation data woven into pipeline forecasting, deal inspection, and organizational coaching.

For each tool, we assessed transcription accuracy, sales-specific features (deal tracking, coaching scorecards, CRM sync), integration depth, pricing transparency, and what real users report on G2 and Gartner Peer Insights. We also dug into what each tool actually costs in practice -- not just the number on the pricing page, but the all-in cost once you factor in AI credits, AI-powered sales platform fees, and feature-gated plan upgrades.

Tier 1: Free and Low-Cost Notetakers

These tools solve the foundational problem: nobody should be taking manual notes on sales calls in 2026. They are ideal for solo reps, early-stage teams, or anyone who just needs solid transcription without enterprise overhead.

1. Fathom

Best for: Individual reps and small sales teams on a budget
Pricing: Free (unlimited recordings, 5 AI summaries/month); Premium $19/month ($15/month annual); Team $29/month ($19/month annual); Team Pro $39/month ($29/month annual)
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams

Fathom is the standout free option, and it is not even close. The free tier gives you unlimited call recordings and transcriptions with 95% transcription accuracy -- more generous than nearly every competitor. Where Fathom shines for sales teams specifically is its template library: over 15 meeting frameworks including BANT, Sandler, MEDDIC, and SPICED that automatically structure your call notes around your qualification methodology. This is not a gimmick -- if your team runs MEDDIC, having the AI automatically pull out the relevant qualification criteria from every discovery call is genuinely useful.

The paid Team Pro tier adds CRM field sync (mapping AI-extracted insights directly into Salesforce or HubSpot fields), deal views, and AI scorecards for coaching. In October 2025, Fathom expanded with bot-free recording that captures calls at the audio level without a visible meeting bot -- addressing one of the biggest friction points with AI notetakers. They have also rolled out a public API and AI Search that lets you surface insights across your entire meeting library.

Limitations: No real-time coaching or battlecard features. The free tier caps AI summaries at 5/month, so you will hit the limit within a week if you run more than one call per day. Analytics are solid but not as deep as enterprise platforms. For teams that need more than transcription and notes, Fathom's Team Pro plan at $29/month annual is where the real sales value starts.

2. Otter.ai

Best for: General business meetings, cross-functional teams that are not sales-only
Pricing: Free (300 min/month, 30-min cap per conversation); Pro $16.99/month ($8.33/month annual); Business $30/month ($20/month annual); Enterprise custom
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams

Otter is one of the most recognized names in the category, though it is more of a general-purpose transcription tool than a sales-specific platform. The Business plan is where it gets useful for teams: 6,000 monthly transcription minutes, 4-hour conversation cap, custom vocabulary, and the ability to have OtterPilot join multiple meetings simultaneously when you are double-booked.

One important quirk: Otter does not offer pay-as-you-go overage charges. When you hit your monthly transcription limit, the service stops entirely. You cannot transcribe another minute until your plan resets or you upgrade. For sales teams with variable call volumes, this hard cap can be a real problem during busy months.

Limitations: No deal tracking, no sales coaching features, no pipeline analytics. The sales-specific features (OtterPilot for Sales with CRM sync) are gated to the Enterprise plan, which typically runs $15,000-$35,000/year. If your primary need is "I just need accurate transcripts," Otter delivers. If you need CRM sync and coaching insights without an enterprise contract, look further down this list.

3. Krisp

Best for: Remote and hybrid sellers in noisy environments
Pricing: Free (unlimited transcription, 2 AI notes/day, 60 min/day noise cancellation); Pro $16/month ($8/month annual); Business $30/month ($15/month annual); Enterprise custom
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack Huddles, any app (system-level audio capture)

Krisp takes a different approach than every other tool on this list: it starts from audio quality rather than transcription. Its bidirectional noise cancellation removes background noise from both your microphone and the other party's audio, and its accent conversion feature can adjust heavy accents in real-time. This matters more than most people realize -- AssemblyAI benchmarks show transcription accuracy can fall from 92% on clean audio to as low as 65% on mobile calls with background noise. Better input audio means fundamentally better transcripts.

Krisp is also fully bot-free, capturing audio at the system level with all processing done locally on your device. No data leaves your machine for the noise cancellation, which is meaningful for reps who sell into security-conscious industries like healthcare, finance, and government.

Limitations: No sales-specific analytics, no deal tracking, no CRM field sync. The free tier limits noise cancellation to 60 minutes/day and AI notes to 2/day. Think of Krisp as a transcription and audio quality layer that enhances everything else rather than a standalone conversation intelligence platform. At $8/month annual for the Pro plan, it is cheap enough to pair with another tool.

Tier 2: Mid-Market Meeting Intelligence

These tools go beyond transcription to offer team analytics, coaching features, CRM integration, and sales-specific workflows. They are the sweet spot for sales teams of 10-100 reps that need more than notes but are not ready for (or do not need) a six-figure platform commitment.

4. Fireflies.ai

Best for: Teams that want the broadest integration footprint and cross-meeting search
Pricing: Free (800 min storage per seat); Pro $18/month ($10/month annual); Business $29/month ($19/month annual); Enterprise custom
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Dialpad, RingCentral, and 40+ others

Fireflies connects to virtually every meeting and dialer platform a sales team might use, which is its strongest differentiator. The standout feature is AskFred, a ChatGPT-like assistant that lets you query across your entire meeting history: "What objections did prospects raise about pricing in Q4?" or "Show me every time a competitor was mentioned in discovery calls last month." In 2026, Fireflies added "Talk to Fireflies," which surfaces web search results and AI answers during live calls -- useful for fact-checking claims or pulling up company info in real time.

Limitations (and the real cost story): This is where Fireflies gets complicated. CRM sync and Slack integration require the Pro plan; full API access requires Business. And the AI credit system is the hidden gotcha. AskFred, advanced summaries, and smart search all consume AI credits, and paid plans come with limited allotments (20-50 credits depending on tier). One Business user reported needing a $99 credit top-up after just two weeks. Real-world costs can reach $30-40/user/month when you factor in credit consumption and the integrations you actually need. Budget accordingly.

5. tl;dv

Best for: Sales teams that want coaching analytics without Gong-level pricing
Pricing: Free (unlimited recordings and transcripts, 10 AI reports); Pro $18/user/month (annual); Business $59/user/month (annual, $98/month billed monthly)
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams

tl;dv has positioned itself aggressively against Gong on price, and the math is compelling: a 100-seat team on tl;dv Business pays roughly $42,000/year versus $200,000+ for Gong. The Business plan includes an AI Coaching Hub that evaluates how well reps follow your sales process using frameworks like BANT or MEDDIC, tracks objection handling patterns, and surfaces coaching moments across the team. It integrates deeply with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive for CRM sync.

The free tier is genuinely generous for recordings (unlimited), but the 10-report cap and 3-month recording deletion policy on free accounts make it functionally a trial.

Limitations: Narrower platform support than Fireflies. The jump from Pro ($18) to Business ($59) is steep -- the coaching features, sales playbook monitoring, and deep CRM integrations are all gated to Business. If you are a 20-person team that mainly needs coaching, you are looking at $14,000/year, which is reasonable. But tl;dv's value proposition weakens if you do not need the Business-tier coaching features.

6. Grain

Best for: Customer-facing teams that share call insights across the organization
Pricing: Free (limited recordings and minutes); Starter $15/user/month (annual); Business $29/user/month (annual)
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams

Grain's differentiator is how it handles call highlights and sharing. Instead of sending teammates a 45-minute recording, you can clip specific moments, organize them into playlists, and share them with context. For product teams that need to hear customer feedback directly, or marketing teams building competitive intelligence libraries, this is powerful. The company reports a 97% team retention rate after 12 months -- one of the higher stickiness metrics in the category.

Grain also auto-syncs notes to CRM contact and deal records and generates follow-up emails automatically. The Business plan adds buying buyer signal data detection, competitor tracking, and multi-meeting analysis across your team.

Limitations: Grain is built more for cross-functional insight sharing than hardcore sales coaching. If your primary goal is methodology adherence and rep scorecards, tl;dv or Avoma will serve you better. The free tier is limited enough that it functions as a trial rather than a sustainable plan.

7. Avoma

Best for: Revenue teams that want meeting intelligence, coaching, and forecasting in a single platform
Pricing: Starter $19/user/month; Business $59/user/month; Enterprise $79/user/month (conversation intelligence add-on available)
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, phone dialers

Avoma is the most feature-dense tool in the mid-market tier, combining meeting assistant, scheduler, conversation intelligence, and revenue intelligence into a single platform. The Business plan includes AI-generated and manual scorecards, talk pattern analysis, keyword tracking, and engagement intelligence. The Enterprise tier adds deal boards, automated CRM field updates, and win/loss analysis.

Where Avoma quietly excels is in topic categorization. It automatically tags discussion segments as business needs, pain points, competitors, next steps, and more. It also tracks individual rep metrics like talk-to-listen ratio, longest monologue, and filler word usage -- the kind of granular coaching data that managers usually have to extract manually.

Limitations: The pricing structure adds up. If you want the full feature set including conversation intelligence add-ons, you are approaching $80-100/user/month, which puts Avoma in the same price range as some enterprise tools. The UI can feel overwhelming for teams that just want simple transcription and notes. But if you want one platform instead of stitching together three, Avoma is the strongest single-vendor option in this tier.

Tier 3: Enterprise Revenue Intelligence

These platforms treat conversation data as a strategic asset, weaving it into pipeline management, deal forecasting, and organizational coaching programs. They are designed for sales organizations of 100+ reps with dedicated RevOps teams and the budget for premium tooling.

8. Gong

Best for: Enterprise sales organizations that want the market-leading revenue intelligence platform
Pricing: Foundations $1,300-$1,600/user/year + $5,000-$50,000 annual platform fee; add-ons: Gong Forecast ~$700/user/year, Gong Engage ~$800/user/year
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, phone/dialer, email, web conferencing

Gong is the category leader, full stop. Named a Leader in the inaugural 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Revenue Action Orchestration -- placing highest among 12 vendors on both "Ability to Execute" and "Completeness of Vision" -- Gong has the deepest analytics in the category. Over 4,700 companies use it, including half of the Fortune Top 10. It analyzes which talking points correlate with closed deals, which conversation patterns predict losses, and what top performers do differently from average reps.

The March 2025 pricing restructure moved Gong from a bundled model to modular, a-la-carte pricing. This gives larger orgs flexibility but means total cost escalates quickly when you stack Forecast + Engage + Foundations. For a 50-person sales team on the full bundle, expect annual costs north of $150,000. Watch out for contract details too: multi-year locks, 5-15% auto-renewal uplifts, and 50-100% early termination penalties are common in Gong contracts.

Limitations: Price is the obvious barrier. The platform fee alone ($5K-$50K depending on org size) prices out most SMBs and early-stage startups. Setup and onboarding are complex -- this is not a tool you deploy on a Friday afternoon. Some users report the AI summaries can be inconsistent in accuracy. Gong is powerful, but it requires organizational commitment and RevOps bandwidth to extract full value. If you are a 30-person sales team considering Gong, seriously evaluate whether tl;dv or Avoma can get you 80% of the value at 20% of the cost.

9. Chorus (by ZoomInfo)

Best for: Teams already in the ZoomInfo ecosystem that want unified conversation + contact intelligence
Pricing: Custom; base pricing starts around $8,000/year for 3 seats, ~$1,200/additional seat; requires ZoomInfo sales inquiry
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, phone dialers, email

Chorus was acquired by ZoomInfo for $575 million in 2021, and its biggest advantage is integration with ZoomInfo's massive B2B contact database. Conversation insights are automatically enriched with firmographic and contact data, which is valuable for lead qualification and account research. Core features include talk-to-listen ratio tracking, competitor mention detection, objection handling analysis, and deal progression monitoring.

For teams already paying for ZoomInfo, adding Chorus creates a unified workflow from B2B prospecting guide through conversation analysis. The enrichment layer is genuinely useful -- knowing a prospect's company size, AI sales tools guide, and recent news while reviewing their call transcript adds context you cannot get from the audio alone.

Limitations: Chorus's value proposition is tightly coupled with ZoomInfo. If you are not already a ZoomInfo customer, the combined cost is prohibitive -- enterprise quotes typically run well into six figures annually. Pricing is completely opaque; there is no public pricing page. As a standalone conversation intelligence tool without ZoomInfo's data enrichment, there are better options at lower price points. This is a "buy if you are already in the ecosystem" tool, not one you adopt on its own merits.

10. Clari Copilot

Best for: Revenue teams that need real-time, in-call coaching paired with forecasting
Pricing: Accelerator ~$1,080/user/year ($90/user/month); Enterprise ~$1,320/user/year ($110/user/month); free trial available
Platforms: Zoom, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, dialers (Outreach, Aircall, HubSpot, RingCentral)

Clari Copilot (formerly Wingman) is the strongest real-time coaching tool on this list, and the real-time distinction matters. Its live battlecards surface relevant competitive intelligence, objection handlers, and talk tracks as the conversation unfolds -- not in a post-call summary, but while the rep is still on the phone. For new reps ramping up or experienced reps navigating unfamiliar competitive situations, the real-time guidance is a genuine force multiplier.

Clari Copilot automatically captures intent, objections, contacts, and next steps, feeding everything into CRM without rep intervention. Its pairing with Clari's revenue forecasting platform creates a unified view from individual call insights through pipeline prediction. Both plans offer unlimited meetings per user per month.

Limitations: The real-time coaching features require good network conditions and can occasionally introduce latency. The product is strongest when purchased alongside Clari's forecasting suite; as a standalone conversation intelligence tool, the ROI case is harder to make versus Gong or tl;dv. But if real-time coaching is your top priority -- particularly for ramping new hires quickly -- Clari Copilot is the clear winner in that specific use case.

Decision Framework: Which Tool Fits Your Team?

Skip the feature matrices. The right tool depends on three factors: team size, budget, and what problem you are actually trying to solve beyond basic transcription.

Choose Tier 1 (Fathom, Otter, Krisp) if:

• You are a solo rep or team of fewer than 10
• Your budget is under $20/user/month (or $0)
• Your primary need is "stop taking manual notes on calls"
• You handle CRM updates manually and that is acceptable
• You do not need team-wide coaching analytics

Our pick: Fathom for sales-specific use (the MEDDIC/BANT templates are genuinely useful, not marketing fluff). Add Krisp at $8/month annual if audio quality is a persistent issue -- the two together cost less than most competitors' lowest paid tier.

Choose Tier 2 (Fireflies, tl;dv, Grain, Avoma) if:

• You have 10-100 reps and dedicated sales management
• You need CRM auto-sync and team-wide analytics
• Coaching and methodology adherence matter to your org
• Your budget is $20-80/user/month
• You want cross-meeting search and organizational learning

Our pick: Fireflies for breadth of integrations (just budget for the AI credits); Avoma if you want the most complete single-vendor platform; tl;dv for coaching-focused teams that want the strongest Gong alternative at a fraction of the price.

Choose Tier 3 (Gong, Chorus, Clari Copilot) if:

• You have 100+ reps and a RevOps team to own the platform
• Conversation intelligence needs to feed into pipeline forecasting and deal inspection
• You can budget $100+/user/month plus platform fees
• Real-time in-call coaching is a priority (Clari Copilot)
• You need Gartner-validated enterprise security and compliance

Our pick: Gong for overall depth and market validation -- it earned the Leader position in Gartner's inaugural RAO Magic Quadrant for a reason. Clari Copilot for real-time coaching. Chorus only if you are already a ZoomInfo customer and want the data enrichment layer.

Five Things to Verify Before You Sign a Contract

Regardless of which tier you are evaluating, these practical considerations separate good implementations from expensive shelfware.

1. Test accuracy with your actual calls, not the vendor's demo

Leading tools claim 90-95% transcription accuracy, and on clean, native-English audio that number is realistic. But accuracy degrades meaningfully with accented speakers, poor audio quality, or domain-specific jargon. AssemblyAI benchmarks show word error rates range from under 5% for clean studio audio to over 35% on noisy mobile calls. If your team makes calls from home offices, coffee shops, or has multilingual speakers, run a two-week pilot with real calls before committing to an annual contract.

2. Map your actual integration needs at the plan you intend to buy

Most tools advertise "500+ integrations" but gate the ones you actually need behind higher-priced plans. Fireflies gates CRM sync to Pro and full API access to Business. Otter locks sales-specific CRM features in Enterprise. Before choosing based on an integrations page, confirm that your specific CRM, dialer, and workflow tools are supported at the tier you will actually purchase.

3. Calculate the real cost, not the pricing page number

Between AI credit add-ons, platform fees, implementation charges, and plan upgrades required for specific features, the actual cost can be 2-3x the advertised per-user price. Gong's $1,600/user/year sounds expensive but predictable; Fireflies' $10/month sounds cheap but can reach $40/user/month when you add credits and the integrations you need. Gong contracts routinely include 5-15% annual price escalators. Model the realistic total cost for your team size, usage patterns, and a 3-year time horizon.

4. Check recording consent and compliance -- this has legal teeth

Eleven US states require all-party consent for call recording: California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington. For interstate calls, you must follow the stricter of the two states' laws. Violations carry serious penalties -- in California, fines up to $5,000 or triple actual damages; in Florida, it is a third-degree felony. Ensure your chosen tool supports configurable consent notifications, recording indicators, and data retention policies. Bot-free tools like Krisp and Fathom offer lower-friction compliance since there is no visible bot joining the meeting.

5. Evaluate the post-call workflow, not just the transcript

Transcription is table stakes in 2026. The real value difference between tools is what happens after the call ends: Does the tool auto-update your CRM fields? Generate follow-up emails? Create coaching insights? Feed deal risk signals into your forecast? Organizations implementing conversation intelligence report measurably higher win rates and managers reviewing 5x more calls in the same time. That ROI comes from the workflow automation, not the transcript itself.

How Conversation Intelligence Connects to Your Broader Sales Stack

The most effective sales teams do not use conversation intelligence in isolation. They pair it with signal data to determine which accounts to prioritize before the call happens, and with personalization tools to craft outreach that gets the meeting in the first place.

Here is a concrete example: your conversation intelligence data reveals that prospects who mention a specific competitor in discovery calls close at 2x the rate. That is a pattern your prospecting team can act on upstream. Tools like Autobound surface buying signals -- hiring activity, funding rounds, technology changes, competitive mentions -- that help reps identify and prioritize accounts most likely to be in-market before the first call is even booked. The compound effect: better signal data leads to more relevant conversations, which generates richer conversation intelligence data, which feeds back into sharper prospecting criteria.

The teams seeing the strongest revenue impact from AI adoption in 2026 are the ones that treat prospecting signals, conversation intelligence, and CRM automation as a connected system rather than isolated point solutions. When your pre-call research, in-call coaching, and post-call automation all feed the same data loop, the improvement compounds across every stage of the pipeline.

The Bottom Line

The conversation intelligence market has matured to the point where there is a credible option at every budget. A solo rep gets unlimited call recordings for free from Fathom. A 50-person sales team gets CRM sync, coaching, and cross-call analytics from Fireflies or tl;dv for $20-60/user/month. An enterprise org gets Gartner-validated revenue intelligence from Gong or real-time coaching from Clari Copilot.

The right tool is the one that matches your team's size, budget, and the specific problem you are trying to solve. Do not overbuy: a team of 15 reps does not need a $50K platform fee. Do not underbuy: if coaching and pipeline analytics are strategic priorities, a free notetaker will not get you there. And do not trust the pricing page -- model the real cost with credits, platform fees, and the plan tier you actually need. Start with the decision framework above, run a real pilot with your actual calls, and let the data tell you which tool earns a permanent seat in your stack.