Otter.ai
Live meeting notes and transcription
Otter is the most established meeting transcription tool and the one whose privacy implications deserve the most thought before you deploy it.
Where it wins. Live transcription is fast and accurate on clear audio, and speaker separation is reliable enough that the transcript reads like a conversation rather than a wall of text. The calendar integration means it joins Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls without anyone remembering to start it. Summaries and extracted action items are good enough to circulate as minutes. Search across an archive of meetings is quietly the most valuable feature — finding what someone said three months ago takes seconds.
Where it falls short. Accuracy degrades on accents, crosstalk, and poor microphones more than the marketing suggests, and technical vocabulary needs a custom dictionary. Minutes are capped per plan and heavy meeting weeks exhaust them. The bigger issue is consent and confidentiality: an AI note-taker in every call is a data-governance decision, not a personal productivity choice, and participants should be told. Some organisations block it outright.
Our call. Very useful for meeting-heavy roles. Agree a recording policy before rolling it out to a team.
Best for
Teams and professionals in back-to-back meetings who need searchable transcripts, summaries, and action items.
Key takeaways
- 1Joins Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls automatically via calendar
- 2Reliable speaker separation makes transcripts readable
- 3Summaries and action items usable as circulated minutes
- 4Archive search is the most underrated feature
- 5Accuracy drops on accents, crosstalk, and poor microphones
- 6An AI recorder in every call is a governance decision, not a preference
Otter is a meeting recorder that has become a meeting participant. It joins the call, transcribes live, labels who said what, and produces a summary with action items before people have left the room. For anyone whose week is meetings, it removes note-taking entirely — at the cost of putting an AI recorder into every conversation you have.
What we like
- Fast, accurate live transcription
- Automatic meeting joining
- Good summaries and action extraction
- Powerful cross-meeting search
- Solid free tier for individuals
Worth noting
- Struggles with accents and crosstalk
- Monthly minute caps
- Consent and confidentiality obligations
- Custom vocabulary needed for jargon
Plans
Pricing
Basic
- 300 transcription minutes per month
- 30 minutes per conversation
- Live transcription
- 3 audio file imports
- Basic summaries
Pro
per user, per month
- 1,200 minutes per month
- 90 minutes per conversation
- Advanced search and export
- Custom vocabulary
- Team collaboration
Pricing verified Aug 13, 2026. Prices shown are billed annually where available and may change — always confirm on the vendor site.
From real users
Reviews
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We publish a user score only once real, verified reviews exist — so this tool is rated on our hands-on testing alone for now. Used it? Your review would be the first.
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Frequently asked questions
Do I need to tell people Otter is recording?＋
Yes. Recording consent laws vary by jurisdiction and many require all parties to agree. Beyond legality, an AI note-taker in a meeting is something colleagues and clients are entitled to know about.
How accurate is the transcription?＋
High on clear audio with a good microphone. Accuracy drops noticeably with strong accents, crosstalk, and laptop microphones. A custom vocabulary helps with names and technical terms.
Does Otter join meetings automatically?＋
Yes. Connect your calendar and OtterPilot joins scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls without anyone starting it manually.
What are the free plan limits?＋
300 transcription minutes a month with a 30-minute cap per conversation. That suits occasional use; anyone in back-to-back meetings will exhaust it within a fortnight.
Otter.ai
From $8.33/mo