Otter.ai

What it is

Otter transcribes meetings as they happen. It joins calls on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, identifies who is speaking, and produces live notes you can watch scroll during the conversation, which is a different experience from receiving a transcript afterwards. When the call ends you get an AI summary with action items.

Transcripts are editable, support multiple languages, and can be annotated in real time by several people, so a meeting can be documented collaboratively rather than by one designated note-taker.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits people who need the record during the meeting, not after it: interviews, research calls, lectures, any conversation where you want to mark a moment while it happens. It also suits individuals rather than only teams, since the personal plan is priced accordingly at $8.33 per user per month billed annually.

It is a weaker fit for teams that want a large searchable archive on a free plan, because Otter meters minutes rather than storage: 300 minutes a month is five hours of meetings. It is also the wrong tool for sensitive conversations, for the same consent reasons that apply to any recording assistant.

Pricing

Otter is freemium. Basic is free with 300 monthly transcription minutes, 3 lifetime audio or video file imports, access to the 25 most recent conversations and 5 custom vocabulary terms. Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually, or $16.99 monthly, with 1,200 minutes per user. Business is $19.99 per user per month annually, or $30 monthly, with unlimited minutes. Enterprise is quoted on request.

Minutes are the whole pricing model, so estimate your meeting hours rather than comparing feature lists. Five hours a month is free, twenty hours needs Pro, and heavy meeting loads need Business.

Set it up

Official guide: Otter Notetaker Overview

1. Create an Otter account on the Basic plan, which is free. Use your work email. Otter sends you a link to verify your email, so check your spam folder if it does not arrive. Click the link. Your Otter account is now active.
2. Go to "Integrations" and click "Connect" for your Google or Microsoft account. Sign in and approve access. Otter reads only the main calendar of each account you connect. Your upcoming meetings now appear on your Otter homepage.
3. Choose which meetings Otter's meeting assistant joins. It is called Notetaker and joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings. Click your profile photo or initial in the top left, open "Account Settings", then "Meetings". Next to "Default-join settings", pick "Meetings I manually select". Notetaker now joins only meetings you switch on yourself.
4. Go back to your homepage calendar and find an upcoming meeting that has a Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams link, because Notetaker joins only those. Turn on auto-join for that one meeting. The meeting now shows auto-join as on.
5. Tell everyone at the start of the call that it is being recorded. Notetaker cannot join anonymously, and the meeting must allow guests. It appears as a visible guest named "[Your Name]'s Notetaker (Otter.ai)". Recording rules differ by country, and getting consent is your job, not Otter's. Everyone on the call now sees that guest in the participant list.
6. After the meeting, open it from your homepage. Otter can also email a Meeting Summary to you and your calendar guests within 2 hours, so check the summary against what you remember before others read it. Click the "Summary" tab. You now see the summary and action items.

When this works, a meeting you chose is recorded, transcribed and summarized without anyone taking notes, and you know how far to trust the summary.

On Pro ($8.33/user/mo billed annually ($16.99 monthly)): 1,200 minutes of transcription per user, where Basic gives 300 monthly transcription minutes.

Strengths and limitations

The strength is the live experience and the price for individuals. Watching notes appear during a call lets you mark moments as they happen, and Pro at $8.33 per user per month billed annually is cheap for someone who takes a lot of calls.

The limitations are the minute cap and the usual recording caveats. The free tier's 300 minutes disappear quickly, and 3 lifetime file imports makes uploading old recordings essentially a demonstration. Transcription accuracy suffers with crosstalk and accents, AI summaries can assert things loosely, and recording other people carries consent obligations that are yours to meet. See Otter.ai vs Fireflies.ai for the direct comparison.