Otter.ai
Records, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings automatically with AI
- Freemium
- New
Otter.ai targets one precise problem: meetings end and nobody remembers exactly who agreed to what. It joins your meeting automatically, records it, transcribes the conversation with speaker labels, and delivers a summary plus an action-item list within minutes of hanging up.
The difference from hitting record on your own: no manual capture and no manual transcription — OtterPilot connects to your calendar and handles attendance itself.
What sets it apart
- Automatic meeting attendance: connect Google Calendar or Outlook and it joins scheduled Zoom / Meet / Teams calls unattended
- Speaker separation: knows exactly who said what, not one undifferentiated wall of text
- Automatic summaries and action items: key points and a task list ready immediately after the call
- Search across past meetings: ask a specific question and it finds the answer in previous transcripts
- Transcript-to-video sync: every sentence is timestamped against the recording, so you can jump straight to any moment
How to use it
- Create a free account at
otter.aiand connect your calendar (Google or Outlook) - Enable OtterPilot so it joins your scheduled meetings automatically
- Or record manually from the site or app for calls and in-person conversations
- After each meeting, review the summary and extracted tasks, correcting any transcription slips
- Use search to pull a specific detail someone said weeks ago
Who it’s for
A good fit if you sit through many English-language meetings and need them documented automatically, you manage a team and want decisions and action items captured without note-taking, or you record interviews and lectures and need fast, accurate text.
Not a good fit if your meetings are primarily in another language (accuracy falls off a cliff), you mostly need transcription of long pre-recorded audio files rather than live meetings, or your budget stops at the limited free plan.
Limits and warnings
English is its strength; everything else is a compromise. For accurate non-English transcription, use a language-specialized tool.
Noise and crosstalk hurt accuracy. In loud group settings or when two people talk over each other, transcript quality drops noticeably.
Review the privacy policy before going all-in on automation — especially if your meetings involve contracts, client data, or anything confidential.
Alternatives
Notion AI fits better if your documentation already lives in Notion and you want summarizing inside your workspace rather than a separate tool. Gamma fits better if the goal is turning meeting outcomes straight into a presentation.
✅ Pros
- High-accuracy English transcription that labels each speaker separately
- Produces an automatic summary with key points and action items after every meeting
- Joins Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls on its own — no manual recording
- Ask questions about past meetings (OtterPilot) instead of scrolling through full transcripts
- The free plan is a real trial: 300 minutes a month
❌ Cons
- Non-English transcription is very weak — it's built for English above all
- The free plan caps each call at 30 minutes
- The Business plan requires a minimum of 5 seats even for smaller teams
- Accuracy drops with background noise or overlapping speakers
💰 Pricing
| Plan | Price | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | 300 monthly minutes, 30-minute cap per call |
| Pro | $16.99 / month (or ~$8.33/month billed annually) | 1,200 monthly minutes, 90-minute cap per call, automated summaries and action items |
| Business | $30 / user / month (or ~$19.99 annually, 5-seat minimum) | Unlimited meeting transcription, up to 6,000 minutes of imported files per user, team collaboration tools |
🔄 Similar Alternatives
📘 Tutorials that use this tool
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
Does it support languages other than English?
Weakly. Otter is built around English transcription, and accuracy drops sharply for anything else. If your meetings are in another language, look for a transcription tool specialized in that language instead.
Is the free plan enough?
It's enough to genuinely evaluate — 300 minutes a month is roughly ten half-hour meetings. The catch is the 30-minute per-call cap: longer meetings get cut off before they end.
How does it join meetings without me doing anything?
OtterPilot connects to your calendar (Google Calendar or Outlook) and joins every scheduled Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams meeting on its own, records it, and sends you the summary and action items right afterward.
Why not just record the call and paste the audio into ChatGPT?
You can — but Otter is purpose-built for this workflow: it separates speakers, joins meetings automatically without manual recording, and anchors the summary to exact timestamps in the original recording. The manual route works; it just adds several steps every single time.
Are my recordings and data safe?
Recordings and transcripts are stored on their servers under your account. If your meetings include sensitive material — contracts, client data — review the privacy policy and auto-delete options before enabling automatic recording on everything by default.