You’re in a meeting trying to take notes at the same time. You miss half of what’s being said. Sound familiar? Otter is an AI assistant that automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes what’s discussed. All you need to do is listen.
Who is behind Otter?
Relatively little is publicly known about the founders and the creation of Otter. What we do know: the tool has now reached enormous scale with more than 35 million users worldwide. That’s no coincidence.
From the start, the focus was on solving a universal problem: people can’t listen well and take notes at the same time. By using AI for transcription and summarization, Otter made it possible to be fully present in conversations. That approach has clearly resonated, especially with teams that have many meetings.
With 35 million users, Otter is among the major players in the market for AI-powered meeting tools. The tool is used by students, journalists, sales teams, and recruiters. The growth shows there’s a real need for automating note-taking.
Who is Otter for?
Otter targets people who have many meetings or conduct interviews. Think of sales teams who want to review customer conversations, students attending lectures, journalists conducting interviews, and recruiters conducting job interviews. If you regularly need to extract information from conversations, Otter can save you a lot of time.
The tool is less suitable if you want to work completely offline. Otter requires an internet connection. Also, if you want to edit video recordings like in Descript, you’ll come up short. Otter focuses on audio and text, not on visual editing capabilities. And note: the tool currently only supports English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. Working in Dutch? Then you’ll need to look at alternatives.
What can Otter do?
The free version offers real-time transcription, speaker identification, and searchable transcripts. For features like OtterPilot (automatically joining meetings), AI summaries, and custom vocabulary, you need a paid plan. Here are the key capabilities:
- Real-time transcription: Otter transcribes during the conversation and displays the text directly on your screen. You can read along while someone is talking. Useful if you’re briefly distracted or want to look something up.
- OtterPilot: This feature lets a bot automatically dial into Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet meetings that are on your calendar. The bot records, transcribes, and sends a summary afterward. You don’t have to do anything yourself.
- Automatic summaries and action items: Afterward, Otter generates an overview of the key points and concrete actions that came from the conversation. Saves you from manually reading through an entire transcription.
- Speaker identification: The tool recognizes different voices and labels who said what. You can also manually assign names afterward if the automatic detection isn’t correct.
- Otter AI Chat: You can ask questions about the meeting. For example: “What were the client’s main objections?” The AI then searches through the transcript and provides an answer. Saves a lot of searching.
- Automatically capture slides: When someone shares their screen with slides, Otter recognizes it and adds screenshots of the slides to the transcript. This way you can see later exactly what information belonged to which moment.
- Custom vocabulary: You can add your own terms, product names, or jargon so Otter transcribes them correctly. Especially useful in technical or specialized fields.
The combination of these features makes Otter especially strong for teams that meet regularly and want to unlock the information from those meetings. You can search transcripts, share them with colleagues, and use them as reference material.
What does Otter cost?
Otter has a free Basic plan with 300 transcription minutes per month. Per conversation, you can record a maximum of 30 minutes. That sounds generous, but if you meet daily, you’ll run through that quickly. In the free version, you can also only import three audio files, which is quite limited.
The Pro plan costs 16,99 dollars per month, or 8,33 dollars per month if you pay annually (99,96 dollars total). With that, you get 1.200 transcription minutes per month, conversations up to 90 minutes, and OtterPilot that can automatically dial into meetings. You also get access to AI summaries and action items.
For teams, there’s the Business plan: 30 dollars per month or 20 dollars per month with annual payment (240 dollars total). This plan offers 6,000 transcription minutes per month, unlimited imports, and additional management capabilities for team leaders. A 7-day trial period is available for the paid plans.
What should you watch out for?
The free plan has been significantly limited recently. Many users complain that 300 minutes per month and a maximum of 30 minutes per conversation is too little for serious use. The limit of three imports makes it difficult to process existing audio recordings.
Another point is that Otter doesn’t record video, only audio and transcription. If you need visual context later, such as body language or screen demos, you’ll miss that. Tools like tl;dv do offer options for that.
Language support is limited. Dutch is not supported, which is a dealbreaker for many Dutch-speaking users. You’re limited to English, French, Spanish, or Japanese.
Privacy-sensitive situations require extra attention. OtterPilot can automatically dial into meetings, which is sometimes perceived as intrusive. Not everyone likes a bot listening in without an explicit invitation. Also, the data is stored on American servers, which may be a consideration for strict GDPR compliance.
Users also report that customer service responds slowly and that canceling subscriptions doesn’t always go smoothly. Keep that in mind if you’re hesitant about a paid plan.
Otter alternatives
Otter isn’t the only player in this market. Depending on your priorities, these alternatives might be a better fit:
- Fireflies.ai: Choose this if you need advanced automation and CRM integrations. Fireflies integrates better with tools like Salesforce and HubSpot, allowing you to process meeting data directly into your workflow.
- Fathom: Completely free for individual use without time limits. If you don’t feel like paying and find Otter’s free plan limitations too restrictive, Fathom is a solid choice.
- tl;dv: Focuses more on video recordings and creating clips. If visual context is important to you and you want to share fragments from meetings, tl;dv offers more options than Otter.
Frequently asked questions
Here are answers to the most frequently asked questions about Otter:
Does Otter.ai work in Dutch?
No, Otter officially only supports English, French, Spanish, and Japanese. Dutch is not yet supported for transcription. If you want to transcribe Dutch-language meetings, you’ll need to look at other tools.
Can Otter automatically join meetings?
Yes, through the OtterPilot feature, the bot can automatically dial into Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams meetings that are on your calendar. You don’t have to do anything yourself—the bot records and sends a transcription and summary afterward.
Is my data safe with Otter?
Otter uses encryption (AES-256) and stores data via AWS servers. However, those servers are located in the United States. For organizations with strict GDPR requirements, this may be a point of consideration.
Conclusion
Otter is a strong choice if you regularly have English-language meetings and want to automatically transcribe and summarize them. AI features like summaries and action items save a lot of time. However, the free version is quite limited, so for serious use, you’ll need a paid plan.
For Dutch-speaking users, Otter is not an option. Also, if video recordings are important to you or you want to work completely offline, you’d be better off looking at alternatives. Fireflies offers better CRM integrations, Fathom is free without limits, and tl;dv focuses more on video.
Weigh your priorities: language, budget, privacy sensitivity, and which features you really need. Otter does what it promises, but it’s not the best choice for everyone.
