Otter.ai review: 300 free minutes and a per-seat price
Otter.ai is the cheapest way to get meetings and interviews transcribed automatically, and its free tier is metered in two directions at once. Our last check, on 15 June 2026, recorded 300 free minutes a month capped at 30 minutes per conversation, Pro at $16.99 a month and Business at $30 per user.
The short answer
Buy Otter.ai Buy Otter.ai Pro if you transcribe interviews or meetings every week and want it to happen without being asked. Pro was $16.99 a month, or $8.33 billed annually, when we checked otter.ai/pricing on 15 June 2026, carrying 1,200 minutes a month.
Skip it if you transcribe to edit rather than to read. Descript at $24 a month builds the transcript into a video editor, so a creator producing episodes gets more from that than from a transcription tool with no editing attached.
Where Otter.ai fits
Otter.ai fits the person who needs a record of what was said rather than a file to edit. It joins a meeting, transcribes live and produces a searchable summary, so the output is a document you read. That is the specific job it does better than an editor that happens to transcribe.
The free tier is metered twice, which is the detail that catches people out. Our 15 June 2026 check recorded 300 minutes a month and a 30-minute cap on any single conversation. A 45-minute interview therefore cannot be transcribed whole on the free plan, however much of the monthly allowance is left.
Pro at $16.99 a month raised that to 1,200 minutes a month on the same check. That is twenty hours, which covers a weekly interview show and a normal meeting load comfortably, and it is the tier most individual users land on.
The annual discount on Pro was unusually large when we checked: $8.33 a month billed annually against $16.99 monthly, which is roughly half. Across a year that is about $100 against $204, so prepaying saved around $104. Confirm it still stands, because a discount that steep is the kind that changes.
Business at $30 per user a month, or $20 billed annually, is the team tier and the unit is a seat. Five users on the annual rate is $100 a month and $1,200 across a year, so the arithmetic grows the way every per-seat tool does rather than with how much you transcribe.
Against the alternatives Otter is the cheap specialist. Rev was $25.49 a month on Essentials when we checked it on 6 October 2026, with human transcription at $1.99 a minute for work that has to be right. Descript is $24 a month on Hobbyist, verified 1 October 2026, and edits the video as well.
This pricing was last verified on 15 June 2026, which is the oldest evidence on this page and worth stating plainly. The figures above are what Otter published then. Read the current rate card before committing, and treat the annual discount in particular as something to confirm. The transcription and captions category covers the alternatives.
Otter.ai pricing
Otter.ai prices per seat and meters by transcription minutes. The figures below come from our check of otter.ai/pricing on 15 June 2026 and have not been re-verified since, so confirm them before you buy.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 300 minutes a month, capped at 30 minutes per conversation |
| Pro | $16.99/mo | $8.33/mo billed annually. 1,200 minutes a month, about twenty hours |
| Business | $30/user/mo | $20/user/mo billed annually. Team features, priced per seat |
| Enterprise | Custom | Quoted. Single sign-on, API access and dedicated support |
Two meters run here, minutes and seats. Four things set your cost:
- Monthly transcription minutes. 300 on the free plan and 1,200 on Pro when we checked, so a weekly hour-long recording sits well inside Pro.
- The per-conversation cap, which only binds on the free tier. A single recording longer than 30 minutes could not be transcribed whole on free as of 15 June 2026.
- Seat count on Business, since that tier is priced per user. Five seats on the annual rate was $100 a month on our check.
- Billing period. The annual rate on Pro was roughly half the monthly rate when we checked, which is a large enough gap to verify before relying on it.
Otter.ai pricing against the transcription tools
Otter was the cheap automated option at the time of our check. Rev is $25.49 a month on Essentials with human transcription at $1.99 a minute, verified 6 October 2026, which is the tool to use when accuracy has to be guaranteed rather than good. Descript is $24 a month on Hobbyist, verified 1 October 2026, and gives you an editor around the transcript. Note that those two dates are more recent than Otter's, so this comparison is not strictly like for like.
Otter.ai billing terms worth knowing
The double meter on the free plan is the thing most people meet first.
- Free plan
- 300 minutes a month with a 30-minute cap per conversation, as of 15 June 2026.
- Pro
- $16.99 per month, or $8.33 billed annually. About $204 or $100 across a year.
- Pro minutes
- 1,200 a month, roughly twenty hours.
- Business
- $30 per user per month, or $20 billed annually. $360 or $240 per seat a year.
- Five seats on Business
- $100 a month on the annual rate, $1,200 across a year.
- Annual saving on Pro
- About $104 across a year on our 15 June 2026 check.
- Check date
- 15 June 2026. Not re-verified since, so confirm before buying.
The figures on this page are the oldest we publish for any product and they are given with their date for exactly that reason. If Otter's current rate card differs, the rate card is right and this page is out of date. Our creator tool cost calculators will total a transcription stack once you have today's numbers.
What Otter.ai gives up
There is no editing. Otter produces a transcript and a summary, so turning a recording into a published episode means another tool, and a creator who wanted one subscription will end up with two.
The 30-minute per-conversation cap makes the free plan useless for interviews. Three hundred monthly minutes sounds generous until you discover a single 45-minute recording will not go through, which is the most common complaint about this free tier.
Per-seat pricing on Business punishes a team where transcription is occasional. Five people who each transcribe twice a month pay the same $1,200 a year as five people who use it daily, because there is no usage component above the minute allowance.
Accuracy is good rather than guaranteed, and that distinction matters for anything quoted publicly. Accents, crosstalk and technical vocabulary produce errors, which is why Rev sells human transcription at $1.99 a minute, verified 6 October 2026.
Our pricing evidence is from 15 June 2026, which is the weakest part of this page. Four months is long enough for a tier to be renamed, a minute allowance to move or a discount to disappear, and we would rather say so than present old figures as current.
Recording other people raises consent questions that no pricing page answers. Whether you may record and transcribe a conversation depends on where the participants are, and that is worth settling before a tool joins a call on your behalf.
The live-transcription experience is the selling point and it is also an interruption. A bot joining a call changes how people speak, and some guests will ask you to turn it off, which is a cost that appears nowhere on the rate card.
How Otter.ai compares
The three tools below are the ones weighed against Otter.ai, and the axis is automated speed against accuracy or editing. Prices are each vendor's published rates with the date we checked them, and those dates differ, so compare them with that in mind. The wider field sits in the transcription and captions category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter.ai | Automatic meeting and interview transcripts to read | Free, $16.99/mo Pro (June 2026) | No editing; free tier caps conversations at 30 minutes |
| Rev | Transcription that has to be right | Free, $25.49/mo Essentials | Human work is $1.99 a minute on top |
| Descript | Editing the recording from its transcript | Free, $24/mo Hobbyist | An editor, so heavier than a transcription tool |
| Riverside | Recording the interview cleanly in the first place | Free, $29/mo Pro | A recorder, not a transcription service |
What to test on the Otter.ai free plan
The free tier gave 300 minutes a month with a 30-minute per-conversation cap on our 15 June 2026 check. Confirm those numbers first, because they are the oldest figures on this page.
- Check the current free allowance and per-conversation cap on otter.ai/pricing. Our figures are from June 2026 and this is the one step you should not take on trust.
- Transcribe a real recording with your own accent and vocabulary in it. Accuracy on your material is the only test that matters.
- Try a recording longer than 30 minutes and see whether the cap still applies. That single limit decides whether the free plan is usable for interviews.
- Count your monthly recording minutes. Pro carried 1,200 when we checked, which is about twenty hours.
- Decide whether you need to edit what you transcribe. If so, price Descript at $24 a month instead, verified 1 October 2026, rather than buying both.
- If accuracy must be guaranteed, price Rev's human transcription at $1.99 a minute against your monthly volume, verified 6 October 2026.
- Confirm the annual discount before prepaying. It was roughly half price on Pro in June 2026, and the cost calculators will total the year once you have the current rate.
Otter.ai questions buyers ask
How much does Otter.ai cost per month?
Otter.ai offers a Free plan (300 min/month), Pro at $16.99/month ($8.33/month billed annually) with 1,200 minutes, Business at $30/user/month ($20/user/month annually) for teams, and custom Enterprise pricing. The Pro plan is where most individual users land. Annual billing saves roughly 50% on Pro and 33% on Business. These prices were verified 15 June 2026, which is the oldest pricing check on this site, so confirm them on Otter's pricing page before you budget.
Does Otter.ai have a free plan?
Yes, and it's one of the more generous free plans in transcription software. You get 300 minutes per month of transcription with speaker identification, AI summaries, and search. The main limits are a 30-minute cap per individual conversation and no OtterPilot auto-join on some configurations. It's enough for light meeting users or for extended testing before upgrading.
Who is Otter.ai best for?
Otter.ai is built for people who spend significant time in virtual meetings and want automatic transcription without manual effort. Remote workers, podcast hosts who want searchable interview notes, freelance consultants who track client conversations, and small teams who need shared meeting records all get strong value. It's a weaker fit for media production, multilingual content, or anyone who primarily transcribes pre-recorded files.
Otter.ai vs Rev: which is better for transcription?
They serve different workflows. Otter.ai is best for live meeting transcription with automatic note-taking. It joins your calls, transcribes in real time, and generates summaries. Rev is better for pre-recorded files where you need higher accuracy, especially with its human transcription option, priced at $1.99 per minute and verified 6 October 2026. Otter's prices here were verified 15 June 2026, so the two checks are nearly four months apart. If your priority is live meetings, choose Otter. If your priority is polished, publication-ready transcripts, choose Rev.
What does Otter.ai integrate with?
Otter integrates directly with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams for auto-join transcription. It also connects with Google Calendar and Outlook for scheduling, Slack for auto-posting meeting summaries, Salesforce and HubSpot for CRM logging, Google Drive and Notion for storage, and offers an API on the Enterprise plan. The Zoom and Google Meet integrations are the most reliable.
Is Otter.ai accurate enough for professional use?
In clear audio conditions with standard English accents and a handful of speakers, Otter is accurate enough for meeting notes, action items, and searchable archives. It is not accurate enough for legal transcription, medical records, published journalism, or any context where every word must be correct. For those use cases, pair it with manual editing or use Rev's human transcription service.
What languages does Otter.ai support?
Otter.ai supports English (US and UK), Spanish, and French. English accuracy is the strongest by a wide margin. Spanish and French support is functional but noticeably less accurate. If you need transcription in other languages, look at Happy Scribe (100+ languages), Trint (50+ languages), or Sonix (50+ languages). Otter's language limitation is its biggest competitive disadvantage.
Can teams share and collaborate on transcripts in Otter?
Yes. On the Business plan, teams share a workspace where meeting transcripts are accessible to attendees automatically. You can add comments, show sections, assign action items, and share transcripts via link or email. Admins control visibility and permissions. The Pro plan supports sharing individual transcripts but lacks the centralized workspace and admin controls.
Is Otter.ai worth paying for, or is the free plan enough?
If you're in fewer than 8 short meetings per month, the free plan is genuinely usable. The 30-minute per-conversation cap is the dealbreaker. Any meeting that runs over 30 minutes gets cut off. If your meetings regularly exceed 30 minutes or you have more than 8 per month, Pro at $8.33/month (annual) is worth it. The jump from free to Pro is one of the better value upgrades in SaaS.
Can I cancel Otter.ai anytime?
Monthly plans can be canceled anytime and you keep access through the end of your billing period. Annual plans can be canceled but you will not receive a refund for the remaining months. You simply won't be renewed. This is standard SaaS practice but worth knowing before committing to annual billing. Start monthly, verify it works for your workflow, then switch to annual for the savings.