Launched 2016 · Verified Oct 15, 2026

Otter.ai

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Meeting Assistants Write a reviewUnited StatesEffect71/ 100

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Meeting transcription with per-plan minute and length caps

meeting transcription meeting notes action itemslive captionsmcpFreemium · from $8.33/seat/mo

Listed on EffectHub · Aug 16, 2026

Web · macOS · Windows · iOS · Android · Chrome extension · API

Screenshot of the Otter.ai website — otter.ai as we captured it — our own screenshot, not the vendor’s press image.

Pricing

Pricing model: Freemium
Paid options from: $8.33/seat/mo
Billing: Per seat, monthly

Two caps per tier, and both bite. Basic is free with 300 minutes a month, a 30-minute ceiling per conversation, three lifetime file imports and only the 25 most recent conversations kept. Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually or $16.99 month-to-month (1,200 minutes, 90 minutes per conversation, ten imports a month); Business is $19.99 annual or $30 monthly (unlimited meeting minutes, four hours per conversation, 6,000 import minutes). The API and webhooks are Enterprise-only and quoted; the MCP server is available from Basic upward.

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Overview

About Otter.ai

Otter dials into Zoom, Meet and Teams as a participant, produces a live transcript with speaker labels, and closes with a summary and an action-item list. Every transcript is searchable workspace-wide and accepts comments pinned to a timestamp. Each tier caps both total minutes per month and the length of any single conversation, and those two caps decide whether the plan fits.

Platforms: Web · macOS · Windows · iOS · Android · Chrome extension · API
API: Yes
Last verified: Oct 15, 2026

Verified sources

Basic free with 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime imports and the 25 most recent conversations; Pro $8.33/user/month annual or $16.99 monthly with 1,200 minutes and 90 minutes per conversation; Business $19.99 annual or $30 monthly with a 4-hour cap (15 October 2026)otter.ai ↗
Otter API and webhooks listed only under Enterprise; MCP server integration available from Basic; Mac and Windows desktop downloads offered on the pricing page (15 October 2026)otter.ai ↗
Founded 2016 as AISense by Sam Liang and Yun Fu; headquartered in Mountain View, Californiaen.wikipedia.org ↗

Fact check

Is Otter.ai legit?

We don’t label tools safe or unsafe. Below are the records we checked ourselves, each with the date we read it.

Domain registered: Dec 16, 2017 (8 years ago)Registry record (RDAP), registrar 101domain GRS Limited, looked up Sep 6, 2026
TLS certificate: Issued by Amazon, valid until Dec 30, 2026Seen in our own connection to the site on Oct 15, 2026
Last checked: Oct 15, 2026The site answered
On the market since: 2016The vendor's own material, read by us
Operated by: Otter.ai, United StatesOur research, card verified Oct 15, 2026

How we collect these records

Editorial verdict

Pros & cons of Otter.ai

high confidence

Still the default for English-language meeting notes, and the free tier is unusually usable. What determines the right plan is not features but the per-conversation ceiling: 30 minutes on Basic and 90 on Pro means a standard hour-long review truncates on the free tier and a workshop truncates on Pro. Pick the tier by your longest recurring meeting.

Pros

300 free minutes a month makes evaluation real rather than token
Annual Pro at $8.33 is roughly half the month-to-month rate
An MCP server is exposed from the free tier, so assistants can query transcripts without the paid API
Business removes the minute cap entirely rather than raising it

Cons

The API and webhooks require Enterprise, which is quote-only
Per-conversation ceilings (30 min free, 90 min Pro) cut recordings mid-meeting
Basic allows three file imports in total, not per month
Month-to-month pricing is roughly double annual at both self-serve tiers

Best for

Teams that live in Zoom, Meet or Teams and want notes without a note-taker
Accessibility use, where live captions matter as much as the transcript
Recruiters and researchers who need searchable interview records across a workspace

Not for

Developers wanting programmatic access on a self-serve plan — the API is Enterprise-only
Workflows recording long sessions on Pro, which cuts off at 90 minutes
Teams needing high accuracy across many non-English languages

Watch out: The per-conversation length cap is separate from the monthly minute pool and is the limit people actually hit. A 90-minute planning session stops recording on Pro even with minutes left in the month, and only Business's four-hour ceiling clears typical workshop length.

#17inMeeting Assistants· of 20 tools, ranked by rating and popularity

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