Otter.ai vs Wudpecker

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Entry price: Otter.ai from $8.33/seat/mo, Wudpecker from $19/mo — different billing units, so no direct winner
Free plan: Both have one
Public API: Otter.ai has one; not confirmed by us for Wudpecker
Higher Trust score: Otter.ai — 94 vs 83 for Wudpecker
Best fit: Otter.ai: Teams that live in Zoom, Meet or Teams and want notes without a note-taker · Wudpecker: Sales, research or recruiting teams running the same call format repeatedly

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

Otter.aiMeeting transcription with per-plan minute and length caps

WudpeckerMeeting bot that records Zoom, Meet and Teams calls and writes notes from your template

Side by side

Fact	Otter.ai	Wudpecker
Category	Meeting Assistants	Meeting Assistants
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starts at	$8.33/seat/mo	$19/mo
Public API	Yes	Not confirmed
Trust score	94 / 100	83 / 100
Platforms	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, API	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Company	Otter.ai	Wudpecker Oy
Launched	2016	—
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

Otter.ai

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

Wudpecker

Counting meetings rather than minutes makes the bill easy to reason about, and template-driven notes beat a generic summary when every call has the same shape. The catch is the ceiling: 100 bot-recorded meetings a month on the top self-serve plan, no published API, and a hard length cap on any single recording.

Pros

Notes follow a template you pick, not one fixed summary shape
Transcription across dozens of languages with a custom vocabulary list
EU company and EU servers, stated plainly on the site
Free tier records 10 meetings a month rather than offering a short trial

Cons

Bot meetings are capped per month rather than drawn from a minute pool, so a short call costs the same as a long one
No documented public API
Notion, Slack and HubSpot integrations are paid-tier only

Which one fits

Choose Otter.ai if you need

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

Choose Wudpecker if you need

Sales, research or recruiting teams running the same call format repeatedly
Teams that need EU data residency for meeting recordings
Anyone who wants notes filed straight into Notion, Slack or HubSpot