Otter.ai

Otter.ai is an AI notetaker that joins your meetings and writes the notes for you. It transcribes Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls in real time, identifies who is speaking, and turns the conversation into a searchable transcript with a summary and action items — so nobody has to type notes while trying to listen. You can also record in person from the mobile app or import audio and video files to transcribe later.

It earns its place in meeting-heavy work: a one-hour call becomes a set of decisions and follow-ups you can search by keyword, speaker or date, instead of a recording nobody replays. Students use it for lectures, journalists for interviews, and teams for client calls and stand-ups. The free Basic plan covers light personal use with 300 minutes a month; the trade-off is accuracy — noisy audio, overlapping speakers and unusual names still need a human check before you quote or assign anything.

Pros

• Joins Zoom, Meet and Teams automatically and transcribes in real time, with speaker labels.
• Turns each meeting into a summary with action items, outlines and searchable keywords — not just a raw transcript.
• Searchable history: find a decision or quote from weeks ago by keyword, speaker or date.

Watch out for

• Accuracy depends on audio quality and clear speaker separation — noisy rooms and crosstalk produce errors.
• Summaries are a starting point; verify action items and figures before assigning or quoting them.
• The auto-join notetaker shows up as a participant, so tell everyone on the call they are being recorded.

Best for

Meeting-heavy professionals, students and journalists who need searchable records of conversations — especially teams that run the same recurring calls. Who should skip it: anyone who needs transcription outside meetings, such as media files at scale, may prefer a file-based transcription tool; and anyone who cannot record calls for privacy or consent reasons.

Pricing

Basic is free and includes 300 transcription minutes a month with a 30-minute cap per conversation. Pro is $8.33 per user a month billed annually ($16.99 month-to-month) with 1,200 minutes a month and 90-minute meetings. Business is $19.99 per user a month billed annually ($30 month-to-month) with unlimited meeting transcription and 4-hour meetings. Enterprise is a custom quote. Confirm current prices on the official pricing page.

Example

Before a weekly client call, set Otter to auto-join the meeting. When the call ends, open the transcript, check the auto-generated summary and action items, correct any misheard names or numbers, then share the notes link with the team — the decisions, owners and deadlines are all in one place instead of scattered across chat messages.

FAQs

Which calls does Otter join? Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet — it joins as a notetaker and writes and shares the notes automatically.

Does it summarise meetings? Yes. It turns the transcript into a summary with action items, outlines and speaker labels, and you can search the result by keyword.

Is it real-time? Yes — transcription happens live during the call, and you can also record in person from the mobile app or import files afterwards.

Reviewed / last checked: November 10, 2026.