Otter.ai Review: Pricing, Limits and Data Use

Otter.ai at a glance

What is Otter.ai used for?

The homepage calls Otter an AI meeting notetaker that turns conversations into searchable knowledge. It covers capture, transcription, summaries and follow-up in one place.

Capturing meetings

An AI notetaker can join your calls, or you can record without a bot from the Mac or Windows desktop app or the Chrome extension, according to the homepage. Mobile capture is also listed. The pricing page lists transcription in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, and joining Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.

Summaries, action items and CRM sync

Each meeting gets a summary with decisions, action items and insights, and the homepage says next steps are assigned automatically. For sales calls it says deal details and next steps are pushed to your CRM. The integrations named include Zoom, Google Calendar, HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Notion, Jira and Asana.

Otter AI Chat, channels and agents

Otter AI Chat searches your meetings and connected apps to answer questions and help draft follow-ups and reports. Channels group meetings by team, project or topic. The homepage also lists an MCP server so ChatGPT, Claude and other AI chat tools can reach your meeting knowledge, plus role-based agents for Sales, Education, Media, SDR and Recruiting, the last of which syncs with Greenhouse.

Who Otter.ai is for, and who should skip it

It suits people who sit in many calls and need searchable notes afterwards: sales teams logging deals, managers, students and recruiters. The role-based agents show who the company has in mind.

Think twice if any of these apply:

• You record people who have not agreed. Section 9.2 of the Terms makes you solely responsible for giving notice and obtaining consent, and says the rules vary by location.
• You want a refund option. The Terms say all fees are non-refundable.
• Your meetings are confidential. The Privacy Policy describes AI training on de-identified audio and on transcripts.
• You import many old recordings on Free. Basic allows 3 lifetime file imports on the pricing page.

How much does Otter.ai cost?

The pricing page, read on 13 and 14 October 2026 (it says “Prices in USD”), has four plans: Basic, Pro, Business and Enterprise. Pro costs $16.99 per user a month billed monthly or $8.33 billed annually, and the annual toggle says “save 51%”. Business costs $30 per user a month billed monthly or $19.99 billed annually. Enterprise shows no price, only “Schedule a demo”. On 14 October the monthly view also showed $24 beside Business’s $30 with the words “20% off for 3 months+”; we report it only as an offer shown that day. The homepage gives Business as “from $19.99”, which is the annual price.

Salesforce and HubSpot on Pro are “subject to user limits”, and Enterprise lists AI Chat with Gmail, Google Drive, Notion and Jira as “coming soon”. The comparison table notes a minimum 100-user licence for SSO and SCIM. Visitors in India were also shown a further 50% off Pro ($8.49 monthly, $4.17 annual) marked “Offer valid only with an India-issued credit card”; that is a regional promotion, not the list price.

Limits checked 14 October 2026, from Otter pricing (otter.ai/pricing)

Conversation history is the 25 most recent on Basic and unlimited on the other three. Real-time recording and transcription counts are unlimited on all four. The page's FAQ says Otter accepts credit and debit cards on its website, plus in-app purchases through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Students and teachers with an email ending in .edu get 20% off Pro: Pro Annual at $6.67 a month billed $79.99 a year, or Pro Monthly at $13.59 a month.

The Terms set the conditions. All fees are in U.S. dollars and non-refundable, and Otter may change fees with advance notice. A subscription renews automatically for a period equal to the initial one, a month or a year, unless you cancel before it renews. You can cancel in account settings if you signed up on the website, in Apple App Store or Google Play settings if you subscribed in the app, or by emailing support@otter.ai. Either side can change the renewal length or end the plan with written notice 30 days before the term ends.

Is Otter.ai free?

Yes. The homepage describes Basic as free, with automated summaries, unlimited meetings and basic integrations. The pricing page limits it to 300 transcription minutes per user a month, 30 minutes per conversation, one concurrent meeting and only the 25 most recent conversations kept. Basic also allows 3 file imports for life, so it works for live meetings, not for a back-catalogue of recordings.

How Otter.ai handles your data

• What it collects. The Privacy Policy lists account data, audio recordings, uploaded text, images and videos, OtterPilot screenshots taken during virtual meetings, usage and device data, calendar and contact data from services like Google or Zoom, and information used to tag speakers. Stripe handles card details.
• AI training. The policy says Otter trains its proprietary AI on "de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions (which may contain Personal Information)", on a basis of consent or legitimate interests. Section 18.4 of the Terms also allows aggregated or deidentified data for machine learning and training, and the Terms describe no opt-out.
• Ownership. You retain rights in your User Content, and data you upload remains yours, or the Workspace or Organization's. You also give Otter a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use content to run the service.
• Retention and deletion. No specific retention period is given for audio or transcripts. You can ask for erasure, and Otter says deleted files are permanently deleted.
• Consent. Recording laws vary by location, and the Terms put the duty to notify participants and gain consent on you.

Where Otter.ai’s own pages disagree

• The homepage says Business starts at $19.99 a month per user. The pricing page shows that figure only for annual billing; monthly billing is $30.
• The homepage describes Basic with unlimited meetings, while the pricing page caps it at 300 transcription minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation. The table does list unlimited real-time recordings, so “unlimited” refers to the count of meetings, not their length.
• The homepage describes OtterPilot nowhere, but the Privacy Policy refers to OtterPilot screenshots during virtual meetings.
• The Privacy Policy shows no effective date for the main text; only its Data Privacy Framework appendix carries one, 16 June 2026.

How Otter.ai compares with other tools reviewed here

Fathom also records, transcribes and summarises calls. Our review shows a Free plan with unlimited recordings and transcripts, Premium at $20 a month or $16 billed yearly, Team at $19 per user a month and Business at $34, against Otter's Pro at $16.99 and Business at $30 per user billed monthly. Tactiq works from a browser extension, with Pro at $8 per user a month billed annually. Granola listens to your device audio instead of joining a call, with Business at $14 per user a month. Otter's difference is the wider kit: AI Chat, channels, CRM sync and an MCP server.