In one line: Otter.ai sends a notetaker into your Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls (or records in the room from your phone or computer), then gives you a searchable transcript, a summary with action items and a chat you can ask about past meetings, with a free plan of 300 minutes a month that cuts off each conversation at 30 minutes, and paid plans from $8.33 per user a month billed yearly.
What it is
Otter started as a transcription app and now bills itself as a meeting agent. Connect your Google or Microsoft calendar and the Otter Notetaker joins your Zoom, Teams or Meet calls, records and transcribes them, and sends out notes afterward. You can also record from the Mac or Windows desktop app, your browser, or the iOS and Android apps, which is handy for in-person meetings, lectures and interviews. Each conversation gets a transcript with speakers labeled, an automatic summary with action items and an outline, and you can highlight or comment on the transcript while it's happening. Otter AI Chat answers questions about one meeting or across all of them ("what did we decide about the launch date?") and can draft follow-ups. Otter transcribes English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. Paid plans add things like Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations, and Otter also offers an MCP server so other AI assistants can reach your meeting notes.
Who it's for
People who spend a lot of the week on video calls and want notes without typing them: freelancers, consultants, recruiters, sales reps and small teams who need a record of who promised what. It's also a decent fit for students and journalists who record lectures or interviews. If you'd rather no bot shows up in the call, Granola (issue #1) takes notes from your device's audio instead. If your problem is the inbox more than the meetings, Fyxer (issue #14) is the closer match.
Try this today
Go to otter.ai and sign up for the free Basic plan. The notetaker can be set to join every calendar event with a video link, so once your calendar is connected, go to Account Settings → Meetings, set auto-join to Meetings I manually select, and set auto-share to Don't share until you've seen what it sends. Turn on Send pre-recording emails so guests get a heads-up 5 to 10 minutes before the call that they'll be recorded. Then pick one call under 30 minutes, let Otter join, and afterward ask AI Chat: "List every action item, who owns it and any deadline mentioned." Compare that with what you remember. If it got the owners right, it's earning its spot.
The catch
The free plan is mostly a test drive. It caps each conversation at 30 minutes, gives you 300 transcription minutes a month with no rollover, only 3 imported audio or video files ever, keeps just your 25 most recent conversations and allows 20 AI Chat questions a month (3 per conversation). Pro raises that to 90 minutes per conversation and 1,200 minutes a month, but a two-hour workshop still gets cut off; you need Business for meetings up to 4 hours. The sharing defaults deserve a look too: Otter can automatically share notes with every guest on the calendar invite, so check your auto-share setting before you record anything sensitive. And the notetaker shows up in the call as a participant, so tell people up front that you're recording.
Pricing
Basic: free, with 300 transcription minutes a month per user, up to 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports, 20 AI Chat questions a month and your 25 most recent conversations. Pro: $8.33 per user a month billed yearly, or $16.99 a month billed monthly, for up to 5 members, with 1,200 minutes a month per user, up to 90 minutes per conversation, 10 file imports a month, 50 AI Chat questions, unlimited history and more export formats (pdf, docx, srt). Business: $19.99 per user a month billed yearly, or $30 a month billed monthly (Otter's page currently shows $24 for the first 3 months for first-time subscribers), for up to 25 members, with unlimited meeting transcription, up to 4 hours per conversation, unlimited file imports (6,000 minutes a month per user), 200 AI Chat questions, 3 meetings at once and admin tools. Enterprise: custom pricing, adding SSO and SCIM (100-user minimum), a HIPAA add-on and the Otter API. Students and teachers with a .edu email get 20% off Pro: $6.67 a month billed $79.99 yearly, or $13.59 a month. Prices are in USD.
Pricing checked on Otter's pricing page and help center on Nov 12, 2026.