The short answer
Otter.ai is an AI meeting assistant from Otter.ai, based in Mountain View, California. Its Otter Notetaker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls, transcribes them live and writes summaries and action items. The free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month with a 30 minute limit per conversation. On 27 October 2026 Otter added Work Mode, which prepares briefs and drafts follow-ups for paid users, and Live Assist, which coaches you privately during calls.
| Made by | Otter.ai, United States (Mountain View, California) |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Basic: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 file imports in total, 20 AI Chat queries a month |
| Models | Not published; Otter does not name the AI models behind its features |
| Best at | Live transcripts, meeting summaries, sales and recruiting follow-ups |
| Shows sources | AI Chat answers come from your meeting transcripts and connected apps |
| Team plans | Business and Enterprise, with admin controls; SSO and SCIM on Enterprise |
| Your data | Otter's privacy policy allows training on de-identified recordings and on transcripts; no simple opt-out toggle is described |
What Otter.ai is now
Otter.ai began as a transcription app. Today it is a meeting assistant with three jobs. Before a call, Work Mode builds a brief from past conversations, open action items and files in connected apps such as Google Drive. During the call, Otter Notetaker transcribes live, and Live Assist shows private coaching prompts inside Zoom, Teams or Google Meet. After the call, Work Mode drafts follow-up emails, updates CRM records and can produce documents such as a proposal or a candidate scorecard for you to review.
Otter announced Work Mode and Live Assist on 27 October 2026. Work Mode is available to all paid users. Live Assist launched for Enterprise customers first and is rolling out to all paid users over the following weeks. Earlier, on 28 April 2026, Otter added AI Chat Connectors (so AI Chat can pull data from Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, Jira and Salesforce; Otter's pricing page now lists AI Chat with Gmail, Google Drive, Notion and Jira under Enterprise), an expanded MCP server that lets ChatGPT and Claude read your meeting history, and Otter for Desktop on Mac and Windows, which can record conversations in any app, not only scheduled meetings.
Otter's pricing page lists English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese for transcription. It is available on the web, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and as a Chrome extension.
The plans and their limits
- Basic (free): 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 imported files over the life of the account, 20 AI Chat queries a month (3 per conversation), one meeting at a time and access to your 25 most recent conversations.
- Pro: 1,200 minutes a month, 90 minutes per conversation, 10 imports a month, 50 AI Chat queries, Zapier and Salesforce or HubSpot sync for one user.
- Business: unlimited meeting transcription, up to 4 hours per conversation, 200 AI Chat queries, three meetings at once and admin tools such as activity logs and usage analytics.
- Enterprise: SSO and SCIM (100 user minimum), a HIPAA add-on, the Otter API and webhooks, and the option to enforce recording emails for everyone.
Check Otter's pricing page for current prices.
What Otter is best at
A searchable record of every call
The core value is never taking notes again. A project lead can ask AI Chat "what did we agree about the launch date across the last three calls?" and get an answer from the transcripts, instead of scrolling through notes.
Sales and recruiting follow-through
Otter aims its new features squarely at these teams. Live Assist prompts sales reps about competitor mentions, pricing objections and discovery questions, and reminds recruiters about scorecard criteria, compensation and availability. Work Mode then turns the call into a CRM update and a follow-up email draft.
Meeting history inside your other AI tools
Because Otter works as an MCP server, even on the free plan, you can connect it to ChatGPT or Claude and ask questions about your meetings from there.
Where Otter falls short
- The free plan is tight. A 30 minute cap per conversation cuts most real meetings short, and three lifetime imports is a trial, not a plan.
- Six languages. If your meetings run in Italian, Dutch or Hindi, look elsewhere. Fireflies.ai lists more than 100 languages; see Otter vs Fireflies.
- Training on your recordings. Otter's privacy policy, effective 16 June 2026, lists training its own AI on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions, and it does not describe a simple opt-out toggle.
- Legal exposure. In In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation (Northern District of California, No. 25-cv-06911), plaintiffs allege Otter Notetaker recorded people without the consent of all participants. On 13 August 2026 the court granted Otter's motion to dismiss in part and denied it in part, so claims under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the California Invasion of Privacy Act and the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, among others, can proceed. That ruling is not a finding that Otter broke the law, but it shows why consent settings matter.
Recording consent: the rules and the settings
Otter is clear that consent is your job. Its privacy page says users must comply with local laws and must always ask for consent and indicate when they are recording. Otter's help centre explains that some places require only the person recording to know (single-party consent), while others require every participant to be notified and agree (all-party consent), and it names California, Illinois and Florida as all-party states. Many countries outside the US have their own rules too. The simplest safe habit is the one Otter itself suggests: treat every meeting as all-party.
These are the settings that help:
- Send pre-recording emails. In Account Settings > Meetings, switch on Send pre-recording emails. Every calendar guest gets an email 5 to 10 minutes before the meeting saying Notetaker will record. Workspace admins can set this as the default in Manage Workspace > Settings, and enforcing it for all users is an Enterprise feature. The disclaimer text cannot be customised.
- Keep the chat announcement on. Notetaker joins as a named participant and posts a chat message with a link to the live transcript. Otter recommends that admins never lock this off.
- Use the Teams permissions page if you can. With the Otter for Outlook extension, every Microsoft Teams guest must accept a recording permissions page, with a disclaimer you can customise, before joining. It needs a Microsoft Enterprise licence, and your Otter account manager enables it.
- Control auto-join. Admins choose in Manage Workspace > Settings whether Notetaker joins all meetings with a video link, only meetings you host, external or internal meetings, or only meetings you pick, and can lock the choice. "Meetings the member manually selects" is the strictest option.
- Stop automatic sharing. Click the gear icon on the home calendar, open Default audience for shared notes and choose Don't Share-keep my notes private, so notes do not go to every guest at the start of the meeting.
- Remove Notetaker if anyone objects. The host can remove it like any attendee and the meeting continues unrecorded.
Which plan suits whom
Basic suits trying Otter on short calls. Pro suits a freelancer or consultant with regular English calls under 90 minutes. Business suits sales, customer success and recruiting teams who live in calls and want CRM updates. Enterprise is the plan for regulated companies that need SSO, HIPAA and enforced recording notices. Otter is not the right choice for meetings in languages outside its six, or for anyone who cannot accept training on de-identified recordings. Compare options in our Otter alternatives guide and the Otter lesson.
Prompts to copy
Decisions across several calls
Look at my meetings with [project or client] from the last [number] weeks. List every decision we made, who made it and the date, then list any decision that was later changed. Quote the line from the transcript for each one.
You get: A decision log with quotes you can check
Follow-up email after a call
Draft a follow-up email to [name] from today's call. Thank them in one line, list the agreed next steps with owners and dates, and restate any open question. Keep it under 150 words and do not add anything that was not said in the meeting.
You get: A follow-up email grounded only in what was said
Prep brief for a repeat meeting
I have a call with [company] on [date]. From our previous conversations, summarise what they care about, the objections they raised, what we promised and anything still open. End with three questions I should ask.
You get: A one-page brief before a repeat call
Action items by person
From this meeting, list every action item grouped by owner. For each, give the deadline if one was mentioned and mark it 'no date given' if not. Flag any task that was mentioned without a clear owner.
You get: Action items nobody can claim they did not hear
Candidate scorecard
Using this interview transcript, fill in a scorecard for [role] against these criteria: [criteria]. For each criterion, give a rating from 1 to 5, one supporting quote and one thing to probe in the next round.
You get: An evidence-based draft scorecard to review
What the customer really said
From this sales call, list the customer's exact words about budget, timeline, competitors and decision makers. Separate what they stated from what we assumed, and tell me what is still unknown.
You get: A clear split between facts and assumptions