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OtterAI Transcribe Voice Notes

Otter AI Review: Features, Benefits, and Top Alternatives

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OtterAI Transcribe Voice Notes

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4.3
Downloads
4M+
Reviews
21.2K
Date
Feb 10, 2025
Developer
Otter.ai
By Lylah Zarek|Updated on May 23, 2025

Otter AI Review

Introduction

Imagine stepping out of your meetings with every detail perfectly documented without lifting a pen. That’s the promise of Otter AI—one of the most accurate AI transcription and meeting assistant tools available today. Designed for professionals who need seamless meeting notes and actionable summaries, Otter AI streamlines workflows, saves time, and enhances team collaboration. But does it live up to its reputation? This in-depth review explores Otter AI's features, pricing, alternatives, and who stands to benefit most.

 

What is Otter AI?

Otter AI is an advanced AI-powered tool designed to transcribe meetings, summarize discussions, and assign action items automatically. Eliminating the hassle of manual note-taking, it uses speech recognition technology to provide real-time transcription and insights during meetings. Compatible with popular platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, Otter AI also integrates with tools such as Slack and Dropbox, making it a valuable aid for professionals across industries.


At its core, Otter AI empowers you to focus on your conversations instead of worrying about remembering every detail. From sales calls to team meetings, Otter's functionalities ensure your meetings are productive, aligned, and transparent.

 

Who Created Otter AI?

Otter AI was developed by Sam Liang, a seasoned innovator with extensive experience in speech recognition and AI. With a talented team of engineers and AI specialists, Liang created Otter AI to address a significant pain point for professionals—capturing detailed meeting notes while staying present in discussions. The result? A tool that aligns cutting-edge AI with everyday business needs.

 

Key Benefits of Using Otter AI

Otter AI provides a robust suite of features tailored to meet diverse needs, all designed to boost productivity, streamline communication, and enhance collaboration. Here’s an in-depth look at what Otter AI offers:


1. AI Meeting Assistant – OtterPilot

At the heart of Otter AI is its standout feature, OtterPilot, an intelligent meeting assistant that transforms how you manage and document meetings.


OtterPilot automatically joins your Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls, handling the heavy lifting of notetaking and summarizing. It captures every sentence in real-time, so you’ll never miss key details. More than a transcription tool, OtterPilot creates structured meeting summaries with actionable items, ensuring all participants know their next steps.


Missed a meeting? Not a problem. Otter AI enables you to upload audio or video files from past meetings for post-event transcription. With OtterPilot, you can focus entirely on the conversation or presentation while knowing all the crucial points are captured. This real-time transcription and intelligent summarization save time, eliminate the hassle of manual note-taking, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.


Key Benefits:

  • Real-time transcription for complete meeting coverage.
  • Automated summaries and actionable task assignments.
  • Supports both live meetings and uploaded recordings.
  • Encourages active participation without worrying about taking notes.


2. Otter AI Chat – Real-Time Assistance

Otter AI Chat brings the power of conversational AI into your meetings, offering real-time support to address your team’s communication needs. This feature introduces a highly interactive chatbot, allowing you to ask questions or generate content directly during meetings. Whether you’re drafting follow-up emails, seeking clarification, or summarizing key decisions, Otter AI Chat is there to help.


Teammates can use the chat function concurrently, fostering shared understanding and quick answers without interrupting the meeting flow. With this collaboration tool, you can eliminate unnecessary back-and-forth communications, making way for faster decision-making and smoother interactions.


Key Benefits:

  • Instantly answers questions and generates content during meetings.
  • Enhances collaboration with a centralized chat feature.
  • Reduces post-meeting follow-up and clarifies key decisions in real-time.


3. AI Channels – Organized Collaboration

The AI Channels feature takes organization to the next level by streamlining conversations and meeting notes into dedicated spaces. Much like Slack channels, Otter AI Channels make it easy to categorize discussions by topics, projects, or teams.


This setup simplifies how you access information, ensuring every transcript and summary is stored in an intuitive and easily retrievable format. By offering a centralized platform for managing meeting data, AI Channels encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing, and smoother workflows.


Key Benefits:

  • Effortlessly organizes meeting content for quick reference.
  • Improves team collaboration with topic-specific channels.
  • Ensures critical information is always within reach.


4. Manage Vocabulary – Tailored Accuracy

Otter AI allows you to customize its vocabulary for greater transcription accuracy. By adding industry-specific jargon, uncommon names, acronyms, or technical terms to its database, Otter ensures your transcripts accurately reflect your discussions.


The platform offers customization limits based on subscription plans, allowing users to expand vocabulary capacity as needed. Adding terms is simple—navigate to your settings and input the names or keywords you want Otter to recognize.


Custom Vocabulary Limits by Plan:

  • Basic: 5 terms.
  • Pro: 100 names and 100 general terms per user.
  • Business and Enterprise plans allow up to 800 names and terms per team, and 200 per user.

This adaptability provides a level of precision unmatched by most other transcription solutions, making Otter AI ideal for professionals and teams in specialized fields.


Key Benefits:

  • Highly accurate recognition of industry terms and unique phrases.
  • Easy customization for better alignment with your projects.
  • Perfect for technical or jargon-heavy meetings.


5. Integrations – Enhance Your Workflow

Otter AI seamlessly connects with the tools and platforms you rely on every day, putting convenience and efficiency front and center. For example, Otter integrates with productivity apps like Slack, Salesforce, and HubSpot, ensuring seamless collaboration across your team.


Using the Otter Slack app, you can automatically share meeting notes directly within Slack channels, assign action items, and preview conversation summaries. The Otter Chrome Extension enables you to capture online meeting content instantly with OtterPilot, ensuring accurate documentation of your Zoom calls.


These integrations streamline your workflow, allowing you to centralize your tools and maximize team efficiency, all while saving precious time.


Key Benefits:

  • Integrates with tools like Slack, Salesforce, and HubSpot for automated workflows.
  • Brings meeting notes and summaries into your preferred platforms.
  • Delivers streamlined communication across different tools and teams.


With Otter AI, you can focus less on processes and more on what truly matters—innovating, communicating, and achieving your goals.

 

Otter AI Pricing Plans

Otter AI Pricing Plans

Otter AI offers pricing plans tailored to different needs. Here's a quick breakdown:


1. Basic Plan for Free

  • 300 minutes/month of transcription
  • 30 minutes per conversation
  • Import and transcribe 3 audio or video files lifetime per user


2. Pro Plan ($8.33/month)

  • Admin features
  • Joins up to 3 concurrent virtual meetings
  • 1,200 minutes/month and advanced features like custom vocabulary
  • 90 minutes per conversation
  • Import and transcribe 10* audio or video files per month


3. Business Plan ($20/month/user)

  • 6000 monthly transcription minutes and 4 hours per conversation
  • Import and transcribe unlimited* audio or video files


4. Enterprise Plan (Custom Pricing)

  • Enhanced security features
  • Dedicated onboarding and priority support
  • Video Replay for Zoom, Google Meet, and MS Teams
  • With a free-forever plan, you can experience Otter AI’s core features before upgrading for additional benefits.

 

Pros and Cons of Otter AI

Pros Cons
Industry-leading accuracy in real-time transcription. Manual review required for occasional transcription errors.
Effortlessly integrates with tools like Slack, Dropbox, and HubSpot. Performance can be affected by background noise or heavy accents.
Offers AI-generated summaries and action items to save time. Only supports English, limiting accessibility for non-English-speaking users.
Custom vocabulary ensures precision for specialized industries. Does not record meeting videos.
User-friendly interface and mobile app for flexibility on-the-go.  

 

Who Should Use Otter AI?

Otter AI is a versatile tool designed to simplify tasks, boost productivity, and meet the unique needs of various user groups. While it benefits anyone seeking accurate transcriptions and time-saving solutions during meetings, some audiences gain particularly significant advantages from its innovative features.


1. Sales Teams – Streamlined Efficiency and Insights:

Otter AI is a game-changer for sales professionals. With the help of OtterPilot for Sales, your team can benefit from automated sales insights, follow-up email drafts, and seamless integration with CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot. These features are invaluable for Sales Leaders, Account Executives, Sales Operations, and Customer Success teams.


By automating note-taking and capturing actionable items, Otter ensures your sales team focuses on building client relationships and closing deals instead of getting bogged down in administrative tasks.


Key Benefits:

  • Automatically retrieves and organizes sales insights.
  • Drafts follow-up emails to streamline post-call processes.
  • Syncs notes with Salesforce and HubSpot for smoother workflows.


2. Businesses – Productivity for Teams in Every Niche:

Enhances collaboration by offering detailed notes, summaries, and assigned tasks during team meetings. Otter AI ensures every team member contributes effectively during meetings by providing real-time automated notes, summaries, and actionable items. Its custom vocabulary feature adapts to industry-specific language, making it a perfect fit for businesses across various sectors.


Leaders and teams alike can rely on Otter to capture critical moments and transform discussions into actionable strategies—all without disrupting the flow of meetings.


Key Benefits:

  • Real-time notes and action items improve meeting engagement.
  • Accurately captures industry-specific terminology.
  • Enhances collaboration across departments.


3. Marketing Professionals– Coordinate, Analyze, and Stay On Track:

Marketing teams thrive on organization and insight, and Otter AI delivers both. One standout feature is the platform’s ability to generate action items, ensuring every team member stays aligned on upcoming tasks. Additionally, Otter’s transcription capabilities help marketers analyze customer feedback and conversation insights from recorded meetings.


These tools simplify coordination and equip marketing professionals with the data they need to craft effective campaigns.


Key Benefits:

  • Creates action items to keep team projects on track.
  • Analyzes valuable customer feedback and meeting insights.


4. Recruiting Teams– Simplified Candidate Assessments:

Recruiting teams can save time and improve their processes with Otter AI. By transcribing and summarizing interviews, Otter helps recruiters quickly assess and compare candidates without spending hours manually reviewing notes. Plus, Otter efficiently tracks key discussion points and action items, ensuring no detail is lost during hiring conversations.


Key Benefits:

  • Automates transcription and summaries of interviews.
  • Tracks key discussion points for clear and complete candidate evaluations.


5. Media Professionals– Tell Stories with Speed and Accuracy:

For media professionals, meeting deadlines is non-negotiable. Otter AI’s real-time transcription ensures accurate, instant documentation of interviews, press conferences, and other critical events. With its mobile app, media professionals can stay productive on the go, capturing stories wherever they unfold.


This speed and precision empower journalists, content creators, and other media professionals to focus on crafting compelling narratives instead of managing logistics.


Key Benefits:

  • Provides instant and accurate transcriptions of interviews and events.
  • Mobile app enhances flexibility and productivity.
  • Helps quickly organize content for storytelling.


6. Educators and Students– Enhance Learning and Communication:

Educators and students alike can reap the rewards of Otter AI’s advanced transcription and summarization features. Real-time caption generation ensures vital points from lectures, meetings, or classes are documented, whether virtual or in-person. The custom vocabulary feature supports specialized educational terminology, boosting transcription accuracy in technical or academic fields.


Otter equips teachers and administrators to better support their students and streamline faculty collaboration.


Key Benefits:

  • Captures key points and action items from lectures and meetings.
  • Real-time captions improve accessibility for all learners.
  • Custom vocabulary adapts to complex educational topics.


How to Use Otter AI: Step-by-Step Tutorial

Here’s how you can start with Otter AI:

  • Step 1. Start for Free.

Create Otter AI Account

Create an account at Otter.ai and begin with the free plan.

  • Step 2. Set Meeting Preferences.

Choose recording options and designate who receives meeting notes.

  • Step 3. Explore the Dashboard.

Get familiar with tools like conversations, folders, and calendar integration.

  • Step 4. Record Your Meeting. 

Record Your Meeting with Otter AI

Use the "Record" button, and Otter AI will transcribe in real-time.

  • Step 5. Edit and Highlight.

Review the transcript for accuracy, add highlights or comments, and collaborate via Otter Chat.

  • Step 6. Share the Transcript.

Export or share summaries and action items with teammates through Slack or email.

 

Top 3 Otter AI Alternatives Compared

When exploring AI-powered meeting assistants, it’s worth considering these Otter AI alternatives, each offering unique features to fit different needs.


1. MeetGeek

MeetGeek

MeetGeek stands out as a robust AI meeting automation platform designed to enhance your meeting experience. It automatically records, transcribes, summarizes, and shares insights for platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Supporting over 20 languages, MeetGeek creates detailed AI meeting summaries within minutes, complete with action items and topic highlights. What makes MeetGeek unique is its ability to generate color-coded insights, including the most frequently discussed terms. This ensures meetings stay on track and gives you a clearer understanding of what was covered. While Otter AI excels in real-time transcription and built-in chatbot capabilities, MeetGeek shines when you need comprehensive, organized analysis after your calls.


2. Speak AI

Speak AI

Speak AI offers remarkable transcription capabilities while doubling as a powerful data analysis tool. It transcribes both uploaded audio or video files and provides users with in-depth data visualizations. A defining feature of Speak AI is its "Magic Prompts," which allow users to generate advanced content like SWOT analyses, bullet-point summaries, or detailed action item lists directly from transcriptions. This feature sets it apart from Otter AI, making Speak AI a great choice for users who value advanced post-transcription AI insights. However, for those seeking highly accurate real-time transcription, a clean user interface, and a built-in AI chatbot, Otter AI remains an excellent choice.


3. Trint

Trint

Trint is an AI transcription tool that effortlessly transforms audio and video content into text, offering support for over 40 languages. Tailored primarily for journalists and content creators, Trint provides an intuitive, document-like interface. This feature makes pulling excerpts, quotes, or content for articles, podcasts, and scripts exceptionally easy. Its mobile app allows real-time transcription with accuracy levels of up to 99%, offering flexibility on the go. While Trint is ideal for users focused on multilingual capabilities and storytelling, Otter AI appeals to those who prioritize a polished interface, built-in chatbot functionality, and enhanced transcription accuracy through customizable vocabulary.

 

Frequently Asked Questions


1. Is Otter AI accurate?

Yes, Otter AI is among the most accurate transcription tools, offering real-time transcriptions enhanced by custom vocabulary.


2. Is Otter AI safe to use?

Absolutely. Otter AI ensures data security with end-to-end encryption and strict access controls.


3. Can I use Otter AI for free?

Yes, Otter AI offers a free plan with 300 monthly transcription minutes and essential features.

 

Final Verdict on Otter AI

Otter AI is a game-changer for anyone looking to enhance productivity during meetings. Its real-time transcription, summaries, and action items eliminate the tedious task of manual note-taking, allowing participants to focus on discussions. While improvements can be made in areas like multilingual support, its accuracy, collaborative features, and seamless integrations make it a standout tool.


Whether you're a marketer, recruiter, or educator, Otter AI empowers you to work smarter, not harder. Sign up for Otter AI’s free plan and see how it transforms your workflow today!