Otter.ai Pricing in 2026: Every Plan, the Free-Tier Limits, and the Catches
Otter.ai has a genuinely free plan, so yes, you can use it without paying. But “free” comes with a hard 300-transcription-minutes-per-month ceiling and a 30-minute cap on any single conversation, which most people blow through in a week of real meetings. The paid tiers are Pro (advertised at $8.33/user/month, billed annually) and Business (advertised at $19.99–$20/user/month, billed annually), with a custom-priced Enterprise tier on top.
The catch worth flagging up front: the prices Otter shows first are the annual-billed rates. Pay month to month and Pro is $16.99/user/month and Business is $30/user/month, so the “save 51%” and “save 33%” banners are the gap between those two columns. Otter changes prices and plan limits fairly often and rolled out a suite of AI meeting agents through 2025, so treat the numbers below as a snapshot and confirm the current figures on the official pricing page before you buy.
Otter.ai plans at a glance
| Plan | Annual (per user/mo) | Monthly (per user/mo) | Transcription minutes | Per-conversation cap | File imports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic (Free) | $0 | $0 | 300/mo | 30 min | 3 lifetime |
| Pro | $8.33 | $16.99 | 1,200/mo | 90 min | 10/mo |
| Business | $19.99 | $30 | ~6,000/mo | 4 hours | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | Unlimited |
Prices are per user. The annual column is what Otter advertises by default; you’re billed once a year for the full amount (Pro works out to about $99.96/year).
Basic (Free)
The free plan gives you 300 transcription minutes per month, capped at 30 minutes per conversation, plus 3 lifetime audio or video file imports. You get live transcription, speaker identification, the Zoom/Teams/Meet meeting bot, and Otter’s AI Chat. It’s a real product, not a trial, and it’s enough to try the tool or cover the occasional call.
The two limits that bite: 300 minutes is roughly five hours of talking for the whole month, and the 30-minute conversation cap means a standard one-hour meeting gets cut off halfway. The “3 lifetime imports” is not a typo either — you can only ever upload three existing recordings on the free plan, total, not per month.
Pro
Pro is $8.33/user/month billed annually, or $16.99/user/month if you pay monthly. It raises you to 1,200 minutes per month, a 90-minute per-conversation cap, and 10 file imports per month. You also unlock advanced AI workflows, unlimited storage, and integrations like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier.
This is the tier for one person who’s in meetings most days. The 1,200 minutes is 20 hours a month, and the 90-minute cap covers nearly every normal meeting. If your calls routinely run past 90 minutes, though, you’ll hit the wall and need Business.
Business
Business is $19.99–$20/user/month billed annually, or $30/user/month monthly. It’s built for teams: roughly 6,000 minutes per user per month (Otter markets this as effectively unlimited for normal use), a 4-hour per-conversation cap, unlimited file imports, and the ability to have Otter join up to 3 concurrent meetings. On the admin side you get custom AI workflows, activity logs, usage analytics, and prioritized support.
If several people on your team need Otter and someone has to manage the account, this is the tier — the admin controls and concurrent-meeting support are the real reason to move up, more than the raw minutes.
Enterprise
Enterprise is custom-priced and gated behind a sales demo. It adds SSO/SCIM, domain capture, an optional HIPAA add-on, API and webhook access, video replay, and unlimited custom AI workflows. In 2025 Otter also launched a suite of voice AI meeting agents — a Meeting Agent that can speak up during calls and take actions, a Sales Agent for live call coaching (enterprise only), and an autonomous SDR Agent that runs product demos for website visitors. Those agents are separate SKUs priced through sales, not something you’ll find a public number for.
The hidden costs and limits worth knowing
Annual vs. monthly is a real gap, not a rounding error. The advertised $8.33 (Pro) and $19.99 (Business) are annual-billed rates paid up front for the year. Choosing monthly roughly doubles the effective price to $16.99 and $30. If you’re not sure you’ll stick with it, monthly buys flexibility at a steep markup.
Minute caps are a hard stop. Hit your monthly transcription ceiling and Otter simply stops transcribing until your minutes reset the following month — it doesn’t roll over or auto-bill you for overage, it just cuts out mid-workflow. On the free plan especially, 300 minutes disappears fast.
The per-conversation cap catches people off guard. A free-plan user recording a one-hour meeting gets the first 30 minutes and nothing after. Pro’s 90-minute cap and Business’s 4-hour cap exist for the same reason — a single long workshop or all-day session can exceed even paid limits.
Watch the team auto-upgrade and cancellation terms. Some users report Otter nudging accounts toward team/Business plans, and subscriptions are generally non-refundable mid-cycle even if you cancel. Read the billing screen before confirming.
Is Otter.ai free?
Yes — the Basic plan is free forever, no trial clock. The honest question is whether 300 minutes a month is enough for you. That’s about five hours of transcription, spread across whatever calls you record, and every conversation is capped at 30 minutes regardless.
For an occasional user — a few short calls, the odd interview, testing the AI Chat feature — the free plan genuinely works. For anyone in back-to-back meetings, it runs out early in the month, and the 30-minute conversation cap means your longer meetings get chopped off anyway. At that point you’re choosing between paying for Pro or switching to a notetaker with a more generous free tier.
When Otter’s pricing isn’t worth it
Otter is priced as a transcription tool, and if that’s all you need it’s fine. But two situations make the math turn against it. First, if you mainly want clean AI summaries and action items rather than a raw word-for-word transcript, you’re paying for capability you don’t use — tools like Fathom and Granola lean summary-first, and several have far more usable free tiers. Our Otter alternatives roundup breaks down who each one fits, and the head-to-heads on Fathom vs. Otter, Fireflies vs. Otter, and Granola vs. Otter get into specifics.
Second, if the notetaker isn’t the bottleneck — the follow-up is — then a cheaper transcript won’t help. Carly, an AI executive assistant that schedules the meetings your notetaker transcribes, works alongside tools like Otter and starts at $35/month. The transcript still comes from Otter, Fathom, or Fireflies; the difference is what happens after the call.
If you want a full three-way comparison of the mainstream options, Otter vs. Fireflies vs. Fathom covers pricing and features side by side.
FAQ
Is Otter.ai really free? Yes. The Basic plan costs nothing and isn’t a trial. It’s limited to 300 transcription minutes per month, a 30-minute cap per conversation, and 3 lifetime file imports.
How much does Otter.ai Pro cost? $8.33/user/month billed annually (about $99.96/year), or $16.99/user/month if you pay month to month. Pro raises you to 1,200 minutes per month and a 90-minute conversation cap.
What’s the difference between Pro and Business? Business ($19.99–$20/user/month annual, $30 monthly) adds team admin controls, usage analytics, up to 3 concurrent meetings, a 4-hour conversation cap, unlimited imports, and roughly 6,000 minutes per user. Pro is built for individuals; Business is built for teams that need administration.
Why is Otter’s advertised price different at checkout? The headline prices are annual-billed rates paid up front for the year. If you switch to monthly billing, the price roughly doubles. Always check which billing cycle is selected before you confirm.
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