Otter.ai pricing in 2026: every plan, limit and what it really costs

How much does Otter.ai cost?

We read otter.ai/pricing on October 11, 2026. Prices are per user, in US dollars:

The yearly totals are our math (12 times the monthly rate). Otter doesn't print them. The takeaway: paying monthly for Pro costs about twice as much as paying yearly. If you know you'll use Otter for more than six months, the annual plan is the obvious pick.

Two smaller deals sit on the same page. Pro shows a further 50% off ($8.49 monthly, $4.17 yearly) with a footnote saying the offer needs an India-issued credit card. Business showed 20% off ($24 a month) for 3+ months of monthly billing. Students and teachers with a .edu email get 20% off Pro: $79.99 a year or $13.59 a month.

You can pay by credit or debit card, or through the Apple App Store or Google Play if you subscribe on mobile. PayPal wasn't supported when we checked. The pricing page doesn't state a refund policy, so read the terms before choosing the annual plan.

Otter plan limits side by side

This table decides more than the price does. Most people who outgrow a plan hit the per-conversation cap first, not the monthly total.

One wrinkle: Otter's homepage describes Business as "6,000 monthly transcription minutes", while the pricing table lists meeting transcription as unlimited and puts the 6,000-minute cap on imported files. If the difference matters to you, ask Otter before you commit.

Is Otter.ai free?

Yes. The Basic plan is free with no time limit. It gives you 300 transcription minutes a month, a 30-minute cap on each conversation, 3 file imports for the life of the account, 20 AI chat queries a month (3 per conversation), and keeps only your 25 most recent conversations.

In practice, the 30-minute cap is the wall. A standard one-hour meeting gets cut off halfway. At two half-hour calls a day, the 300 monthly minutes last about a week. Basic works for occasional short calls or for trying Otter out, not for daily meetings.

Does Otter have a free trial?

Otter's homepage advertises a 7-day free trial on Business. We didn't see a separate Pro trial on the pricing page. Since Basic is free forever, that's effectively the trial for Pro features below the caps.

Which Otter plan do you actually need?

Work it out from your longest regular meeting, not your total hours.

• Meetings under 30 minutes and only a few a week: Basic.
• Meetings up to 90 minutes, up to about 20 hours a month: Pro. Paid yearly, that's about 0.7 cents per transcribed minute if you use all 1,200.
• Two-hour workshops, more than 20 hours a month, or a team that needs shared notes and CRM sync: Business.
• SSO, SCIM, HIPAA or 25+ users: Enterprise.

For a team of five on Business, yearly billing comes to $1,199.40 a year, against $1,800 paying monthly. Pro allows 5 billed users in a workspace, so small teams that don't need 4-hour meetings can stay on Pro and pay $499.80 a year.

What people complain about

We found few recent first-hand Reddit threads indexed, so these come from review sites and the user posts they quote. Three themes repeat. The 90-minute cap on Pro frustrates people with long meetings ("most of my meetings are 2hr+" is a typical line). The Notetaker joining calls from the calendar, sometimes when users forgot it was on, makes people nervous in client or HR calls. And several users wrote about plan changes in 2024 that arrived without enough notice. None of those are deal-breakers for everyone, but read the limits table before you pick a tier.

If a transcript isn't what you need

Some people sign up for Otter because they want help during a call, and a transcript after the fact doesn't give them that. AuraCloak is built for that job instead. It doesn't record or transcribe meetings, so it isn't an Otter replacement for notes. It's a private AI overlay on Windows: press Ctrl+Alt+Space, ask a question or take a screenshot with Alt+S, and get an answer in a window that Zoom and Teams leave out of a screen share. No bot joins, nothing is stored, and it costs $9 a month or $49 once, with AI usage paid to your own provider (or $0 extra using your ChatGPT Plus login in browser mode). Our Otter vs AuraCloak comparison spells out when each one fits, and the alternatives page and Cluely alternative page cover the rest of the field. Full AuraCloak plans are on the pricing page.

FAQ

How much does Otter cost per month?

Otter Pro is $16.99 per user per month billed monthly, or $8.33 a month billed yearly. Business is $30 per user per month, or $19.99 billed yearly. Basic is free and Enterprise is custom. Checked October 2026.

Is Otter.ai free?

Yes, the Basic plan is free indefinitely. It includes 300 transcription minutes a month, a 30-minute limit per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports, 20 AI chat queries a month and your 25 most recent conversations.

What does the Otter Pro plan include?

Pro includes 1,200 transcription minutes a month, up to 90 minutes per conversation, 10 file imports a month, 50 AI chat queries, unlimited history, pdf/docx/srt export and Salesforce or HubSpot sync for one user.

Does Otter have a free trial?

Otter advertises a 7-day free trial on its Business plan. The free Basic plan is an ongoing way to test Pro-style features within its limits.

Is there a student discount on Otter?

Yes. Students and teachers with a .edu email get 20% off Pro: $79.99 a year or $13.59 a month, checked October 2026.

Why is Otter cheaper with an India card?

Otter's pricing page showed Pro at $8.49 monthly or $4.17 yearly with a footnote limiting that offer to India-issued credit cards. Everyone else pays the standard Pro price.