Otter AI Pricing: Cheap at $99.96, Until You Hit the 3 Catches

Otter's Pro plan is cheap enough that you'll be tempted to stop reading at the price. Don't. Otter AI costs $0 on Basic, $16.99 a month for Pro or $99.96 a year ($8.33 a month), and $30 a month for Business or $239.88 a year ($19.99 a month). Enterprise is a custom quote.

The sticker price isn't the whole bill, though. In August 2026, a federal judge let the wiretap claims in a class action against Otter go forward. The plaintiffs allege its Notetaker records calls without every participant's consent; Otter denies the allegations.

On the bill itself, Otter's pricing page and help center (both checked October 8, 2026) hide three catches:

• Pro stops at 5 billed users. A team of 10 has to buy Business.
• The only free trial is Business. It runs 7 days, needs a credit card and rolls into Business Monthly at $30 a month.
• The free plan cuts every call at 30 minutes, inside a 300-minute monthly allowance.

And every paid plan renews automatically. Otter doesn't do refunds.

Now the number that doesn't flatter us. If all you need is meeting notes, Otter Pro annual ($99.96) is $40.04 (40.1%) cheaper than Voibe Work ($140 a year), the meeting-notes plan of Voibe, the app we build.

Against Otter Business ($239.88), Voibe Work is $99.88 (41.6%) less. Over three years, Voibe Work's $349 lifetime seat costs $49.12 more than three years of Otter Pro annual ($299.88).

So why pay more than Otter Pro? Two reasons:

• You get a dictation app too. Otter Pro plus Wispr Flow Pro for dictation costs $243.96 a year. Voibe Work covers both jobs for $103.96 (42.6%) less.
• Your meeting goes somewhere else. Otter's privacy policy says it trains its AI on "de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions," and we found no opt-out. In In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation, Otter filed its answer on September 17, 2026, and the class-certification motion is due May 13, 2027.

Our Is Otter safe? review digs into the privacy side, and our Otter AI alternatives ranking lines up your options.

How we tested

• Hands-on: we tested Otter and every notetaker we price it against here (Fathom, Granola, Wispr Flow Notetaker and Voibe Work) ourselves, and our findings are based on those tests.
• Prices and caps: we checked every plan, limit and promo against Otter's pricing page and help center on October 8, 2026, and the Fathom, Granola, Wispr Flow and Voibe pricing pages the same day.
• Privacy: we read Otter's privacy policy (effective June 16, 2026) for its training and opt-out language.
• Legal: we read the August 13, 2026 order and followed the docket through Otter's September 17, 2026 answer and the amended scheduling order.
• Scope: every price is a US list price, per user.

Key Takeaways: Otter AI Pricing at a Glance

Otter sells four plans: Basic (free), Pro, Business and Enterprise. The real discount is annual billing, which takes 51% off Pro and 33% off Business.

Everything below is a US list price from the plan table on Otter's pricing page, checked October 8, 2026.

Two footnotes on that table. The Salesforce and HubSpot user counts come from the order of the rows in Otter's comparison table, and the pricing page marks both integrations "subject to user limits."

Otter's plan table lists AI transcription in six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese.

Five details that change what you pay

• Annual billing is the big discount. Pro drops from $203.88 a year on monthly billing to $99.96 on annual, a $103.92 (51%) saving. Business drops from $360 to $239.88, saving $120.12 (33.4%).
• New Business customers get a promo. The monthly Business card shows "$30 $24 /user/month 20% off for 3 months," valid "for first-time subscribers only." You save $18 per user over three months, then you're back at $30.
• India has its own Pro price. Pro shows $8.49 a month or $4.17 a month annually, but the offer is "valid only with an India-issued credit card." Everyone else pays the US list price.
• New agents sit outside the plans. The pricing page now advertises an "SDR Agent" for "real-time, personalized video calls," and the footer lists a "Recruiting Agent." We found no published price for either on October 8, 2026.
• Some features cost extra on any plan. Live transcription via RTMP carries "additional fees," and HIPAA compliance is an Enterprise add-on. We found no extra-minutes pack you can buy on a lower plan.

Yes, Otter AI is free on Basic, but the caps are tight. You get 300 transcription minutes a month, every conversation stops at 30 minutes, you get 3 audio or video imports for the life of the account, and only your 25 most recent conversations stay visible.

Pro lifts that to 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per meeting, for $16.99 a month or $99.96 a year (Otter's pricing page, checked October 8, 2026).

What Otter Basic includes

• 300 minutes a month. That's ten 30-minute calls, or five one-hour calls cut in half.
• A 30-minute cap per conversation. Your one-hour client call stops transcribing at the halfway mark.
• 3 file imports, lifetime. After the third upload, imports need Pro (10 a month) or Business.
• 20 Otter AI Chat questions a month, and no more than 3 per conversation.
• Bare-bones extras: mp3 and txt exports only, 1x playback only, and 5 custom vocabulary terms.
• The Mac and Windows desktop app. Otter's help center says it can "record audio from a meeting without needing Notetaker to join," detect, start and stop recordings, and prompt you when a Slack huddle starts. It needs macOS 12.3 or Windows 10 or later.
• Consent is on you. The same help article adds: "You're responsible for notifying participants and obtaining any required consent before recording."

What happens to your notes if you downgrade

Basic only shows "your 25 most recent conversations." Older ones are "automatically archived," and Otter's help center says "archived conversations are not automatically deleted."

So downgrading from Pro hides your history. It doesn't delete it.

When the free plan stops being enough

The 30-minute cap is the real upgrade trigger, not the 300 minutes. Most client calls, interviews and team meetings run past half an hour, and Basic cuts the transcript at minute 30 every time.

Record more than two or three full-length meetings a week and you'll pass 300 minutes too. Treat Basic as a trial for short calls, then choose between Pro annual at $99.96 and a plan that also covers your dictation.

Four costs never show up on Otter's plan cards: the Pro seat cap, a free trial that bills you automatically, a no-refund policy, and per-feature caps that push you up a tier.

Otter publishes all four. Each one changes what you actually pay.

1. Pro tops out at 5 billed users

Otter's plan table caps a Pro workspace at "5 billed users" and a Business workspace at "25 billed users." A 10-person team can't share one Pro workspace, so it pays for Business:

• Otter Business, annual: 10 × $239.88 = $2,398.80 a year.
• Otter Business, monthly: $3,600 a year.
• Voibe Work: 10 × $140 = $1,400 a year, which is $998.80 (41.6%) less than Business annual. On monthly billing it's $1,920 (53.3%) less ($1,680 against $3,600).

Past 25 users you need Enterprise, and SSO and SCIM need a 100-user minimum licence. Otter's help center says added seats are charged "the prorated amount," and seat credits are "non-refundable."

Small teams get the opposite result. Five people on Otter Pro annual pay $499.80 a year (5 × $99.96); five Voibe Work seats cost $700, which is $200.20 (40.1%) more. The gap only closes if those five also pay for a dictation app.

2. The free trial is Business, and it needs a card

• What you get: Otter's start-for-free page offers a "Business Trial … Free for 7 Days."
• What it asks for: Otter's help center says "a credit card is required to start the Otter Business free trial."
• What happens when it ends: "your workspace will automatically be charged for Otter Business Monthly," which is $30 per user per month.

We found no Pro trial on the pricing page. If you don't want Business, set a reminder for day 6.

Voibe Work's 7-day trial, by contrast, needs no credit card and never charges automatically.

3. No refunds, and the plan renews by itself

Otter's cancellation article is blunt:

• "Subscriptions automatically renew unless you cancel them."
• You must cancel "at least 24 hours before the next billing date."
• "Subscriptions are non-refundable as explained in the Otter Terms of Service."

To cancel, go to Account Settings → Billing → Cancel plan. You can pause a subscription only once, and App Store or Google Play purchases have to be cancelled in those stores.

So paying $99.96 or $239.88 up front is a real commitment. Voibe offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on its plans.

4. Caps that push you up a tier

• Meeting length: 30 minutes on Basic, 90 minutes on Pro, 4 hours on Business. A two-hour workshop or deposition prep needs Business.
• Monthly minutes: 1,200 on Pro is 20 hours of meetings a month, about one hour per working day.
• AI Chat: 20, 50 and 200 questions per user a month on Basic, Pro and Business.
• CRM sync: Salesforce and HubSpot synced notes cover 1 user on Pro and 5 on Business; unlimited needs Enterprise.
• Compliance: Otter's help center says "HIPAA compliance is only available for the Enterprise plan," and custom data retention goes through an Otter account manager. Our Is Otter safe? review has the compliance detail.

Otter's pricing page publishes no coupon code. The discounts that do exist are built into the plans:

• Annual billing
• A student and teacher discount on Pro
• A nonprofit discount on Business
• A new-customer promo on Business monthly
• An India-only Pro price

Otter student discount

Otter gives "a 20% discount on Otter Pro Monthly and Otter Pro Annual plans for individual students and teachers using an email address ending with .edu."

That's $13.59 a month on monthly billing, or $6.67 a month billed $79.99 annually, saving $19.97 (20.0%) against Pro annual at $99.96.

Otter's education help article adds two limits: "This program only applies to the Pro individual plan," and "Workspace features are not available." So your study group can't share a student workspace.

Otter nonprofit pricing

Otter offers "a discount on our Otter Business plan to organizations that hold a valid charitable status." Its help center says "completing registration and approval through TechSoup is currently the only way" to get it.

Otter doesn't publish the discount percentage.

Otter Business promo

First-time subscribers on Business monthly pay $24 per user per month for the first three months, then $30. It's a monthly-billing offer only; Business annual stays at $19.99 a month ($239.88 a year).

Does Otter have a lifetime deal?

No. Otter sells monthly and annual subscriptions only, and its pricing page lists no one-time plan. Three years of Pro annual costs $299.88; three years of Business annual costs $719.64.

If you'd rather stop paying every year, Voibe Work is $349 once per seat for lifetime meeting notes and dictation on Mac and Windows. That's $370.64 (51.5%) less than three years of Otter Business, and $49.12 (16.4%) more than three years of Otter Pro.

Otter is worth it if you want a bot that joins your calendar meetings on its own, your calls aren't confidential, and you only need meeting notes. For that job, Pro annual at $99.96 undercuts Granola's paid plan ($168) and Fathom Premium ($192).

People like it, too. Otter rates 4.79 out of 5 on the App Store from 83,750 ratings and 4.0 out of 5 on the Chrome Web Store from 140 ratings (300,000 users), both checked October 8, 2026.

It gets harder to justify in three cases:

• The people on the call are your clients.
• You also pay for a dictation app.
• You'd rather your meetings didn't train anyone's model.

The price is the same in all three. What changes is where the meeting goes.

Where your meetings go: Otter vs the alternatives

Otter trains on your meetings, and we found no off switch

Otter's privacy policy ("Effective June 16, 2026") lists this among its purposes: "training our proprietary AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions (which may contain Personal Information)."

It also discloses "data labeling service providers who provide annotation services and use the data we share to create training and evaluation data."

The policy's opt-outs cover sale and sharing, targeted ads and profiling. We found none for training. And the other people on your call never agreed to Otter's terms at all.

The class action is still moving

In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation (No. 5:25-cv-06911-EKL, N.D. Cal.) is where Otter's consent question is being argued. Here's where it stands:

• August 13, 2026: Judge Eumi K. Lee's order dismissed the CFAA, CDAFA and WPA claims with leave to amend and let the ECPA, CIPA, BIPA, unjust enrichment and UCL claims proceed.
• September 17, 2026: Otter filed its answer and "denies the remaining allegations."
• May 13, 2027: the class-certification motion is due under the amended scheduling order.
• September 15, 2027: deadline for the class-certification hearing.
• December 1, 2027: trial-setting conference (CourtListener docket).

None of that is a verdict against Otter. It does mean the consent question is in court while you pay for the subscription.

Otter isn't alone. Granola, the best-known bot-free notetaker, faces its own class action, covered in our Granola lawsuit explainer.

Some institutions have stopped waiting for the courts. Morgan State University blocked AI note-taking bots including Otter from its Zoom meetings in June 2026, and Eastern Washington University blocked Otter and Read.ai.

Here's a year of meeting notes, per user: $99.96 on Otter Pro, $192 on Fathom Premium, $168 on Granola Business and $239.88 on Otter Business. Voibe Work is $140, and that includes a dictation app.

Add Wispr Flow Pro ($144 a year) for dictation to each of the others and the bills become $243.96, $336, $312 and $383.88.

Meeting notes only

Meeting notes plus a dictation app (Wispr Flow Pro, $144 a year)

That's Voibe Work at $103.96 (42.6%) less than Otter Pro plus Wispr Flow Pro, and $243.88 (63.5%) less than Otter Business plus Wispr Flow Pro.

Prices come from the Otter, Fathom, Granola and Wispr Flow pricing pages and Voibe's pricing page, all checked October 8, 2026.

Want the plan-by-plan detail? See our Fathom pricing guide, Granola alternatives list and Wispr Flow pricing breakdown.

Monthly billing and three years

• Monthly, notes only: Voibe Work ($14) is $2.99 (17.6%) less than Otter Pro ($16.99) and $16 (53.3%) less than Otter Business ($30).
• Monthly, notes plus dictation: against Otter Pro plus Wispr Flow Pro ($31.99 a month), Voibe Work is $17.99 (56.2%) less; against Otter Business plus Wispr Flow Pro ($45), it's $31 (68.9%) less.
• Three years vs Otter Pro: Voibe Work lifetime is $349 once. Three years of Otter Pro annual is $299.88, so lifetime costs $49.12 (16.4%) more.
• Three years vs Otter Business: three years of Otter Business annual is $719.64, so lifetime is $370.64 (51.5%) less.
• Three years with dictation: Otter Pro plus Wispr Flow Pro is $731.88, so lifetime is $382.88 (52.3%) less. With Otter Business it's $1,151.64, and lifetime is $802.64 (69.7%) less.

What Voibe Work gives you for $140

• No bot in the call. Meeting notes from Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Slack huddles or any other meeting app, captured from your Mac or Windows PC. It also records in-person meetings through your Mac or PC's mic.
• Zero-retention processing. Meeting audio is processed by open-source models on zero-retention cloud providers and deleted as soon as processing completes. The transcript and summary are saved on your computer, not on Voibe's servers, and never used to train AI.
• Summaries, chat and export. AI summaries with templates for each type of meeting (client intake, investment committee and others), chat with your meetings ("what was agreed, who owns what") with nothing you ask stored, and one-click copy and PDF export.
• Dictation included. Everything in Voibe Dictation on Mac and Windows: push-to-talk, Hands-Free Mode, a Dictionary for names and jargon, and Smart Formatting that cleans up punctuation and filler words without rewriting you.
• A consent reminder. At the start of each recording, Voibe reminds you to tell everyone you're taking notes. Recording-consent rules are your responsibility.

Where Otter still wins

The trade-offs are real. Voibe Work's meeting notes need an internet connection.

Voibe has no phone or web app and lists no calendar auto-join, so it can't cover a meeting you aren't in. Otter's bot can.

The design reasoning is in our Voibe Work launch post. For dictation plus notes, read Wispr Flow Notetaker vs Voibe Work; for the two-app version of this question, read Otter vs Wispr Flow.

Try Voibe Work free for 7 days: every Voibe Work feature, no credit card, no automatic charge, and a 30-day money-back guarantee if you buy. One seat covers Mac and Windows.

If Otter's price or its training policy is the deal-breaker, a few tools undercut Otter Pro ($99.96 a year) or keep your notes off a vendor's cloud. For the full ranked list with ratings and trade-offs, see our Otter AI alternatives guide.

• Cheaper than Otter Pro on annual billing: Quill Meetings Lite at $83.88 a year ($16.08, 16.1% less), Krisp Core at $96 ($3.96, 4.0% less) and Notta Pro at $97.99 ($1.97, 2.0% less).
• Free: Fathom's free plan has unlimited recordings and transcripts (advanced summaries on your first 5 calls a month), and Quill offers free local transcription.
• Notes kept on your computer: Voibe Work (with a dictation app included) and Quill Meetings.
• Bot-free, notes in the vendor's cloud: Granola ($168 a year on Business) and Wispr Flow Notetaker.

Want the whole bot-free field? Start with our best no-bot meeting note takers.

Not sure whether you need a notetaker, a dictation app or a transcription tool? Our dictation vs notetaker vs transcription explainer sorts out which job is which.

Your pick comes down to three things: how long your meetings run, how many people share the workspace, and whether the calls are confidential. Here's a straight answer for seven common situations.

1. Short, occasional calls under 30 minutes

Pick: Otter Basic ($0). If your calls fit inside 30 minutes and 300 minutes a month, the free plan covers you, bot-free desktop app on Mac and Windows included.

2. A solo professional who only needs meeting notes

Pick: Otter Pro annual ($99.96 a year). 1,200 minutes a month and a 90-minute cap fit most solo schedules.

If you don't need dictation and you're fine with Otter's training default, Pro annual is $40.04 cheaper than Voibe Work. Take the saving.

3. A student or teacher with a .edu email

Pick: Otter Pro student ($79.99 a year, or $13.59 a month). It's Pro for one person at 20% off, with no workspace features.

4. A team of 6 to 25 people

Pick: Otter Business ($239.88 per user a year), or Voibe Work ($140). Pro's 5-billed-user cap rules Pro out.

Ten Business seats cost $2,398.80 a year against $1,400 for ten Voibe Work seats. Over 25 users, Otter needs Enterprise.

5. Confidential client calls (law, finance, health)

Pick: Voibe Work. No bot joins, meeting audio is deleted after processing, the notes are saved on your computer, and nothing trains on them. Otter offers HIPAA only on Enterprise and trains on de-identified recordings by default.

Profession-specific picks are in our guides for lawyers and financial advisors. Voibe reminds you to tell everyone you're taking notes; following recording-consent rules is up to you.

6. Meeting-heavy, and you dictate the follow-ups

Pick: Voibe Work ($140 a year). Otter Pro plus Wispr Flow Pro is $243.96 a year. One Voibe Work seat covers both jobs for $103.96 (42.6%) less.

7. An organization that needs SSO or a HIPAA BAA on Otter

Pick: Otter Enterprise. SSO, SCIM and domain capture need a 100-user minimum licence, and HIPAA is an Enterprise add-on.

Smaller team? Voibe Enterprise starts at 10 seats with team admin and central billing, and a BAA is available on request.

Quick answers on Otter's prices, trials, refunds, student pricing and privacy, grouped by theme.

How much is Otter AI per month? Otter Pro is $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month if you pay annually ($99.96 a year). Business is $30 a month, or $19.99 a month annually ($239.88 a year). Basic is free, and Enterprise is a custom quote (Otter's pricing page, checked October 8, 2026).

How much is Otter Business? $30 per user per month, or $19.99 per user per month billed annually ($239.88 a year). First-time subscribers on monthly billing pay $24 for the first three months. Business drops the monthly minute cap and allows 4-hour meetings and up to 25 billed users.

Is Otter cheaper on annual billing? Much cheaper. Pro annual ($99.96) saves $103.92 (51%) against 12 months at $16.99 ($203.88). Business annual ($239.88) saves $120.12 (33.4%) against 12 months at $30 ($360).

Does Otter AI have a lifetime deal? No. Otter sells monthly and annual subscriptions only. Three years of Pro annual is $299.88; three years of Business annual is $719.64.

Is Otter AI free? Yes. Otter Basic gives you 300 transcription minutes a month, a 30-minute cap per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports, 20 AI Chat questions a month, and only your 25 most recent conversations. It includes the Mac and Windows desktop app, which can record a meeting without a bot joining.

Does Otter have a free trial? Only a 7-day Business trial. Otter's help center says it needs a credit card, and the workspace is charged for Otter Business Monthly ($30 per user) when the trial ends unless you cancel. We found no Pro trial on the pricing page.

Can I get a refund from Otter? Generally, no. Otter's help center says "subscriptions are non-refundable as explained in the Otter Terms of Service," and plans renew automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date.

How do I cancel Otter? Go to Account Settings → Billing → Cancel plan, at least 24 hours before your billing date. If you bought through the App Store or Google Play, cancel there. You can pause a subscription only once.

Does Otter have a student discount? Yes. Students and teachers with a .edu email get 20% off Pro: $13.59 a month, or $79.99 a year ($6.67 a month). It covers the individual Pro plan only, with no workspace features.

How many users can be on Otter Pro? Up to 5 billed users per workspace, so a team of 10 needs Business, which allows up to 25. Ten Business seats cost $2,398.80 a year; ten Voibe Work seats cost $1,400, $998.80 (41.6%) less, dictation included. Past 25 users, Otter needs Enterprise, where SSO and SCIM require a 100-user minimum licence.

Does Otter offer nonprofit pricing? Yes, a discount on Otter Business for registered charities, applied for through TechSoup. Otter doesn't publish the percentage.

Does Otter train AI on my meetings? Yes. Otter's privacy policy (effective June 16, 2026) says it trains "our proprietary AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions," and we found no opt-out. Otter states it's SOC 2 Type II certified and offers HIPAA only on Enterprise.

What is cheaper than Otter? On annual billing, Quill Meetings Lite ($83.88), Krisp Core ($96) and Notta Pro ($97.99) undercut Otter Pro ($99.96). Fathom has a free plan with unlimited recordings and transcripts. If you also pay for a dictation app, Voibe Work ($140) costs $103.96 (42.6%) less than Otter Pro plus Wispr Flow Pro ($243.96).

Is Voibe Work cheaper than Otter? Cheaper than Otter Business, not Otter Pro. At $140 a year, Voibe Work is $99.88 (41.6%) less than Business ($239.88) and $40.04 (40.1%) more than Pro ($99.96).

It includes a dictation app on Mac and Windows, captures meetings with no bot, deletes the audio after processing and saves the notes on your computer. Voibe reminds you to tell everyone you're taking notes; recording-consent rules are your responsibility.

Otter's pricing is fair for what it is: a cloud notetaker with a bot that joins your calendar meetings, phone apps, and a cheap Pro tier. At $99.96 a year, Pro annual undercuts Granola Business ($168) and Fathom Premium ($192).

Solo, non-confidential calls, notes only? Buy Pro on annual billing, not monthly. Just watch the structural costs:

• Pro's 5-user workspace cap
• A Business trial that needs a card and bills $30 a month afterwards
• No refunds
• A 30-minute cap on the free plan

The price stops being the whole story once two other things matter. If you dictate as well as meet, Otter plus Wispr Flow Pro costs $243.96 a year, and Voibe Work costs $140 for both jobs.

If your calls are confidential, Otter trains on de-identified recordings with no opt-out we could find. Voibe Work deletes the meeting audio after processing and saves the notes on your computer.

Next stops: Is Otter safe? for the full safety picture, Otter AI alternatives for every rival with ratings, and our dictation app pricing comparison for dictation prices side by side.