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Otter.ai Pricing: Helping You Choose the Best Plan

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Otter.ai offers four pricing tiers ranging from a free plan to a custom Enterprise offering. The plans are reasonably straightforward on paper, but there are a few limitations and constraints worth understanding before you commit especially if you're evaluating Otter for regular meeting transcription or team use.

This guide breaks down each plan's actual limits, what you get and don't get at each tier, and which plan makes sense depending on how you intend to use it.

Below are Otter's 4 transcription plans, each with different features and pricing. To determine which program is best for you, you'll need to consider your needs and budget. With all that in mind, here's a breakdown of each plan:

Plan

Monthly (billed monthly)

Monthly (billed annually)

Transcription minutes

Max per conversation

Free

$0

$0

300 min/month

30 minutes

Pro

$16.99/user

$8.33/user

1,200 min/month

90 minutes

Business

$30/user

$20/user

6,000 min/month

4 hours

Enterprise

Custom

Custom

Custom

Custom


4 Things Worth Knowing Before You Subscribe

Before going through each plan in detail, here are four limitations that regularly come up from Otter users — the kind of things that only become obvious after you've signed up.

1. The free plan's 30-minute conversation cap is a real constraint. If your meetings routinely run longer than half an hour, the free plan stops transcribing at the 30-minute mark. This catches a lot of people off guard. Upgrading to Pro removes this cap and allows up to 90 minutes per conversation.

2. Language support is limited. Otter only supports English, French, and Spanish. If you need to transcribe meetings in other languages, Otter is not the right tool regardless of which plan you choose.

3. Sales and conversation intelligence features are locked to Enterprise. OtterPilot for Sales, which includes CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot), sales coaching tools, and conversation analytics, is only available on the Enterprise plan. These features are not accessible on the Pro or Business plans, which limits Otter's usefulness for sales teams unless they're willing to commit to Enterprise pricing.

4. Customer support response times have been a recurring complaint. Many user reviews cite slow or unresponsive support as a frustration, particularly on lower-tier plans. The Business plan includes priority support and Enterprise includes dedicated account management, but the Pro plan relies on standard email support.

Basic

The free plan is a reasonable starting point for individuals who want to get a feel for the product or whose meetings are consistently short.

Features

With this Plan, you can record and playback web and mobile recordings. You can also take audio input from BlueTooth microphones and headsets. You also have access to mobile widgets and synchronized highlights.

This Plan offers all the features you need to get started, including:

● Speech-to-text transcription,

● Identification of speakers by name

● Custom vocabulary support: 5 terms

● Live notes

● Captioning for Google Meet

Security

Otter.ai uses TLS encryption and AES-256 to keep your recordings safe and secure. Their email support is also available to help you with any questions.

Add speaker tags

Plus, you can edit your transcriptions and add speaker tags, making it easy to track who said what. You'll also get real-time annotation of comments, highlights, and images. 

Some features that make Otter.ai a good tool are its summary keywords and word clouds feature. These features help you pull out essential phrases from the audio to find them later easily. You can also use the keyword search feature to find specific parts of the transcript quickly.

Transcription length

The free version of Otter only allows you to transcribe up to 30 minutes of audio per audio file. You also get 600 minutes of transcription quota per month. It would be sufficient for daily usage. However, if you are looking to transcribe an audio file of longer length, you may consider an alternative or upgrade to Pro.

Custom vocabulary

The Custom Vocabulary feature lets you add five custom vocabularies to Otter.ai. This feature helps improve transcription accuracy. 

These can be jargon, names, or common acronyms in your company or industry. It's a great way to get more accurate transcripts of your conversations.

Collaboration

You can share your transcriptions with others by sending them a link to the text transcript.

Target audience

The free plan can be perfect for individuals who want to start transcription. If you're a student, prefer reading, or don't want to shell out thousands of dollars, try Otter's free plan.

Pricing:

● Free

Key features:

● Add up to 5 words to the custom vocabulary

● Upload 3 audio files per month

● 300 minutes of transcription per month

Pro plan

The Pro plan is the entry-level paid tier, aimed at individuals who need more transcription time and higher per-conversation limits than the free plan offers.

Features

You get access to advanced search. This feature allows you to search through your transcriptions for specific keywords. You can also choose from eight different playback speeds. Using different paces can be helpful when reviewing long transcripts.

Other premium features include:

  • Support for uploading audio files from popular cloud storage services

  • Ability to export transcripts in different formats

Upload 10 files per month

The Otter AI Pro Plan allows you to upload 10 files to transcribe, and the maximum length of each audio file is 90 minutes. After Otter's change of pricing model, users can longer enjoy the unlimited upload file options. However, Notta don't have such limitation. You can compare Notta vs Otter side by side.

Transcription length

With the Pro plan, you get 1200 minutes of transcription per month, and transcriptions can be up to 90 minutes long. That's much flexibility, and it can work well for those that generate a ton of audio content.

Collaboration

The Pro plan has limited features for the assistant. For example, it will share all meeting notes with the calendar guests. You'll have to upgrade if you'd like to turn this feature off. It seems like a weird way for Otter to try to upsell their service, but that is their protocol.

Custom vocabulary

With the Pro subscription, you can add up to 100 terms and 100 words to the Otter dictionary. It can be conducive if you're transcribing a lot of specialized jargon or proper names.

Target audience

Suppose you're an individual who needs extensive transcription time and custom vocabulary. In that case, Otter AI's Pro Plan may be worth considering. You get 1,200 minutes of transcription and the ability to add more custom words to Otter's vocabulary. 

These entry-level plans are more for individual users. The following two methods we'll discuss are more for teams doing some heavy lifting. 

Price:

● $8.33 per month (Paid annually)

● $16.99 per month (Paid monthly) - Updated September 27, 2022

Key features:

● Advanced Search Tools

● 10 import files transcription per month

● Otter AI assistant

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Business plan

The Business package is the best value for your money. It is best for teams and organizations and only costs $20 per user per month if you pay annually. If you pay monthly, it is $30 per user per month. You get all of the features of the Pro Otter plan and more.

Features

The Business plan includes everything in the Pro plan, plus team collaboration tools. You can have as many people on your team as you need, and each person gets their login. 

With this plan, you'll get all the features you need to transcribe your Zoom meetings. Your recordings will automatically sync with Zoom Cloud. This feature helps you to access them later easily. The only downside is that you must have a Zoom Pro subscription to use this service. But if you're already paying for Zoom, this feature may be worth checking out.

The Business plan is their most popular option. It gives you access to all of Otter's features, including:

● Complete configuration of Otter AI assistant for Meet, Zoom, and Teams

● Priority customer support

● Share transcripts with an unlimited number of people

This plan also includes captioning and live notes. These features can be beneficial for keeping track of what you say during a meeting. Live notes show the transcription on your screen as the Zoom meeting progresses. Integrated live notes are another way to display captioning.

The Business plan offers transcription via RTMP. RTMP is perfect for businesses that need to transcribe live meetings or interviews. The only downside is that there is an additional fee for this service. However, the price can be worth it if you need transcripts of your business meetings.

RTMP is a protocol for delivering interactive media or chat services. It provides high-performance transmission of audio and video data.

It's perfect for video conferencing, live streaming, and VoIP applications. And it does so without compromising quality or reliability.

RTMP also provides you with greater flexibility. It lets you choose among a variety of connection types, including:

● Multicast

● Unicast

● Broadcast

These connections can control network traffic costs. They limit connections only to people viewing the content at that moment.

Transcription length

With Otter's Business plan, you get 6000 minutes of transcription per user per month. It's more than enough for the average person and should also be more than enough for most businesses. You can always upgrade to Otter's Enterprise plan if you need more. But for most people, the Business plan will be just right.

Otter's Business plan can be a solution when you need to transcribe audio. You can transcribe up to 4 hours of audio at a time, making it easy to get all your recordings in writing.

Collaboration

All team members will be able to see comments on transcripts from others. Only those who are admins will be able to approve them. Then each admin can assign a role or take away a position from other users on the team.

Custom vocabulary

With the custom vocabulary, you can add up to 800 words for your entire team. Each team member can add up to 200 personal words.

Pricing:

● $20 per user per month (Paid Annually)

● $30 per user per month (Paid Monthly)

Key features:

● Complete configuration of Otter AI assistant for Meet, Zoom, and Teams

● Priority customer support

● Share transcripts with an unlimited number of people

Enterprise plan

Best for large companies with a need for more protection, control, and assistance

You'll have to contact sales to get a custom configuration of Otter. It's the Business plan with adjustable features. You'll start by filling out an information form about your company and how you'd like to use Otter. Then a representative from Otter will reach out to you. They will do a video call explaining the plan and what custom features your company will need.

The Enterprise plan is the Business plan with adjustable features. It allows businesses to pay for only what they need when they need it. The service is fast, and it offers a variety of features that companies can use to their advantage. 

The time codes allow you to go back and edit at what time someone says a word in your transcriptions. You can choose from 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x, 3x, speed or skip silence.

You can take 1-click screenshots from your virtual meeting via Otter Assistant. You can see what was happening in the discussion and ensure you don't miss anything important.

This plan is a great way to write down your team's thoughts and ideas. You can share transcripts with other groups in a general chat, which is a great way to keep everyone on the same page. 

With the Enterprise plan, you can export audio in TXT, DOCx, MP3, PDF, SRT, and bulk export formats. The bulk export feature is convenient if you have much audio to transcribe.

Transcription length

The transcription length for this plan starts at 6000 minutes per month per user. This plan is fully customizable. You can discuss this with your account manager if you need additional minutes. They will do their best to accommodate you.

Custom vocabulary

The Custom Vocabulary feature is one of the favorite aspects of Otter for businesses. You can upload industry-specific or company-specific terms that you want them to recognize. It's great for ensuring accuracy when transcribing meetings about specific topics. You can update your custom vocabulary at any time. It may help you keep your transcriptions up-to-date more easily. 

With Enterprise, you can add up to 800 different words for Otter to recognize. If you're looking to customize over 200 words, it can save you on Otter.ai costs!

Collaboration

One of the best features of the Enterprise plan is the Single Sign-On Authentication. But it's only available for users who purchase at least 100 licenses. This feature allows you to manage your accounts easily. You can ensure that only authorized users can access their transcriptions. 

This plan can benefit large companies needing more protection, control, and assistance. The enterprise plan also has a dedicated account manager and 24/7 phone support.  

Pricing:

● Contact Sales

Key features:

● Single Sign-on Authentication

● Deploy Otter to your entire organization at once

● Editable time codes

Otter.ai Student Discount

Otter.ai offers a discounted subscription for verified students and teachers. Eligible institutions include accredited primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions, as well as registered non-profit educational organisations.

To apply, go to your account settings and look for the Student and Teacher Discount option. After verifying your status through your institution email, you'll be able to select a discounted plan. The discount is applied to your subscription automatically once verification is complete.

Which Otter.ai Plan Should You Choose?

Use the Free plan if you're evaluating the product, your meetings are under 30 minutes, and you transcribe infrequently. It's a reasonable trial tier but not workable as a long-term solution for anyone in back-to-back meetings.

Use the Pro plan if you're an individual contributor who attends regular meetings, needs more than 300 minutes per month, and doesn't yet need team-level admin features. At $8.33/month billed annually, it's reasonably priced for solo use.

Use the Business plan if you're managing a team where multiple people need transcription access, you need concurrent meeting coverage, or you require admin controls over usage and shared vocabulary. The per-user pricing makes it most cost-effective for teams of three or more.

Use the Enterprise plan if your organisation needs SSO, compliance features, or sales conversation intelligence. For smaller teams, the jump to Enterprise pricing for sales features specifically may be hard to justify unless those features are central to your workflow.

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FAQs

How much does Otter.ai cost?

Otter.ai's paid plans start at $8.33 per user per month (Pro, billed annually) or $16.99 billed monthly. The Business plan is $20 per user per month annually or $30 monthly. Enterprise pricing is custom and requires contacting the sales team.

Is Otter.ai free?

Yes, Otter.ai has a free plan with 300 transcription minutes per month and a 30-minute limit per conversation. You can also import up to 3 audio or video files per month on the free tier.

What is the file size or upload limit on Otter.ai's free plan?

The free plan allows you to import 3 audio or video files per month. Individual conversations are capped at 30 minutes. There is no explicit file size cap published, but the 30-minute conversation length limit effectively constrains the size of any file you'd want to import.

Does Otter.ai offer a student discount?

Yes. Students and teachers at accredited educational institutions can apply for a discount through their account settings under "Student and Teacher Discount." Verification is done through your institution email.

Can I upgrade or downgrade my Otter.ai plan?

Yes. To upgrade, click the arrow next to your name on the dashboard and select Upgrade plan. To downgrade, go to your name, click Account settings, then select Plan and choose a lower tier.

How do I cancel my Otter.ai subscription?

Go to your dashboard, click your name, select Account settings, scroll down to Delete account, and click Verify and continue. Note that deleting your account will also delete your transcripts and recordings, so export anything you want to keep before cancelling.

Is Otter.ai safe to use?

Otter.ai uses TLS encryption and AES-256 for data storage. It is a US-hosted platform, which may be relevant for organisations with strict data residency requirements, particularly those subject to EU data protection regulations. If GDPR compliance and EU-based data storage are priorities for your organisation, it's worth reviewing Otter's current data processing agreements or evaluating tools with EU-hosted infrastructure.

What languages does Otter.ai support?

Otter.ai supports English, French, and Spanish across all plans. It does not currently support other languages.

Things to consider before changing your Otter pricing plan

Here are a few things to consider before changing your Otter plan:

1. How many people will be using the software?

2. What is your budget?

3. What are your business goals?

4. What is your timeline?

5. What features do you need?

6. Are you willing to pay for a premium plan?

7. What other options are available?

Once you have figured these out, read this guide to find out which plan will work for you.

Conclusion

Otter is pretty good transcription software that offers four different pricing plans. Whichever plan you choose, Otter may get you started with the transcription of your audio. 

When you're ready for more accurate transcriptions, you can use Notta or other Otter alternatives. Notta is a voice-to-text application that gives you a level of accuracy Otter has not reached yet.