Otter review: price, free version and privacy

Our verdict

Otter is the right tool when you need a full, searchable record of what was said. It is not a note-taking method on its own, and students should always ask before recording a class.

What Otter is

Otter records speech and transcribes it in real time, then generates a summary, an outline and keywords. The description says it works in English, Spanish, French and Japanese, runs on the web too, and takes automated notes for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings. You can highlight key points, add photos of slides or a whiteboard, search every recording and ask questions about a meeting with AI Chat.

Who it suits

• Students who want searchable lecture transcripts
• Anyone who records talks, interviews or meetings

Strengths

• Live transcription with speaker labels, timestamps and searchable text
• Automatic summaries, outlines and AI Chat about a recording, according to the description
• Imports audio and video files and syncs with the web version
• Apple Editors' Choice, rated 4.8 from about 87,700 ratings

Limits

• Transcribes only English, Spanish, French and Japanese, according to the description
• The privacy label declares identifiers used for tracking and links eight data types to you, including location and contacts
• Built mainly for business meetings, as the screenshots show, rather than for study
• The listing does not say how much recording the free plan allows

What the free version does

The description says you can start for free but does not state the free plan's limits. It says Otter Pro adds more playback speeds, skip silence and bulk export.

Price

On the US App Store in November 2026, Otter Pro is listed at $16.99 (monthly) and $99.99 (yearly), and Otter Business at $30.00 (monthly) and $239.99 (yearly). There is no lifetime option.

Privacy

The developer declares that identifiers may be used to track you. Location, contact info, contacts, user content, search history, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics are linked to your identity.

What the screenshots show

The screenshots show a meeting dashboard with upcoming calls and an automatic summary toggle, and a transcript with speaker names, timestamps, a recording bar and tabs for Summary, Transcript, Otter Chat and Comments.