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The Stack / Productivity
Otter.ai
01 IntelligenceYes if meetings are where your commitments get made — Otter's automatic summaries and action items turn call time into searchable operational record, and its April 2026 shift toward an active meeting agent adds real capability, not just notes. The free tier is a real trial; Pro at ~$8–17 is where transcript volume stops being the constraint.
The job in the stack
The meeting-memory seat: automatic transcription, summaries, and action items from every call.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | 300 monthly transcription minutes, 30-min/conversation cap, 3 lifetime file imports |
| Pro | $8.33/mo | $16.99/mo billed monthly. 1,200 min/mo, 90-min/conversation cap, 10 file imports/mo |
| Business | $19.99/user/mo | $30/user/mo billed monthly. Unlimited transcription, custom AI workflows, 3 concurrent meeting joins |
Pricing verified 2026-08-13. Plans change — the source of truth is Otter.ai's own pricing page.
Models & versions
- Otter Meeting AgentVoice-activated agent that actively participates in meetings, answers questions, and completes tasks live — launched April 28, 2026 as part of a 'Conversational Knowledge Engine' repositioning
- Otter AI ChatRebuilt chat-style assistant; works as both MCP client (pulls from Gmail, Drive, Notion, Salesforce, Jira) and MCP server
- Otter SDR AgentAutonomous agent that runs live product demos with website visitors without a human on the call; sold separately via sales contact, part of the same agent suite as Meeting Agent. Otter passed $100M ARR alongside the launch.
The honest read
What works
- +Auto-join means capture happens without remembering to capture
- +Summaries and action items are genuinely usable, not filler
- +Searchable archive turns past calls into an operations database
- +Meeting Agent and MCP client pull other tools' data into the conversation, not just the transcript
What breaks
- −Speaker attribution still stumbles on crosstalk
- −Recording bots in client calls need disclosure — trust boundary, handle it
- −Non-English support trails dedicated multilingual tools — 6 languages total, 2 still in beta
- −Defending a federal class action (Brewer v. Otter.ai, filed Aug 2025) alleging it recorded and trained on private conversations without full consent — an allegation, not a verdict, but a live trust question
Use it for
- →Founders and consultants living in back-to-back calls
- →Client work where 'what did we agree' has money attached
- →Teams turning meetings into tracked commitments
Skip it if
- ×Your meeting suite (Zoom AI, Gemini in Meet) already includes adequate notes
- ×You rarely meet — this seat earns nothing on an empty calendar
Questions operators ask
?Does Otter work with Zoom, Meet, and Teams?
Yes — OtterPilot auto-joins all three. Tell participants it's recording; in some jurisdictions that's law, everywhere it's good operating.
What changed
- Freshness sweep: verified directly on otter.ai/pricing — no change. Basic free (300 min/mo, 30-min cap, 3 lifetime imports), Pro $8.33/mo annual / $16.99 monthly (1,200 min, 90-min cap, 10 imports/mo), Business $19.99/user annual / $30 monthly (unlimited transcription, 4-hour cap, unlimited imports, 3 concurrent joins). SDR Agent remains Enterprise-only.
- Pricing re-verified, unchanged (Basic free, Pro $8.33/$16.99, Business $19.99/$30). Added the autonomous Otter SDR Agent (runs unmanned product demos for site visitors) — a separately sold add-on to the same agent suite as Meeting Agent, launched alongside Otter passing $100M ARR.
- Added a cons line on the pending Brewer v. Otter.ai class action (filed Aug 2025, alleges non-consensual recording/training, motion to dismiss argued April 2026, case ongoing) and the exact language count (6, 2 in beta) while writing the fireflies-vs-otter-ai comparison. Pricing not re-checked this pass — last_verified unchanged.
- Verified pricing. Otter repositioned around a 'Conversational Knowledge Engine' (Apr 28, 2026): added the voice-activated Otter Meeting Agent, MCP client/server support, Otter for Desktop, and a rebuilt Otter AI Chat.
- Seeded from January 2026 baseline; plan pricing pending fresh verification by the update loop.
Give Otter.ai a job
The meeting-memory seat: automatic transcription, summaries, and action items from every call.
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