How much does Otter.ai cost in 2026?

Pro: $8.33 per seat a month on annual billing ($16.99 billed monthly); Business: $19.99 per seat a month on annual billing ($30 billed monthly). Basic plan: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per meeting. Checked October 26, 2026.

AI meeting notes and transcripts

Should you build your own Otter.ai?

Q: Should you build your own Otter.ai?

Switch. Otter Pro costs $8.33 per user a month on annual billing, or $16.99 if you pay monthly, so five people pay about $1,500 over 3 years. Fathom’s free plan has no cap on recordings or transcripts, and Zoom and Google Meet include AI notes on their paid plans. Building your own notetaker needs a meeting bot, transcription and summaries, and costs about $8,100 over 3 years. Otter earns its price when you need Business features such as 4-hour meetings and admin logs.

Q: What is a cheaper alternative to Otter.ai?

Fathom (Free plan; Premium $16/user/mo billed yearly), Google Meet notes (Included in Workspace Business Standard ($14/user/mo billed yearly) and up), Zoom AI Companion (Included with paid Zoom plans (Workplace Pro $13.33/user/mo billed yearly)), Fireflies.ai (Free plan; Pro $10/seat/mo billed yearly). Records and transcribes without a cap on the free plan, though some AI features are limited.

Switch to Fathom. Its free plan records and transcribes without a cap, which saves about $1,500 over 3 years for five people.

SWITCH

Short answer

Otter Pro costs $8.33 per user a month on annual billing, or $16.99 if you pay monthly, so five people pay about $1,500 over 3 years. Fathom’s free plan has no cap on recordings or transcripts, and Zoom and Google Meet include AI notes on their paid plans. Building your own notetaker needs a meeting bot, transcription and summaries, and costs about $8,100 over 3 years. Otter earns its price when you need Business features such as 4-hour meetings and admin logs.

Buy for 3 years: $1,499
Build and run for 3 years: $8,065
Verdict: SWITCH

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Cheaper options

FreeFathomFree plan; Premium $16/user/mo billed yearlyRecords and transcribes without a cap on the free plan, though some AI features are limited.Already includedGoogle Meet notesIncluded in Workspace Business Standard ($14/user/mo billed yearly) and upTakes notes for you inside Google Meet at no extra cost, but only in Meet and only on Standard and above.Already includedZoom AI CompanionIncluded with paid Zoom plans (Workplace Pro $13.33/user/mo billed yearly)Writes summaries for Zoom meetings at no extra cost on paid plans, but only inside Zoom.FreeFireflies.aiFree plan; Pro $10/seat/mo billed yearlyJoins Zoom, Meet and Teams, though the free plan limits storage and AI credits.

Otter.ai pricing in 2026

Plan	Billed yearly	Billed monthly
Pro Typical	$8.33/seat/mo	$16.99/seat/mo
Business	$19.99/seat/mo	$30/seat/mo

Free plan: Basic plan: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per meeting

Paying too much? The Basic plan is free and gives 300 minutes a month, which covers a few short calls a week.

Per user, billed annually, from Otter’s pricing page. Monthly billing costs $16.99 for Pro and $30 for Business. We ignored the offers on the page that only work with India-issued cards. Checked October 26, 2026.

Run your own numbers

Defaults are a typical small team at $30/hour. Change anything.

If you buy Otter.ai

Plan

Seats

If you build it

Your time, $ per hour

Hours to build

Upkeep, hours per month

Hosting and services, $ per month

Buy

$1,499

Build

$8,065

Buying is about $6,566 cheaper over 3 years.

3-year totals. Building includes your time, upkeep, running costs and one month of an AI app builder ($25). Change any number to match your situation.

What you’d build

A bot that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls through a meeting-bot API
Speech-to-text with a hosted model
AI summaries and action items sent to Slack or email
A searchable archive of transcripts

Our estimate: a meeting-bot service, transcription and summaries for about 100 meeting hours a month.

What you’d give up

Reliable joining of every meeting app
Speaker names and live captions
iOS and Android apps
Integrations with Slack, HubSpot and Salesforce

Risks the price doesn’t show

Meeting botsHigh

Zoom, Meet and Teams change their rules often, and bots get blocked.

Recording consentHigh

Recording laws and consent rules vary by state and country.

AccuracyMedium

Accents, crosstalk and poor audio hurt transcripts, and your team will notice.

When the verdict flips

Switch to BUY if you need Otter’s Business features, such as meetings up to 4 hours, custom AI workflows and admin logs, or if your compliance rules block free tools like Fathom.

Sources

Otter pricing

Build hours are our estimates for one person using an AI app builder. How we score. Spotted a wrong price? Tell us on X @BuildictHQ.

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