Otter.ai pricing: a seat with a meter bolted to it
Otter.ai pricing sells people, not audio. AssemblyAI charges by the audio hour and Deepgram by the audio second. Otter charges $16.99 a user a month and caps that user at 1,200 transcription minutes. Fill the cap and the seat works out at $0.0142 a minute. Use 100 minutes and the same seat costs $0.17. The cap, not the price, decides what you pay.
Key takeaways
Pro costs $16.99 a user monthly or $8.33 annually against a shared 1,200 minute cap on meeting and imported transcription.
At that cap the monthly seat costs $0.0142 a transcribed minute, 5.7 times AssemblyAI's $0.0025 Universal-2 rate and 1.8 times Deepgram's $0.0077 regular Nova-3 rate.
Minutes reset on your billing anniversary, never roll over, and Otter sells no top-up pack. Hit the cap and recording and importing stop until the next cycle.
Otter has held the same Pro prices and the same 300, 1,200 and 6,000 minute caps since July 2023.
Otter.ai pricing in 2026
Plan | Monthly | Annual | Transcription cap | Per conversation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic | Free | Free | 300 min, shared pool | 30 minutes |
Pro | $16.99/user | $8.33/user | 1,200 min, shared pool | 90 minutes |
Business | $30/user | $19.99/user | Meetings unlimited, 6,000 imported | 4 hours |
Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Not documented | 4 hours |
What Otter.ai actually meters
Otter meters seats, and counts minutes only to decide when to stop you.
Minutes burn whenever you record in the app, import a file, pull audio through an integration or send the notetaker into a meeting. On Basic and Pro the pricing page footnotes both minute rows with "shared pool across all transcription types", so 1,200 is one total, not 1,200 for meetings plus 1,200 for imports. Business splits them: meetings stop deducting entirely, and only imported files draw on the 6,000 minute allowance.
A second ceiling runs alongside the monthly one. Each conversation caps at 30 minutes on Basic, 90 on Pro and four hours on Business, and Basic limits imports to three files for the life of the account. Deleted conversations still count, so clearing a workspace recovers no minutes.
Otter stops disclosing in two places. The pricing page lists "Live transcription via RTMP (additional fees apply)" and names no fee, and the Public API ships on Enterprise only with no published price anywhere.
What an Otter.ai minute actually costs
Divide each seat by its cap and the rate falls fourfold across the range.
Plan and cycle | Seat price | Monthly cap | Cost per minute at the cap |
|---|---|---|---|
Pro monthly | $16.99 | 1,200 | $0.0142 |
Pro annual | $8.33 | 1,200 | $0.0069 |
Business monthly | $30.00 | 6,000 | $0.0050 |
Business annual | $19.99 | 6,000 | $0.0033 |
That right-hand column is ours. Otter publishes no per-minute figure of any kind.
AssemblyAI charges $0.0025 a minute on Universal-2 and $0.0035 on Universal-3.5 Pro. Deepgram charges $0.0048 on promotional Nova-3 and $0.0077 on the regular rate. Pro monthly at $0.0142 costs 5.7 times AssemblyAI's cheapest and 1.8 times Deepgram's dearest. Pro annual at $0.0069 lands 10% under Deepgram's regular rate. Only Business annual turns it around: $0.0033 undercuts AssemblyAI's flagship async rate by 5% and Deepgram's promotional rate by 31%.
All of that assumes you fill the cap. A Pro seat using 100 minutes a month on monthly billing pays $0.17 a minute, 68 times AssemblyAI's Universal-2 rate, and the 1,100 unused minutes expire.
What happens when you hit the limit
Otter blocks, and sells you no way out except an upgrade.
The help centre is direct: exceed the transcription limit and "you will not be able to record or import recordings until your next monthly cycle". There's no overage charge, no auto top-up and no credit pack. Asked whether more minutes can be bought, Otter's own article recommends a higher plan. The clock then resets on your billing anniversary to the minute, not on the first of the month.
The per-conversation ceiling behaves differently. On Basic a recording past 30 minutes keeps going, but you only see the first 30 minutes of transcript, and the rest unlocks if you upgrade.
How Otter.ai's pricing has changed
Date | Milestone | Source |
|---|---|---|
Mar to Apr 2026 | India-card offer reaches annual Pro at $4.17 a user | Vendor |
Jan to Mar 2026 | Business adds 20% off for 3 months, monthly Pro an $8.49 India rate | Vendor |
Sep to Nov 2025 | Business annual moves from $20.00 to $19.99 a user a month | Vendor |
Jul 2023 to Oct 2026 | Pro holds at $16.99 and $8.33, and the minute caps never move | Vendor |
Customer
Sentiment Highlights
"The paid plan costs £130 per year, which may be steep considering the recording limitations and lack of human transcription options."
Ava, Trustpilot review of Otter.ai, July 2024
"Very expensive. Starts of indicting that the packages are cheaper but the price keep increasing significantly."
Mike Jessop, Trustpilot review of Otter.ai, April 2025
Explore other providers
AssemblyAI
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AssemblyAI pricing quotes every speech rate in dollars per audio hour, from $0.15 on Universal-2 to $0.62 on the Dictation API.
Deepgram
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Deepgram pricing meters audio by the second and refuses to round.
Notion
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Notion pricing charges per member per month, and since May 2025 the seat includes Notion AI rather than selling it as a $10 add-on.
How much does Otter.ai cost per minute?
Do Otter.ai minutes roll over?
What happens when you run out of Otter minutes?
Is Otter.ai cheaper than AssemblyAI or Deepgram?
