As a writer and content marketer, meetings are a big part of my life, whether brainstorming with clients or hashing out ideas with my team. Keeping up with conversations while taking notes can be challenging, so I turned to Otter. If you’re wondering whether it’s worth using, here’s my take.
What is Otter?
Otter is a transcription and collaboration tool that uses artificial intelligence to transcribe spoken language into written text in real-time. You can use Otter to capture meeting transcriptions, create automated and searchable notes, and share them with your team for collaboration. It integrates with tools like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams for live transcription.
What can you do with Otter?
Otter is filled with many small and prominent features that solve transcription and related problems. But the dashboard, which you can see below, is divided into five main categories.
Here’s a deep dive into each of the key features:
Meeting recordings
Starting with the primary feature—meeting recordings.
Otter integrates with your calendar to automatically join your meetings, staying through the discussion and recording everything in real-time. Otter joins as a meeting participant, clearly visible like any other (human) attendee visible to everyone on the call. Don’t worry. You can remove Otter from meetings if it is not needed. If you do not want the Otter bot to join your meetings automatically, you can change this in the settings.

After the meeting, Otter sends all attendees a full copy of the recording, ensuring everyone stays on the same page. Otter also allows you to keep the transcription copy to yourself by turning off the send a copy to all participants option. But remember to turn it off before the meeting!
Once you are done with your meetings, here’s everything you get:
- A word-for-word transcription of the meeting to review and reference specific points
- A concise summary highlighting key takeaways, making it easy to understand the core discussions at a glance.
- A structured outline that organizes the conversation into sections, enabling quick navigation and follow-up.
- AI assistant to search for specific information within the meeting or clarify points from the discussion.
- Additional meeting elements, such as screenshots, to provide context and enhance understanding.

Channels
Channels in Otter keep conversations neatly organized by topics, projects, or teams, making finding exactly what you need easier. Instead of letting the key takeaways get lost in a sea of documents, you can group them into a Channel—organized by project, team, or topic. Action items don’t just sit there. They can be assigned to the right people, right there in the Channel, like a to-do list that’s already half-done.
Direct messages
Need to discuss a specific point from a meeting with a colleague? Or clarify an action item? You can create a private chat, share relevant notes or transcriptions, and collaborate directly.
Folders
Folders in Otter are another way to keep your work organized. You can group related recordings, transcriptions, and notes into separate folders, making it easy to manage projects or keep personal and team files separate. It’s a straightforward feature that adds clarity and structure to your workspace.
Integrations
Otter integrates with a range of tools to fit seamlessly into your workflow. From syncing with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook for automatic meeting joins to working with platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet for live transcriptions, these integrations ensure that Otter works where you do.

Other features worth mentioning
Here are a few other features worth mentioning that Otter has to offer:
AI Chat
To my surprise, Otter’s AI Chat was much more useful than I expected. At first, I didn’t think I’d need a chatbot in a transcription tool, but it proved its worth during busy meeting days. For example, I asked it to help me with an action item during a meeting, and it provided clear insights on how to break it down and assign tasks effectively. The ability to refine tasks and suggest improvements adds an efficiency level that complements the other features well.
Recording
The recording feature in Otter allows you to capture conversations on the spot, making it perfect for in-person meetings, interviews, or impromptu discussions. Instead of relying on notes or memory, you can start a recording directly within the app to ensure no detail is missed. Simple, but a lifesaver at the moment.

Importing and Exporting
Otter makes it easy to bring in external files and share your transcripts in various formats. With the free plan, you can import up to three files from anywhere—an audio file from your device or a recording from another platform. Once your transcription is ready, you can export it in multiple formats, such as .txt, copy it to your clipboard, or share it directly. It’s a flexible feature that keeps your files and workflows connected.
Comments
Otter allows you to add comments directly to transcripts, making it a valuable feature for teams collaborating on projects. Whether clarifying a point, providing feedback, or tagging someone for follow-up, comments help keep the conversation organized and actionable. It’s especially helpful when multiple people work on the same project, ensuring everyone stays aligned, and nothing gets overlooked.
What I like about Otter
Otter offers several standout features, making it an efficient tool for managing meetings and fostering collaboration. Here are some highlights:
One of the most impressive features is its ability to transcribe meetings in real-time while also providing a summary. This dual functionality saves so much time, especially when you must quickly review what happened in a meeting without going through the full transcript.
- Captures meeting slides: Otter integrates visual context directly into the transcript instead of just recording audio. This makes it a game-changer that keeps everything in one place.
- Creates checklists of action items: The automatic creation of action items is another highlight. It simplifies identifying tasks, assigning them, and ensuring no critical follow-up is missed.
Another incredibly convenient feature is how Otter emails the meeting notes directly to me after each session. This keeps me organized, and I can effortlessly share the notes with my team or other stakeholders.
Lastly, Otter’s collaboration-oriented design stands out. Features like comments and channels make it easy for teams to align on tasks, review discussions, and contribute to projects without confusion. These elements combine to make Otter a powerful tool for individual productivity and team collaboration.
What Otter lacks
While Otter has many strengths, there are some areas where it falls short:
- Limited editing and formatting capabilities: I need to export the content to a third-party tool like Google Docs to make detailed edits or format a summary. This extra step can be inconvenient when working on tight deadlines.
- Concerns around pricing and support: Some users on Reddit have pointed out dissatisfaction with pricing changes, particularly for the Pro Plan, and highlighted issues with customer support. While these are not functionality-related problems, they can impact the overall experience for some users.

These shortcomings don’t remove Otter’s usefulness but highlight areas that could be improved for a better user experience.
Final take
Otter is undeniably powerful, especially considering how much you can accomplish with its free plan. The ability to transcribe meetings, generate summaries, and collaborate effectively without paying a cent makes it accessible to many users. If not anything else, Otter has simplified my work life to a great extent.
If you need more, its paid plans start at $8.33/month (annually), which is competitive compared to alternatives like Fireflies ($10/month on an annual plan) and Krisp ($8/month on an annual plan). Otter offers excellent value for individuals and teams, whether free or paid.