Otter AI Alternatives (2026): Free Limits, Prices, Bots

Most people searching for Otter AI alternatives have hit one of three walls: the free plan's 300 transcription minutes per month, its 30-minute cap on each conversation, or the jump to $16.99 per user per month for Pro on monthly billing. Teams often add a fourth reason: a note taker that joins every call, which turned into a legal question in 2026.

This guide starts with Otter's current limits, then compares six alternatives (Granola, Fathom, Fireflies.ai, tl;dv, Read.ai and Krisp) on free tier, price, bot or bot-free capture and apps. It is based on official pricing and help pages checked on October 9, 2026, not a hands-on accuracy test. For a three-way head-to-head, see Granola vs Otter vs Fathom; this page is about leaving Otter.

Quick answer: Fathom has the most generous free plan, with unlimited recordings and transcription. Granola is the pick for work meetings without a bot joining the call, at $14 per user per month. Fireflies.ai suits multilingual teams, with transcription in 100+ languages and Pro at $10 per seat per month billed yearly. If your only problem is Otter's 30-minute free cap, Otter Pro at $8.33 per user per month billed yearly may still be the cheapest fix.

What Otter limits today, and why people leave

Otter's pricing page lists Basic, Pro, Business and Enterprise. These limits usually start the search:

• Basic (free): 300 transcription minutes per month, shared across meetings, recordings and imported files, with no rollover. Each conversation is transcribed for up to 30 minutes, history shows the 25 most recent conversations, and you get 3 file imports per lifetime.
• Pro: $16.99 per user per month on monthly billing, or $8.33 per user per month billed yearly. It includes 1,200 minutes per month, up to 90 minutes per conversation and 10 file imports per month.
• Business: $30 per user per month on monthly billing, or $19.99 per user per month billed yearly, with unlimited meeting minutes and up to 4 hours per conversation. The page also showed a time-limited 20% off the first 3 months of monthly Business.
• Languages: AI transcription in six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese.

The 30-minute cap is the detail most roundups skip: on Basic, a one-hour team meeting is transcribed only up to that cap, no matter how many monthly minutes remain. Otter's note taker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, and since October 2025 its desktop app for Mac and Windows can also record without a bot. If the bot is your only complaint, check that option first.

Otter AI alternatives compared: free tier, price and bot

Prices are per user per month in USD unless marked. The billed-yearly column is the monthly equivalent when you pay for a year. tl;dv's pricing page data lists euro prices, so its prices are shown in EUR.

Tool	Free tier (with units)	Paid entry, monthly billing	Paid entry, billed yearly	Bot or bot-free	Apps and platforms
Otter.ai (what you are leaving)	300 min per month; 30 min per conversation; 25 most recent conversations	Pro $16.99	Pro $8.33	Note taker joins Zoom, Teams and Meet; desktop app can record bot-free	Mac and Windows desktop apps
Granola	Basic $0; meeting history for the last 30 days	Business $14	No yearly option below Enterprise	Bot-free on all plans (device audio)	Desktop (macOS and Windows), iOS, Android, Apple Watch
Fathom	Unlimited recordings and transcription; advanced summaries for the first 5 calls per month	Premium $20	Premium $16	Bot, or bot-free mode in beta	Bot-free mode is a Mac beta
Fireflies.ai	400 min of storage per team; limited AI summaries	Pro $18	Pro $10	Bot; Chrome extension can record without the bot	Chrome extension (other apps not checked)
tl;dv	AI notes for up to 10 meetings; data kept up to 3 months	Pro EUR 29	Pro EUR 18	Bot (look customizable on Pro)	Not checked
Read.ai	5 meeting transcripts per month	Pro $19.75	Pro $15	Desktop app records without a bot	Windows 10+, macOS 14+, Android, iOS
Krisp	7-day free trial (no free-forever plan on the pricing page)	Core $16	Core $8	Bot-free; optional bot for Zoom	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, browser extension

Yearly billing changes the ranking: Otter (51%), Krisp (50%) and Fireflies.ai (up to 44%) list large savings for paying yearly, so compare the same billing period. Granola has no yearly option on Business; its help center says annual billing is available on Enterprise contracts only.

Free Otter AI alternative: which free plan goes furthest

Compare free plans by the unit they limit, not by the label:

• Fathom Free: unlimited recordings and transcriptions in 38 languages, with advanced summaries for your first 5 calls each month. CRM sync is included for up to 3 users per email domain.
• Granola Basic: $0 with bot-free capture, but meeting history covers only the last 30 days and AI chat is limited to Auto mode.
• Read.ai Free: 5 meeting transcripts per month. The bot-free desktop app works on the free plan within those quotas.
• tl;dv Free: AI notes for up to 10 meetings, with data kept for up to 3 months.
• Fireflies.ai Free: 400 minutes of storage per team and limited AI summaries.
• Krisp: a 7-day free trial of premium features, not a free-forever plan.

For a workplace user with several long meetings a week, Fathom Free is the strongest of these free plans: recording and transcription are unlimited, while tl;dv keeps free data for up to 3 months and Fireflies.ai caps free storage at 400 minutes per team. Granola Basic is the free option if you want no bot at all and can work inside a 30-day history window. Granola also offers accepted startups and students 12 months of Business free.

Otter.ai alternative without a bot

The bot-free options differ in scope:

• Granola: no meeting bot on any plan. It captures your device's system audio, adds speaker tags for Google Meet, Zoom and Teams on macOS and Windows, and deletes audio after transcription. It transcribes only after you click into a note. Bot-free is not on-device: audio still goes to a cloud transcription provider first.
• Krisp: Core is listed as bot-free, with an optional bot for Zoom, and Krisp points to its mobile app for in-person discussions.
• Read.ai: the desktop app records without a bot, including in-person discussions, 1:1s and Slack huddles.
• Fathom: bot-free capture is labeled a beta feature for Mac.
• Fireflies.ai: records with its bot and also lists recording through a Chrome extension without the bot; the pricing page did not make clear which plans include it.

Bot-free capture does not remove the consent question. On August 13, 2026, a federal court in Northern California let wiretap and biometric privacy claims against Otter go forward in In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation. A separate proposed class action against Granola, reported in August 2026, alleges that its bot-free design records participants without announcing itself. Neither case has decided liability. Whatever you pick, tell participants you are taking AI notes and follow your company's recording policy.

Otter vs Granola: what changes if you switch

• Price: Otter Pro is $16.99 per user per month, or $8.33 billed yearly. Granola Business is $14 per user per month, billed monthly. Over a year at list price, Otter Pro billed yearly is cheaper ($99.96 vs $168); month to month, Granola is cheaper.
• Free plan: Otter Basic counts minutes (300 per month, 30 per conversation) and shows the 25 most recent conversations. Granola Basic's listed limit is history: notes from the last 30 days.
• Audio: Granola deletes audio after transcription, so there is no recording to replay. Otter lets every plan export audio as mp3.
• Files: Otter imports recorded files (3 per lifetime on Basic, 10 per month on Pro). Granola is built around live meetings you start from a note.

Switch to Granola if your pain is the bot and you mainly need clean notes from live work calls. Stay with Otter, or compare Read.ai Pro with its 100 file upload credits per month, if you transcribe interviews or uploaded recordings. Plan details are in our Granola AI pricing guide.

Yearly cost for one person and for a team

One paid seat for 12 months at list price, using the billed-yearly rate where one exists: Krisp Core $96, Otter Pro $99.96, Fireflies.ai Pro $120, Granola Business $168 (monthly billing only), Read.ai Pro $180, Fathom Premium $192 and tl;dv Pro EUR 216.

Usage changes the picture. Twenty one-hour meetings a month is 1,200 minutes, which matches Otter Pro's 1,200 monthly recording minutes; check with Otter whether imported files draw from the same allowance. The alternatives mostly limit something else: Fathom limits AI summaries, Fireflies.ai limits storage and Read.ai counts transcripts.

For teams, seat minimums and admin features matter:

• Fathom: Team is $19 per user per month, or $15 billed yearly, with a 2-user minimum. Business ($34, or $25 billed yearly) adds CRM field sync.
• Fireflies.ai: Business is $29 per seat per month, or $19 billed yearly, with unlimited storage. Fireflies.ai states that customer data is never used for AI training.
• Granola: Business at $14 per user per month includes integrations, API access and pre-meeting briefs. Enterprise, from $35 per user per month, adds SSO, SCIM and HIPAA-compliant workspaces.
• Otter: Business is $30 per user per month, or $19.99 billed yearly. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, API access and a HIPAA add-on.

For a team of five over one year at list price, Granola Business is $840 on monthly billing, Fathom Team is $900 billed yearly, Fireflies.ai Business is $1,140 billed yearly and Otter Business is $1,199.40 billed yearly. Fathom is the stronger choice if your sales team works inside a CRM. Granola costs the least of these four and needs no bot.

Granola's partner program says new users can get the first month of a paid plan free. If that shows at checkout, one Business seat would cost $154 for the first year instead of $168: Granola: first month 100% off for new usersAffiliate link: Fieldnotes earns a commission if you purchase through this link..

How to export your Otter transcripts before you switch

1. Export while your plan allows it. Basic exports mp3 audio and txt. Pro adds pdf, docx and srt. Business adds bulk export.
2. Check your history window. Basic shows only the 25 most recent conversations, so export older transcripts before downgrading and confirm with Otter how older ones are handled.
3. Run both tools for a week on real meetings and compare the notes your team actually reads.
4. Disconnect Otter from your calendar and meeting apps so two note takers do not join the same call, then cancel before renewal.

Otter AI alternatives FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Otter AI?

Yes. Fathom Free offers unlimited recordings and transcription with advanced summaries for 5 calls per month. Granola Basic is free and bot-free with 30 days of history, Read.ai Free gives 5 transcripts per month and tl;dv Free covers AI notes for 10 meetings.

Is Otter AI being sued?

Yes. In In re Otter.AI Privacy Litigation, plaintiffs allege that Otter's note taker records meetings without every participant's consent and uses recordings to train its models. On August 13, 2026, the court dismissed some claims but let the wiretap, biometric privacy, unjust enrichment and unfair competition claims proceed. That ruling is not a finding of liability.

Is Read AI or Otter AI better?

It depends on volume. Otter Basic gives 300 minutes per month, while Read.ai Free gives 5 transcripts per month. Read.ai Pro costs $19.75 per user per month, or $15 billed yearly, against Otter Pro at $16.99 or $8.33 billed yearly. Both offer a bot-free desktop app.

Which Otter alternative works on Windows?

Granola's help docs cover speaker tags on Windows, Read.ai's desktop app runs on Windows 10 and later, and Krisp has a Windows desktop app. Fathom's bot-free mode is listed as a Mac beta, so Windows users should check before relying on it.

Is Otter AI safe for work meetings?

Otter Enterprise lists SSO, SCIM and a HIPAA add-on, but the pending lawsuit is a reason to set a recording policy before rollout. With any tool, check consent notices, audio retention and model training settings; Granola, for example, lists an opt-out from model training.

Which Otter alternative should you pick?

For workplace users who want meeting notes without a bot joining the call, we recommend Granola: it is bot-free on every plan, deletes audio after transcription, and Business costs $14 per user per month.

Pick Fathom for the strongest free plan or CRM sync for a sales team. Pick Fireflies.ai if your team needs transcription in 100+ languages. Pick Krisp for bot-free notes at the lowest yearly list price in the table ($8 per user per month billed yearly), starting with a 7-day trial. Stay on Otter Pro if you rely on file imports, audio export or the $8.33 yearly rate. More picks by meeting type are in our AI meeting note taker guide.

If you try Granola, new users may get the first month of a paid plan 100% off through its partner program. Confirm the discount appears at checkout before you pay: Granola: first month 100% off for new usersAffiliate link: Fieldnotes earns a commission if you purchase through this link..

Prices and plan details checked on October 9, 2026 and may change.