Otter.ai is an AI meeting assistant. It records and transcribes conversations, labels who said what, produces summaries and action items, and lets you search past meetings. For many people it is the tool they think of first when they want automatic meeting notes.
This review is more cautious than most, for a plain reason: we could not open Otter’s own pricing, help or privacy pages during our research. What we could read were a company press release, a funding report from October 2026 and news coverage of a lawsuit. We therefore describe what those sources say, label the company’s claims as claims, and leave out plan prices and limits that we could not verify.
How we researched this: we did not run hands-on tests for this article. It is based on the vendor’s own documentation and public sources, checked on 11 November 2026. Features and prices change, so confirm details on the vendor’s site before you buy.
Key takeaways
- On 20 October 2026 SiliconANGLE reported that Otter.ai raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, which takes no equity and instead shares in revenue it helps generate.
- Otter says it has more than 40 million users, including employees at more than 86% of Fortune 500 companies. These are the company’s own figures, as reported.
- A class-action lawsuit filed in the Northern District of California, reported in August 2025, alleges Otter recorded conversations without proper consent and used them to train its AI. These are allegations, not findings.
- We could not read Otter’s pricing page, so we publish no prices or minute limits. Read the live page and our guide on pricing pages before choosing a plan.
- Recording other people raises legal and etiquette questions that no tool settles for you. Tell participants and check the rules where you work.
What it is
According to the October 2026 SiliconANGLE report, Otter.ai’s product is a desktop and mobile AI meeting assistant. It prepares users with agenda-related information and can pull data from services such as HubSpot. It produces speaker-recognition transcripts that show who said what, and it adds information from slides and screen shares. Each transcript gets a one-page summary with key action items, and you can search in natural language. The report lists integrations with more than a dozen services, including Snowflake, Jira and OneDrive, and an MCP server so chatbots such as ChatGPT can use Otter data.
The agent products
In a March 2025 press release, Otter announced three voice AI agents. The Otter Meeting Agent joins live meetings, answers questions using company-wide meeting data, schedules follow-ups and drafts emails. At that time it was rolling out to all users on Zoom, with Microsoft Teams and Google Meet expected later. The Otter Sales Agent gives sales representatives real-time coaching during calls and was described as available to enterprise sales customers. The Otter SDR Agent is described as an autonomous agent that gives live product demos to prospects and is sold through contacting sales. The release also said Otter had passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Because this is Otter’s own release, those figures and descriptions are self-reported. The release is also more than a year old, so check which features are live now.
Who it is for
The 2026 report suggests Otter is aiming at both individuals and organisations. It mentions role-specific tools for salespeople, such as follow-up emails and demo booking, and for teachers, such as study guides. It also mentions an Enterprise tier with manager dashboards, expanded access controls and single sign-on. Per Reuters, as cited in the report, Otter hopes to at least double its enterprise business within a year by tripling its sales and marketing budget. That tells you where the company is investing: team and enterprise customers.
If you attend many meetings and struggle to keep notes, an automatic transcript and summary may save effort. If your meetings are sensitive, one-to-one conversations where participants would not expect a recording, think harder about whether any automatic recorder is appropriate. Our guide to preparing for a meeting with AI covers a lower-risk way to use AI around meetings without recording them.
Key features (documented)
The table lists what the sources we could read say about Otter’s capabilities. It is not exhaustive, and we cannot say which features are on which plan.
| Capability | What the source says | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Transcription with speaker labels | Shows who said what | Press report, October 2026 |
| Slide and screen-share capture | Includes information from slides and screen shares | Press report, October 2026 |
| Summaries and action items | One-page summary per transcript, with natural-language search | Press report, October 2026 |
| Meeting preparation | Agenda-related information; data from services such as HubSpot | Press report, October 2026 |
| Integrations | More than a dozen, including Snowflake, Jira, OneDrive; an MCP server | Press report, October 2026 |
| Meeting Agent | Joins live meetings, answers questions, drafts emails | Company press release, March 2025 |
| Enterprise tier | Manager dashboards, expanded access controls, SSO | Press report, October 2026 |
Transcription quality is a separate question from features. We have not tested accuracy, and we found no independent accuracy data in our sources. Accuracy depends on audio quality, accents, jargon and overlapping speech, so always check important details against the recording. Our guide to getting accurate AI transcription results explains how.
Pricing model
We could not read Otter’s official pricing page, so we cannot give plan names, prices or usage limits with confidence. A third-party comparison article from August 2025 describes a Free tier and paid Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers with monthly transcription minutes and per-meeting length limits, but it was published by a competing vendor and is more than a year old. We therefore leave out its figures.
What we can say is what to look for. Meeting-transcription tools typically price by seat and limit usage in ways that are easy to miss.
| Item to check on the live pricing page | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Monthly transcription minutes per user | Heavy meeting schedules can use an allowance quickly |
| Maximum length of a single recording | A long meeting may stop transcribing at a cap |
| Free tier limits | Free tiers are often intended for trial, not full use |
| Per-seat and billing terms | Annual versus monthly pricing can differ a lot |
| Imports of existing audio and video | Often limited separately from live meetings |
| Which features require Business or Enterprise | Admin controls and SSO are often on higher tiers |
Our guide to reading an AI tool’s pricing page walks through each of those items. Record what the page says on the day you buy, with a screenshot, because limits and prices change.
Strengths
These come from the sources we could read and are descriptions of intent, not test results.
- Time saving on notes. The documented design of transcripts, summaries and action items is aimed at removing manual note-taking.
- Search across meetings. Natural-language search over transcripts can help you find past decisions.
- Connections to other tools. Listed integrations and an MCP server suggest you can connect meeting content to other systems.
- Enterprise direction. The Enterprise tier is described with manager dashboards, expanded access controls and SSO, which suit organisations with admin needs.
- Funding and scale claims. A $320 million revenue-based funding round and 40 million claimed users suggest a vendor that is investing heavily, though neither guarantees product quality.
Limits and cautions
- Consent and legality. Recording rules differ by place. A lawsuit alleges Otter’s notetaker may join meetings without consent from participants when the host has an account linked to a calendar or meeting platform. These are allegations, and you are responsible for telling people you are recording.
- Training on your recordings. The same lawsuit alleges conversations were used to train Otter’s transcription service without permission. Otter’s privacy policy, as quoted by NPR, says it gets explicit permission when users check a box allowing their transcripts to train its systems.
- Accuracy is untested by us. Check key facts, names and figures against the audio.
- Unverified pricing. We could not confirm any current limits, so confirm minutes and length caps before relying on a plan.
- Self-reported numbers. The 40 million users and 86% of Fortune 500 figures are Otter’s claims as relayed by a news site.
- AI summaries can be wrong. Treat them like any AI output. See how to check AI output for mistakes.
Privacy and data
This is the section where you most need to read Otter’s own documents, which we could not open. What we know comes from news coverage. An NPR report filed in August 2025 describes a federal class-action lawsuit by Justin Brewer of San Jacinto, California, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. It alleges that Otter recorded conversations deceptively and surreptitiously and used them to train its transcription service without permission, in violation of state and federal privacy and wiretap laws. It alleges that the notetaker does not by default ask meeting attendees for recording permission and does not clearly tell participants that recordings are used to improve Otter’s AI. It also claims Otter’s de-identification process does not remove confidential information or ensure speaker anonymity, a claim made upon information and belief.
The NPR article says Otter’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment. It quotes Otter’s privacy policy as saying that Otter gets explicit permission when users check a box allowing meeting transcripts to train its systems, that audio is de-identified before machine learning use, and that Otter does not share data with foreign governments or law enforcement. The article did not give a decision in the case, and we have not found a later outcome in our sources. The date we give is from the article’s web address, which shows 15 August 2025.
| Topic | Status in our research |
|---|---|
| Lawsuit allegations | Reported by NPR; allegations only, no outcome found in our sources |
| Otter’s stated position | Privacy policy cited by NPR: explicit permission via a checkbox, audio de-identified before machine learning |
| Security certifications | We could not confirm |
| Data location and retention | We could not confirm |
| Whether training is on by default for your account | We could not confirm; check your account settings |
This is general information, not legal advice. Whatever tool you use, tell attendees before recording, get their agreement where the rules require it, and keep sensitive discussions out of automatic recorders. Our guide on how to protect company data when using AI tools sets out the questions to ask any vendor.
Alternatives
We did not research specific competing meeting assistants, so we do not name or rank them. The categories are other AI meeting note-takers, the transcription features built into the video-call platform you already use, and a human note-taker. When you compare, look at consent handling, training policies, minute limits, accuracy on your own audio and what the admin can control. Our guide on how to compare AI tools side by side fairly gives a method.
| Option | What to compare |
|---|---|
| Other AI note-takers | Consent prompts, training terms, usage limits, price per seat |
| Built-in platform transcription | Whether it is included in your existing plan and how accurate it is on your calls |
| Human notes | Cost and effort versus privacy and control |
Who should and should not use it
Best for these people, if these conditions apply
- You attend many routine meetings and want searchable transcripts and summaries.
- You can tell participants, get any consent required, and check settings so that you control who is recorded.
- You have read the privacy terms and your organisation allows the tool.
Look elsewhere, or take advice, if these apply
- Your meetings include confidential, legal, medical or HR content, or participants in places with strict consent laws.
- You need confirmed certifications and retention terms that we could not verify.
- You do not want recordings used for any model training and cannot confirm that setting.
Questions to ask before buying
- How will every participant be told that the meeting is being recorded and transcribed?
- Is use of my recordings for training off by default, and where do I check it?
- How is audio de-identified, and what is retained and for how long?
- What are the minute and length limits on the plan I would pick?
- Which certifications and data locations apply to my account?
- What happens to my transcripts if I cancel?
Test with a non-sensitive meeting first, using the steps in how to test an AI tool before you pay for it, and compare the transcript against the recording.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Otter.ai cost?
We could not read Otter’s pricing page, so we do not quote prices. Check the live page and record what it says on the day you buy.
Did Otter.ai raise money in 2026?
SiliconANGLE reported on 20 October 2026 that Otter raised $320 million from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, which takes no equity and shares in revenue it helps generate.
Is Otter.ai being sued?
NPR reported in August 2025 on a proposed class action in the Northern District of California alleging Otter recorded conversations without proper consent and used them for training. These are allegations, and we found no outcome in our sources. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does Otter use my meetings to train its AI?
Otter’s privacy policy, as quoted by NPR, says it gets explicit permission when users check a box allowing transcripts to train its systems. Check your own account settings and ask Otter to confirm in writing.
Does Otter work with other tools?
The October 2026 report lists integrations with more than a dozen services, including Snowflake, Jira and OneDrive, and an MCP server for chatbots.
Is it legal to record meetings with an AI notetaker?
It depends on where you and the participants are, and we cannot advise on that. Tell attendees, and take legal advice if you are unsure.
Conclusion
Otter.ai’s documented direction is clear: transcripts, summaries, search, integrations and a growing agent and enterprise offering, backed by a large 2026 funding round. The cautions are equally clear. We could not verify its prices or limits, we could not read its privacy documents, and a lawsuit reported in August 2025 raises consent and training questions that you should weigh for yourself.
If you try it, do so on a low-risk meeting, with everyone informed, and review the settings first. For a broader process, use how to choose an AI tool.
Sources
- SiliconANGLE: Otter.ai raises $320M (20 October 2026), 11 November 2026
- NPR: Class-action suit claims Otter AI secretly records private work conversations (August 2025), 11 November 2026
- Business Wire: Otter.ai press release (25 March 2025), company source, 11 November 2026
- eesel AI: Otter pricing (25 August 2025), third-party from a competing vendor, figures not used, 11 November 2026
