--- title: "Otter.ai Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of Otter.ai. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if Otter.ai is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/transcription/otter-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [AI Meeting Assistants Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/category/5471-ai-meeting-assistants/) / [Otter.ai](https://www.softwareadvice.com/transcription/otter-profile/) / Otter.ai Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/transcription/otter-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/transcription/otter-profile/alternatives/) # Otter.ai User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.4/5 - Total reviews: 112 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.6/5 - Customer support: 4.0/5 - Value for money: 4.3/5 - Functionality: 4.3/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 70 reviews (63%) - 4 stars: 27 reviews (24%) - 3 stars: 7 reviews (6%) - 2 stars: 5 reviews (4%) - 1 star: 2 reviews (2%) ### Most mentioned pros - We recently switched to Fathom, and the difference was immediate—full video recording on Google Meet, smarter summaries, and better action item tracking really leveled up our post-meeting process. - It served us well for basic meeting capture, and we liked the ability to upload audio and use the mobile app for in-person recordings. - Overall the experiences a great experience, I find that the software does what it has to do, which is transcribe the meetings know who is talking give summaries of the meetings in my opinion is the best feature I find that the free version which gives you about eight meetings month is low enough so that if you needed more you buy the plan. ### Most mentioned cons - In meetings with layered topics or fast-paced discussion, Otter often lost the thread and produced generic summaries. - The editing tools are super basic, so fixing things is a pain. - The transcriptions that were given were often cut off and incorrect, so having to go over them again, including the summary made using Otter void. ## Otter.ai customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 112 (page 1). ### Effortless Meeting Summaries, but Transcription Accuracy Needs Work - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Preet R. - Company size: 2-10 employees - Reviewed: November 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I use Otter.ai to transcribe meetings and create summaries, so I can focus on the conversation instead of taking notes manually. I can easily find and review important details, follow action items, and keep everyone on the same page. #### Pros I like that Otter.ai automatically transcribes conversations and creates clear meeting summaries. It saves me time, means I don't have to take notes manually, and lets me focus on the conversation. I can easily find important details, review discussions, keep track of action items, and keep everyone on the same page. I find speaker identification and searchable transcripts useful for following conversations and finding specific information without going through the whole recording. The setup was fairly straightforward, the interface is easy to understand, and getting started doesn't require much technical knowledge. #### Cons I find that transcription accuracy could be better when people speak quickly, have different accents, or talk over each other, and background noise can make it harder too. Speaker identification is sometimes inconsistent, especially with similar voices. I’d also like more flexibility for organizing and editing meeting notes, including easier ways to correct speaker names and fix mistakes. --- ### Easy Setup, but Invasive and Hard to Remove - Overall rating: Not rated - Reviewer: Russell B. - Company size: 11-50 employees - Reviewed: November 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I thought Otter.ai would take thorough meeting notes, capture the decisions, and circulate them to our employees, but we found it awful. #### Pros I found the initial setup very easy. #### Cons I found Otter.ai awful. Once I added it to my organization, it kept adding itself to meetings on my calendar and inviting other employees to join. It spread like a virus and was very difficult to get rid of. It should be less invasive, more controllable and easier to remove from an organization. --- ### Summarize your meeting in seconds - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · monthly - Reviewed: August 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It was been a positive experience; at the beginning it might be overwhelming but it has been really positive after all. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I like the way that it summarize meeting on real time as well as the summaries created after the meeting ends. It highlights key points and divide the whole meeting into sections that can be explored by the user. #### Cons Sometimes it can spam the rest of the members in the meeting as it automatically share al the key highlights and summaries with everyone. --- ### Helpful Transcribing App - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Arts and Crafts - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: May 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It ties recording and transcribing into one app. It's easy to use and I love the export options for both the audio files and the transcriptions as a PDF or word doc. #### Cons The transcriptions can run together or be a little messy, but that's true of every transcribing app. It's still vastly better than having to time stamp and revisit audio every time you're trying to find something. It's also pretty pricey if you're not going to link it to other apps, which I don't. The value might be better for businesses that use it more frequently. --- ### Loving the new features! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Katherine W. - Industry: Design - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: a free trial · daily - Reviewed: April 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I'm new to Otter, but so far it's been very helpful. The summaries from meetings are thorough and help me to just focus on what's being said instead of taking notes. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The new feature of recording and getting transcripts and a summary without having it in your meeting is great. Their email is right, that sometimes that can be awkward, and when you're just looking for a summary, it's perfect. #### Cons Having it auto-join all of my meetings, and it took me a bit to figure out how to turn that off. Now, I only have it join very specific meetings, and I use the other record feature more frequently. --- ### great tool for journalists - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: elaine w. - Industry: Writing and Editing - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. after 4 years I still love Otter for the ease of connecting to Zoom calls, good accuracy, and real-time transcription. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros i am enjoying exploring the AI assistant to quickly find quotes and synthesize material into usable text. #### Cons would like an easier way to correct transcripts. maybe the AI component can do this, but I haven't tried it yet. --- ### Inconsistent Results and Limited Usability - Overall rating: 2/5 - Reviewer: Kelly M. - Industry: E-Learning - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · monthly - Reviewed: July 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. My experience with Otter has been underwhelming. While it offers basic note capture, it often misses the mark on structure, clarity, and delivering usable summaries. I’ve found more value using other AI-powered notetakers that do a better job identifying action items, segmenting conversations, and maintaining formatting that’s ready to share with teams. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 2/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 2/5 #### Pros Otter does a decent job at capturing general meeting notes, especially when conversations are clear and well-paced. It can be helpful in keeping a record of discussions for later reference, and the automatic syncing is convenient across devices. #### Cons The biggest issue is the inconsistency in transcription accuracy and the lack of clarity around action items. Notes often feel disorganized or overly generalized, which makes it harder to pull key insights or next steps. Compared to other AI notetakers on the market, Otter lacks structure and context-aware features that help users make sense of what was discussed. --- ### Marketing assistant - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Leisure, Travel & Tourism - Company size: 2-10 employees The reviewer appreciates the straightforward presentation of meeting summaries, which simplifies follow-up actions. The free version's limitations on recording meetings are a noted drawback. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### salesperson - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Construction - Company size: 11-50 employees The software is particularly useful for creating meeting transcripts and identifying action items, making it a valuable time-saving tool. Users have experienced some delays in the software joining meetings, which can hinder its performance. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Student - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: Self-Employed The reviewer appreciates how Otter.ai supports their college learning by consolidating notes from various online sessions, making it easier to review material later. They noted that improvements in transcription accuracy would enhance the overall utility of the service. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Sr. Corporate Trainer/ Consultant - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Professional Training & Coaching - Company size: 201-500 employees As a corporate trainer, the reviewer appreciates how Otter.ai allows for a greater focus on training delivery rather than note-taking. The tool's real-time transcription and summary generation are valuable, though it has some limitations with speaker identification in group settings. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Finance Lead - Founders' Office - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Accounting - Company size: 2-10 employees Otter has improved the efficiency of team meetings by providing quick summaries, allowing team members to stay engaged during discussions. The transcription accuracy can falter with mixed languages, which may lead to some misunderstandings. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Producer/Director - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 501-1000 employees The reviewer finds Otter.ai beneficial for managing meeting notes and enhancing focus during discussions. Despite its advantages, there are organizational constraints that have led to reduced usage of the tool. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Product Designer - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Company size: 11-50 employees Getting started with Otter.ai is quick and easy, making it suitable for capturing important discussions. The reviewer noted that clearer onboarding regarding the free plan's limitations would enhance the initial experience. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Easy transcription and recording - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Kaitlin M. - Industry: Marketing and Advertising - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: December 2024 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I can login to my Otter dashboard and see at a glance which calls are upcoming, past recordings and transcriptions, and available features. It's fairly user-friendly. Otter is now my go-to for recording and transcribing calls. Otter timestamps, generates notes, and identifies action items and highlights from my meetings. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I love the instant transcription feature and the fact that you can 'set and forget' Otter with your meetings -- the app will ask to join your calls and take notes, summarize your conversations, and can even take screenshots so you don't forget details. #### Cons I can't figure out how to uninvite Otter to some of my events that are offline and don't have a conference call, even if I toggle the app off in specific events in the dashboard. Otter still tries to attend the event in my calendar reminding me when my kid's kindergarten starts and stops. :) I've toggled it 'off' for this event in the dashboard, but that hasn't resolved the issue. I consider this to be a minor problem given how powerful the app is for my workflow. By the way, I haven't had an issue removing or uninviting Otter from a video conference call, JUST in-person events, which Otter can't 'attend' anyway! LOL. --- ### Good for concurrent meetings and transcription - Overall rating: 2/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · monthly - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros While having an interview, it is good to record and transcribe the meeting concurrently. #### Cons I liked the Otter ai and tried to subscribe it but it was too expensive. --- ### Otter is awesome - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Steven Eugene K. - Industry: Capital Markets - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. my experience hinges more on the partners reactions and they were great. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I love the overview I received after the calls were done and the automated mail system. #### Cons I think the breakdown could have been more detailed --- ### Otter: Easy to Use Middlemarket English Transcription - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Luis O. - Industry: Financial Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: January 2024 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Otter is easy to use and would make a great edition to your corporate toolbelt. However, it's per user price and issues with certain speakers, mean that this might be your backup choice insofar as transcription. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros Otter is easy to use and can even record directly from your microphone (thus getting around the rigamarole of inviting the AI assistant into specific meetings/dealing with outages. #### Cons Otter can only really transcribe English, and even then fast speakers, individuals with heavy accents, or irregular speech patterns (repeated use of 'uh' , 'ah' and other fillers, raising and lowering one's voice multiple times in a sentence, etc) seems to baffle it. --- ### Just An Otter Speech-to-Text Tool - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Internet - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: June 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It was fundamentally okay, but that's the best it ever got. No real complaints but I have no complements to reccommend it, either. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It was easy enough to operate and accurate enough for your work to flow fairly smoothly. And it never needed a readjustment once your voice levels were set. Altogether a serviceable tool. #### Cons For some reason I found it difficult to find at times, and it was different in the way it processed your speech, then you had to copy and paste the text and the text might be on a different web page. --- ### One of the Best Transcription Softwares - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Internet - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: June 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered One of the best tools I have used so far. Otter has a restricted range of capabilities, but it excels at what it does. Otter will assist you in many ways and save you time if you're seeking for a simple approach to take notes during a business call or if you're an author wanting to publish a book. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros 1.When I first used Otter I was amazed by its accuracy and the way it interpreted multiple sounds and speakers. 2. Export options are essential for transforming your podcast, video, or other content into a blog post or recycled content. 3.Price is reasonable, and even the cheapest subscription plan provides a significant amount of transcription time. 4. It takes relatively little time to upload and transcribe recordings. #### Cons 1. Earlier the site would give 600 minutes of free transcription services every month which was helpful for beginners to get started, now that option is reduced to only 3 imports. 2. The main drawback is that while an individual can create a folder under their account, they cannot share it with other members of the group or with extra work email accounts. 3. The editor's quick keys are weird. Frequently, I discovered that a key did two things at once when I only wanted it to do one. --- ### It's good... - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Alexander H. - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: July 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It's transcription is really great. Search-ability is good, could be better. A full search for 'all my meetings with X person' or all meetings talking about X would be great.Export tools are lacking, but understandable. It's the kind of tool that can be a lifesaver. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It connects with your calendar (but only one) so you can just click your meeting and hit record. That's fantastic. It keeps all metadata present (who, what) so you can come back to it. #### Cons The bot kept joining meetings without me and it wasn't obvious how to stop this. Most abrasive on Teams meetings where everyone gets a notification that my robot has started the call. Then sends aggy emails about how nobody was in the meeting. Somewhat amusing, sometimes embarrassing when on client. --- ### Accurate Transcription of Selected Calls of 60+ Minutes - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Henning S. - Industry: Staffing and Recruiting - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: October 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Accurate transcriptions are key for us. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The transcript is very accurate, rarely any need for a manual correction. #### Cons Offers way more features than we actually need and use. --- ### Awesome Transcription Tool - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Danielle N. - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: less than 1 year · a few times a year - Reviewed: June 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall I've been very impressed with Otter. I tested a few apps for transcribing my client's podcast and Otter did a much better job than the others. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I tested multiple apps on the same recording and the accuracy of Otter's auto-generated transcript was amazing - MUCH better than the others. The speaker had a British accent which is notoriously challenging for transcription tools. But Otter hardly had any problems with it. Otter also did not drop words when the podcast intro/outro music was playing, which was another problem I had with other apps. One more pleasant surprise was that Otter automatically ignored filler words. The editing workflow was pretty smooth for the relatively minor correcting I need to do. #### Cons One feature that I missed - and that the other transcription apps had - was global find and replace, which is a common feature in word processing tools. For instance, if a name has an unusual spelling and the speaker repeats it multiple times in the recording, I should be able to change all instances with the click of a button. You just tell the software what to look for and what to change it to. Another feature that someone looking for an all-in-one tool might miss is the ability to edit the recording itself. --- ### Powerful AI transcribing platform - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Benjamin D. - Industry: Hospital & Health Care - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: February 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It has been excellent overall once I figured out all its capabilities, which took some time. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros for a relatively low-cost point, it does so much with regards to transcribing calls and online meetings as well as uses AI to generate summaries, and inquiries can be made as well. #### Cons Lack of initial training and onboarding were lacking, which could have been helpful in utilizing the product more fully from the get-go. --- ### A great companion for journalists - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Media Production - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: September 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Otter is an amazing tool for journalists on a deadline. It allows you to navigate through a transcript relatively easily, play back excerpts, and make corrections to the transcript inside the interface. It’s not easy to organize conversations, however, and that’s a downside. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Otter cuts down the time it takes to navigate through interviews. It lets you record and transcribe conversations in real time and you can highlight phrases or sentences during the recording. That’s a fantastic feature for identifying phrases and quotes you may need later. The keyword search is also really helpful and you can pause the recording at any time and restart it. It’s a lifesaver for long, complicated meetings. #### Cons It’s not perfect. Otter has a hard time with accents and fragmented speech. You still have to review the excerpts you plan to use, because Otter routinely drops words or misunderstands technical phrases. ---