What is Otter.ai?
Quick answer
Otter.ai (otter.ai) is an AI meeting notetaker. Its Notetaker joins your Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings, transcribes them in real time with speaker identification, and writes a meeting summary with action items. You can also record from the desktop, phone or browser, and ask Otter AI Chat questions about your meetings.
Last updated
Take the free module →Module 3 of the free Intro to AI Automation course, about 9 minutes. No account needed.
Updated · By Robert Breen
Why it matters for a small business
Someone always has to write up the meeting, and when nobody does, tasks get lost. Otter takes the writing part away: the transcript and summary exist as soon as the call ends, so the follow-up can go out the same hour.
Setup is mostly the calendar. Otter's help center says you go to Integrations, click Connect for your Google or Microsoft account, and your meetings sync to the Otter homepage, where you choose which ones the Notetaker joins. It can even join a meeting you cannot attend, and it shows up in the call as a participant named after you.
After the meeting, Otter AI Chat searches across your meetings to answer questions and help write follow-ups and reports.
In a real lesson: Summarize a Meeting Transcript with ChatGPT
The meeting summary lesson does not use Otter. In it, you copy the transcript Google Meet saved after Harbor Street Bakery's Monday team meeting, paste it into ChatGPT under a request for a summary, the decisions, an action items table with owner and due date, and open questions, and tell it to write "Not stated" instead of guessing. You fill in the missing dates, then ask for the follow-up email.
Otter does the capture and first-draft part of that job. Its Notetaker would join the call, record who said what and write the summary and action items, so there is no transcript to copy. The checking step from the lesson still matters: read the owners and dates against what was said before the recap goes to the team.
Try this lesson free or read the step-by-step guide.
Common confusions
Otter vs ChatGPT for meeting notes
Otter records and transcribes the meeting itself. ChatGPT works on a transcript you give it, so you need a recording or a saved meeting transcript first.
Transcript vs summary
The transcript is every word, with speaker labels. The summary is Otter's short version with the key points and action items.
Tips
- Tell people at the start that Otter is recording, and follow your company's rules on recording calls.
- Choose which meetings the Notetaker joins instead of letting it join everything.
- Check every owner and due date in the summary before you share it.
Related terms
More Web apps terms
Where you use it: free lessons
- Summarize a Meeting Transcript with ChatGPT (ChatGPT, 9 min)
- OLVA: A Private AI Assistant on Your Client Calls (OLVA, 9 min)
- CoHear: AI Meeting Notes from a Team Training Session (CoHear, 8 min)
AI tools that use it
Frequently asked questions
- Is Otter.ai free?
- Yes. Otter's pricing page lists a Basic plan that is free forever, with live transcription, speaker identification, AI Chat and a monthly allowance of transcription minutes. See otter.ai/pricing for the paid plans.
- Which meeting apps does Otter work with?
- Otter's help center says the Notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings. You can also record from the Otter desktop app, the iOS and Android apps, or the browser.
- How does Otter know which meetings to join?
- You connect your Google or Microsoft calendar under Integrations. Your meetings sync to the Otter homepage, and you choose which ones the Notetaker joins.