Otter.ai alternatives: what to use instead, free and paid
People leave Otter over the bot that joins their calls, the free plan’s limits, or the lawsuit over recording without consent. Here’s what to switch to, including a free option that’s already on your iPhone.
The short answer
For most people leaving Otter, Granola is the switch: no bot joins the call, the free plan writes AI notes and keeps 30 days of history, and Business is $14 a month per person for unlimited history. If your calls are phone or FaceTime calls, try your iPhone first: since iOS 18.1 it can record the call and put the transcript in Notes, free, in supported countries and languages. If you’re staying with Otter because its bot joins Zoom, Teams and Meet for you, pay yearly: Pro is $8.49 a month that way instead of $16.99. And whatever you use, tell people you’re recording. Switching apps doesn’t settle the consent question at the heart of the Otter lawsuit.
The tools in this take
GranolaMeeting notepad for Mac and Windows. You type brief notes during a call; it expands them afterward. No bot joins the meeting.Free · Beginner-friendly
Otter.aiMeeting recorder that joins online calls, transcribes speech and emails a summary. Free and paid plans.Free · Beginner-friendly
Fireflies.aiMeeting recorder aimed at sales teams. Records calls, links them to a CRM and makes them searchable.Free plan · Beginner-friendly
Notion AIAI inside the Notion notes app. Summarizes pages, drafts writing, and answers questions about your notes.Free trial · Beginner-friendly
In this take
Side by side
| Tool | Best for | Free? | What it costs | Skip if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granola | Video calls, with no bot in the meeting | Yes: AI notes, 30 days of history | Business $14/month per person, unlimited history | You want notes from meetings you don’t attend |
| iPhone call recording | Phone and FaceTime audio calls | Yes, built in from iOS 18.1 | Free; summaries need Apple Intelligence | Your calls happen on Zoom or Teams |
| Otter (staying) | A bot that joins Zoom, Teams and Meet for you | Yes: 300 minutes a month | Pro $16.99/month, or $8.49/month billed yearly (1,200 minutes) | Clients object to a bot in the call |
| Notion AI Meeting Notes | Notes that land straight in Notion | Only a trial on Free and Plus | Business, $20 per member a month | You don’t use Notion |
Checked October 23, 2026 on each maker’s own pages. Otter’s yearly Pro price is shown per month. Apple’s call transcripts work only in some countries, regions and languages.
Why people leave Otter
Otter’s free Basic plan gives you 300 transcription minutes a month and only 3 audio or video file imports for the life of the account, per its pricing page. Its assistant joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls for you, which is the feature people either love or can’t stand.
Then there’s the lawsuit. In August 2025 a class action claimed Otter recorded conversations on video-call platforms without the consent of everyone in the call, as Fisher Phillips, an employment law firm, summarized it. By July 2026 it had become a consolidated case in federal court in California, per a r/legaltech write-up. These are claims a court hasn’t ruled on, but they’re a good reason to think twice about a bot that records a call by itself.
Granola, the switch for most people
Granola doesn’t send anything into your call. Its pricing page describes bot-free capture from your own device’s audio, with desktop, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch apps. The free Basic plan writes AI notes, lets you chat with them and keeps 30 days of history. Business, at $14 a month per person, keeps everything and adds integrations such as Notion, HubSpot and Zapier.
The detail worth knowing: the same page lists a setting to let people know you’re using Granola on every plan, and on Enterprise an admin can make it mandatory. No bot is quieter, but it isn’t the same as consent, so use that setting or say it out loud. The catch with any no-bot tool is that it only hears meetings you’re in, on a device that’s running it.
Free on iPhone: record the call itself
If your important calls are phone or FaceTime audio calls, you may not need an app. Apple’s support page says that starting in iOS 18.1 you can record those calls and find the recording and transcript in the Notes app. Transcripts work in select regions and languages, and a summary needs Apple Intelligence, per Apple’s iPhone guide.
For a meeting in a room, Notes can record and transcribe audio directly. Neither one helps with Zoom or Teams calls on a computer, which is where Granola comes in.
If you stay with Otter
Otter still does the thing Granola won’t: its assistant joins the call and records it, so nothing has to run on your own device. If that’s why you use it, pay yearly. The pricing page shows Pro at $16.99 a month, or $8.49 a month billed yearly, with 1,200 minutes and meetings up to 90 minutes long. Business lists at $30 a user a month for unlimited meetings and up to 4 hours each.
Want a bot sometimes and not other times? Fireflies’ pricing page lists a Chrome extension mode that records without the Fireflies bot; more on our Fireflies page. If your notes live in Notion anyway, its Business plan includes AI Meeting Notes, and our Notion AI alternatives page works out when that’s cheaper.
What we’d do
Zoom, Teams or Meet calls you attend: Granola, free until 30 days of history isn’t enough. Phone calls: the iPhone’s built-in recording. Want an assistant to join and record for you: stay on Otter and pay yearly. In every case, tell people you’re recording.
Related reading on ShipRadar: best AI meeting note taker, AI tools for meeting notes and AI tools to transcribe audio.
Sources
Published October 23, 2026. This is ShipRadar’s editorial opinion. Claims are paraphrased from the sources above; we don’t invent quotes, ratings or numbers.