Otter in brief
Otter is an AI meeting assistant. Its AI Meeting Agent joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet calls, writes a live transcript with speaker identification and produces a summary with action items. You can also import audio and video files. There are web, mobile and desktop apps, including one for Windows. Transcription covers English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese.
The free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, and 3 audio or video imports in total, for the life of the account. Pro costs $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually; Business is $30, or $19.99 annually. (From otter.ai/pricing on 23 October 2026; prices are per user and can change.)
What VoiceKeyboard does differently
- It types for you. VoiceKeyboard's main job is dictation: press Ctrl+1 and what you say appears in any Windows program, from email to code editors. Otter's pages describe meeting notes, not typing into other apps.
- Files are transcribed on your PC. The FILES screen runs Whisper on your own computer. A recording never has to be uploaded anywhere, and there is no monthly minute count.
- Video links. Paste a YouTube link, or a public Instagram Reel, and get its text; the sound is downloaded and recognised on the PC.
- Free resets every day. One file and one link a day, up to 60 minutes each, plus 2,000 dictated words a day. Nothing runs out for good.
- More languages. Whisper hears about 99 languages in files, including Hindi, Russian, Portuguese and Ukrainian.
- No speaker labels and no summaries. VoiceKeyboard writes plain text, with timestamps on Pro. For a summary, give the .txt to an AI chat.
Side by side
| Otter | VoiceKeyboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | meeting notes and summaries | dictation into any app, plus files to text |
| Joins Zoom, Teams, Meet | yes | no |
| Types into other apps | not stated | yes |
| Free plan | 300 minutes a month, 30 per conversation, 3 imports in total | 1 file and 1 link a day up to 60 minutes each, 2,000 words of dictation a day |
| Paid plan | $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month annually | $14.99 a month, or $9.99 a month billed yearly |
| Recognition on your own PC | not stated | yes (Whisper and four other offline models) |
| Video links (YouTube and others) | not stated | yes |
| Speaker identification | yes | no |
| AI summary | yes | no |
| Transcription languages | 6 | about 99 in files; 58 to choose for dictation |
| Timestamps | yes | Pro |
| Platforms | web, mobile, Windows and Mac apps | Windows 10 and 11 |
When Otter is the better choice
- Most of your speech-to-text is meetings, and you want a bot that joins, records and sends notes.
- You need to know who said what, and to share an edited transcript with a team.
- You work across a phone, a Mac and the web.
When VoiceKeyboard fits
- You want to write by voice: emails, documents, prompts, notes, in any program.
- You transcribe lectures, interviews or videos regularly and do not want a monthly minute count or an upload.
- Your recordings should not leave the computer.
- The language is not among Otter's six.
Using both
Some people keep Otter for team calls and VoiceKeyboard for everything else. To start, install VoiceKeyboard and drop one recording on FILES; transcribing audio files offline walks through it. For lectures, see studying with lecture transcripts.
