5 Free Alternatives to Otter.ai in 2026
Otter.ai Free limits you to 300 minutes/month with a 30-minute cap per meeting. These free transcription tools give you more minutes and fewer restrictions.
| Tool | Free Plan | Best For | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fathom | Unlimited Zoom transcription | Zoom meeting notes | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Fireflies.ai | 800 minutes/month | All meeting platforms | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Whisper (OpenAI) | Free open source | Offline transcription | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Google Meet Transcription | Free in Google Workspace | Google Meet users | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Microsoft Teams Transcription | Free with M365 | Teams users | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
1. Fathom
#1 PickFathom gives unlimited free transcription for Zoom meetings — no minute limits, no conversation caps. It also generates AI-powered meeting summaries and action items automatically.
What you get
- Unlimited Zoom transcriptions — truly free
- AI-generated meeting summaries
- Action item detection
- Speaker identification
- Highlight clipping
What's missing
- Zoom only on free plan
- Other platforms need paid plan
2. Fireflies.ai
Best Multi-PlatformFireflies joins Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex meetings automatically to transcribe and summarize — 800 free minutes per month across all platforms.
What you get
- 800 minutes/month free
- Works with all major meeting platforms
- AI summary and action items
- Searchable transcript archive
- Chrome extension for web meetings
What's missing
- 800-minute monthly cap
- Storage limited on free plan
3. Whisper (Open Source)
Best for Offline FilesOpenAI's Whisper is a state-of-the-art transcription model you can run locally for free — unlimited, offline, and works on any audio or video file.
What you get
- Completely free — no limits
- Runs locally, no data sent online
- 99 languages supported
- Works on audio and video files
- Best-in-class accuracy
What's missing
- Requires technical setup (Python/command line)
- No real-time meeting join
- Processing time depends on hardware
Why look for free alternatives to Otter.ai?
Otter.ai transcribes meetings, interviews, and voice recordings in real-time with speaker identification, making it popular for journalists, researchers, students, and remote teams. Its free tier is fairly generous compared to competitors, but power users quickly hit the monthly transcription minute limits.
How much does Otter.ai cost?
Otter Basic is free with 300 monthly transcription minutes, limited to 30 minutes per conversation, and 3 audio file imports per month. Otter Pro costs $10/month (annual) for 1,200 minutes/month, unlimited conversation length, and advanced search. Business is $20/user/month.
Our verdict
For meeting transcription, Fathom (free, unlimited for Zoom meetings), Fireflies.ai Free (800 minutes/month), and Microsoft Teams' built-in transcription (free with Microsoft 365) are strong alternatives. For audio file transcription, the open-source Whisper model is completely free to run locally.
Some outbound links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. This never affects which tools we list or how we rank them.