# Otter.ai Pricing: Plans, Real Team Costs, Minute Caps, Discounts

> Otter.ai Pro is $8.33 and Business $19.99 per user a month, both billed annually. Real costs for 1, 5 and 25 users, break-even, minute caps and discounts.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/otter-ai-pricing — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_

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Otter.ai has four plans, all priced per user. Basic is free with no time limit. Pro costs $16.99 per user a month billed monthly, or $8.33 per user a month billed annually. Business costs $19.99 per user a month billed annually, or $30 per user a month billed monthly. Enterprise is sold through sales, and Otter publishes no Enterprise price.[1] Our verdict is short. Pro billed annually is the cheap seat, but its 1,200 transcription minutes per user a month are the real ceiling, and Pro stops at 5 billed users. People who record more than about 4.6 hours a week, or teams of six or more, end up on Business.


**$8.33 per user a month billed annually** — Otter.ai Pro on annual billing ($16.99 per user a month billed monthly)



- **1,200 min** — Pro transcription minutes per user a month, no rollover
- **5 users** — Pro's maximum billed users; Business goes to 25
- **6 months** — Use after which Pro billed annually beats monthly billing


## Four plans, each priced per user



> **About these prices:** Prices shown are what Otter.ai lists for visitors in the United States, in US dollars. Your price can differ by country, currency and local taxes such as VAT. Check your current price — Otter.ai: https://api.colosus.site/go/otter-ai?to=pricing


| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Transcription minutes | Per conversation | Workspace size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | Free | 300 per user a month | 30 minutes | Up to 5 members |
| Pro | $16.99 per user a month, billed monthly | $8.33 per user a month, billed annually | 1,200 per user a month | 90 minutes | Up to 5 billed users |
| Business | $30 per user a month, billed monthly (first-time subscribers: $24 for the first 3 months) | $19.99 per user a month, billed annually | No monthly cap on meeting and in-app recordings; imports 6,000 per user a month | 4 hours | Up to 25 billed users |
| Enterprise | Through sales, no published price | Through sales, no published price | As Business | 4 hours | Unlimited |

Basic needs no card and keeps working indefinitely, but it shows only your 25 most recent conversations and allows 3 file imports per user for the life of the account. Pro removes the history limit and adds pdf, docx and srt exports, advanced search, an automation connector and synced CRM notes for one user. Business adds 3 concurrent meetings instead of 2, workspace usage analytics and admin logs, bulk export, cloud-storage auto-sync, CRM sync for 5 users and prioritized email support. Enterprise is where SSO and SCIM live, with a **100-user minimum license**, along with the public API, webhooks and HIPAA as an add-on under a signed BAA.

## What 1, 5 and 25 users actually pay

For one person, the spread is wide. By our arithmetic, a single Pro seat comes to $99.96 a year billed annually, or $203.88 a year billed monthly. A single Business seat comes to $239.88 a year billed annually, $360 a year at the $30 monthly list price, or $342 in the first year for a first-time subscriber who pays $24 a month for the first three months on monthly billing. Pick by minutes, not by features. A solo user who stays under 1,200 minutes a month has no reason to pay Business rates.

Five users is Pro's limit. Pro for five costs $41.65 a month billed annually ($499.80 a year), or $84.95 a month billed monthly ($1,019.40 a year). Business for the same five costs $99.95 a month billed annually ($1,199.40 a year), or $150 a month billed monthly ($1,800 a year, or $1,710 in the first year for first-time subscribers). The sixth person changes everything. Pro cannot bill a sixth user, so a team of six pays Business rates for every seat.

At 25 users only Business fits. That is $499.75 a month billed annually ($5,997 a year), or $750 a month billed monthly ($9,000 a year, $8,550 in the first year for first-time subscribers). The 26th seat moves the whole team to an Enterprise quote. Per user, the step from Pro to Business is $11.66 a month on annual billing ($139.92 a year), $13.01 a month on monthly billing at list, and $7.01 a month during the three discounted months. Pay that step only for what Business adds: **no cap on meeting minutes**, 4-hour conversations, unlimited imports within 6,000 minutes, and the admin tools.


> 💡 **Count minutes before choosing seats:** Pro covers 1,200 transcription minutes per user a month and at most 5 billed users. Move to Business only if someone regularly records more, or the team grows past five.


Units differ across rivals, so compare carefully. Fireflies.ai lists Pro at $10 per seat a month (8,000 minutes of storage per seat) and Business at $19 per seat a month (unlimited storage), both billed annually, with unlimited transcription instead of minute caps. Notion Business costs $20 per seat a month billed annually or $24 billed monthly, and its AI Meeting Notes sit inside a full workspace product. Granola Business costs $14 per user a month billed monthly, and Granola sells annual billing only on Enterprise. So the fair Otter figure against Granola is Pro at $16.99 per user a month billed monthly, never the annual one. Our [Otter.ai alternatives guide](/articles/otter-ai-alternatives) covers the rest.

## Annual or monthly: where the break-even falls

On Pro, annual billing saves $103.92 a year per user by our arithmetic, which matches the 51% saving Otter shows on its pricing page. Annual wins if you keep Pro six months or longer, because a year billed annually equals about 5.9 months of monthly billing. Under six months, monthly is cheaper. Since subscriptions are non-refundable, annual billing is really a bet that you will still want Otter in month six, so a short project or a trial run belongs on monthly billing.

Business works the same way with a later crossover. Annual billing sits 33% under the $30 monthly list price and wins from the eighth month of use. The first-time offer pushes that to the ninth month, because three months at $24 lower the monthly path. The offer applies only to monthly billing, only to first-time subscribers and only for the first three months; after that, monthly Business is $30 per user a month. Switching from annual to monthly takes effect at the next cycle and may remove the annual discount.


> 💡 **Commit annually only past six months:** Pro billed annually beats Pro billed monthly from the sixth month of use; Business billed annually beats the $30 per user a month monthly list price from the eighth month. Subscriptions are non-refundable, so start monthly if unsure.


## Minute caps are the hidden cost

The minutes on Basic and Pro form one shared pool per user. Meeting recordings, in-app recordings, imported files and integrations such as Zapier all draw from it. Unused minutes do not roll over, deleting a conversation gives none back, and the pool resets on your billing-cycle date rather than the 1st of the month. **Otter sells no extra minutes**; its help center says to upgrade instead.[2]

Basic's 300 minutes equal 5 hours a month, about 69 minutes a week, or ten 30-minute conversations. The per-conversation cap usually bites first: any meeting longer than 30 minutes keeps recording, but only the first 30 minutes of transcript stay viewable until you upgrade. When the monthly pool runs out, recording and importing stop until the next cycle. Pro's 1,200 minutes equal 20 hours a month, about 4.6 hours a week, which covers twenty 1-hour meetings or thirteen 90-minute ones. Above that, Business is the only self-serve answer. More on the free tier is in [Is Otter.ai free?](/articles/is-otter-ai-free).

Business is not limitless either. Meeting and in-app recordings have no monthly cap, but every conversation stops at 4 hours, and imported files are capped at 6,000 minutes, or 100 hours, per user a month. Imports have their own counts lower down: Basic gets 3 files per user for the account's lifetime, Pro gets 10 a month. Each file can be up to 5 GB.


> ⚠ **Deleted recordings still use minutes:** On Basic and Pro, deleting a conversation gives no minutes back, unused minutes do not roll over, and Otter sells no extra minutes; it says to upgrade instead.


## Discounts, and what coupon searchers can actually get

Otter publishes three price breaks. Students and teachers with a .edu email get 20% off Pro: $6.67 a month billed $79.99 annually, or $13.59 a month on Pro Monthly. The discount covers only the individual Pro plan, without Workspace features. It takes credit cards only, with no invoices or purchase orders. Anyone in a Workspace must leave it first, and anyone already paying must cancel, with no refund of earlier fees. Students, faculty and full-time staff of accredited schools, nonprofit educational institutions and school districts qualify. Affiliated hospitals and government education offices do not. A school domain not ending in .edu goes through support. See [Otter.ai for students](/articles/otter-ai-for-students).

Nonprofits get a Business discount, but only after validation through TechSoup. The coupon is redeemed at checkout with Annual selected and cannot be applied to a plan that is already active.[3] If the organization does not renew through TechSoup, the plan renews at the regular Business rate. Otter's help page states no percentage. The third break is the first-time Business offer on monthly billing described above. Referrals earn promotional credits or Pro Lite access, and a referred friend gets one month of Pro Lite with 300 minutes a month. Business users are excluded, and Pro Lite cannot be bought. Those are the discounts Otter itself publishes. Treat any other code as unproven until it works at checkout.

## Billing rules that change the real cost

Under Otter's Terms, subscriptions are non-refundable; Otter documents narrow exceptions elsewhere: a Domain Capture migration, and an Enterprise contract ended for Otter's breach.[4] Plans renew automatically for the same period. Cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date. Only the owner or an admin can cancel, and Business cancels on the web only. Paid features last until the period ends, then the account drops to Basic. A subscription can be paused once instead. Plans bought through Apple or Google are billed, cancelled and refunded in that store, and buying on the web before a store plan expires risks a double charge.

Otter advertises a free trial for Business, not for Pro. The Business trial lasts 7 days and needs a card. Nothing is charged during the trial, but at the end Otter charges the card for every current seat at the monthly Business rate unless an admin cancels first. Seats added mid-cycle are charged pro rata. Removing a user may give a prorated credit with no cash value, depending on plan and contract, not a refund. Owners and admins count as paid licenses, so a team cannot add a billing-only seat for free.


## FAQ

**Can I pay for Otter.ai with PayPal or by invoice?**

Not with PayPal: Otter's pricing FAQ says not yet. Self-serve plans take credit and debit cards on the website or in-app purchase through Apple or Google; bank transfer and invoicing are only for subscriptions bought through Otter's sales team.

**Do Otter.ai prices include sales tax?**

Otter adds sales tax on website purchases where required, calculated from the billing address. Prices in the App Store and Google Play already include tax.

**What happens if an Otter.ai payment fails?**

Otter retries a failed payment up to 3 times; after that the account drops to the free Basic plan.

**Do I lose my recordings if I downgrade to Basic?**

No. A downgrade never deletes conversations; Basic shows the 25 most recent, and older ones are archived, exportable and return when you upgrade again.


## The bottom line

Otter.ai is inexpensive at the seat level and strict at the minute level. Pro billed annually suits one to five people who record under about 4.6 hours a week each, in conversations of 90 minutes or less, and will stay six months or more. Business suits heavier recorders and teams of six to 25, and annual billing pays off from the eighth month. Students should take the .edu price and nonprofits the TechSoup route. Everyone should count minutes first, because Otter sells no top-ups and refunds only in narrow cases.



## Sources

[1] Pricing — https://otter.ai/pricing (2026-11)
[2] Otter help: When will my monthly minutes reset? — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/25205539848343-When-will-my-monthly-minutes-reset (2026-11)
[3] Otter help: Otter x TechSoup Nonprofit discount — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/15871360236951-Otter-x-TechSoup-Nonprofit-discount (2026-11)
[4] Otter.ai Terms of Service — https://otter.ai/terms-of-service (2026-11)
[5] Otter.ai help center — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us
[6] Otter.ai Privacy Policy — https://otter.ai/privacy-policy