# Otter.ai on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet: Full Setup Guide

> How to set up Otter.ai's Notetaker on Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet: calendar sync, auto-join rules, admin settings and bot-free recording.

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

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Otter.ai joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet through one bot, Otter Notetaker (formerly OtterPilot), on every plan including the free Basic. Connect a Google or Microsoft calendar and the Notetaker auto-joins every event that carries a valid meeting link, unless you change that default. Each platform then adds one gate of its own: Zoom needs the host's local-recording permission, Teams must admit anonymous guests, and Google Meet may ask a person to let the bot past a risk warning. Your plan decides how many meetings it covers at once: 1 on Basic, 2 on Pro, 3 on Business and Enterprise[1]. The Zoom extras need Business plus a paid Zoom plan. Prefer no bot at all? The desktop app records without one.


**1 / 2 / 3** — Meetings the Notetaker can join at once on Basic / Pro / Business and Enterprise



- **3 platforms** — Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet links
- **30 min** — Make calendar changes at least this long before a meeting
- **4 hours** — Longest conversation on Business and Enterprise


## Step 1: Connect the calendar that actually holds your meetings

Otter reads your meetings from Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 Outlook online. iPhone users can also add the iOS Calendar from the iOS app; Android users get Google and Microsoft only. You can connect several calendars, and the calendar's email does not have to match your Otter login. Two limits trip people up. Only the primary calendar of each connected account syncs, so secondary, subscribed and holiday calendars stay invisible to the Notetaker. And on-premises Exchange cannot connect at all; only the Microsoft account behind an online calendar works.

Zoom users can also connect their Zoom account to sync Zoom calendar meetings. The More Zoom integrations toggle is not needed for that; it matters only for Live Notes and Cloud Sync, covered below. The auto-join, auto-share and chat-message settings live in Account Settings under Meetings and apply to every meeting the Notetaker joins. Make calendar edits at least 30 minutes before a meeting, or the event may not sync in time and you will have to add Otter by hand. A change to a recurring event carries to all future occurrences.


> 💡 **Narrow auto-join right after connecting:** Set the default auto-join to Meetings I manually select, then switch on the per-event toggle only for the meetings you want recorded.


## Step 2: Choose which meetings the Notetaker joins

The default is the broadest setting: every calendar event with a Zoom, Meet or Teams link. **Change it before your first meeting**, because the Notetaker can also share notes with guests automatically. The other options are meetings you host, external meetings, internal meetings (only in a Workspace with a business domain) and meetings you manually select. Each synced event also has its own Notetaker toggle. Events you toggle by hand keep that setting when the default changes, and switching on one recurring event covers the series. Workspace admins can set the default and lock it for members.

For a meeting not on a synced calendar, paste the Zoom, Meet or Teams URL on the Otter home page; the URL must include the embedded password. For a calendar event already running, the Notetaker button appears only once the meeting has started. On Basic, Pro and Business the bot joins as a visible guest named with your first name followed by Notetaker (Otter.ai); Enterprise admins can rename it. It cannot join hidden, and it posts a chat message linking to the live transcript soon after joining. To pull it out of a call or stop it for good, see our guide on [how to remove Otter.ai](/articles/how-to-remove-otter-ai).

Concurrency is a plan limit, and the count includes auto-joined and manually added Notetakers together. Inside a Workspace, deduplication sends only one Notetaker per meeting, and the organizer's takes priority when set to auto-join; that is a common reason a colleague's bot never shows up. Notetakers from other Otter workspaces can still join a meeting with outside participants, one per workspace, so a client call may hold two bots.

| Plan | Meetings joined at once | Per-conversation cap | Zoom Live Notes, Cloud Sync, webinars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 1 | 30 minutes viewable | Not included |
| Pro | 2 | 90 minutes | Not included |
| Business | 3 | 4 hours | Included, with a paid Zoom plan |
| Enterprise | 3 | 4 hours | Included, with a paid Zoom plan |

The per-conversation cap is the limit hosts notice in long meetings. On Basic the recording keeps going past 30 minutes, but only the first 30 minutes of transcript can be opened until you upgrade. On the 4-hour plans, a longer meeting needs the Notetaker added again to start a new recording. Basic and Pro also draw from one monthly minute pool per user (300 and 1,200 minutes) shared with every other recording and import; by our arithmetic, 1,200 minutes covers twenty 1-hour meetings a month. Business has no monthly cap on meeting minutes. The [pricing guide](/articles/otter-ai-pricing) covers the remaining caps.

## Zoom: the host's recording permission is the switch

The Notetaker records Zoom through Zoom's own local-recording permission, so **the host's settings decide everything**. The host must turn on Record to computer files and allow external participants to request recording permission; auto-approving those requests is optional[2]. Your settings as a guest do not count. A host who connects a Zoom account to Otter lets every Notetaker into their meetings without per-meeting approval. A host without an Otter account gets a permission pop-up each meeting, each participant must consent, and Otter emails that host setup steps 24 hours ahead.

Several things block it outright. Co-hosts cannot approve the request. Meetings hosted by Zoom Rooms are not supported. A host who denies recording removes the Notetaker immediately. A waiting room holds it until the host admits it; it keeps trying for about 12 minutes before leaving. If the host has not started the meeting, it waits up to 5 minutes across four tries. In a company account, a Zoom admin should pre-approve the Otter app in the Zoom App Marketplace so members can connect without individual approval. Zoom is also where speaker tags appear live, taken from participant names.

### Live Notes, Cloud Sync, webinars and breakout rooms

Three Zoom extras need the Business plan plus a Zoom Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education licence. Otter Business costs $19.99 per user a month billed annually or $30 per user a month billed monthly. Live Notes transcribes meetings you host in real time through Zoom livestreaming, after a one-time admin setup and a one-time host setup. Zoom asks each participant to accept the livestream or leave, and only the host or co-host can stop it. Cloud Sync works after the meeting from Zoom cloud recordings, with one Zoom host account per Otter account. Webinars run on Live Notes with webinar codes from Otter, during the scheduled time only.

Breakout rooms are the case neither extra handles. Otter records them only with Notetakers assigned to rooms, so it covers as many rooms as there are Notetakers in the meeting. Each account can send just one Notetaker to a meeting, and a Notetaker cannot be sent straight into a breakout room. Covering four rooms therefore takes four Otter accounts with their Notetakers in the main meeting. Otter's other workaround is one person per room recording on their own device. Plan this before the session starts.


> ⚠ **Zoom extras need two paid plans:** Live Notes, Cloud Sync and Zoom webinar recording need Otter Business plus a Zoom Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education licence; on Basic and Pro you get the Notetaker only.


## Microsoft Teams: let an anonymous guest through

In Teams the Notetaker joins as an anonymous guest and cannot sign in with a Microsoft account, so the organization's Teams settings decide whether it gets in[3]. In the Teams admin center two settings are required: Anonymous users can join a meeting in meeting settings, and Anonymous users can join a meeting unverified in the meeting policy. Letting anonymous users bypass the lobby is optional; without it, someone may have to admit the Notetaker by hand. Meetings hosted by another organization follow that organization's policies, which explains a bot that joins some Teams calls and not others.

Expect two labels. Teams marks the Notetaker as Unverified, because Microsoft has labeled unverified guests since February 2024. A Limited call features banner may also appear; Otter calls it a Teams display issue, and a Teams admin can hide it with the HideBannerForAllowedAcsUsers setting. Neither label means the recording failed. Enterprise workspaces can add a recording permission page for Teams through the Otter for Outlook extension. It needs a Microsoft Enterprise licence, is turned on by Otter's account manager, and works in Outlook web and desktop but not Outlook mobile.

### Admin consent in Microsoft Entra

Connecting Microsoft calendars is the other hurdle in managed tenants. A Microsoft Entra Global Administrator or Application Administrator can grant Otter's permissions for the whole tenant, so users skip individual approval prompts; that admin does not need an Otter account. Otter asks for the Microsoft Graph permissions User.Read, offline_access, Calendars.Read and Contacts.Read, plus openid and profile. Grant the calendar permissions too: consent for sign-in alone still blocks users from connecting their Microsoft calendar. Revoking these permissions later can break existing calendar connections, and users may need to reconnect.

## Google Meet: the risk warning and the Chrome extension

Google Meet may show a Potential risk warning when the Notetaker asks to join, and the host or another authorized participant may have to admit it. Otter cannot switch the warning off. A Google Workspace admin should confirm that policy does not block external bots or apps. If nobody admits the Notetaker within the waiting period, it leaves and records nothing. Anything shared on screen before it starts recording is not captured. No extra recording setting is needed on the Google side.

The Chrome extension works on all plans, but only in Chrome and only with Zoom and Google Meet links, not Teams[4]. On Meet it adds a floating live transcript panel; for Zoom, the live transcript sits in My Conversations instead. Its Record on my device instead option captures the meeting without sending a bot, and it exists for Google Meet only. Through the extension Otter transcribes only English (US or UK), Spanish and French, so meetings in German, Japanese or Chinese need another capture route. The extension can also add Otter meeting notes to Google Calendar events, not Outlook ones.


> 💡 **Admit the bot before sharing:** On Google Meet, anything shared on screen before the Notetaker starts recording is not captured, so admit it first.


## Skip the bot: record from the desktop app

When a guest rule or a wary client keeps the Notetaker out, the desktop app for Mac and Windows records supported meetings from your device without joining as a participant. It needs macOS 12.3 or later or Windows 10 or later, and it works with headphones on. It detects Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and Slack huddles among other apps, and on Teams it can post a custom recording message of up to 128 characters in the meeting chat. Nobody has to admit anything. That cuts both ways.

A bot-free recording shows other participants nothing unless you tell them, and Otter's Terms leave you solely responsible for notice and consent. So pick the route per meeting, not per account: the Notetaker for internal calls where everyone knows Otter is present, the desktop app where the host's Zoom permissions, a locked Teams tenant or a Meet warning would stop a guest at the door. Minutes from either route come out of the same monthly pool on Basic and Pro, so switching routes never stretches a cap.


## FAQ

**When does the Otter Notetaker leave a meeting on its own?**

It leaves after 12 continuous minutes of silence, or after 5 minutes of silence once the meeting runs past its scheduled end, and it posts a chat warning first.

**Who receives the notes after a calendar meeting?**

Auto-share can send recordings from calendar events to all guests, same-domain guests, your workspace members or nobody. With auto-share on, guests get a summary email within 2 hours, and guests without an Otter account must create one to view it.

**Can the Otter Notetaker join a meeting that requires signing in?**

No. It cannot join meetings where the host requires participants to sign in to the conferencing app; the meeting must allow external guests.

**Can the meeting host get a warning before the Notetaker joins?**

Yes. A setting in Account Settings under Meetings notifies the host 24 hours in advance, and optional pre-recording emails can tell all calendar guests that the Notetaker will join and record.


## The bottom line

Setting up Otter on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet is mostly a permissions job, not an Otter job. Connect the primary calendar, narrow auto-join before the first meeting, then clear the one gate each platform sets: the host's local-recording permission on Zoom, anonymous guest access on Teams (and Entra consent for Microsoft calendars in managed tenants), a person ready to admit the bot on Meet. Buy Business if your meetings run past Pro's 90-minute conversation cap or its 1,200 monthly minutes, or if you need Live Notes, Cloud Sync, webinars or a third concurrent meeting. Keep the desktop app for calls where a visible bot will not get in.



## Sources

[1] Pricing — https://otter.ai/pricing (2026-11)
[2] Otter help: Set up Otter Notetaker to join your Zoom meeting — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/19504911385495-Set-up-Otter-Notetaker-to-join-your-Zoom-meeting (2026-11)
[3] Otter help: Set up Otter Notetaker to join Microsoft Teams Meeting — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/42873945911703-Set-up-Otter-Notetaker-to-join-Microsoft-Teams-Meeting (2026-11)
[4] Otter help: Otter Chrome extension — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us/articles/1500001857021-Otter-Chrome-extension (2026-11)
[5] Otter.ai help center — https://help.otter.ai/hc/en-us
[6] Otter.ai Terms of Service — https://otter.ai/terms-of-service
[7] Otter.ai Privacy Policy — https://otter.ai/privacy-policy