Otter.ai

What it does

Otter.ai records and transcribes meetings, then writes summaries and picks out decisions and action items. It works across Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. You can have an Otter agent join the call, record bot-free from the Mac or Windows desktop app or the Chrome extension, or capture on mobile. Otter AI Chat lets you ask questions across your past meetings and connected apps.

Why you would need it

Nobody remembers a call in full. The pain shows up a week later, when you cannot recall what the customer agreed to, or when sales notes never made it into the CRM.

Otter keeps a searchable record. Decisions and next steps are written down for you, and CRM sync can push the key deal details into Salesforce or HubSpot. You can stop taking notes and listen.

It also helps outside sales. Educators capture lectures, media teams get searchable interview transcripts, and recruiters document candidate conversations. The common thread is that the spoken word becomes text you can search, quote and hand to someone else.

Where it fits

Otter sits next to your video tools and calendar. Calendar events decide which meetings it joins. Transcripts and summaries go out to Slack, Google Docs, Notion, Jira, Asana and your CRM. It replaces manual note taking, and the summary email somebody writes after each call.

It sits beside tools like Fireflies.ai, Fathom, tl;dv and Read AI.

What stands out

• Bot-free recording on desktop and in Chrome, for calls where a visible bot would be awkward.
• AI Chat that answers questions across all your meetings.
• CRM sync for sales teams, plus agents for SDR and recruiting work.
• An official MCP server on every plan, including the free one, so Claude and ChatGPT can read your meeting knowledge.

My take

I'd pick Otter when the main need is a reliable transcript and a searchable meeting history. The free plan is usable for trying it with real calls. The MCP server is a real plus for anyone who works in Claude or ChatGPT and wants meetings as context.

I'd check the limits before a team commits, since minutes are capped on lower plans and per-meeting length differs by tier. The public API is only for Enterprise workspaces, so deeper automation needs the top plan.

Verdict

Pick Otter if you want strong transcription and searchable calls across sales, education or media work. Skip it if you need a free unlimited recorder or heavy API access without an Enterprise plan.