Otter.ai Free Trial (2026) — 300 Free Minutes + No Credit Card

Otter.ai does not offer a traditional free trial — but their free plan is effectively better than a time-limited trial. You get 300 transcription minutes every month, forever, with no credit card required. That’s enough to record roughly 10 standard meetings or 5 full lecture hours. Here’s exactly what you get, what the limits are, and when it makes sense to upgrade.

Is There an Otter.ai Free Trial?

Otter.ai doesn’t offer a classic “7-day free trial” or “30-day trial” for paid plans. Instead, they have a permanent free plan (called the Basic plan) that you can use indefinitely. This is actually more generous than most free trials — you never have to enter a credit card, and the free plan doesn’t expire.

Occasionally, Otter.ai has run promotional free trials of the Pro plan through affiliate or partner channels. When these become available, we list them at ottercouponcode.com. For now, the free Basic plan is the best no-commitment starting point.

What You Get with Otter.ai’s Free Plan (No Credit Card Needed)

• ✅ 300 transcription minutes/month — resets monthly, no rollover
• ✅ Unlimited real-time recordings — record as many conversations as you want
• ✅ AI transcription in English, French, and Spanish
• ✅ Automated summaries with action items and outlines
• ✅ Live transcription via the Otter.ai app
• ✅ iOS and Android apps
• ✅ Google Meet live captioning
• ✅ 20 AI Chat queries/month (3 per conversation)
• ✅ 5 custom vocabulary terms (names, jargon, acronyms)
• ✅ Export in mp3 and txt formats
• ✅ Zoom, Teams, Meet integration (auto-joins meetings to take notes)

Otter.ai Free Plan Limits: What You Can’t Do

The free plan has meaningful restrictions that matter depending on how you use Otter.ai:

• ❌ 30-minute max per conversation — recordings cut off at 30 minutes. Long meetings require upgrading or splitting sessions.
• ❌ 3 file imports lifetime — you can only import 3 pre-recorded audio/video files ever (not per month). This resets to 10/month on Pro.
• ❌ Only 25 most recent conversations — older conversations are hidden (not deleted) until you upgrade.
• ❌ 1 concurrent meeting — can only have Otter.ai active in one meeting at a time.
• ❌ No PDF, Word, or SRT export — free plan only exports mp3 and plain text.
• ❌ No advanced playback speeds — stuck at 1x speed only.
• ❌ No bulk user management or workspace features

How to Start Your Otter.ai Free Trial

1. Go to Otter.ai and click “Get Started Free” — Start here →
2. Sign up with Google, Microsoft, or email — No credit card required at any point.
3. Download the app (optional) — Available on iOS and Android for mobile recording.
4. Install the Chrome extension — Enables live captioning and auto-joining for Zoom, Teams, and Meet.
5. Start recording — Open a new conversation in the Otter.ai dashboard and hit record.

Setup takes under 5 minutes. You’re immediately on the free plan with all 300 minutes available.

Free Plan vs Pro: When Should You Upgrade?

You should upgrade to Pro if…	Stick with Free if…
Your meetings run longer than 30 minutes	You only need short recordings (<30 min)
You record more than 10 meetings/month	You have fewer than 10 meetings monthly
You need to import pre-recorded files regularly	You only record live (no imports needed)
You need PDF or Word export for documentation	Plain text export works for your needs
You run Otter.ai in multiple meetings simultaneously	You’re in one meeting at a time

The Pro annual plan at $8.33/month is the upgrade most free users make when they hit the 30-minute session limit. It’s the most cost-effective paid option — see the full breakdown on our Otter.ai pricing page.

Otter.ai Free Trial vs Competitors (Free Tiers Compared)

Tool	Free Tier	Credit Card?	Time Limit?
Otter.ai	300 min/mo forever	No	No expiry
Fireflies.ai	Limited storage, unlimited transcription	No	No expiry
Fathom	Unlimited recordings (basic)	No	No expiry
Tactiq	5 transcripts/month	No	No expiry
Rev	Pay-per-use only	Yes	N/A

Otter.ai’s free plan is competitive — 300 minutes/month is more generous than many alternatives. But if your main concern is budget, the Otter.ai coupon codes on our homepage bring the Pro plan down to $8.33/month, which is hard to beat for the feature set.

Frequently Asked Questions