Otter's plans are built around meetings it attends. When your audio arrives as a file, the number governing your experience is not the one the pricing page leads with.
How to read their pricing page
Monthly minutes, a cap on any single conversation, and a separate allowance for importing files you already hold.
Basic is free and lists 300 transcription minutes monthly, a 30-minute cap on any single conversation, 3 lifetime audio or video file imports, 25 conversations of history and 20 AI chat queries per user monthly. Pro is listed at $16.99 per user monthly or $8.33 billed annually, with 1,200 in-app recording minutes, up to 90 minutes per meeting and 10 file imports monthly.
Business is listed at $30 per user monthly or $19.99 annually, with unlimited meetings and in-app recordings, up to 4 hours per meeting and unlimited imports, and Enterprise is quoted on request, checked September 2026. The figure worth pausing on is that 3 file imports on the free plan is a lifetime number, not a monthly one.
Side-by-side
Otter figures come from their own pricing page, checked September 2026. Their site is the authority on today's limits and prices.
| Feature | Whipscribe | Otter |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Credit packs bought once, no seats, nothing renewing | Per-user seats with monthly minute allowances |
| Free tier | A first transcript for $0.99, readable in full, at any length | Basic: 300 transcription minutes monthly, 30 minutes maximum per conversation, 25 conversations of history (checked September 2026) |
| Uploading files you already have | No cap on how many, with each file up to 10 hours or 5 GB | Basic lists 3 lifetime audio or video file imports; Pro 10 monthly; Business unlimited (checked September 2026) |
| Entry paid tier | $8 for 1,000 minutes, roughly 16 hours of audio | Pro at $16.99 per user monthly or $8.33 annually, with 1,200 in-app recording minutes (checked September 2026) |
| Higher tier | $12 for 2,000 minutes and $24 for 5,000 | Business at $30 per user monthly or $19.99 annually, with unlimited meetings and in-app recordings (checked September 2026) |
| Length of a single recording | Up to 3 hours on the free one, and up to 10 hours per file thereafter | 30 minutes per conversation on Basic, 90 on Pro and 4 hours on Business (checked September 2026) |
| Attending live meetings | Not offered, because we do not make a meeting bot | The core of the product, and why most people buy it |
For meetings, the seat buys something real. For a folder of recordings, the import allowance stops you first.
Where the limits bite
On free Basic that file passes the 30-minute cap on any one conversation, and it spends one of the three lifetime imports. Two more recordings and the free plan has nothing left to give, whatever the monthly minute count says.
Here that recording sits inside the 3-hour limit on the free first transcript, so it costs nothing. Afterwards, 90 minutes is about 72 cents of an $8 pack.
If your audio is meetings rather than files, none of this counts against Otter, which is priced for exactly that.
Reading your own usage
Their allowances assume audio arrives through a meeting.
Lectures, depositions and long-form interviews run past the per-conversation caps on the lower tiers.
A back-catalogue is imports, not meetings, and import allowances are the easiest part of a plan to overlook.
A per-user monthly seat assumes a weekly rhythm. Occasional work is cheaper as minutes waiting in a balance.
Questions people ask first
Basic lists 300 transcription minutes monthly, a maximum of 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime audio or video file imports, 25 conversations of history and 20 AI chat queries per user monthly, checked September 2026.
Yes, within an allowance. Basic lists 3 lifetime audio or video file imports, Pro 10 monthly and Business unlimited, checked September 2026. That lifetime figure surprises people who mainly upload.
Pro is listed at $16.99 per user monthly or $8.33 billed annually, and Business at $30 per user monthly or $19.99 annually, with Enterprise quoted on request, checked September 2026.
On Otter, yes: 30 minutes per conversation on Basic, 90 on Pro and 4 hours on Business, checked September 2026. Here the free first transcript at any length, and paid files run to 10 hours or 5 GB.
No. Otter is built around attending meetings, the main reason to buy it. We have no meeting bot and instead transcribe files you send and links you paste.
See also: Otter alternative · Sonix pricing explained · Descript pricing explained
First transcript free and whole, at any length, with no import allowance and no cap on any single conversation.
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