Minute vs Otter
An Otter alternative with no bot and no minute limits
Otter's assistant joins your Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet calls, and its free Basic plan includes 300 transcription minutes a month. Minute is a free Otter alternative. It records on your Mac, no bot joins the call, there is no monthly quota, and transcription runs offline.
Version 1.13.0 · Mac only, macOS 11 or later · Signed and notarized by Apple
Minute and Otter, side by side
| Feature | Minute | Otter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free and open source, MIT license | Basic is free. Pro lists at $16.99 per user per month. Business lists at $30. |
| Limits | No monthly quota and no cap per meeting | On Basic, 300 transcription minutes a month and 30 minutes at most per conversation |
| Bot in the call | No. Minute records your microphone and, on macOS 13 or later, system audio. | Otter's assistant "joins Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet to automatically write and share notes" |
| Transcription | Whisper, on your Mac, offline after a one-time model download | In Otter's cloud |
| File import | None. Minute transcribes what it records. | 3 lifetime file imports on Basic |
Checked on 10 November 2026 against otter.ai/pricing. Minute facts come from its README.
No bot in your call
Minute does not join your meeting. It records your microphone. On macOS 13 or later, it can also capture system audio, which is how it hears the other people on the call. System audio needs the Screen Recording permission. Nobody on the call sees a new participant.
Turn on meeting detection and Minute offers to record when a call starts in Zoom, Teams, Webex, Slack, FaceTime, Discord, or a browser, Google Meet included. It checks which apps use the microphone. It does not listen to do this.
No minutes to run out of
Minute has no account and no plan, so it has no monthly quota and no limit per meeting. Whisper transcribes on your Mac in 99 languages. When the recording stops, a local language model writes the summary, the decisions, and the action items. Ask answers questions about the meeting and links each answer to the moment it was said.
There is one limit. If a meeting is too long for the summary model, the summary says that it covers only part of the recording.
When Otter is the better choice
Minute is not the right Otter AI alternative for everyone. Otter fits better in three cases.
You want notes written and shared for you.
Otter's assistant joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet calls to do this. Minute keeps each note on your Mac, and you share it yourself.
You need to transcribe recordings you already have.
Otter's Basic plan includes three file imports. Minute has no file import.
You do not use a Mac.
Minute runs only on macOS 11 or later. Apple silicon is the tested target, and the Intel build is not yet tested on real Intel hardware.
Keep your meetings on your Mac.
Minute is the free, offline AI note taker for macOS.
Version 1.13.0 · Signed and notarized by Apple · macOS 11 or later
See everything Minute does