What you'll accomplish
By the end of this guide, you'll have Otter.ai set up to automatically transcribe any meeting — Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, or in-person — and generate an AI summary and action items that you can turn into official meeting notes in about 10 minutes instead of 45.
What you'll need
- A smartphone or laptop (Otter works on both)
- An Otter.ai account (free tier works for up to 300 minutes/month — enough for 10-15 meetings)
- Time needed: 30 minutes for initial setup; 5 minutes per meeting after that
- Cost: Free (300 min/month) | $17/month Pro (6,000 min/month) | $20/month Business (unlimited + team sharing)
How-To Guide: Real-Time Meeting Transcription with Otter.ai
Step 1: Create your Otter.ai account
Go to otter.ai → click "Sign up for free" → use your work email or Google account. Your free account includes 300 transcription minutes per month, which resets monthly.
What you should see: Your Otter.ai dashboard — a clean page with "Import" and "Record" buttons at the top.
Troubleshooting: If your work email domain is blocked from external tools, use a personal Gmail account instead. Transcripts are private to your account.