Compare notetakers
Otter vs tl;dv
Otter and tl;dv compared on what their own pages say, row by row — nothing about either in our words except a plain reading at the end.
Otter and tl;dv, row by row
| Otter | tl;dv | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan: how much | “300 monthly transcription minutes” — Basic, the free plan source | “10x meetings with AI notes included” — Free; recordings themselves are not capped source |
| Free plan: longest meeting | “Max transcription time per conversation 30 minutes” — Basic, the free plan source | “Recording limit 3h” — every plan, the free one included source |
| Free plan: how much is kept | “Conversation history 25 most recent” — Basic, the free plan source | “up to 3 months” — how long the free plan keeps meetings source |
| Cheapest paid plan | “$8.33 user/month” — Pro, billed yearly source | “$18” — Pro, a seat a month billed yearly source |
| How it gets into a meeting | “Joins Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet to automatically write and share notes” source | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Meeting apps | “Zoom, MS Teams, and Google Meet” source | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Who said what | “Speaker identification (by name)” source | “Automatic speaker detection” source |
| Languages | “AI transcription in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese” source | “Unlimited transcription in 100+ languages” — the free plan included source |
| Video recording | “Video replay for Zoom and Google Meet” — Enterprise source | “Unlimited video recordings” — Free source |
| Downloads and export | “Exportable audio, text, and captions mp3, txt” — free plan; pdf, docx and srt are on paid plans source | “Download recording” source |
| Single sign-on | “Single Sign-On (SSO) minimum 100-user license required” source | “Custom SSO (SAML, OIDC)” — Enterprise source |
| API | “Otter API & Webhooks” — Enterprise source | “API, webhooks, and MCP server” — Pro and up source |
Every cell is the company's own words, linked. Prices change — this is what each page said on 10 November 2026. Something changed? Tell us.
What the two pages add up to
- tl;dv’s free plan does not cap recordings but writes AI notes for ten meetings; Otter’s free plan caps transcription at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes a conversation.
- tl;dv lists transcription in over 100 languages, on the free plan as well; Otter lists six.
- tl;dv’s free plan keeps meetings for up to three months; Otter’s keeps your 25 most recent conversations.
Which matters for your meetings
If your calls run past half an hour, Otter's free plan cuts them off and tl;dv's does not until three hours. The catch on tl;dv's side is the AI notes: ten meetings get them, then the recordings keep coming but the summaries stop. On paid plans Otter is the cheaper of the two by more than half.
What that comes to, worked out
Take a weekly 90-minute planning meeting. On Otter's free plan each one is written down to minute 30 and the rest is lost; four of them use 120 of the 300 monthly minutes. On tl;dv's free plan each is recorded whole, being under three hours, and the first ten get AI notes, which is ten weeks of planning meetings, after which the recordings carry on without them. A paid year is $99.96 on Otter Pro and $216 on tl;dv Pro, each for one person billed yearly.
The sums use only the numbers quoted above. Yearly prices are the monthly figure times twelve.
Where Meetful is different from both
Meetful is a meeting app rather than a notetaker you add to someone else's call. It transcribes each person from their own microphone, so every line carries the name of whoever said it without guessing, and there is no bot in the participant list. The notes, the recording and the transcript are free, and anybody in the meeting can leave themselves out of the notes.
Other comparisons
Try Meetful
Meetings that take their own notes
Free video meetings in the browser: every line of the transcript under the name of who said it, and the summary and action items when you hang up. Nothing to install — guests just open the link.