If your meetings happen on video calls, choose Otter.
Otter.ai is software: nothing to buy, nothing to wait for. Its assistant joins your Zoom, Google Meet or Teams meetings on its own and hands you the transcript at the end. Notus is an object you put on a table, on pre-order, shipping in the first half of 2027.
The two products do not quite answer the same need. Otter is built for video conferencing; Notus for conversations in person: a client meeting, a consultation, an interview, a meeting around a table. If that is you, and if where your recordings go matters to you, the rest of this page is for you.
What Otter.ai does very well
Otter is one of the pioneers of automatic meeting transcription. Three things on which we do not claim to be ahead:
- No hardware. Otter runs in the browser, on desktop and on phones. You create an account and you are recording within a minute. Notus means buying an object and waiting for it to ship.
- Video calls. Once your calendar is connected, Otter's assistant joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams meetings without you thinking about it. For someone who spends the day on video calls, it is the most direct tool.
- A cheaper subscription. Otter Pro costs $8.33 a month billed annually, about $100 a year. Our Solo plan is €19 a month, with no annual price. If you need a paid plan, Otter is clearly cheaper.
Otter also transcribes six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese.
The comparison table
| Otter.ai | Notus | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Software (web, mobile, meeting assistant) | Pocket recorder + app |
| Entry price | $0 | €136 (device, one-off) |
| Availability | Now | First half of 2027 |
| Free tier | 300 min / month, 30 min max per conversation, 3 file imports in total | 50 h / month, 30-day storage |
| Subscription | Pro $16.99/month or $8.33/month yearly; Business $30/month or $19.99/month yearly | Solo €19/month; Pro €49/month |
| Languages | English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese | French, English |
| Hosting | Amazon Web Services, United States | France |
| AI training | On de-identified audio recordings | Never on your recordings |
| Best for | Video meetings | In-person conversations |
Price, in detail
Otter starts with an obvious advantage: its free tier needs no purchase. Notus costs €136 before the first minute is recorded. What changes the comparison is the size of the free tiers and the per-conversation limit.
Otter's Basic tier covers 300 minutes a month, but cuts each conversation at 30 minutes. An hour-long meeting goes past that, and so do most client meetings. Notus's free tier covers 50 hours a month, ten times as much time.
| Setup | Purchase | Subscription × 3 years | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter Basic (free) | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Otter Pro, yearly | $0 | ≈ $300 | ≈ $300 |
| Notus, free tier | €136 | €0 | €136 |
| Notus Founders (first 200) | €136 | €0 (Solo included) | €136 |
| Notus + Solo, non-Founders | €136 | €684 | €820 |
To say it plainly: our subscription costs more than Otter's. If you record more than 50 hours a month and pay for a plan, Otter Pro costs half as much a year as our Solo. Our price advantage rests on the free tier and on the Founders offer, reserved for the first 200 pre-orders.
What happens to your recordings
This is the real difference between the two products, and it comes down to two questions: where your conversations are stored, and whether they train an AI.
Where they are stored
Otter's privacy policy, effective 16 June 2026, states that compute and data storage are provided by Amazon Web Services, "based in the United States". Otter participates in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the mechanism that governs these transfers. That is lawful. But an American company remains subject to the CLOUD Act wherever its servers sit, a point we go through in The CLOUD Act: why a server in France is not enough.
At Notus, recordings are stored on servers in France and processed in Europe, and the summary is written by Mistral Large, the model from Mistral AI, a company based in Paris.
Whether they train the AI
The same Otter policy lists among its purposes training its proprietary AI technology "on de-identified audio recordings". It describes no way to object other than the general right to withdraw consent.
This is the subject of a class action filed in August 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Brewer v. Otter.ai). The plaintiff alleges that Otter records participants without their consent and uses those conversations to train its models. These are allegations only: no court has ruled, and Otter disputes them, pointing out that its terms make users responsible for obtaining the necessary permissions.
Notus trains no model on your recordings, and it is not a box to tick. The reason is also legal: once a conversation has trained a model, it cannot really be taken back out, as we explain in GDPR cannot un-train a model.
Video call or face to face: the overlooked criterion
An assistant like Otter's enters a meeting through the video-call software. It is of no use when your client is sitting across the desk. For those conversations, you are left with the mobile app, a phone on the table, and the free tier's 30-minute limit.
Notus is built for that case: one button, no screen, an object that sits on the table without the conversation revolving around it. Transcript and summary reach your phone about 30 seconds after you stop recording.
Either way, the rule is the same: participants must be told. The French framework is set out in Recording a work meeting in France: what the law says.
So, which one?
Choose Otter.ai if…
- your meetings are mostly on video calls
- you want to start today without buying anything
- you work in Spanish, German, Japanese or Chinese
- you plan on a permanent paid plan
- your conversations hold no sensitive data
Wait for Notus if…
- your important conversations happen in person
- your meetings often run past 30 minutes
- you do not want your conversations training an AI
- you want hosting in France
- you can wait until the first half of 2027
Frequently asked questions
Does Otter.ai work in French?
Yes. Otter transcribes French, along with English, Spanish, German, Japanese and Chinese.
Can Notus be used during a video call?
Notus records what it hears in the room. It has no assistant that joins Zoom, Meet or Teams: for video-only work, software such as Otter fits better. To compare software options, see our guide to AI meeting notes.
Do I need a subscription to use Notus?
No. The free tier comes with the device: 50 hours of recording a month, automatic transcription and summary, 30-day storage.
Can I cancel my pre-order?
Yes. The €50 deposit is refundable until shipping, under our terms of sale.
First edition limited to 200 units. €50 deposit, €86 balance before shipping.
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