AssemblyAI or Otter.ai: API against assistant
AssemblyAI is an API that costs $0.15 and $0.21 an hour with 185 free hours. Otter.ai is a meeting assistant at $8.33 and $19.99 a user. Transcribsi is $10 a month with no minute limit. Read on 24 October 2026.
AssemblyAI is a developer API at $0.15 and $0.21 an hour, with 185 free hours and 99 languages. Otter.ai is a meeting assistant at $8.33 or $19.99 a user with 300 free minutes. Transcribsi is $10 a month with no minute limit.
AssemblyAI, Otter.ai and Transcribsi side by side
a voice AI platform for developers: pre-recorded, realtime and sync speech-to-text APIs, speech understanding, guardrails, an LLM gateway, a voice agent and a dictation API
a meeting assistant whose bot joins Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet and writes the notes
a transcription service for files: a REST API, an MCP server and plugins for Claude and ChatGPT
per hour: $0.21 for Universal-3.5 Pro and $0.15 for Universal-2; the voice agent costs $4.50 an hour
per user per month: $0 for Basic, $8.33 for Pro and $19.99 for Business
per month: $10 a month paid yearly ($120 a year) with no minute limit, or $20 a month paid monthly
185 hours of pre-recorded transcription and 333 hours of streaming, with no credit card
300 minutes a month, 3 file imports for life, up to 30 minutes per conversation, and an MCP server
$0: 3 files a day, up to 30 minutes per file, no card
99 for Universal-2 and 18 for Universal-3.5 Pro, which switches code natively
the page lists English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese for automatic transcription
99+ languages, set by you or detected
guardrails, an LLM gateway billed by tokens, speech understanding, a dictation API, and a voice agent whose $4.50 an hour includes the recordings and the transcripts
summaries with action items and outlines, live notes and captioning for Google Meet, AI chat across meetings, and a custom vocabulary
a transcript with timecodes, speaker labels on request and six export formats; no summaries, no topics, no sentiment
speaker diarization and speaker identification, trained in-house, on both the pre-recorded and the realtime models
speaker identification on the free plan, and taggable speakers plus team vocabulary on Pro
speaker labels on request, with timecodes on every segment
a realtime API: 5 new streaming connections a minute on the free plan and 100 a minute on pay-as-you-go, scaling by itself
live transcription of a recording, live notes and captioning, and live transcription via RTMP at additional cost
not offered: we take a file that is already finished
the pre-recorded API takes audio and video files; no size limit is named on the pricing page
3 imports for life on Basic, 10 a month on Pro and unlimited on Business, up to 6,000 minutes per import
one upload, up to 30 minutes on the free plan, no minute limit on Pro
APIs, an LLM gateway, a no-code playground and an AWS Marketplace listing
an MCP server on the free plan, and an Otter API with webhooks in the enterprise tier
a REST API under /v1 and an MCP server with 4 tools, from the Pro plan
live audio, a voice agent, guardrails, an LLM gateway, a dictation API and 99 languages
a bot in the room, live notes, CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot, a mobile app and a search across every meeting
none of that, and no live audio, no meeting bot, no summaries, no add-ons and 99+ languages
Two different products wearing the same word
The two products share a word and almost nothing else. AssemblyAI is an engine: you call an API and get text back, and the pricing is per hour of audio. Otter is a colleague: a bot joins the call, writes the notes and sends them to your CRM. Ours sits in between and stays small — a file in, a transcript out, one flat month.
How to choose between an engine and an assistant
- 1
Name the customer
AssemblyAI sells to developers who wire audio into a product. Otter sells to people who want the meeting written up. Ours is for either, as long as the audio arrives as a file that is already finished.
- 2
Compare the free parts properly
AssemblyAI gives 185 free hours of pre-recorded transcription and 333 of streaming, with no card. Otter gives 300 minutes a month and 3 file imports for life. Ours gives 3 files a day of 30 minutes.
- 3
Pay for the extras you actually use
On AssemblyAI the voice agent alone costs $4.50 an hour, and the LLM gateway is billed by tokens on top. Otter's seat price includes the notes, the summaries and the apps. We have no add-on list, because we sell no add-ons.
- 4
Decide about the live room
AssemblyAI opens up to 100 new streaming connections a minute and scales by itself; Otter's bot writes while the meeting runs and offers live transcription via RTMP at extra cost. We join no call and stream nothing.
Tips
An engine and a colleague are not competitors.
Free hours and free minutes are different currencies.
Read the price of the add-on, not the base rate.
Live transcription is a different product from a transcript.
Questions this page answers
Is AssemblyAI cheaper than Otter.ai?
Per hour of audio, yes: $0.15 for Universal-2 and $0.21 for Universal-3.5 Pro. Otter bills per user per month instead, $8.33 on Pro. Our plan is $10 a month with no minute limit, which is a different shape of bill.
What does Otter.ai give for free?
300 transcription minutes a month, 3 audio or video imports for life, up to 30 minutes per conversation and an MCP server. AssemblyAI gives 185 hours of pre-recorded and 333 of streaming. Ours gives 3 files a day of 30 minutes.
Which one finds the speakers?
AssemblyAI has speaker diarization and speaker identification, trained in-house, on pre-recorded and realtime models. Otter has speaker identification on the free plan and taggable speakers on Pro. We put speaker labels in the transcript when you ask for them.
Do either of them write summaries?
Otter does: summaries with action items and outlines, and AI chat across meetings. AssemblyAI puts a voice agent and an LLM gateway next to the transcript, which you would call yourself. We write no summaries and no topics.
Can I use either of them from code?
AssemblyAI is API first, with a no-code playground and an AWS Marketplace listing. Otter has an MCP server on Basic and an API with webhooks in its enterprise tier. We have a REST API under /v1 and an MCP server with 4 tools from Pro.
Sources
- AAssemblyAI — pricingassemblyai.com · checked 24 October 2026
- AAssemblyAI — supported languagesassemblyai.com · checked 24 October 2026
- OOtter.ai — pricingotter.ai · checked 24 October 2026
- TTranscribsi — pricingtranscrib.si · checked 24 October 2026
Reading: 9 minutesUpdated Transcribsi editorial team
Drop a recording — the text arrives in a minute
Speakers by name, a time on every line, export to TXT, SRT, VTT, CSV and Markdown.