--- title: "Free Otter Alternatives" slug: "free-otter-alternatives" description: "Otter, Fireflies and Fathom free plans next to four verified free transcription tools - ToText, Voxcribe, Groq and AssemblyAI - with minutes and card rules." verifiedAt: "2026-10-12" options: 4 canonical: "https://aifree.dev/compare/free-otter-alternatives" --- # Free Otter Alternatives > Otter, Fireflies and Fathom free plans next to four verified free transcription tools - ToText, Voxcribe, Groq and AssemblyAI - with minutes and card rules. Otter’s free Basic plan gives 300 transcription minutes a month, but each conversation stops at 30 minutes, only 3 audio or video files can ever be imported and only your 25 latest conversations are kept. Two meeting-note apps are looser: Fathom’s free plan has unlimited recordings and transcripts with instant AI summaries, and Fireflies’ free plan has unlimited transcription with limited summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team. We read Otter, Fireflies and Fathom on November 5, 2026; none is in the catalog yet, so they are described here rather than in the table. The four rows below are verified or listed catalog offers for transcribing a recording yourself: ToText’s 60 minutes a month on iPhone, Voxcribe’s 120 minutes a month, Groq’s Whisper limits and AssemblyAI’s US$50 credit. They transcribe files; none joins a call as a bot. For developers, see [free speech-to-text APIs](https://aifree.dev/compare/free-speech-to-text-apis), and for editing spoken audio as text see [free Descript alternatives](https://aifree.dev/compare/free-descript-alternatives). ## Side by side | Offer | What is free | Card | Status | The catch | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [ToText Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/totext-free-plan) | 60 minutes/month | no card | listed | Apple devices only (iOS/iPadOS 18+), and the free plan caps follow-up AI questions at 2 per recording; unused minutes do not roll over. | | [Voxcribe Free Transcription](https://aifree.dev/offer/voxcribe-free-transcription) | 120 minutes/month | no card | listed | The free tier has monthly limits; audio is deleted after 7 days. | | [Groq Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/groq-free-tier) | Free tier | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Rate limits apply at the organization level and are tight (e.g. 30 RPM and 1K RPD on many models); the docs caution limits may change and exceptions exist. | | [AssemblyAI Free Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/assemblyai-free-credits) | $50 | no card | verified 2026-10-12 | Free tier caps streaming at 5 new streams per minute (vs 100/min paid), and LLM Gateway usage is not covered by the credits; the credits do not expire. | ## The 4 options, in detail ### [ToText Free Plan](https://aifree.dev/offer/totext-free-plan.md) 60 free AI transcription minutes every month on iPhone and iPad - 60 transcription minutes per calendar month - Up to 2 AI questions per recording on the free plan - Allowance resets at the start of each calendar month in UTC; unused minutes do not roll over - iPhone/iPad only (iOS/iPadOS 18 or later) **Catch:** Apple devices only (iOS/iPadOS 18+), and the free plan caps follow-up AI questions at 2 per recording; unused minutes do not roll over. ### [Voxcribe Free Transcription](https://aifree.dev/offer/voxcribe-free-transcription.md) Free video and audio to text: 120 minutes a month - 120 minutes a month with a free account - First file up to 10 minutes free without signing up - Audio deleted after 7 days **Catch:** The free tier has monthly limits; audio is deleted after 7 days. ### [Groq Free Tier](https://aifree.dev/offer/groq-free-tier.md) Free rate-limited Groq API access to hosted open models, no card - Per-organization limits tracked as RPM, RPD, TPM, TPD - openai/gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b: 30 RPM / 1K RPD / 8K TPM / 200K TPD - qwen/qwen3.8-27b: 30 RPM / 1K RPD / 8K TPM / 200K TPD - whisper-large-v3 and turbo: 20 RPM / 2K RPD, 7.2K audio sec/hour, 28.8K audio sec/day **Catch:** Rate limits apply at the organization level and are tight (e.g. 30 RPM and 1K RPD on many models); the docs caution limits may change and exceptions exist. ### [AssemblyAI Free Credits](https://aifree.dev/offer/assemblyai-free-credits.md) $50 in free credits for speech-to-text, streaming, and voice agent APIs - Free-tier streaming concurrency: 5 new streams per minute - Free-tier accounts may default to different models than paid accounts - Credits cover Pre-recorded STT, Real-time STT, Voice Agent API, Speech Understanding and Guardrails; LLM Gateway is not included - Credits do not expire **Catch:** Free tier caps streaming at 5 new streams per minute (vs 100/min paid), and LLM Gateway usage is not covered by the credits; the credits do not expire. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Otter.ai free? Yes: the Basic plan is free with 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports and 20 AI Chat queries a month. Pro starts at US$16.99 a month, or US$8.33 billed yearly, with 1,200 minutes. Read on November 5, 2026. ### What is the best free alternative to Otter? For meetings you attend, Fathom: unlimited recordings and transcripts with instant AI summaries on its free plan. Fireflies is the other, with unlimited transcription but limited summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team. For a recording you already have, Voxcribe gives 120 minutes a month and ToText 60 on iPhone. ### Can I transcribe a meeting recording for free? Yes. Voxcribe transcribes 120 minutes a month with a free account, and the first file up to 10 minutes needs no sign-up. ToText gives 60 minutes a month on iPhone and iPad, and Groq’s free plan serves Whisper models with daily audio limits. ### Do these free meeting-note tools need a credit card? None of the four rows asks for a card. The Otter, Fireflies and Fathom pricing pages do not state a card rule, so check at sign-up. AssemblyAI moves to pay-as-you-go once its credit is used. ### Can I record Zoom or Meet calls with these? Only the meeting apps join calls: Otter, Fireflies and Fathom. The four catalog rows transcribe files or recordings you upload, and AssemblyAI is an API for developers. HTML page: https://aifree.dev/compare/free-otter-alternatives