Otter.ai vs Vexa (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Otter.ai grades higher than Vexa: 3.0 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 4, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Otter.ai grades higher on features, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Otter.ai
Live meeting transcription with summaries and AI chat
Vexa
Open-source meeting bot API with real-time transcription
Which one is for you
Pick Otter.ai if
- Fits if you want to read the live transcript while a meeting or lecture is still going
- Works for students and teachers with a .edu address, which takes 20% off Pro
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes a conversation, 3 file imports ever and only your 25 most recent conversations
- Not for you if your meetings run long, as Pro stops at 1,200 minutes a month and 90 a meeting, and unlimited starts on Business at $19.99
- Pricey if you pay monthly: Pro is $16.99 and Business $30, against $8.33 and $19.99 a month on the yearly plan
- Watch out: AI Chat is capped on every plan, at 20 questions a month free, 50 on Pro and 200 at most
- Skip it if you need SSO, SCIM, the API or webhooks, which are Enterprise only at an unpublished price, with HIPAA as an add-on
Pick Vexa if
- Fits if you are building meeting transcripts into your own product
- Works for developers who want to host the code themselves
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want summaries and action items, as the output is transcripts and a dashboard
- Skip it if you do not want to run code or servers, as it is developer-facing
- Watch out: API usage is $0.30 an hour for the bot and $0.20 more for transcription
- Watch out: the Individual seat includes one concurrent bot
- Tight if you need shared workspaces, which are described as early, self-hosted features
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAOtter.aiVery good | 2.0GPAVexaFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $8.33 a month on the yearly plan, which is right about where meeting notetakers start, and $16.99 if you pay monthly. Pro is still metered at 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes a meeting, and unlimited meetings wait for Business at $19.99, the dear end of this lot. Middling money, then. | COpen source is free only if you host it yourself. Hosted is $12 a seat a month, the middle, with usage at $0.50 an hour. |
| Free plan and trial | CBasic hands you 300 transcription minutes a month, but a conversation stops at 30 minutes, you get 3 file imports ever, and only your 25 most recent conversations stay open. Short calls are fine; anything longer runs into a cap. | CNo free plan: new accounts get $2 of bot credit with no card, about 4 hours, and the open-source edition is self-hosted. |
| Features | BIt covers the whole job: live transcription with speakers labelled, a summary of every conversation on every plan, AI Chat, file imports and exports, and a notetaker that joins Zoom, Teams and Meet or records bot-free from your desktop. Nothing here its rivals don't do, mind, and AI Chat is capped on every plan. | CMeeting bot API, real-time transcripts, an MCP server, webhooks, recording and a dashboard. It stops at the transcript, with no summaries. |
| Ease of use | A4.8 from about 83,000 App Store ratings. Connect your calendar and the notetaker turns up to your meetings by itself. | DNo store rating on record. It is an API and a self-hosted edition, so it needs developer setup. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and a browser extension. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack and Notion, and with Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier from Pro. An MCP server is on every plan, though the API and webhooks are Enterprise only. | BWeb, an API and an MCP server, with Meet, Teams, Zoom, Claude Code and n8n. No desktop or phone app is listed. |
| Best for | reading the transcript while the meeting's on | an open-source meeting bot API |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Otter.ai and Vexa. How we grade
Price against what you get
Otter.ai starts at $8.33 a month for each person and scores 3.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Vexa starts at $12 a month for each person and scores 2.0.
Otter.ai scores higher and starts $3.67 a month lower. Of the other AI meeting note takers on the chart, 2 score higher than Otter.ai for less, and 34 score higher than Vexa for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Vexa is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Otter.ai also covers chat assistant.
- Vexa also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Otter.ai | Vexa | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $8.33 per user / month, billed annually | $12 per seat / month |
| Free plan | Basic plan: 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports, 20 AI Chat queries a month and access to the 25 most recent conversations. | Open-source edition, free to self-host with community support. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial of Otter Business. | New accounts get $2 of free bot credit, no card needed, about 4 hours of transcribed meetings |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Otter.ai Inc | Vexa.ai Inc. |
| Price read from | otter.ai | vexa.ai |
| Checked | Oct 4, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Otter.ai
- Basic is capped at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation, and only the 25 most recent conversations stay accessible.
- Pro is still metered: 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per meeting. Unlimited meetings start on Business.
- AI Chat queries are capped on every plan, at most 200 per user per month.
- SSO, SCIM, the API and webhooks are Enterprise only, and HIPAA compliance is an add-on.
Vexa
- It is developer-facing; the output is an API, transcripts and a dashboard rather than polished summaries.
- API usage is billed per bot-hour: $0.30 for the bot and $0.20 more for transcription.
- The Individual seat includes one concurrent bot.
- Shared workspaces and agents are described as early, self-hosted features.
Key features
Otter.ai
- Meeting agent or bot-free recording
- The notetaker can auto-join Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet meetings from your calendar. The desktop app for Mac and Windows records without a bot joining the call.
- Live transcription with speaker ID
- Transcribes as people speak, labels speakers and syncs the text to audio playback. Custom vocabulary covers 5 terms on Basic and up to 800 names and 800 terms on Business.
- Automated summaries
- Each conversation gets an automated summary on every plan, so the main points are available without reading the full transcript.
- AI Chat
- Ask questions about your conversations in a chat. Monthly queries are capped per user: 20 on Basic, 50 on Pro and 200 on Business and Enterprise.
- File imports and exports
- Import audio or video files for transcription and export notes. Basic allows 3 imports in total and mp3 or txt export; paid plans add pdf, docx and srt.
- Integrations and MCP server
- Salesforce, HubSpot and Zapier integrations start on Pro. An MCP server is listed on every plan, while the Otter API and webhooks are Enterprise only.
Vexa
- Meeting bot API
- One API call sends a bot into Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Zoom; the transcript is fetched over REST.
- Real-time transcripts
- Transcripts arrive while the meeting is running, with speaker names, over WebSocket, in the language set for each meeting.
- MCP server
- Claude Code, Codex and other MCP clients can read live meeting data through the Vexa MCP server.
- Webhooks and recording
- Signed events fire when a meeting starts, ends or fails, and meeting audio is stored and fetched over the API.
- Self-hosting
- Deploy with Docker Compose, Kubernetes or OpenShift and run your own transcription model so audio stays on your network.
- Dashboard
- An open-source web dashboard shows bots, transcripts and meetings, and can be forked and customized.
Plans
Otter.ai
Basic$0
300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports and the 25 most recent conversations.
Pro$8.33
per user / month, billed annually ($16.99 billed monthly)
1,200 minutes a month, 90 minutes per meeting, 10 file imports a month, unlimited history and extra export formats.
Business$19.99
per user / month, billed annually ($30 billed monthly)
Unlimited meetings and file imports, up to 4 hours per meeting, 3 concurrent meetings, activity logs and usage analytics.
EnterpriseCustom
Adds SSO, SCIM, domain capture, the Otter API and webhooks, video replay and a HIPAA compliance add-on.
Vexa
Open source$0
Apache 2.0 licensed; you host it yourself on your own infrastructure, with community support.
Individual$12
per seat / month
One person and their agents over MCP; one concurrent bot, unlimited meetings and 12-month audio storage.
Build on Vexa$10
one-time top-up, used as you go
Pay as you go for the API with unlimited bots; $0.30 per bot-hour, $0.50 with real-time transcription.
EnterpriseCustom
Self-hosted in your own cloud with dedicated support, volume pricing and a security and data-residency review.
Ways to pay less
Otter.ai
- Annual discount
Save 51% on Pro and 33% on Business annually
Otter's pricing page shows Pro at $8.33 per user per month on annual billing against $16.99 monthly (labeled save 51%), and Business at $19.99 against $30 (save 33%).
- Education
20% off Pro for students and teachers
Individual students and teachers with an email address ending in .edu get 20% off Otter Pro: $6.67 per month billed annually ($79.99) or $13.59 month to month.
Vexa
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Otter.ai or Vexa?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Otter.ai is cheaper to start with: $8.33 a month for each person, against $12 a month for each person for Vexa. Otter.ai starts at $8.33 per user / month, billed annually, and Vexa starts at $12 per seat / month.
Which has a free plan, Otter.ai or Vexa?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Otter.ai and Vexa have a free plan.
Which platforms do Otter.ai and Vexa run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Otter.ai lists macOS, Windows, iOS and Android apps and a browser extension. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.