Comparison
txscribe vs Otter, for recordings you already have
Otter is built for meetings: it joins your calls and writes them down as they happen. If that is what you need, stay with Otter — we don't do it.
This page is for the other job: you have recordings — interviews, lectures, fieldwork, a podcast — and you need a transcript you can quote from. That is where the two differ most, and mostly in the limits on uploading.
Otter's details checked on its own pages on ; each links to its source. Plans and prices change — if something here is out of date, tell us at support@txscribe.ai.
Uploading files
txscribe
No limit on the number of files, on any plan. The only thing that runs out is minutes.
Otter
Basic (free): 3 file imports, lifetime. Pro: 10 a month. Business: unlimited, within 6,000 minutes a month. Source
Longest recording
txscribe
Up to 90 minutes on Free, up to 8 hours on Pro.
Otter
30 minutes per conversation on Basic, 90 minutes on Pro, 4 hours on Business. Source
Time included
txscribe
Free: 90 minutes, once. Pro: 30 hours a month.
Otter
Basic: 300 minutes a month. Pro: 1,200 a month, one pool shared by meetings and imports. Business: 6,000 minutes of imports a month. Source
Price
txscribe
Pro: $15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly; the first month is $7. One plan, no seats.
Otter
Pro: $16.99 per user a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually. Business: $30 per user a month, or $19.99 billed annually. Source
Languages
txscribe
82 languages (110 regional variants in the picker). Speaker labels on 14 of those variants — the picker says which before you upload.
Speaker names
txscribe
Speakers come back numbered. Rename one once and every line follows; names you have used before are offered again. No voice recognition.
Otter
Automatic speaker identification that learns names from voices you have tagged before. Source
Exports
txscribe
TXT, DOCX, SRT and VTT on every plan, including Free. No audio or PDF export.
Otter
Basic: MP3 audio and TXT. Paid plans: MP3, TXT, PDF, DOCX and SRT. Source
Translation
txscribe
A translated copy of the whole transcript, on every plan.
Custom word list
txscribe
Up to 1,000 names and terms, on every plan.
Checking against the audio
txscribe
Every word comes back timed: click any line and hear that second. A line you correct keeps its paragraph's timing rather than per-word timing. Answers to questions about a transcript link to the moments they came from.
Otter
Words highlight in time with playback on every plan; variable playback speed on paid plans. Source
Training on your recordings
txscribe
We do not use your recordings or transcripts to train models.
Otter
Otter's privacy policy says it trains its own AI on de-identified audio recordings and on transcripts, which it notes may contain personal information. Source
Where Otter is the better choice
- Meetings. A notetaker that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls on every plan and transcribes them live. Sources 1, 2 txscribe has no meeting bot: it works on recordings you upload or record yourself.
- Recurring speakers. Otter learns voices you have named before. We give you numbers and make renaming fast, which is not the same thing.
- Teams. Otter is built around shared workspaces and per-seat plans. txscribe is one person's account.
- Audio and PDF export. Otter exports the audio as MP3 and the transcript as PDF. We do neither.
- Price, if you pay yearly. Otter Pro billed annually is less a month than txscribe Pro billed yearly — if its imports and file lengths fit your work.
What txscribe doesn't do well
- Speaker labels work in 14 of our 110 language variants. In the rest the transcript has no speaker labels, and there are no speakers to rename.
- A recording that switches language partway may come back translated rather than transcribed — or not at all — and nothing marks it as missing. Name the main language instead of leaving it on automatic.
- Summaries do not point back to the moment each line came from. Answers to questions do.
Try it on one of your recordings.
Up to 10 minutes, no account and no card. A table can tell you the limits; only your own audio tells you whether the transcript holds.
Start free