Listenr vs Otter.ai
Pick Otter if you want live transcription with voice profiles that recognise the same people every week, apps on every platform, and the lowest annual price of the tools compared here. Pick Listenr if your calls should not reach a service that trains on transcriptions: Otter’s privacy policy says it does, and Listenr transcribes on your Mac by default and uploads no meeting unless you share it.
| Feature | Listenr | Otter.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Does a bot join the call | No, capture is from the Mac | An OtterPilot bot, or botless desktop recording |
| Where your audio is transcribed | On the Mac by default; four of five backends are offline | In Otter’s cloud; no on-device processing described |
| Who writes the notes | A local model, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud | Otter picks; no model choice, no API key |
| Devices you can use it on | macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon | macOS, Windows, web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension |
| A transcript while the call runs | On the Mac; speaker labels and notes come after the call | Real-time live transcription |
| Knowing who is speaking | Voices separated per meeting; names on Zoom (opt-in), Google Meet (extension) and Teams | Voice profiles that persist across meetings |
| Price | Pro $19/month, or $15/month billed yearly | Pro $16.99/user/month, or $8.33 billed annually |
| What the free plan gives you | Recording, transcription and notes from a local model or your own key; personal use only | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation |
| Is your content used for training | Local models send nothing; Listenr Cloud stores no transcript | Trains on transcriptions, which may contain personal information |
| Where the recording ends up | Deleted after transcription unless you keep it; kept files stay on the Mac | In your Otter account, no fixed retention period |
| Getting at meetings from a terminal or an assistant | CLI and local MCP server on every plan, read-only by default | An MCP server; the public API is Enterprise only |
Otter is the better product on most of this page, and cheaper. It transcribes while the call is running, learns a voice and recognises the same person in later recordings, and runs on everything. The reason people move off it is one sentence in its privacy policy.
What Otter’s privacy policy says
Otter’s privacy policy, effective 16 June 2026, describes “training our proprietary AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions (which may contain Personal Information).” On retention it says data is kept “for as long as necessary… or for as long as we are required to do so by law”, with no fixed period.
The audio used for training is de-identified. The transcriptions may contain personal information, and a transcript is where the names, numbers and candid remarks are. For a sales call that may not matter. For a legal matter or an HR conversation it usually does.
Listenr’s server sees meeting content in two cases only: when you share a meeting, which uploads a copy, and when Listenr Cloud writes your notes, which passes the transcript through without storing it. A shared copy stays until you remove it or delete your account.
Where does your audio go?
OtterPilot joins the call as a bot, and the desktop app also does “botless recording for supported meetings without Notetaker joining as a meeting participant” for Zoom, Google Meet, Slack Huddles and in-person conversations. Both modes send the audio to Otter for transcription.
Listenr records from the Mac and transcribes there, on Apple’s on-device engine by default, in one language you set. Parakeet, a download you pick, covers 25 European languages with detection. The one cloud backend, OpenAI, stays off until you select it.
The notes are a separate choice, and Otter does not offer one. Listenr asks which model writes them: a model on the Mac, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud on Pro.
What Otter does that Listenr does not
Persistent speaker profiles: Otter learns a voice and identifies the same person in later recordings. Listenr separates the voices in each meeting on the Mac and names them in the Zoom desktop app (a setting, off by default), in Google Meet through the Listenr browser extension, and in Microsoft Teams. Nothing carries a voice from one meeting to the next, and in other apps the voices stay Speaker 1, Speaker 2. If you record the same five people every week, Otter’s approach saves work.
Live transcription that others can follow and search mid-call. Listenr shows the transcript on your Mac as it goes, with speaker labels and notes after the meeting ends.
Reach: macOS, Windows, the web, iOS, Android and a Chrome extension. Listenr runs on Apple Silicon Macs only.
The free plans
Otter Basic gives you 300 transcription minutes a month, at most 30 minutes per conversation, and 3 lifetime imports.
Listenr’s free plan has no minute cap and is licensed for personal use. It
covers recording, transcription, speaker separation, notes from a local model
or your own API key, the listenr command line tool and a local MCP server.
Otter has an MCP server as well, though its public API is Enterprise only. The
pricing page lists what Pro adds.
Where your meetings sit
Otter keeps recordings and transcripts in your Otter account. Listenr keeps
everything under ~/Library/Application Support/Listenr/: the transcript,
notes, participants and chat in a SQLite database, readable only by your own
macOS account. Meeting audio is deleted after a healthy transcription unless
you choose to keep it, and the recovery copy is purged after 14 days in any
case. Owner-only is a file permission, not encryption: it stops other accounts
on the Mac, not a process running as you.
Pick Listenr when
Your calls should not be transcribed by a service that trains on transcriptions, and you work on a Mac. Or you want to choose the model that writes the notes, including a local one or your own API key.
Pick Otter.ai when
Take Otter if you need the transcript live and shared during the call, voice profiles that recognise the same people week after week, or the lowest annual Pro price of the tools compared here. It also runs on Windows, iOS and Android.
Common questions
What is a good Otter.ai alternative that keeps meetings private?
Listenr, if you are on a Mac. It records without a bot, transcribes on the Mac with Apple’s on-device engine by default, and keeps the library on your own disk; no meeting is uploaded unless you share it. Otter, by contrast, transcribes in its cloud and its privacy policy describes training on transcriptions.
Does Otter use my transcripts to train its AI?
Yes. Otter’s privacy policy, effective 16 June 2026, describes training its proprietary AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions, which may contain personal information. Listenr receives no meeting content unless you share a meeting or let Listenr Cloud write the notes, and Listenr Cloud stores neither the transcript nor the notes.
Does Otter transcribe on my device?
No. Otter does not describe any on-device processing, and both its bot and its botless desktop recording send audio to Otter for transcription. Listenr’s default transcription backend is Apple’s on-device speech engine, and four of its five backends run on the Mac.
How long does Otter keep my recordings?
Otter’s privacy policy states no fixed period. It says data is kept for as long as necessary, or for as long as Otter is required to keep it by law. Listenr deletes meeting audio after a healthy transcription unless you choose to keep it, and the only meeting content on its servers is a copy you uploaded by sharing.
What are the limits on Otter’s free plan?
Otter Basic gives 300 transcription minutes a month, a maximum of 30 minutes per conversation, and 3 lifetime imports. Otter Pro raises that to 1,200 minutes a month, 90 minutes per meeting and 10 imports a month.
Is Otter cheaper than Listenr?
Yes. Otter Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually, or $16.99 monthly, which is less than Listenr Pro on either cycle. Of the tools compared on this site, Otter has the lowest annual Pro price.
Try it against your own meetings.
The free plan records, transcribes and writes notes with a model on your Mac. No account needed to find out whether the transcript is good enough.