Otter.ai is adding new limitations to the free Otter Basic plan on the subscription service, which will limit free users to 30-minute transcriptions starting December 1st, down from the current 40-minute limit.
The company says that the changes are “due to increased costs and to maintain high standards of service.” Otter.ai is still offering the same 600 minutes of transcription per month to free users, however.
The change isn’t hugely problematic in the long run, given that Otter.ai still isn’t changing the total amount of transcription that free users can do — just the amount that you can have transcribed in a single recording. That means that attentive users can simple just start a new file once the 30-minute limit is reached, although you’ll generally have to pay attention to when you’re creeping up on the time limit (and lose the benefit of having everything in a single document).
Otter.ai customers who need the capability for longer recordings can pay for Otter Pro, which costs $99.99 per year or $12.99 per month. That price gets you transcriptions up to four hours long, up to 6,000 minutes of transcription each month, and additional features including custom vocabulary lists and the ability to import prerecorded files.
