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AI

Free and open-source Otter.ai alternatives

Otter.ai (AI meeting notes and transcription) is a commercial product. These 2 tools do the same job and are free to use or to self-host.
Short answer: the best free alternatives to Otter.ai are OpenAI Whisper and Whisper.cpp. Self-hosting is free; you pay only for the server (a small VPS is about $4–6/mo). Licenses and prices checked 2026-10-01.
  1. 1
    OpenAI Whisper

    Open-source speech recognition model

    Speech-to-text model; transcription only, no meeting bot or summaries.

    Open source (MIT) ·★ 110k GitHub stars · last commit 2026-08-31 · details

  2. 2
    Whisper.cpp

    Fast C/C++ port of Whisper speech recognition

    Fast local Whisper in C/C++; runs on CPU and Apple silicon.

    Open source (MIT) ·★ 54k GitHub stars · last commit 2026-10-06 · details

Want paid options too? See all Otter.ai alternatives or the full free alternatives list.

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Otter.ai?+

Yes. OpenAI Whisper and Whisper.cpp do the same job for free; OpenAI Whisper and Whisper.cpp are open source.

What is the best open-source alternative to Otter.ai?+

OpenAI Whisper is the most starred on GitHub (110k stars). Speech-to-text model; transcription only, no meeting bot or summaries.

Open source: OSI-approved license. Free to self-host: the code is public and free to run yourself, with limits in the license.