Reference
Otter.ai limits on every plan
Otter's free Basic plan transcribes 300 minutes a month, caps each conversation at 30 minutes, and allows three file imports for the life of the account. Pro raises those to 1,200 minutes, 90 minutes, and 10 imports a month. Uncapped minutes and imports start at Business.
By Stefano, who builds Phonotheca. Limits shown as of August 2026.
Every limit by plan
| Plan | Price | Transcription budget | In audio hours | Per conversation | File imports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | 300 minutes a month | 5 audio hours | 30 minutes | 3 for the life of the account |
| Pro | $16.99 a month, or $8.33 billed annually | 1,200 minutes a month | 20 audio hours | 90 minutes | 10 a month |
| Business | $30 a month, or $19.99 billed annually | Unlimited | Unlimited | 4 hours | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | Quoted | Unlimited | Unlimited | 4 hours | Unlimited |
Figures from Otter's published pricing, August 2026. Annual prices are the per-month equivalent when paid for a year up front.
How the three limits behave
The per-conversation cap truncates
A recording longer than the cap does not fail, it stops. On Basic that lands at 30 minutes and on Pro at 90, which is where a life-history interview or a long expert call comes back missing its second half.
Imports are counted as files
Uploading audio you recorded elsewhere is metered separately from Otter's own recording, and the counter runs on files rather than length. Three imports for the life of a Basic account, ten a month on Pro, whether each one is eight minutes or eighty.
Minutes and imports run out separately
Pro carries 1,200 minutes and 10 imports. A round of twelve interviews clears the minute budget with room to spare and still stops on the eleventh file.
Why interview work hits these limits early
Otter is built around meetings it attends. An assistant joins the call, records it live, and the minutes it spends are its own. That shape fits standups and client calls, where nothing has to be uploaded and an hour is a long meeting.
Interviews arrive the other way round. They are recorded on a handheld recorder in a front room, on a phone in a corridor, or as a call platform's own file, and every one of them reaches the tool as an upload. That makes the import counter, the smallest of the three numbers, the one a research programme meets first. A twelve-interview round is twelve imports against ten, and a life history that ran two hours meets the 90-minute cap on the way in.
Both numbers are countable before you subscribe. Multiply the interviews you expect by their average length, and check the result against the minute budget, the conversation cap, and the import counter separately.
Work out the hours and the cost for your studyThe same 20 hours, metered differently
Phonotheca Solo and Otter Pro carry the same monthly audio allowance. What differs is what else is counted alongside it.
| At 20 audio hours a month | Phonotheca Solo | Otter Pro | Otter Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $12 | $16.99 | Free |
| Audio hours included | 20 a month | 20 a month | 5 a month |
| Longest single recording | Any length, up to a 2 GB file | 90 minutes | 30 minutes |
| Files you can upload | Uncounted | 10 a month | 3 ever |
| Search across every interview | Included | Included | Included |
| Keeps working after the allowance runs out | Archive, search, tags, export | Stored conversations | Stored conversations |
| Export to NVivo, ATLAS.ti, MAXQDA | Included | Not included | Not included |
| Processing region | EU | US | US |
Common questions about Otter's limits
- What is the limit on Otter's free plan?
- Three limits run at once. 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes for any single conversation, and 3 audio or video file imports for the lifetime of the account rather than per month. The minute budget is the one people notice, and the import counter is the one that ends the account.
- What is the maximum length of one Otter recording?
- 30 minutes per conversation on Basic, 90 minutes on Pro, and 4 hours on Business and Enterprise. A recording that runs past the cap is transcribed up to it.
- How many files can I upload to Otter?
- Basic allows 3 imports across the life of the account. Pro allows 10 a month. Business and Enterprise are uncapped. Imports are counted per file, so a 6-minute clip and a 3-hour panel each spend one.
- What happens when I hit the monthly minute limit?
- New transcription stops until the cycle resets or the plan changes. Conversations already transcribed stay readable.
- Does Otter Pro remove the limits?
- It raises them. Pro is 1,200 minutes a month, a 90-minute conversation cap, and 10 imports a month. Uncapped minutes and imports start at Business, at $30 a month billed monthly.
- Which limit stops interview work first?
- The import counter, then the conversation cap. Interviews are recorded on a phone, a recorder, or a call platform and then uploaded, which makes every one of them an import, and research interviews regularly run past 90 minutes. Minute budgets are rarely the binding constraint for this kind of work.
- Is there a tool that meters hours instead of files?
- Phonotheca does. Solo is $12 a month for 20 audio hours, Pro is $29 for 50, and nothing counts files or caps a recording's length below a 2 GB file. A two-hour interview uploads as one recording and spends two hours of the allowance.
- Can I move transcripts out of Otter?
- Export them as TXT, SRT, or VTT and import the files into a Phonotheca project. Speakers and timings arrive as turns you can tag and cite, and an import spends none of your transcription hours.
Keep reading
Upload the interview that came back short
Three audio hours are free, at any recording length, with no file counter.