Otter has been turning meetings into transcripts for years, and plenty of people have it running on every call. It’s a capable, broad product. Telmi is narrower and newer, built for a different moment: the few seconds after someone asks you a hard question.
The two differ in two ways. The first is how they hear the call. The second is when they help you.
The short version
- Pick Otter if you want transcripts and notes for everything, across every device, shared with a team, and synced into tools like Salesforce or HubSpot.
- Pick Telmi if you don’t want a bot in your calls and you want help answering questions while the call is still going, on a Mac.
Bot vs no bot
Otter’s notetaker joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet as a participant in the meeting. It also lets you record in its own app. A bot is a simple, well-understood way to capture a meeting. The downside is that everyone else sees it too. On a sales call or an interview, a “Notetaker” in the participant list changes the first minute. Some people ask what it is. Some ask you to remove it.
Telmi never joins the call. It runs on your Mac and listens to your microphone and your computer’s sound, so it works with any call app without anyone else seeing it. On a Mac, speech is transcribed on the device. To write suggestions and notes, Telmi sends text excerpts to the AI through our server. Audio stays on your Mac. We explain the reasoning in why Telmi has no meeting bot.
Whichever you use, tell people you’re taking notes.
After the call vs during it
Otter shows live transcription and live notes while the meeting runs, and its pricing page lists an Assist feature for call objectives and live coaching. After the call you get summaries, action items, AI chat over your conversations, and search.
Telmi puts most of its effort into the live part, and goes further with it:
- SAY cards: a short, first-person answer to the question you were just asked, often on screen before the question ends.
- Grounded in your material: answers draw on a knowledge pack you build from your docs and pricing. Saved answer cards are matched on your Mac, instantly, in your exact words.
- Quick rewrites: shorter, expand, simpler, more confident, or rephrase, in one tap.
- Nudges: a prompt when you’ve talked for 90 seconds or left a question open.
- Ask anything: type a question mid-call or have Telmi look at your screen.
After the call, Telmi writes a summary, key points, decisions, action items, a follow-up email, and specific coaching. You can chat over past calls and get answers with citations.
Side by side
| Feature | Telmi | Otter.ai |
|---|---|---|
| How it hears the call | On your Mac, no bot | Notetaker joins Zoom, Teams, Meet; also in-app recording |
| Live transcript | Yes | Yes |
| Suggested answers during the call | Yes, SAY cards | Assist feature listed for live coaching |
| Summary and action items | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | Mac (macOS 26 or later) | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, web |
| CRM and automation | None yet | Salesforce, HubSpot, Zapier |
| API and MCP | Claude MCP server | MCP; API on Enterprise |
| SSO and SCIM | No | Yes, 100-user minimum |
| HIPAA | No | Add-on |
| Free plan | 5 calls | 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation |
| Paid plan | $20/month | Pro from $16.99/user/month |
Pricing
As of November 2026, per Otter’s pricing page:
- Basic, free: 300 transcription minutes a month, up to 30 minutes per conversation, your 25 most recent conversations, and 3 file imports in total.
- Pro: $16.99 per user per month on monthly billing, less on annual.
- Business: $30 per user per month monthly, or $19.99 per user per month billed annually.
- Enterprise: custom pricing.
Telmi is free for your first 5 calls, then $20 a month for unlimited calls, with a daily fair-use cap of 3,000 AI requests. There’s no annual plan yet, so for a single person on monthly billing, Otter Pro costs a little less.
Where Otter is stronger
Otter has real advantages, and if these matter to you, they should decide it:
- Every device. Desktop apps for Mac and Windows, mobile apps, a Chrome extension, and the web. Telmi is Mac only and has no mobile app.
- Integrations. Salesforce and HubSpot sync, Zapier, MCP, and an API on Enterprise. Telmi has no CRM integrations.
- Teams and admin. Business and Enterprise plans for organizations, with SSO and SCIM for larger teams and a HIPAA add-on. Telmi has no team workspace, admin console, or SSO.
- Recording on any device. Otter can record in its own app as well as in the meeting. Telmi only hears calls on the Mac it runs on, and it hears the other side as one voice, “Them”.
Where Telmi is stronger
- No bot in the participant list, on any call app.
- Answers to live questions, timed to arrive while you still need them, grounded in your own material.
- Coaching after each call that quotes what was said and gives you a better line to use next time.
- Prep before the call from your Google Calendar, with notes that carry into the call.
Who should pick which
Choose Otter if you want a searchable record of every meeting, your team needs to share notes, you rely on CRM sync, or you work across Windows, phone, and browser.
Choose Telmi if you’re on a Mac, you don’t want a bot in your calls, and your calls are ones where answering well in the moment matters: sales, discovery, customer calls, interviews.
If you’re leaving Otter and want to see more options, we compared five in the best Otter.ai alternatives in 2026.