Head-to-head comparison
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text vs Otter.ai
Two of the transcription tools podcasters reach for. Here's how they differ on pricing, features, audience, and the trade-offs that actually matter day-to-day.
Scribe model from the voice-AI company
Best for: Teams already using ElevenLabs for TTS who want to round-trip audio in the same dashboard.
Real-time transcription and meeting notes with sharable highlights.
Best for: Meeting-heavy teams
At a glance
The honest trade-offs
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text
Pros
- Diarisation and speaker labels are solid
- Unified billing with ElevenLabs TTS
- Word-level timestamps included
Watch-outs
- Newer than competitors, less battle-tested
- Limited non-English depth versus Whisper
- No live streaming endpoint yet
Otter.ai
Pros
- Auto-joins Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls
- Real-time captions with speaker ID
- Solid free tier for casual users
Watch-outs
- Only English, French, Spanish
- Pro caps at 1,200 minutes/month
- Built for meetings more than podcasts
Which one should you pick?
Pick ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text if
You’re building around teams already using elevenlabs for tts who want to round-trip audio in the same dashboard.. ElevenLabs entered the ASR race with Scribe, a model that lands competitive WER scores on English and Spanish while inheriting the company's strong diarisation work from voice cloning. Cleanest if you already use ElevenLabs for TTS.
Pick Otter.ai if
You’re building around meeting-heavy teams. Otter pivoted hard into meetings and away from straight transcription, which makes it great if you live in Zoom/Meet/Teams and want auto-summaries plus action items — and slightly awkward as a pure podcast transcription tool. The free plan caps you at 300 minutes and 30 minutes per file.
Also worth comparing
Frequently asked
What does ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text do better than Otter.ai?
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text's standout is "Diarisation and speaker labels are solid". Otter.ai doesn't make that promise — it leans into "Auto-joins Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls" instead. If the first sentence describes your workflow, pick ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text; if the second does, pick Otter.ai.
What are the trade-offs?
ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text: newer than competitors, less battle-tested. Otter.ai: only english, french, spanish. Whether either matters depends entirely on what you actually need — neither is a deal-breaker by itself.
Do they support the same platforms?
Otter.ai works on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android where ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text doesn't. If you're on a specific OS or device, that may decide for you.
Can I use ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text and Otter.ai together?
Both are transcription tools so most teams pick one. Some workflows do combine them — for example, using ElevenLabs Speech-to-Text for one show or episode type and Otter.ai for another. Worth trying both free tiers before committing.