Best free Otter.ai alternatives (open source, 2026)
Updated · 20 repos compared · data refreshed nightly from GitHub
The best free Otter.ai alternative for most people is whisper (111k GitHub stars, MIT license). minutes describes itself as an Otter.ai alternative. All 20 options below are open source and run on your own computer or server, so there's no subscription.
Otter.ai (meeting transcription and notes) is a paid, closed-source product. The open-source projects below do the same job and run on your own computer or server. Stars and activity come straight from GitHub.
Top picks
Robust Speech Recognition via Large-Scale Weak Supervision
- Needs:
- works on Mac (per README)
- Trade-off
- Better than Otter.ai: the biggest community (111k stars), a permissive MIT license. Worse: you install and run it yourself instead of Otter.ai's hosted app.
Open-source, local-first Granola/Otter alternative that Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and any MCP client can query. Meetings, calls, and voice memos transcribed on-device into markdown you own.
- Needs:
- Hardware not stated in its README
- Trade-off
- Better than Otter.ai: a permissive MIT license, very active development. Worse: you install and run it yourself instead of Otter.ai's hosted app.
Port of OpenAI's Whisper model in C/C++
- Needs:
- no GPU (runs on CPU), works on Mac (per README)
- Trade-off
- Better than Otter.ai: no GPU needed, a permissive MIT license. Worse: you install and run it yourself instead of Otter.ai's hosted app.
Comparison
✓ yes · ✗ no · – not stated in the README. Hardware details are read from each README and may be incomplete.
Otter.ai vs open source: what you give up
- Setup. Otter.ai is ready as soon as you sign up. These projects need installing, usually with Python, Node or Docker.
- Hardware. 1 of 20 lists a GPU requirement, starting at 8 GB of GPU memory. 2 say they run on a regular CPU. 7 mention Mac support.
- Polish and support. Paid products usually have a smoother interface, managed updates and customer support. Open source gives you privacy, no usage limits and no monthly bill.
- Maintenance. 16 of 20 were updated in the last 30 days.
- License. 18 of 20 use a standard open-source license (MIT, Apache, GPL and similar). Check the license before commercial use.
How we picked
Projects that describe themselves as an Otter.ai alternative come first, then projects that do the same job, ranked by how well they match and by GitHub stars. Projects that need a paid API key, and projects from Otter.ai's own company, are left out. Stars and activity are verified with the GitHub API every night; hardware details come from each README. Full method.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Otter.ai?
Yes. We list 20 free, open-source GitHub projects that do the same job as Otter.ai. The most popular are whisper, GPT-SoVITS and whisper.cpp.
What is the best open-source Otter.ai alternative?
It depends on your setup. Best overall: whisper. Closest Otter.ai replacement: minutes. Also excellent: whisper.cpp. Compare GitHub stars, license and hardware needs in the table on this page.
Can I run an Otter.ai alternative on a Mac?
Yes. According to their READMEs, whisper.cpp, whisper and meeting-transcriber run on macOS.
Do I need a GPU to replace Otter.ai?
1 of the 20 lists a GPU requirement, starting at 8 GB of GPU memory. 2 say they run on a regular CPU.
Are these Otter.ai alternatives really free?
Yes. All 20 are open source on GitHub, and projects that need a paid API key are left out. 18 use a standard open-source license such as MIT, Apache or GPL; check the license before commercial use.