YouTubeTranscript.dev vs Otter.ai

YouTubeTranscript.dev is purpose-built for YouTube. Paste any YouTube URL and get the transcript in seconds. It pulls native captions instantly or uses AI audio transcription when captions are unavailable. Everything is optimized for the YouTube workflow — playlists, bulk URLs, and a developer API that accepts YouTube URLs directly.

Otter.ai is primarily designed for live meeting transcription and Zoom/Teams/Google Meet integration. It can transcribe uploaded audio/video files, but there is no direct YouTube URL support. You would need to download the YouTube video first, then upload the file to Otter.

Caption-based extraction takes under 10 seconds regardless of video length. AI audio transcription (for videos without captions) takes 2-20 minutes depending on duration. Bulk playlist extraction processes multiple videos in parallel.

Otter.ai processes uploaded audio at roughly real-time speed. A 10-minute video takes approximately 10 minutes to transcribe. There is no instant caption extraction option for YouTube videos.

When YouTube captions exist, extraction is 100% accurate (pulling original caption data). AI audio transcription delivers up to 95% accuracy across 100+ languages. For noisy audio, background music, and accents, the AI models handle diverse conditions well.

Otter.ai's speech recognition is highly regarded for English meeting audio, delivering 90-95% accuracy in clean conditions. Accuracy drops with heavy accents, background noise, or non-English content. Supports fewer languages than YouTubeTranscript.dev.

Free tier with 10 credits/month, no credit card required. Paid plans: Basic $9/month (1,200 credits), Pro $29/month (4,000 credits), Business $79/month (11,000 credits). Credit-based pricing — one caption extraction costs 1 credit. All features available on all plans.

Otter.ai offers a free tier with 300 transcription minutes/month. Pro plan is $16.99/month (1,200 min), Business $30/month (6,000 min). Minute-based pricing means long videos cost proportionally more. Some features (custom vocabulary, advanced export) are locked to higher tiers.

Four export formats on all plans: TXT (plain text), SRT (subtitles), VTT (web subtitles), and JSON (structured data with word-level timestamps). All formats available on the free tier.

Otter.ai exports to TXT, DOCX, SRT, and PDF. Some formats require a paid plan. The SRT export is useful for subtitle work, and PDF is handy for sharing meeting notes.

AI-powered summary, mind map visualization, chat with transcript (ask questions about the video), translation to 100+ languages, and an Interactive Viewer with synced subtitle overlays. All built specifically for video content analysis.

Otter.ai offers AI-powered meeting summaries, action items extraction, live collaboration, and speaker identification. These features are optimized for meeting workflows rather than video content analysis.

Extract transcripts from entire YouTube playlists (up to 100 videos), batch URL processing, and a REST API with batch endpoints and webhook callbacks. Caption extraction runs in parallel — 50 videos in under a minute.

Otter.ai does not support bulk or playlist processing. Files must be uploaded and transcribed one at a time. There is no public API for batch processing.

Full REST API with sync and async processing, batch endpoints, webhook callbacks, and detailed documentation. API access available on all plans including the free tier. Rate limits scale with plan level.

Otter.ai offers limited API access primarily through enterprise plans. The API is focused on meeting integration rather than general transcription. Not available on individual plans.

100+ languages for both caption extraction and AI audio transcription. One-click translation to convert any transcript to a different language. If a video has captions in multiple languages, you can select which one to extract.

Otter.ai supports English as its primary language with limited support for a handful of additional languages. It is heavily optimized for English meeting transcription.

Choose YouTubeTranscript.dev when you need to: transcribe YouTube videos, extract from playlists or channels, create subtitles from YouTube content, build apps with video transcripts, research video content, or work with non-English videos.

Choose Otter.ai when you need to: transcribe live meetings, integrate with Zoom/Teams/Meet, collaborate in real-time during calls, extract action items from discussions, or maintain searchable meeting archives.