Otter.ai alternatives to transcribe interviews without the cloud

Why look for an Otter.ai alternative

Otter.ai is an excellent meeting assistant: it joins Zoom, Teams or Meet and summarizes for the team. But for a sensitive interview, two limits matter: the audio is sent to Otter’s servers to be transcribed, and offline the app records without transcribing until the network comes back.

The free plan is limited to 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation; Pro costs $16.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed yearly.

The six alternatives at a glance

• nTilia: field notes + on-device Whisper transcription, in the browser (WebGPU-capable computers and phones, Android included); from Pro, $14/mo.
• Whisper Notes: iPhone and Mac, large fast models, separated speakers; one-time purchase.
• MacWhisper: Mac only, free version and paid Pro version.
• Aiko: iPhone, iPad and Mac, on-device Whisper, SRT export; paid app.
• noScribe: Windows, macOS and Linux, free and open source, speakers and a review editor.
• Google Recorder: free, preinstalled on Pixel phones, offline transcription.

nTilia: from interview to article

nTilia is a notes app for field work. The Whisper model downloads once, then transcribes on the device, with no network; you can record into the note or import an audio file. The transcript becomes a draft, then an article published in French and English.

• Pros: works on Android and Windows; Missions, photo, place and Travel Mode around the interview; the only one on the list to publish the article in a citable journal and deposit it on Zenodo (DOI, Pro).
• Cons: Whisper tiny, base and small models, less accurate than the large models of native apps; no speaker separation; transcription is a Pro feature.

Whisper Notes: the fastest on Apple devices

Whisper Notes transcribes on iPhone 12 and later, and on Apple silicon Macs, with Parakeet V3 or Whisper Large V3 Turbo. It separates speakers and exports SRT and VTT. It costs $7.99 once on iPhone; on Mac, 5,000 words a week are free, then $14 once.

• Pros: accuracy, speed, one-time purchase, no sync at all.
• Cons: no Android or Windows, and no Android version planned; no editor or publishing.

MacWhisper: the Mac standard

MacWhisper runs Whisper on the Mac, without sending the audio. A free version gets you started; a Pro version is paid.

• Pros: local transcription of long files, on a powerful computer.
• Cons: Mac only; nothing on the phone, where you record in the field.

Aiko: simple, on iPhone and Mac

Aiko, by Sindre Sorhus, transcribes on the device with Whisper: large v2 on Mac, medium or small on iPhone depending on memory. It handles about a hundred languages and exports JSON, CSV or SRT. The app is paid, with a free trial.

• Pros: very simple, one purchase for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
• Cons: on iPhone, the app must stay open while transcribing; no Android.

noScribe: free, built for research

noScribe is free software (GPL-3.0) for Windows, macOS and Linux, built for qualitative research and also used by journalists. It recognizes speakers, handles about sixty languages and offers a review editor aligned with the audio; its HTML export opens in Word.

• Pros: free, open source, separated speakers, comfortable review.
• Cons: desktop only; one hour of interview takes one to three hours to process; a download of about 3 GB.

Google Recorder: if you have a Pixel

Google’s Recorder app, preinstalled on Pixel phones, transcribes live and offline. From the Pixel 6, it can label speakers.

• Pros: free, instant, on the phone.
• Cons: Pixel only; no long-form editor or publishing.

How to choose

1. Your device

   Pixel: Google Recorder. iPhone or Mac: Whisper Notes, Aiko or MacWhisper. Android or Windows: nTilia or noScribe.

2. Where you transcribe

   In the field, on the phone: nTilia, Whisper Notes, Aiko or Google Recorder. At the desk, on long files: noScribe or MacWhisper.

3. What the text becomes

   To code research interviews, noScribe. To turn them into a published article, nTilia.