How to Cancel Otter.ai (2026)
Cancel from workspace billing settings — but only the workspace owner or an admin can do it, and it has to be at least 24 hours before the renewal date or the charge still lands.
⚠️ Check this before you cancel
Otter cancellation is a permissions problem before it is a billing one. If you were added to a workspace by a colleague, the Cancel button simply is not there for you, and support will point you back at the owner. The second trap is timing: Otter's own help page says to cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing date, and its terms say subscription fees are not refunded for the unused portion — so a cancellation filed the morning of renewal costs you a full extra period.
Step-by-Step: Cancelling Otter.ai
Find the route that matches where you bought the subscription. Cancelling on the wrong one leaves the charge running.
Web (otter.ai)
Billed by Otter.ai, via Stripe- 1
Confirm you are the workspace owner or an admin
Open the left sidebar and check the workspace switcher. Only the owner or an admin sees billing controls — if you joined someone else's workspace, you cannot cancel the plan and need to ask them to, or leave the workspace instead.
- 2
Open Account Settings, then Plan or Billing
Click your profile icon at the top right, choose Account Settings, then the Plan tab. Business workspaces show this under Admin → Billing.
- 3
Choose Cancel and confirm the end date
Do this at least 24 hours before the renewal date shown on the page. Otter keeps Pro or Business features live until the end of the paid period, then drops the workspace to Basic.
Apple App Store (iPhone / iPad)
Billed by Apple- 1
Open iPhone Settings, not the app
Tap your name at the top of Settings, then Subscriptions. Cancelling inside the app itself does nothing to an App Store subscription — this is the single most common reason people keep getting charged after they thought they had cancelled.
- 2
Select the subscription and tap Cancel Subscription
If you do not see it listed, you are signed into a different Apple Account than the one that bought it. Check the receipt email for the Apple Account it was billed to.
- 3
Confirm the end date shown on screen
Apple keeps access live until the end of the paid period and stops renewing after that. Screenshot the confirmation.
Google Play (Android)
Billed by Google- 1
Open the Play Store and go to Payments & subscriptions
Tap your profile icon, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. As with Apple, deleting the app does not cancel anything.
- 2
Select the subscription and tap Cancel subscription
Google will ask for a reason; you can skip it. The subscription stays active until the current period ends.
What Happens to Your Data and Output
- ›Existing conversations, transcripts, and summaries stay in the account — the Basic tier can still open and read them.
- ›Your monthly transcription allowance drops to the Basic limit of 300 minutes, and per-conversation length is capped well below the Pro limit.
- ›Audio/video file imports fall back to the Basic lifetime allowance, so bulk-uploading a backlog of recordings stops working.
- ›Export everything you care about before the period ends — pulling transcripts out is far easier while advanced export is still enabled.
- ›Integrations you configured (Zapier, HubSpot, Salesforce) stop syncing rather than being deleted, and reconnect if you resubscribe.
Can You Get a Refund?
Otter's help centre is explicit that it does not refund subscriptions for the unused portion once a billing period has started, and points to its Terms of Service. The practical remedy is the 24-hour rule: cancel more than a day before renewal. If the subscription was bought through the App Store or Google Play, Otter cannot refund it at all — the request goes to Apple or Google under their own policies.
Cheaper Places to Go Instead of Otter.ai
Most people cancelling still need the job done. These cover the same ground for less, or for nothing.
Granola
Notes are built from your own typed shorthand plus the audio, so meetings stay private and there is no bot joining the call.
See the full profile →tl;dv
Free tier records and transcribes unlimited meetings on Zoom and Google Meet, which is the exact job most people bought Otter Pro for.
See the full profile →Fireflies.ai
The closest like-for-like replacement, with a free tier that keeps transcript search and a cheaper paid entry point.
See the full profile →Whisper (self-hosted)
Free if you already record your calls — accuracy is competitive and nothing leaves your machine, at the cost of doing the upload yourself.
See the full profile →Frequently Asked Questions
Why is there no Cancel button in my Otter account?
Because you are not the owner or an admin of the workspace being billed. Otter only exposes billing controls to those roles. If a colleague or employer added you, ask them to cancel; if you want out of the workspace personally, use Leave workspace instead, which does not stop their charge.
Will I lose my Otter transcripts if I cancel?
No. Cancelling drops the workspace to the free Basic tier and leaves existing conversations readable. What you lose is new capacity — the monthly transcription allowance, meeting length, and file-import limits all fall back to Basic. Export anything business-critical before the paid period ends.
Can I get a refund if Otter renewed my annual plan?
Otter's published position is that subscriptions are not refunded for the unused portion, so an annual renewal caught after the fact usually stands. The exception is a purchase made through Apple or Google, where the refund request goes to them at reportaproblem.apple.com or Google Play's refund form and is judged under their policies, not Otter's.
I cancelled on the website but Otter still charged me — what happened?
Either the subscription was bought inside the iOS or Android app, in which case Apple or Google holds the billing relationship and the website cancellation does nothing, or the cancellation was filed less than 24 hours before the renewal date. Check who your receipt email came from: Otter.ai, or Apple/Google.
Is there a cheaper option than cancelling outright?
Switching from monthly to annual halves the per-month price, which is worth doing if the tool is genuinely used and only the monthly rate stings. If the problem is that meetings are occasional, the free Basic tier plus a free-tier competitor for overflow usually covers it at zero.
Learn More
People cancelling Otter.ai ask AI what to switch to. Does it name your tool?
Everyone on this page is mid-churn and asking ChatGPT for a replacement meeting notes tool. Run a free scan to see whether AI assistants name yours when they do.
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