2026 Notta and Free Audio Transcription Plans Compared: 5 Options at a Glance

Why Do You Need a Free Audio Transcription Plan?

Many people searching for Notta tutorials and pricing see the free plan's 120 minutes per month and think they can throw an entire meeting into it. In practice, they discover a 3-minute limit per recording, forcing them to process the full meeting in segments—which actually takes more time.

This is a common first mistake: looking only at total minutes without considering per-recording limits, export needs, and post-meeting organization capabilities.

A more reasonable approach is to first test a 3-minute sample containing technical terms and two speakers, evaluate transcription and summarization quality, and then decide whether to pay. Below is a review of 5 audio transcription and meeting notes solutions, with Notta's tutorial and pricing covered under the second option.

Tinrec — An AI Assistant That Turns Meetings into Collaborative Data

Tinrec is an AI meeting notes and collaboration tool for individuals and teams. It doesn't just convert audio to text—it organizes meetings into searchable, summarizable, and queryable data.

The first difference is bot-free recording of online meetings: the desktop version directly captures computer system audio, so when handling Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Webex, no additional bot needs to join the meeting. After transcription, it automatically generates summaries, chapters, key points, and action items, and also supports AI Q&A about meeting content, real-time translation, multi-format export, and using an Agent to generate reports, tables, and documents.

The team version centralizes meeting data in a team space, where administrators can manage roles, seats, usage, audit logs, and recycle bin, as well as maintain team hotwords. The personal version offers a free plan, weekly pass, Pro monthly, and Pro annual, suitable for choosing based on usage frequency. Team monthly is USD 29.80 per paid seat per month, annual is USD 199 per paid seat per year (about USD 16.58/month), with 2,000 minutes of shared team import quota per seat per month; real-time recording is currently not deducted by minutes under active plans and seats. The first eligible team trial is 7 days, 1 free seat, and 300 minutes of shared import quota.

Ideal for Chinese-language meetings, those who don't want to invite a meeting bot, and users who need post-meeting organization and team knowledge retention.

Notta — A Popular Choice for Multilingual Transcription, Tutorial and Pricing at a Glance

Notta supports 58 monolingual transcription languages, including Traditional Chinese, and can translate transcriptions into 42 languages. Bilingual transcription supports 23 languages, and you can also customize vocabulary and summary templates.

For the tutorial: first go to the Notta website and sign up with a Google account or email—no credit card required for the free plan. It's recommended to first cut a 3-minute recording containing technical terms and two speakers, check recognition and summary quality, then upload the full meeting or record content from platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams.

On pricing: the free plan offers 120 minutes per month with a 3-minute limit per recording; Pro annual works out to about USD 8.17/month with 1,800 minutes per month; Business annual works out to about USD 16.67 per seat per month, offering unlimited transcription, role permissions, and usage reports. Actual prices and taxes are subject to the official pricing page. Suitable for those who need multilingual transcription, translation, and are already familiar with Notta's workflow.

Otter.ai — A Mature Choice for English Business Meetings

Otter.ai is a mature AI meeting assistant. The Basic free plan offers 300 minutes per month; Pro annual works out to about USD 8.49 per user per month, including 1,200 minutes of in-app recording per month and 10 file imports; Business offers unlimited meetings and more management capabilities.

It's suitable for teams primarily conducting English business meetings, especially those already using Otter to organize meeting notes. If your meetings are mainly in Chinese or mixed Chinese-English, it's worth comparing Chinese transcription and post-meeting organization workflows first.

TurboScribe — An Affordable Choice for Long Audio Files and Batch Transcription

TurboScribe is more of a cost-effective file transcription tool. Free allows 3 files per day, up to 30 minutes per file; Unlimited annual is USD 120, working out to about USD 10/month, with up to 10 hours or 5 GB per file and the ability to upload 50 files at once.

If you have a large number of long audio files, lecture recordings, or need batch subtitles, TurboScribe is a better fit than real-time meeting tools. It doesn't focus on in-meeting real-time collaboration but makes file transcription and translation simple.

Granola — Bot-Free Meeting Notes, Great for Writing Key Points During Meetings

Granola is a bot-free AI meeting notes tool that transcribes in real time through the desktop device's system audio and microphone, and combines with the user's handwritten notes to generate meeting content. Basic is free, Business is USD 14 per user per month, and Enterprise is USD 35 per user per month.

It supports real-time transcript viewing, copying, and searching, but does not support uploading pre-recorded audio files and does not save meeting audio. Suitable for those who like to listen and take notes simultaneously, with meetings primarily in English.

With So Many Options, How Should You Choose?

• Want Chinese meetings, mixed Chinese-English content, and post-meeting summaries, action items, and AI Q&A → Tinrec
• Don't want a meeting bot joining Zoom, Meet, or Teams → Tinrec desktop version
• Team needs to share meeting data and manage roles, seats, and usage → Tinrec team version
• Need real-time translation, bilingual viewing, and multi-format export → Tinrec
• Just occasionally transcribing a 3-minute recording with zero budget → Try Notta free or TurboScribe free first
• Primarily English business meetings, team already using Otter → Otter.ai
• Large volume of long audio files, batch subtitle needs → TurboScribe
• Like to take notes during meetings, no bots → Granola

Simply put, if your focus is "being able to keep using it after the meeting," Tinrec's summaries, Q&A, action items, and team space will save you more effort; if it's just one-off transcription, start by testing free tools.

4 Things to Know Before Using Audio Transcription

First, don't just look at total minutes for free quotas. Notta's free plan offers 120 minutes per month, but each recording is limited to 3 minutes—suitable for testing, not for directly processing a full meeting.

Second, annual billing looks cheaper but charges the full year upfront. For example, Notta Pro annual works out to about USD 8.17/month, but it's still recommended to test with your own recordings for keywords and summaries before committing to annual payment.

Third, transcription accuracy is not a fixed value. Audio quality, noise, accents, overlapping speakers, and technical terminology all affect results. For important content, it's recommended to cross-check with transcript timestamps and audio playback.

Fourth, a team plan is not multiple people sharing one personal account. Take Tinrec's team version as an example: roles determine management permissions, seats determine whether one can record, upload, edit, and export; members without seats can still view, play, and read team data. Before recording, you should also comply with local regulations and obtain participant consent when necessary.

Conclusion

Notta's free plan is good for testing a 3-minute sample first, while Pro suits those with steady multilingual transcription needs each month. Rather than just looking at price, consider per-recording limits, export, summaries, Q&A, and team collaboration together.

If you want Chinese meetings, bot-free recording, post-meeting AI Q&A, and team knowledge retention, Tinrec is the more effortless choice on the list. When budget is limited, start with the free plan or a short-term option, and upgrade once you've confirmed it fits your workflow.

Tools are aids—important meeting notes still need a few minutes of quick verification to ensure AI hasn't misunderstood your content.

References

• What is Notta? Free Plan Limits, Pricing, and Traditional Chinese Transcript Tutorial | Mason AI Lab
• Notta | Learn AI
• 5 AI Meeting Notes Tools Compared: Otter, Notta, and More Features and Pricing
• [Tutorial] 2026 Notta: Audio Transcription + AI Summaries and Multilingual Support - Tinrec Blog
• Notta.ai Pricing | Speechify