4 Meeting Transcription Tools Tested in 2026: Is Otter's Chinese Version Good Enough?

Many people ask, "Does Otter have a Chinese version?" but what they really mean is: Can I hold a meeting in Chinese and get a Traditional Chinese transcript ready to hand to my manager or client?

Let's cut to the chase. Otter's official language list currently includes Chinese (Simplified), i.e., Simplified Chinese; Traditional Chinese is not on the official support list, and the interface is still primarily in English. In our tests, fully Chinese meetings could be recognized, but the transcript output was in Simplified Chinese, so you usually have to convert it yourself before delivering.

A common misunderstanding: confusing "AI Chat can answer in Traditional Chinese" with "speech has been accurately transcribed into Traditional Chinese." These are completely different. The former is translation and Q&A at the text level; the latter is language support for speech recognition itself.

Another old issue is "recognizing Chinese accents." That refers to understanding English with a Chinese accent, not supporting the Chinese language. If you see old articles saying Otter doesn't support Chinese, that was the past; the official list now includes Simplified Chinese, but Traditional is still not listed.

The pain point of Chinese meeting notes is never typing speed

After a two-hour meeting, you have the transcript—then what?

Most people's next step is: scroll from top to bottom, convert Simplified to Traditional, and fix misheard names and English abbreviations one by one. After this round, another half hour is gone.

What's more troublesome is mixed Chinese-English. Product names, system codes, client English names—if these are misrecognized once, the subsequent AI summary will also be wrong, and the credibility of the entire meeting minutes is directly discounted.

If you've also experienced "recording is convenient, but organizing is more tiring than the meeting itself," the problem is usually not you, but that the tool only helps you with the transcription step.

Before choosing a Chinese meeting tool, understand these 4 key points

1. Does it support Chinese, Simplified or Traditional?
This is the pitfall most people fall into. The official statement "supports Chinese" does not mean it supports Traditional Chinese, nor does it mean the transcript will use Taiwanese terminology. Before purchasing, check the full wording of the official language list, not just the marketing page.

2. Recognition of mixed Chinese-English and proper nouns.
Almost no meeting in Taiwan is purely in Chinese. Names, abbreviations, and product codes are everywhere. The difference in this area determines how long you'll spend editing afterward more than the "official claimed accuracy." We recommend testing with a real recording from your own company, not a press release audio file.

3. What else can the tool do after transcription?
Just giving you text is equivalent to returning the organizing work to you unchanged. Whether it has automatic summaries, chapters, action item extraction, and whether you can ask questions directly about the meeting content—that's where real time savings come from.

4. How is the meeting recorded?
The traditional approach is to send a meeting bot to join as a "participant," which some companies mind. Another approach is for the desktop version to directly capture the computer's system audio, without disturbing others, and without an extra account appearing in the list.

Tinrec — The one I recommend most after testing

Tinrec is an AI meeting notes and collaboration tool for individuals and teams, available on web, desktop, and mobile. Its main selling point is not just converting speech to text, but turning meetings into searchable, queryable, and deliverable data.

During the meeting, the desktop version directly captures computer system audio, handling online meetings on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex without inviting a meeting bot. For offline meetings or interviews, use real-time recording to transcribe as you record. For cross-language situations, you can view the original text, translation, or bilingual content simultaneously.

After the meeting, AI automatically generates summaries, chapters, and action items. This is especially noticeable for Chinese meetings: you get the organized results in Traditional Chinese, without going through another Simplified-to-Traditional conversion.

Even better is post-meeting querying. You can directly ask it "Who mentioned the budget in the last meeting?" or "What concerns did the client have about the delivery date?" and it will answer from the meeting content, rather than throwing a bunch of keyword search results at you. Few tools in the same price range have this capability.

Output is also fairly complete: transcripts, summaries, and action items can be exported, and brought to Notion, Google Docs, OneNote, or Dropbox for further processing, or use Agent post-processing to generate reports, tables, and meeting documents.

To be honest, limitations must be mentioned. Actual recognition performance is affected by recording quality, background noise, accents, and multiple people talking over each other. It is not recommended to treat it as a tool that requires "no manual proofreading at all"; for important numbers and commitments, it's best to verify with recording playback. The personal free tier is suitable for light use; if you have a high volume of meetings, evaluate paid plans or team versions.

The team version is another level: independent team spaces, member and seat management, usage analytics, audit logs, audio recycle bin (30-day retention), and team hotwords. Members can view and play team data even without a seat, but actual recording, uploading, and editing require a seat. Pricing: currently USD 29.80 per paid seat per month, or USD 199 annually (approximately USD 16.58 per month); eligible teams get 7 days, 1 free seat, and 300 minutes of shared import quota for the first time; paid seats provide 2,000 minutes of team shared import quota per month; real-time recording under an active plan is currently not deducted by minutes. Actual prices and benefits are subject to the official purchase page.

Who is it for? People who frequently hold Chinese or mixed Chinese-English meetings, need Traditional Chinese transcripts, don't want bots joining meetings, and want post-meeting data to remain in the team for reuse.

Besides Tinrec, who are these tools suitable for?

Otter.ai: A mature choice for English meetings, also supporting Zoom, Teams, Meet, and real-time transcription. Basic free plan offers 300 minutes per month; Pro annual plan is about USD 8.49/user/month, including 1,200 minutes per month and 10 file imports. For Chinese, the official language list shows Simplified Chinese; in tests, transcript output is Simplified, and English terms and names are easily misheard, requiring manual proofreading and conversion to Traditional; AI Chat can answer in Traditional Chinese when asked, but that doesn't mean transcription supports Traditional. If 90% of your meetings are in English, it's still cost-effective; but if you want Traditional Chinese transcripts ready to use, plus team data seats and audit governance, that's exactly where Tinrec fills the gap.

Notta: Comprehensive multilingual and file transcription, free 120 minutes per month (3 minutes per session limit), Business plan offers unlimited transcription and role permissions. Suitable for those who mainly do file transcription; however, online meetings still require bots or existing processes. If you value bot-free recording and team seats, audit, and other governance capabilities, Tinrec is closer.

Granola: Also takes the bot-free route, with strength in combining user handwritten notes with AI. But it does not support uploading pre-recorded audio files, nor does it save meeting audio files; if you need to keep recordings, transcribe historical archives, or require Traditional Chinese output, Tinrec offers more complete coverage.

Pitfall guide: The 4 most common mistakes when choosing a Chinese meeting tool

Pitfall 1: Buying just because you see "supports Chinese."
Whether the language list says Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional) makes the difference in whether you need to spend time converting afterward. Read the official language page carefully before purchasing.

Pitfall 2: Mistaking AI translation capability for transcription accuracy.
Chat can translate content into any language and answer you in Traditional Chinese, but that works on "already recognized text." If the original speech is misheard, no matter how beautiful the translation, it's wrong.

Pitfall 3: Only comparing free minutes.
Different tools calculate quotas differently: some are in-app recording, some are file imports, some are team shared quotas. A big number doesn't mean you'll use it all; look at your meeting patterns first.

Pitfall 4: Team sharing a single personal account.
Meeting data ownership becomes ambiguous; if a colleague leaves or the account is removed, historical data may be lost. If you have cross-department needs, use a team space with seats and handover mechanisms from the start.

Conclusion: Which one should you choose?

In a word: if you want "Chinese meetings, Traditional Chinese transcripts, ready to use after the meeting," Tinrec is currently the less troublesome one.

• Mainly Chinese or mixed Chinese-English meetings → Tinrec (Traditional Chinese output, no need to convert from Simplified)
• Don't want meeting bots appearing in the participant list → Tinrec (desktop captures system audio)
• Want to ask key points directly after recording, need summaries and action items → Tinrec (AI Q&A and post-meeting output)
• Meeting data to be kept for the team, need seat and usage management → Tinrec Team version
• 90%+ English meetings, zero budget → Otter.ai free version (300 minutes per month)
• Only occasionally need to transcribe an audio file → Test each free version first, don't rush to pay

One final reminder: recording and transcription involve personal data; remember to inform and obtain consent from participants before meetings, and comply with local regulations.

References

• Does Otter.ai support Chinese? Simplified Chinese limitations, free 300 minutes, and tutorial | Mason AI Lab
• Otter - Mac, Windows (PC) desktop app - WebCatalog
• Otter APK (Android App) - Free download
• [Otter AI tutorial and review] Does it support Chinese? Otter AI features, pricing, and usage sharing — Leading Era
• Is Otter.ai good in 2026? Complete Chinese tutorial, features, pricing, user experience | Meeting notes, automatic transcription helper - RosyArts