How to Turn Off Otter AI

TL;DR: To turn off Otter AI, disable the Auto-join meetings toggle in Settings, disconnect your calendar integration, or remove the Otter notetaker bot directly from a live Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams call. To delete your account permanently, go to Settings and select Delete Account. If you want meeting recording without a cloud bot, screenpipe is a local-first alternative that captures meetings on your device.

People search "how do I turn off Otter AI" for different reasons. Some want to pause it for one meeting. Some want to remove it from their calendar permanently. Some want to cancel their subscription and delete everything. This guide covers all four cases.

How to Disable Otter AI: Step-by-Step for Each Platform

To turn off Otter AI completely, you need to disable two things: automatic joining (controlled in Otter settings) and the calendar integration (controlled separately). Most users only disable one and are surprised when Otter keeps joining their calls. The steps below cover all four ways to stop or remove Otter: the mobile app toggle, calendar disconnect, live call removal, and full account deletion.

Turn Off Auto-Join in the Mobile App

1. Open the Otter AI app on iOS or Android.
2. Tap your profile icon and go to Settings.
3. Turn off Auto-join meetings and Auto-import.

This stops Otter from joining new meetings but does not disconnect your calendar. Do both steps below to fully stop Otter.

Remove Otter from Google Calendar or Outlook

Otter reads your calendar to know which meetings to join. To stop this:

1. In the Otter web app, go to Settings and select Calendar.
2. Disconnect your Google or Outlook calendar.
3. Otter will no longer auto-join any future meetings.

Remove the Otter Notetaker Bot from a Live Call

If Otter has already joined a call as a participant, remove it directly:

• Zoom: In the Participants panel, find the "Otter.ai Notetaker" bot and click Remove.
• Google Meet: Click the person icon, find the Otter bot, and use the three-dot menu to remove it.
• Microsoft Teams: In the Participants pane, right-click the Otter bot and select Remove from meeting.

Other participants can see and remove the Otter bot the same way any meeting participant can remove another.

How to Cancel Your Otter AI Subscription

To cancel your Otter AI subscription before deleting your account:

1. Go to otter.ai and sign in.
2. Navigate to Settings and select Subscription.
3. Click Cancel Plan and confirm. Otter will downgrade you to the free tier at the end of your billing cycle.

Delete Your Otter Account Permanently

To remove your account and data entirely:

1. Go to otter.ai and sign in.
2. Navigate to Settings and scroll to Delete Account.
3. Confirm deletion. Per Otter's privacy policy (otter.ai/privacy, verified 2026-07), account deletion removes your data from their servers. Review their data retention timeline for specifics on processing time.

Why People Leave Otter AI

People leave Otter AI for four main reasons: the notetaker bot appears as a visible participant in every call, meeting audio is uploaded to Otter's cloud servers for transcription, the free tier is capped by monthly transcription minutes, and Otter captures meetings only, missing everything that happens between calls.

The bot appears in the participant list. The Otter notetaker bot joins as a visible participant in Zoom and Google Meet. Other people in the call can see it. For client calls, interviews, or discussions involving sensitive topics, having a third-party bot visibly present causes problems regardless of whether participants were told in advance. In some cases, the host has to explicitly approve the bot before it can enter a waiting-room-enabled meeting, surfacing the issue even more visibly.

Meeting audio goes to Otter's cloud servers. Every meeting recorded by Otter is uploaded to Otter's servers for transcription and storage. For regulated industries including healthcare, legal, finance, and government, this is a compliance issue that requires explicit review. Check Otter's current plan terms for what they will and will not sign.

Otter captures meetings only. It does not record what happens between meetings: the browser tab you were researching, the Slack thread with context, the document you were editing before the call. If you need a full workday record rather than meeting transcripts only, Otter covers a narrow slice.

The free tier is capped by monthly minutes. Otter's free plan allows a limited number of transcription minutes per month. If you built a workflow around the free plan and outgrew that cap, the choice is to pay or to move. Check Otter's pricing page for the current limits.

What to Use Instead: Local-First Recording Without a Bot

screenpipe is a local-first AI memory tool for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It captures your screen and audio continuously, stores everything in a local SQLite database on your device, and lets you search your entire work history with natural language queries or AI.

The key difference from Otter: screenpipe does not join your meetings as a bot. It records from your own machine using system audio capture, so nothing appears in the participant list. Transcription runs on-device by default, using Whisper on macOS and Parakeet on Windows and Linux, which keeps meeting audio on your machine. Screenpipe Cloud transcription is a separate option you can turn on, and it does send audio out for processing.

screenpipe is local-first. In local-only mode, captured data stays on your device. Optional cloud AI, sync, connectors, and team workflows are separate deployment choices you control, not defaults.

| | Otter AI | screenpipe | |---|---|---| | Recording method | Cloud bot joins as participant | Local system audio capture, no bot | | Transcription | Otter's cloud servers | On-device by default, cloud optional | | Storage | Otter's cloud | Local SQLite on your device | | What it captures | Meetings only | Screen + audio, all apps, 24/7 | | Platforms | iOS, Android, Web | macOS, Windows, Linux | | Source | Closed | Source-available on GitHub | | Pricing | Free tier (limited minutes) + paid plans | Free tier + Business from $50/seat/mo |

For a full feature comparison, see screenpipe vs Otter AI.

Is Otter AI Safe to Use?

Otter AI is a legitimate product used by millions of people. Whether it is safe for your specific situation depends on your context.

For general professional use, Otter uses standard cloud security practices. For regulated industries such as healthcare, legal, finance, or government, the fact that meeting audio and transcripts are uploaded to a third-party cloud is a risk that needs explicit compliance review. If your meetings contain protected health information or privileged legal communications, check what Otter's current plans commit to in writing before you record anything.

For anyone who needs meeting transcripts to stay on their device, screenpipe's local-first architecture means captured data is stored on your machine in a local database. In local-only mode no audio leaves your device; cloud transcription, cloud AI, and sync are opt-in choices you make explicitly.

Switch to screenpipe

If you are turning off Otter because you want meeting memory without a cloud bot, screenpipe captures meetings locally on your device. There is no bot in the call, no audio upload, and your transcripts stay in a local database on your machine. Download it and have it running in five minutes.