MeetStream vs Otter.ai
MeetStream is the meeting bot API with a voice agent runtime built in. Bot infrastructure is $0.35 an hour.
Otter.ai is priced per seat, from $8.33 a user a month on Pro. Our bill follows meetings, not headcount.
What an hour of meeting bot costs
One is a rate per hour, the other a price per seat.
| MeetStream | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | An hour | A seat, every month |
| Published entry price | $0.35 an hour | $8.33 a user a month, on Pro |
| All in, with transcription | $0.45 an hour | Included in the seat |
| API access | Every plan | Their Enterprise plan |
Ours from the pricing page. Theirs checked on their published pages on 4 September 2026.
Seats bill whether meetings happen or not. Hours bill when a bot runs.
A bot that speaks in the meeting
MeetStream ships an in-meeting voice agent runtime. The bot hears every speaker, reasons, and answers out loud.
Wake words, interruptions and an avatar are settings, not a build. It runs on the bot that records. See voice agents.
Built for agents to build with
One request puts a bot in the call. Media, transcripts and events come back on a webhook you name.
Live audio arrives about 200 milliseconds behind the room. See real-time audio.
An MCP server, a command line tool and a Claude skill ship with it. See developers.
Priced for a team that is still building
$5 of free credit, a key in under a minute, and the full API on every plan.
| MeetStream | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 people | $54 | $83 |
| 50 people | $270 | $417 |
| 200 people | $1,080 | $1,666 |
Twelve recorded hours a person a month at $0.45 all in, against $8.33 a seat on Pro, checked on their published pages on 4 September 2026.
The engineers who build it answer you
Teams on MeetStream get a shared Slack channel with our engineers in it. A webhook question reaches its author.
No support tier to buy, and no gate in front of it. Start on free credit and scale from there.
Your recordings, in your bucket
Thirty days of storage sit inside the rate. Point us at your own bucket and artefacts land there.
Write-only mode means we never read it back. Deletion is self-serve. Setup is on the S3 storage page.
The comparison, row by row
Their figures are the ones they publish, checked on their published pages on 4 September 2026. Not published means we could not find it.
Voice and agents in the meeting
| MeetStream | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| In-meeting voice agent runtime | Yes On the bot that records | Not published |
| Wake words and interruption handling | Yes Barge-in and echo control, per voice agents | Not published |
| Avatar on the bot video tile | Yes Lip-synced, all three platforms | Not published |
| Tool calls from inside the meeting | Yes MCP servers and your functions | Not published |
| MCP server, CLI and agent skills | Yes On the developers page | Limited An MCP server over their own archive |
Real time, recording and transcription
| MeetStream | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy your own bot by API | Yes One request, three platforms | Limited Joins from a connected calendar |
| Full API on every plan | Yes From the free credit up | Limited On their Enterprise plan |
| Real-time media to your server | Yes About 200 ms, per the real-time page | No Live text in their app, not media |
| Per-participant audio and video streams | Yes All three platforms | No No per-participant API |
| In-meeting chat and images | Yes | No No developer API for it |
Price, storage and control
| MeetStream | Otter.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Volume and startup rate | Yes Toward $0.25, no application | Not published |
| Storage included | Yes 30 days | Not published |
| Your own bucket, from the first byte | Yes S3 and S3-compatible, write-only | Not published |
| Time to first bot | Yes Self-serve key in under a minute | Limited Needs an Enterprise workspace |
Certifications move faster than a page like this, so they live on the security page.
The integration, one request
One request, on any of the three platforms. It takes a meeting link and a webhook.
curl -X POST https://api.meetstream.ai/api/v1/bots/create_bot \
-H "Authorization: Token $MEETSTREAM_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "meeting_link": "https://zoom.us/j/74648392", "bot_name": "Acme Notetaker",
"recording_config": {"transcript": {"provider": {"meetstream": {}}}},
"webhook_url": "https://your-app.example.com/meetstream" }'Run both for a week, compare the artefacts, then move the webhook.
Frequently asked questions
Does Otter.ai have an API?
Yes, but it is gated to Enterprise workspaces and enabled through an account manager.
It gives programmatic access to conversations, transcripts, audio and action items from your own Otter account, and accepts audio uploads.
There is also an MCP server for querying past meetings. All of it reads what OtterPilot captured.
MeetStream is API first on any plan, so you deploy your own bot and own the full pipeline.
Is there an Otter.ai alternative for developers?
MeetStream is the developer-focused option. One API deploys your own bot into Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.
You get per-participant media, real-time audio, in-meeting actions and webhooks on any plan, then build your own product on top.
Can I build a meeting notetaker with an API instead of using Otter?
Yes. MeetStream gives you the parts to build a notetaker, or any meeting feature.
Bot deployment, speaker-labelled transcripts, live per-participant audio and bring-your-own storage.
You control when the bot joins and where the data goes, and pricing is per hour rather than per seat.
How much does Otter.ai cost versus MeetStream?
As of July 2026 Otter is per seat: Basic free, Pro $8.33 per user per month annually, Business $19.99, Enterprise on quote.
API access is Enterprise only.
MeetStream is usage-based from $0.35 an hour toward $0.25 at volume, with $5 in free credit and no seat minimums.
Can a MeetStream bot speak in the meeting?
Yes. A voice agent runs on the same bot that records. It hears each speaker, calls your tools and answers out loud.
Wake words, interruptions and an avatar are settings, described on the voice agents page.
Where can I read MeetStream security detail?
On the security page: ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type 2 audit status, GDPR and the data residency options, kept current there.
Can I keep recordings in my own bucket?
Yes. Point us at an S3 or S3-compatible bucket and artefacts land there from the first byte, in a write-only mode we never read back.
How current are these numbers?
Every Otter.ai figure here was read on their own published pages and checked 4 September 2026.
Tell us what changed and it gets fixed the same week.
Run the comparison yourself
$5 of free credit, a key in under a minute, and every figure above read off a published page.