Do you still need Otter.ai if you have Google Workspace?

If your team is on Business Standard or higher and your meetings happen in Google Meet — probably not. Gemini’s “take notes for me” is included in what you already pay Google. If your meetings live in Zoom or Teams, or you depend on Otter’s specific workflow, the answer changes. Here is the honest breakdown.

What changed in your Google bill

In January 2025 Google stopped selling Gemini as a paid add-on and folded it into Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus and Enterprise plans. For meetings that means automatic transcription and AI-generated notes inside Google Meet, captured to a Doc and shared with attendees, with nothing extra to buy and no bot joining your call. Business Starter is the exception — it gets only a limited Gemini, without Meet note-taking.

What Otter costs

Pro: $8.33/user/mo on annual billing ($16.99/user/mo billed monthly)
Business: $19.99/user/mo on annual billing ($30/user/mo billed monthly)

A 10-person team on Otter Business pays $2,398.80 a year. For comparison, that same team’s entire Business Standard subscription — email, storage, Meet, Docs, and all of Gemini — is $1,680.00 a year. The notetaker costs more than the office suite.

What overlaps

Meeting transcription, for meetings hosted in Google Meet
AI meeting summaries and action items
A searchable archive — notes land in Drive and search like any other Doc
Sharing notes with attendees

In Workspace terms: Gemini in Google Meet - live transcription and "take notes for me", captured to a Doc.

What Otter still does that Gemini does not

Cross-platform coverage. Otter joins Zoom and Teams meetings. Gemini notes only work inside Google Meet, so mixed-platform teams lose the overlap argument entirely.
In-person and phone recording. Otter’s mobile app transcribes real-world conversations. Meet cannot.
Sales tooling. OtterPilot for Sales pushes structured notes into a CRM. There is no native Workspace equivalent.
Live collaborative transcript. Highlighting and commenting on the transcript during the call is its own workflow.

The verdict

All-Meet team on Business Standard or above: cancel at renewal. You are paying $19.99/user/mo for capability inside the $14/user/mo you already spend.

Mixed Zoom or Teams team: keep it, or consolidate your meeting platform first and then revisit.

On Business Starter: the surprising move is upgrading to Business Standard — about $7/user/mo more — rather than paying for any notetaker. The upgrade is cheaper than Otter Pro and includes considerably more than meeting notes.

See the exact number for your stack.

The checker prices your actual plan, seat count and subscriptions — about 60 seconds, no email required.

Run the Workspace AI Waste Checker

Methodology and caveats

Where the prices come from: All figures are USD. Per seat per month on the annual commitment, unless a field says monthly. Annual spend = per-seat-month x seats x 12. Last verified 21 July 2026. That is the date of the oldest entry, not the newest, so it never overstates how current this page is.
How thoroughly each number was checked: Checked against the vendor’s own pricing page: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Read AI. These are the only tools that can produce the headline figure. Carried over from earlier research and not independently re-checked: Fyxer AI, ChatGPT Business, Zoom, Grammarly, Loom — shown for review only, never counted as waste.
Google Workspace prices are localised; these tools are not: Google shows Workspace prices in your local currency — an Australian visitor to Google’s own pricing page sees AUD, not the USD figures used here. The overlap tools bill in USD regardless of region, so USD is the honest common currency for a comparison. Workspace USD list prices could not be read from Google’s own page from Australia and are corroborated from a secondary source; the competitor prices are not.
What this deliberately does not do: It counts only complete overlaps toward the headline, and only when you have told us the caveats do not apply to you. Anything partial is listed for review and excluded from the number. A different AI model is a legitimate reason to pay twice, so ChatGPT is never counted as waste.
Before you cancel anything: Prices change without notice. Always confirm against the vendor’s current pricing page before cancelling a subscription. This tool gives general information, not financial advice, and it does not know what your team actually relies on.