Otter Chrome Extension in 2026: Setup for Zoom and Google Meet

The Otter Chrome extension, listed in the Chrome Web Store as "Otter.ai: Record & Transcribe Meetings - Google Meet & Web Audio", adds Otter to Zoom and Google Meet calls you open in Chrome. Click its icon in a meeting tab and choose Add AI Notetaker to send Otter in as a participant, or, in Google Meet only, Record on my device instead to transcribe with no bot. Otter says the extension works on every Otter plan, free included.

It's a small install that changes what happens in every call you join from the browser, so it's worth knowing exactly what it will do before the next meeting starts. This guide covers installing it, how it behaves in Google Meet versus Zoom, the two extra tricks it has (calendar notes and video transcripts), what everyone else on the call sees, and the usual reasons it records nothing.

What the Otter Chrome extension does in Zoom and Google Meet

The Otter Chrome extension does more in Google Meet than in Zoom. In both, it can send Otter's AI Notetaker into the meeting. Only Google Meet gets a live transcript panel inside the tab and a botless recording option. Otter's extension help page lists Zoom and Google Meet as the only supported meeting links; Microsoft Teams and Webex calls aren't covered.

Unscheduled calls are covered: the extension acts on any Zoom or Google Meet link you open in Chrome, including one that was never on your calendar. Chrome is required. Transcription languages through the extension are English (US or UK), Spanish and French, and Otter asks you to set the language under Account Settings > General before the meeting starts.

How to install the Otter Chrome extension

Installing the Otter extension takes about a minute and needs an Otter account, which you can create during setup. The steps from Otter's help center:

1. Open the Otter.ai: Record & Transcribe Meetings - Google Meet & Web Audio page in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Click Add to Chrome, then Add extension to accept the permissions.
3. Click the extension icon in the toolbar and sign in to Otter, or create an account.
4. Click the puzzle-piece icon and pin Otter so its icon stays visible during calls.

Pin it. The extension is only useful if you can reach it in the two seconds after a call starts, and digging through the puzzle-piece menu while people are saying hello is exactly when you forget. I keep it pinned next to the address bar for that reason.

If you want Otter in every calendar meeting without clicking anything, that's a separate setting: auto-join under Account Settings > Meetings. Our guide to using Otter in Google Meet walks through each auto-join option and how to switch it off again.

How to use the Otter extension in Google Meet

In Google Meet, open the meeting link in Chrome, click the Otter icon and choose Add AI Notetaker. Otter's notetaker enters as a participant, and a floating transcript panel appears in the Meet tab, per Otter's extension guide. The panel shows the transcript as people speak, can be moved out of the way of faces and slides, and links through to the full conversation in Otter, where the same transcript also appears under My Conversations.

The panel is worth keeping visible. When a client agrees to a date mid-call, I highlight that line in the transcript right then instead of trusting myself to scroll back through an hour of talk afterward.

Record a Google Meet with no bot

To transcribe a Google Meet without adding a participant, open the extension during the call and choose Record on my device instead. Otter then transcribes the call from your own computer rather than through a participant. This option exists only for Google Meet. If the recording comes out empty, Otter's first suggestion is to check that Chrome has microphone permission; the fixes are further down.

How to use the Otter extension in Zoom

In Zoom, the Otter Chrome extension does one thing: it sends AI Notetaker into the meeting. Open the Zoom link in Chrome, click the Otter extension on the Zoom launch page and choose Add AI Notetaker. There's no floating panel in a Zoom tab, so you follow the live transcript under My Conversations in Otter, according to Otter's help page.

The extension's no-bot option doesn't cover Zoom. For a Zoom transcript without a participant, Otter suggests starting a recording manually in the browser, or using the Otter desktop app for Mac and Windows, which its Zoom recording guide says records Zoom on your computer with no notetaker. The same guide lists two more Zoom routes: Live Notes, which works only in Zoom meetings you host, and Zoom Cloud Sync, which needs an Otter Business plan and a paid Zoom license.

Two other things the extension does

The Otter extension also works outside live calls, and both extras are easy to miss.

Add Otter notes to a Google Calendar event

Once the extension is in Chrome, every new Google Calendar event shows an Add Otter meeting notes button. Clicking it creates an Otter conversation and puts its link in the event description, per Otter's calendar article. The Share to menu decides who can open those notes: Calendar event guests, an existing Otter Channel, or a new Channel you create on the spot. This button works with Google Calendar only, not Outlook.

Look at the Share to setting before you save. The first time I used this on a call with an outside agency, I nearly left it on Calendar event guests, which would have given everyone on the invite the transcript. For that call a private Channel with just my team was the right choice. If you want no sharing at all, click the X beside the sharing options before adding the notes.

Transcribe a video playing in a tab

The Otter extension can transcribe a YouTube or Vimeo video, or any audio playing in a Chrome tab. Open the video, click the extension, decide whether to include your microphone, click Start recording, then press play. Otter's guide to transcribing recordings recommends the extension for this because it captures the tab's audio directly, so you can keep headphones on.

What other people on the call see

When the Otter extension sends AI Notetaker into a call, everyone sees it: the notetaker appears in the participant list like any other guest. Botless recording is different. Record on my device instead adds no participant, so everyone else in a Google Meet call gets no sign from Otter that they're being transcribed.

An academic technologist at Carleton College tested exactly this in March 2026 and found the extension could record a Google Meet without any notice appearing for other participants, though the person recording did see a clear popup. The same post notes that recordings start without a click only if an automatic recording option was switched on earlier, and that option can be turned off in the Otter pop-up shown when a new Meet starts.

Otter Chrome extension not working? What to check

Most Otter extension problems come from microphone permissions, an unsupported meeting app, or another extension getting in the way. Work down the list in order:

1. Check the meeting app. The extension only acts on Zoom and Google Meet links in Chrome. A Teams or Webex call, or a meeting opened in Safari, won't show the Otter options.
2. Give Chrome the microphone. In Chrome, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Site settings > Microphone, confirm the right microphone is selected, and make sure both otter.ai and the Otter.ai: Record & Transcribe Meetings extension are allowed, as Otter's audio troubleshooting page describes.
3. Give macOS the microphone. Chrome also needs the Mac's own permission: under System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone, switch Chrome on. Then open System Settings > Sound, pick your microphone under Output & Input, and watch for the input level to move when you speak.
4. Turn off conflicting extensions. Otter lists extensions known to interfere, including uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Bitdefender Anti-Tracker and some VPNs. Try the meeting in an incognito window first; if Otter works there, switch your other extensions off singly until the transcript returns.
5. Check Chrome's echo cancellation. If the transcript only has your own voice, Otter's article on missing audio in Chrome traces it to Chrome's experimental echo cancellation flag; turn it off at chrome://flags and relaunch Chrome.
6. Check the language. If the transcript comes out garbled rather than empty, confirm the language under Account Settings > General matches the call. The extension handles English, Spanish and French only.
7. Check your plan's limits. On Otter Basic, each conversation stops transcribing at 30 minutes, so a transcript that ends abruptly halfway through a long call is usually the cap, not a bug.

When the panel went blank on me mid-call once, I skipped straight to step 4 and opened the meeting in an incognito window. The transcript came back there, which told me another extension was the problem before I'd touched a single setting.

How to turn off or remove the Otter Chrome extension

To remove the Otter extension, open Chrome's menu, go to Extensions > Manage Extensions, find Otter and click Remove. If you'd rather keep it but stop surprise recordings, switch off the automatic recording option in the Otter pop-up that appears when a new Google Meet starts.

Removing the extension doesn't stop Otter's notetaker from joining meetings through your calendar. That's controlled by auto-join in your Otter account, so if Otter still turns up in calls after you've uninstalled it, change the auto-join setting to Meetings I manually select, or disconnect your calendar from Otter entirely.

What the Otter extension costs

The Otter Chrome extension itself is free on every plan, but your plan sets how much it can transcribe. These were the limits on Otter's pricing page in November 2026, per user:

For the occasional 20-minute check-in, Basic is fine. Once your calls regularly run past half an hour, the free plan cuts them off, and Pro's 90-minute ceiling is the realistic floor for client meetings.

Other Chrome extensions for Zoom and Google Meet notes

Otter isn't the only note taker that lives in Chrome, and a different one can fit better if you want no bot in Zoom either, or you're on Teams. Each of the other tools below links to its own site:

If most of your calls are Google Meet and Gemini is already part of your Workspace plan, Take notes for me is the least to install: it saves notes to the organizer's Google Drive and attaches them to the Calendar event. For a wider comparison, including free plans and the bot question, see our roundup of AI note takers, or Otter alternatives if a specific Otter limit is what's pushing you to look.