Vexa vs Otter.ai
Otter.ai is a polished note-taker with AI chat and agents, in its cloud. Vexa is open source: transcripts, knowledge and agents on your own servers.
Renting
or owning
Both join the call. The choice is whether your meetings live in Otter’s cloud or on servers you run.
Where recordings and transcripts live
Recordings in your object storage, transcripts in your database.
In Otter’s cloud, on Amazon Web Services in the United States.
Who can change the terms
Apache-2.0, perpetual and irrevocable: we cannot withdraw it from your copy.
Otter, at any time. It can discontinue the service without notice.
Which model it runs on
A speech-to-text model you choose and deploy, via an OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
Chosen by Otter, which trains its AI on de-identified recordings and transcriptions.
If the vendor is sold or changes direction
Your deployment keeps running, and you can fork the code.
Your meetings stay in Otter’s service, under the terms then in force.
Vexa is also available hosted, at the prices on our pricing page. That is renting from us. Otter.ai details are from its pricing, Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, read 3 October 2026.
Feature
comparison
Knowledge and agents: from Otter.ai’s home page and pricing, read 4 October 2026.
Keep your meetings on your own servers
Vexa joins your Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls, with an API and MCP to build on.
Frequently asked questions
How is Vexa different from Otter.ai?
Otter is a hosted note-taker, with AI chat and agents over your meetings, in its cloud. Vexa is open source: it keeps the transcript, plus knowledge and agents (early), on servers you run.
Can I self-host meeting transcription with Vexa?
Yes. Vexa is licensed under Apache-2.0 and runs on your own infrastructure with Docker or Kubernetes. Otter runs in its own cloud: its privacy policy names Amazon Web Services, in the United States, for compute and data storage.
Does Otter have an API?
Yes. Otter’s pricing page lists an API and webhooks on its Enterprise plan, and an MCP server from the free plan up. Vexa’s REST API, WebSocket stream, webhooks and MCP server are part of the open-source code.