I still remember the exact meeting that made me realize English-only transcription tools were not enough. I was working with a client based in Tokyo. The meetings were conducted in a mix of Japanese and English — the Japanese team members would discuss among themselves in Japanese, then switch to English to share their conclusions with me. I needed to capture everything. The English parts were fine — any transcription tool could handle those. The Japanese parts were a black hole. I would hear animated discussion, see slides being referenced, watch decisions being made — and have no record of what was said. I tried using an English-only transcription tool on the Japanese audio. The transcript was gibberish. Complete nonsense. I realized I needed something different: a transcription tool that could handle multiple languages, switching between them seamlessly, capturing every part of the conversation regardless of what language was being spoken.

That search led me to Notta AI. The tool had been recommended by a colleague who worked across English, Chinese, and Japanese. They described it as "the multilingual transcription tool" — the one you use when your conversations do not stay in one language. I was intrigued. I signed up for a trial, uploaded a recording of that Tokyo meeting, and waited. The transcript that came back was not perfect — no AI transcription is — but it captured both languages. The English sections were accurate. The Japanese sections were coherent. For the first time, I had a complete record of a multilingual conversation.

That was over a year ago. Since then, I have used Notta AI for meetings, interviews, and content creation across multiple languages. I have tested its transcription accuracy in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, and German. I have compared it against Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai for multilingual use cases. I have evaluated its AI summaries, its translation features, and its meeting integration capabilities.

This review is based on all that testing. I will show you exactly what Notta AI can do, where it struggles, how much it costs, who should use it, and who should look elsewhere. If you work across languages and need a transcription tool that keeps up, this is the review you need.

What Exactly Is Notta AI?

Notta AI is an AI-powered transcription and meeting assistant platform headquartered in Singapore with a strong presence across Asia. The company was founded by a team that recognized a gap in the transcription market: most tools were built for English, with other languages as an afterthought. Notta was built from the ground up with multilingual transcription as a core capability, not an add-on feature.

The platform supports transcription in over 100 languages — significantly more than English-centric competitors like Otter.ai or Fireflies.ai. It can transcribe meetings, interviews, lectures, and any spoken audio, with real-time transcription available in many languages. Beyond transcription, Notta offers AI-powered meeting summaries, translation between languages, and integrations with meeting platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

Notta also provides a web-based recording studio and a mobile app, allowing you to record and transcribe conversations in person or remotely. The platform includes collaboration features for teams, shared workspaces, and the ability to export transcripts in multiple formats. Notta positions itself as the transcription tool for global teams and multilingual content creators — the users who have been underserved by English-first tools.

How I Tested Notta AI for This Review

I have been using Notta AI for over a year. For this review, I conducted a focused four-week testing period. Here is what I tested:

1. Multilingual transcription: Testing Notta's accuracy across English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), French, and German recordings — both single-language and mixed-language conversations.
2. Translation quality: Testing Notta's ability to translate transcripts between languages and evaluating accuracy.
3. Meeting integration: Testing Notta's integration with Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet for live meeting transcription.
4. AI summaries: Evaluating the quality of automatically generated meeting summaries across different languages.
5. Mobile app: Testing the mobile recording and transcription experience for in-person conversations.
6. Side-by-side comparison: Comparing Notta against Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai for English transcription and multilingual capabilities.
7. Real project use: Using Notta for client meetings, multilingual interviews, and content creation.

I used the Pro plan and focused particularly on multilingual use cases because that is Notta's primary differentiator.

What Notta AI Does Really Well

Notta fills a genuine gap in the transcription market. Here is where it excels.

1. Multilingual Transcription That Actually Works

This is Notta's defining feature and the reason to choose it over other transcription tools. The platform supports over 100 languages, and — critically — the accuracy is good across many of them, not just English. Most transcription tools claim multilingual support but deliver poor accuracy outside English. Notta invested in building language-specific AI models that deliver usable transcription in major world languages.

I tested Notta with recordings in six languages. English transcription was comparable to Otter.ai — around 95% accuracy in ideal conditions. Spanish transcription was strong — my native Spanish-speaking colleague reviewed the transcript and estimated 90-93% accuracy, with occasional errors on regional expressions. Japanese transcription was good — not perfect, but far better than English-only tools that produce gibberish. Chinese (Mandarin) was solid, handling both simplified characters and reasonably complex business vocabulary. French and German were good, with occasional errors on technical terms.

The mixed-language capability is what sets Notta apart. I tested a recording where speakers switched between English and Japanese. Notta captured both languages correctly, labeling the language switches appropriately. This is genuinely difficult for AI — recognizing not just what is being said, but what language it is being said in, and applying the correct language model. Notta handles this better than any other transcription tool I have tested. For global teams, multilingual families, international researchers, and anyone who operates across languages, this capability is transformative. It means you can have natural conversations in whatever language feels right, and still have a complete, accurate record. For more on AI transcription tools, see my reviews of Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai.

2. Translation Integrated With Transcription

Notta includes translation features that allow you to translate your transcripts between supported languages. After transcribing a meeting in Japanese, you can translate the transcript to English — or vice versa. The translation quality is good, comparable to dedicated translation tools. It is not literary quality — nuance and cultural context can be lost — but it is more than adequate for understanding the content of a conversation in a language you do not speak.

The integration of transcription and translation in one platform saves significant time. The alternative workflow — transcribe in one tool, copy the text, paste into a translation tool, review — is cumbersome and error-prone. Notta handles both steps seamlessly. For teams that regularly work across languages, this integrated workflow is a practical advantage that reduces friction and improves efficiency.

3. Mobile App for In-Person Conversations

Notta's mobile app is genuinely useful for capturing in-person conversations. You open the app, tap record, and Notta transcribes the conversation in real time. This is valuable for in-person meetings, field research, interviews conducted face-to-face, and any situation where you are not on a video call but still need a record of what was said.

I tested the mobile app by recording a thirty-minute in-person meeting. The audio quality from the phone's microphone was adequate — not as good as a dedicated recording setup, but clear enough for accurate transcription. The real-time transcript appeared on screen with reasonable speed. After the meeting, the transcript and AI summary were available in my Notta dashboard. For professionals who have important conversations outside of scheduled video calls — consultants, researchers, journalists, field workers — the mobile app extends Notta's value beyond the meeting room.

4. AI Summaries Across Languages

Notta generates AI meeting summaries that extract key topics, decisions, and action items. The summaries work across supported languages — you can get a summary of a Japanese meeting in Japanese, or translate it to English. The summary quality is comparable to Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai for English content. For non-English content, Notta's summaries are better simply because Otter and Fireflies do not support those languages well.

The summaries are useful for quickly understanding what happened in a meeting without reading the full transcript. They are not a replacement for human judgment about what mattered, but they provide a solid starting point. For managers who oversee multilingual teams, the ability to get AI summaries of meetings conducted in different languages — and read them in your preferred language — is a powerful capability.

Where Notta AI Falls Short

Notta is strong for multilingual use, but it has real limitations. Here is where it struggles.

1. English-Only Transcription Is Not Best-in-Class

If you only need English transcription, Notta is not the best choice. Otter.ai offers slightly better English accuracy, a more polished user experience, and a more mature AI summary feature. Fireflies.ai offers deeper CRM and workflow integrations. Notta's English transcription is good — competitive with the leaders — but it is not the primary reason to choose the tool.

If your work is exclusively in English, Otter or Fireflies are stronger choices depending on your needs. Notta's value proposition is multilingual capability. If you do not need that capability, you are paying for a feature you will not use. Choose the tool that matches your language needs.

2. Fewer Business Integrations Than Fireflies.ai

Notta integrates with major meeting platforms — Zoom, Teams, Google Meet — but its business integration ecosystem is smaller than Fireflies.ai's. Notta does not have the deep CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot that make Fireflies valuable for sales teams. It does not integrate with project management tools for automatic task creation. It does not have conversation intelligence features like keyword tracking and talk ratio analysis.

For sales teams and organizations that need meeting data to flow into business systems, Fireflies.ai is the stronger choice — assuming your conversations are in English. Notta focuses on transcription and translation quality across languages rather than business workflow integration. The tools have different priorities.

3. User Interface Could Be More Polished

Notta's interface is functional but not as refined as Otter.ai. Navigation can be slightly confusing. The dashboard organization is not as intuitive. The mobile app, while useful, has occasional performance issues and a less polished design than the desktop experience. These are not dealbreakers — the core functionality works well — but the user experience does not match the market leaders.

Notta is relatively younger than Otter and Fireflies, and the interface reflects that. The company has been steadily improving the user experience, and each update brings refinements. If you prioritize a polished, seamless interface over multilingual capability, Otter.ai is the stronger choice for English-only use.

4. Accuracy Varies Significantly Across Languages

Notta supports over 100 languages, but accuracy is not equal across all of them. Major world languages — English, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, French, German, Korean — have strong accuracy because they have more training data and more refined AI models. Less widely spoken languages have lower accuracy and fewer features. AI summaries and translation may not be available for all languages. Real-time transcription is available in fewer languages than post-recording transcription.

Before relying on Notta for a specific language, test it with a sample recording. The quality you get for Spanish or Japanese may not be the quality you get for Finnish or Thai. Notta is transparent about which languages have full feature support — check their website for current language capabilities before committing.

Notta AI vs. The Competition

Notta competes with Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai, but with a different emphasis. Here is how it stacks up.

Notta AI vs. Otter.ai

Otter.ai offers slightly better English transcription, a more polished user experience, and more mature AI summaries. Notta offers dramatically better multilingual support, integrated translation, and a more capable mobile app for in-person recording. For English-only users, Otter wins. For multilingual users, Notta wins decisively. I reviewed Otter.ai in detail earlier in this series.

Notta AI vs. Fireflies.ai

Fireflies.ai offers deeper business integrations, conversation intelligence, and CRM connectivity. Notta offers multilingual transcription and translation. For English-centric sales and customer success teams, Fireflies wins. For multilingual teams and global content creators, Notta wins. I reviewed Fireflies.ai in the previous article.

Notta AI vs. Specialized Translation Tools

Notta is primarily a transcription tool with translation features. It is not a replacement for professional translation services or specialized translation software for document translation, website localization, or literary translation. Its translation is designed for understanding the content of transcribed conversations. For high-stakes translation where accuracy is critical, professional human translators remain the gold standard.

Pros and Cons Summary

Pricing Overview

*Prices shown are annual billing. Monthly billing is higher. Transcription minutes are pooled across the team on Business plans. Check Notta's website for current language support details.

Who Should Use Notta AI?

Based on my testing, here is who will benefit most from Notta AI:

• Global teams working across languages: If your team communicates in multiple languages, Notta captures every conversation regardless of what language is being spoken. No other transcription tool handles multilingual workflows as well.
• International researchers and journalists: For interviews conducted in different languages, Notta provides accurate transcription and translation, saving the time and cost of human transcription services.
• Multilingual content creators: If you create content in multiple languages, Notta transcribes and translates, helping you repurpose content across language markets.
• Business professionals working in Asia: Notta's strong support for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and other Asian languages makes it particularly valuable for professionals working in or with Asian markets.
• Language learners and educators: Notta can transcribe and translate conversations, lectures, and media, supporting language learning and multilingual education.

Who Should Look Elsewhere?

• English-only users who do not need multilingual support: Otter.ai offers a slightly better English experience. Fireflies.ai offers deeper business integrations. See my Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai reviews.
• Sales teams needing CRM integration: Fireflies.ai's Salesforce and HubSpot integrations are significantly deeper than Notta's. For sales workflows, Fireflies is the stronger choice.
• Users who prioritize a polished interface: If user experience is your top priority and you only need English, Otter.ai provides a more refined experience.
• Those needing only occasional transcription in a single language: The free plan may suffice, but if you rarely transcribe, a pay-per-use service might be more cost-effective than a subscription.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Notta AI

After a year of regular use, here are my best tips for using Notta AI effectively:

1. Set the correct language before recording or uploading. Notta works best when it knows what language to expect. For single-language recordings, set the language explicitly rather than relying on auto-detection. This improves accuracy.
2. Use the mobile app for in-person interviews and field research. The mobile app is one of Notta's strengths. For face-to-face conversations, it captures audio and transcribes in real time — no separate recorder needed.
3. Test accuracy for your specific language pair before committing. Accuracy varies by language. Before subscribing to a paid plan, test Notta with a sample recording in your target language to ensure the quality meets your needs.
4. Review and correct key terms in your transcripts. If Notta consistently mis-transcribes important names, technical terms, or jargon, correct them in the transcript. This improves the AI summary and makes the transcript more useful for future reference.
5. Use the translation feature for understanding, not for publication. Notta's translation is good for comprehension — understanding what was said in a meeting you do not speak the language of. For published content or formal communications, have a native speaker review and refine the translation.
6. Combine Notta with Otter or Fireflies if needed. Some teams use Notta for multilingual meetings and Otter or Fireflies for English-only meetings. The tools are not mutually exclusive — use each where it is strongest.

My Experience After One Year of Using Notta AI

I came to Notta AI with a specific need: transcription that worked across languages. A year later, it has become my default tool whenever a conversation involves more than one language — which, in an increasingly global world, happens more often than I expected.

Notta has not replaced Otter.ai for my English-only meetings. Otter's slightly better accuracy, more polished interface, and more mature summaries keep it as my primary tool for English conversations. But whenever Japanese, Spanish, or another language enters the picture — and it does, regularly — I reach for Notta. It is the tool that ensures I have a complete record, regardless of what language was spoken.

The tool is not perfect. Accuracy varies by language. The interface could be more polished. The business integrations could be deeper. But it solves a real problem that other transcription tools largely ignore: the world is multilingual, and conversations do not always stay in English. Notta captures those conversations faithfully, translates them when needed, and makes multilingual work more manageable. For global teams, international researchers, and anyone who operates across languages, Notta AI fills a gap that no other transcription tool currently addresses as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Disclosure: This review is based on my personal testing and experience over one year. I pay for the Notta AI Pro plan myself. This article contains no affiliate links for Notta AI. Some other links on Vexaruno may be affiliate links, but this does not influence my ratings or opinions. I recommend tools I genuinely use and believe are worth your time.