Quick answer

Is there a free alternative to Otter for Arabic?

Yes. Otter's pricing page lists AI transcription in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese, and Arabic is not on that list. TryScriptorium transcribes Arabic and lets you try it with no account (one file up to 15 minutes and 25 MB, 3 tries a day, no account), but our own test measured 31.8% word error for the small model on Egyptian Arabic clips, so treat the result as a draft. Sonix, Happy Scribe, Maestra and Notta also have Arabic pages, each with its own free limits.

Updated 2026-10-25

Arabic support compared

Tool	Arabic	Free route it states	Accuracy statement
Otter	Not on the list on its pricing page (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese)	300 minutes a month, 30 per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports	None for Arabic
TryScriptorium	Yes, one of 33 languages plus detection	One file up to 15 minutes and 25 MB, 3 tries a day, no account	Our own test: 31.8% word error rate for the small model on 3 Egyptian Arabic clips (246 seconds in total). A draft to review; see the method and limits
Sonix	Has an Arabic page; says speech close to Modern Standard Arabic gives the cleanest results	30 free minutes with a trial account; $10 an hour after	Its own FAQ gives 85-99% depending on audio quality (its claim; not our test)
Happy Scribe	AI transcription plus a human service by native speakers with 16 country variants	Free plan: one-time 10-minute AI trial, 45 minutes per recording	States 99% for its human service (its claim)
Maestra	Has an Arabic page; 125+ languages claimed	A 1-minute file trial; sign up to export	Qualitative claims only, no figures
Notta	Has an Arabic speech-to-text page; says up to 58 transcription languages	Free tool: one file up to 5 minutes (its FAQ), email needed; free plan 3 minutes per conversation	States up to 98.86% for high-quality audio (its claim)

Read on 2026-10-25 from each vendor's own pages (sources below). Accuracy statements marked as a vendor's claim were not tested by us and were not measured on the same audio as ours, so they cannot be compared with each other. TurboScribe is popular for free transcription, but its site refused our automated check (HTTP 403), so we state nothing about it: read its own pages.

What our Arabic number means

We measured the small model, the one the free preview uses, on three FLEURS Egyptian Arabic clips of about 80 seconds each. About one word in three differed from the reference text; the tiny and base models were much worse (64.4% and 60.2%). That is three clips of read speech from one dialect, so it says little about your recording, but it is a fair warning: Arabic is harder than English for this model, dialects vary, and clear audio matters. Larger models are generally more accurate for Arabic; the hosted site uses the small model or smaller, and the larger ones (medium, large-v3) are available in the self-hosted version. We have not measured them.

How to get a better Arabic result

Choose Arabic yourself rather than automatic detection, especially for short or noisy clips.
In an account, pick the small model yourself (Advanced options > Model) instead of Auto: Auto picks the fastest model, which can be tiny for long files or a busy queue.
Record close to the speaker and avoid overlapping voices.
Expect to correct names, numbers and English words inside Arabic sentences.
For a transcript that must be right, have a person check it, or use a human service; TryScriptorium has none.

Arabic pages: تفريغ الصوت العربي, تفريغ اللهجات, Arabic transcription (English). Our Otter comparison: Otter alternative.

Sources

Every row about another product was read on that product's own page on 2026-10-25. Prices and limits change; confirm on their site before you rely on them. We make TryScriptorium, so read our claims with that in mind.

Questions

Does Otter support Arabic?

Its pricing page, read on 2026-10-25, lists AI transcription in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese. Arabic is not on that list; check Otter's help center for any change.

What is the best free tool for Arabic transcription?

No test of ours ranks them. TryScriptorium's free preview takes Arabic with no account but our measured word error on Egyptian Arabic clips was 31.8% for the small model. Others have Arabic pages with their own limits and claims; try the same clip on two of them.

Does TryScriptorium understand Arabic dialects?

The model transcribes spoken Arabic in its dialects with varying quality; there is no dialect selector, and we do not claim accuracy. See the dialects page.

Is there a bot that joins my meetings, like Otter's?

No. TryScriptorium never joins a call: record the meeting yourself and upload the file afterwards.

Is the transcript always right?

No. It is an automatic draft, and no accuracy percentage is promised. Noise, overlapping voices, accents and technical terms cause mistakes, so read it against the audio before you rely on names, numbers or quotes.

Is TryScriptorium free?

Yes, to try: one file up to 15 minutes and 25 MB, 3 tries a day, no account. A free account keeps transcripts in a library and has its own monthly allowance; see the pricing page.

Try it with your own file

Upload a recording and read the transcript.

Transcribe free — no sign-up Create free account