Short answer: yes, Otter.ai supports more than English. As of September 2026 it transcribes six languages. If you came here to check whether German, Spanish, French or Japanese are on the list — they are.
Otter generally transcribes one language at a time; French and English together are a documented exception.
The full list
| Language | Supported |
|---|---|
| English (US / UK) | Yes |
| Spanish | Yes |
| French | Yes |
| German | Yes |
| Japanese | Yes |
| Chinese (Simplified) | Yes |
| Everything else | No |
German and Chinese are marked beta in the language guide. Chinese means spoken Mandarin with Simplified Chinese output.
Checked 10 September 2026 against Otter's help centre. Otter has said more languages are coming, so verify at help.otter.ai before relying on this — a list like this goes stale.
So Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Korean, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian and the rest are not supported. If that's your language, Otter isn't an option and no setting will change it.
How to change the language in Otter
It's an account setting, not a per-file choice:
- Click your profile, top left
- Account Settings
- Language (web) / Conversation Language (mobile)
- Pick the default
Choose the language before recording. To correct an existing conversation, export the audio, change the language and import the file again. Changing the setting alone does not reprocess it.
Language combinations
Otter generally transcribes one language at a time; French and English together are a documented exception.
With French selected as the default, Otter supports French and English in the same conversation. Other simultaneous language combinations are not documented as supported.
This matters more than the language list, because real conversations don't stay in one language:
- A client call that starts in English and drifts into the client's native language
- An interview where the subject quotes something in another language
- A standup where half the team speaks Spanish and half English
- Any bilingual household, team or classroom
For other language combinations, support for each language separately does not establish support for a mixed-language recording. Test a representative sample.
What to use instead
Two different problems, so be honest about which one you have.
Your language isn't on the list. You need a tool with broad language coverage. That's most general-purpose transcription tools, including Voiz.
Your language is on the list, but your recordings mix languages. This is the narrower problem, and it's the one Voiz was built around. Voiz auto-detects what's being spoken — no setting to configure before recording — and supports recordings with language switches. Quality depends on the recording; check a representative sample. You get the transcript in the original language or languages, speaker labels, and a separate translation pass if you can't read the original.
Comparison
| Otter.ai | Voiz | |
|---|---|---|
| Languages | 6 | Auto-detect, 50+ |
| Choosing the language | Manual, before recording | Automatic |
| Two languages in one recording | French + English with French as default | Yes |
| Translation | Yes, via Otter Chat | Yes, separate pass |
| Speaker labels | Yes | Yes |
| Joins live meetings | Yes | No — upload a recording |
| Billing | Monthly subscription | Pay-as-you-go |
| Free tier | 300 min/month | up to 60 min per 30 days |
Otter joins live meetings. Its Basic plan includes 300 minutes/month, but limits each conversation to 30 minutes and file imports to 3 over the lifetime of the account. Compare these limits, not just monthly minutes.
Voiz is worth a look when the language is the constraint — yours isn't among the six, or your recordings don't stay in one. Upload something short and compare the output yourself.
More on how Voiz handles this: multilingual transcription, transcribing meetings and voice messages.
FAQ
- Does Otter.ai support German?
- Yes. German is one of six languages Otter transcribes, alongside English, Spanish, French, Japanese and Chinese (Simplified). Set it under Account Settings → Language (web) / Conversation Language (mobile) before you record.
- Can Otter.ai transcribe two languages in the same recording?
- Yes for French and English together, with French selected as the default. Other simultaneous language combinations are not documented as supported.
- Does Otter.ai support Chinese?
- Chinese (Simplified) is supported. Traditional Chinese is not listed.
- Does Otter.ai translate transcripts?
- Yes. Ask Otter Chat to translate a conversation into another language. This is separate from choosing the transcription language.
- What languages does Voiz support?
- Voiz auto-detects the spoken language and covers 50+, including all major European languages, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean — and audio where speakers switch between languages mid-conversation. There is no language setting to configure before uploading.
- Can I use Voiz alongside Otter?
- Yes. Voiz is pay-as-you-go with no subscription, so using it only for the recordings Otter can't handle is a reasonable way to run it.