of 5— Create your Otter.ai account

What you'll accomplish

By the end of this guide, you'll be able to upload a focus group or IDI recording to Otter.ai and get back an auto-transcript with speaker labels in about 10 minutes — then use that transcript with Claude or ChatGPT to generate a thematic summary and key quote library in another 15 minutes. A 60-minute focus group that used to take 4–6 hours to transcribe and summarize becomes a 30-minute task.

What you'll need

An Otter.ai account — free tier allows 300 minutes/month of transcription; {{tool:Otter.ai.plan}} at {{tool:Otter.ai.price}} for higher volume
The audio or video file from your focus group or IDI (MP3, MP4, M4A, WAV, etc.)
A ChatGPT or Claude account (free) for the summary step
Time needed: 15 minutes setup + auto-transcription time (usually 10–15 min for a 60-min recording)
Cost: Free tier (300 min/month) or {{tool:Otter.ai.price}} for Pro

How-To Guide: Qualitative Research Transcription with Otter.ai

Step 1: Create your Otter.ai account

Go to {{tool:Otter.ai.url}} and click Sign Up
Use your work email — if your organization already has Otter.ai licenses, you may be automatically added to a team workspace
Choose your plan (free tier is fine to start)
Complete account setup

What you should see: The Otter.ai home dashboard with an "Import" button and any previous conversations listed.

Tools:Otter.ai