Glean vs Otter.ai for Students: Which AI Note-Taker Wins?

TL;DR

Choosing between Glean and Otter.ai for your studies depends on your learning style. Both are powerful AI tools for capturing lecture content, often provided by university disability services. Glean (now called Genio) is designed foractive note-taking, allowing you to record audio and sync it with your typed notes, tags, and lecture slides. Otter.ai excels at real-time transcription , providing an instant, searchable text version of everything that is said. Your best choice hinges on whether you prefer to build structured notes during a lecture (Genio) or review a full transcript afterward (Otter.ai).

Understanding the Contenders: What Are Genio and Otter.ai?

In the world of academic support, Genio (formerly Glean) and Otter.ai have emerged as leading solutions for students who need assistance with note-taking. While both tools record audio, they are built on fundamentally different philosophies. Understanding this difference is the first step in deciding which one is right for you. Many universities, like Harvard and UC Berkeley, offer these tools as accommodations to help students engage with course material more effectively.

Genio is best described as a structured note-taking platform. It empowers students to act as curators of information during a lecture. Instead of passively recording, you actively engage by adding short notes, highlighting key moments with labels, and importing presentation slides. The audio is perfectly synchronized with your inputs, creating a rich, multimedia study resource that you build yourself. As described by the University of California, Irvine's Disability Services Center, Genio allows you to record, sync audio with typed notes, and even add slides from a different source, making it a comprehensive tool for organizing lecture content.

Otter.ai, on the other hand, is a powerful real-time transcription service. Its primary function is to convert spoken words into text instantly. You start a recording, and Otter.ai generates a running transcript you can read, search, and highlight. This is incredibly valuable for students who have difficulty processing auditory information or want a complete record of the lecture to review for exact phrasing and details. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), describes it as a tool that “captures spoken words from an audio feed, applies an AI algorithm to process the content, and then organizes the transcribed text on the page.”

To summarize their core functions:

• Genio: An active learning tool for recording audio and syncing it with your personal notes, tags, and slides to create a structured study guide.

• Otter.ai: A passive capture tool that provides instant, searchable, and editable transcripts of lectures, meetings, and discussions.

As AI technology evolves, new tools are emerging that blend these capabilities. For instance, platforms like AFFiNE AI are pushing the boundaries further, offering a multimodal canvas that helps you transform ideas into polished content, visuals, and presentations. With features like inline AI editing and one-click mind map generation, it represents the next step in smarter note-taking and collaboration, acting as a true copilot for your workflow.

Feature-by-Feature Breakdown: A Head-to-Head Comparison

While both Genio and Otter.ai record audio, their feature sets are tailored to different student needs. A direct comparison reveals where each platform shines, helping you align their strengths with your academic workflow. The key differences lie in how they handle transcription, integrate with other materials, and help you organize your notes after class.

The most significant distinction is transcription timing. Otter.ai is famous for its real-time transcription; the text appears on your screen as the words are spoken. This is a major advantage for immediate review or for students who benefit from seeing the words as they hear them. Glean offers both live captions during a lecture and a full transcript that is generated after the recording is complete. You finish your recording, and then the transcript is generated, which can take a few minutes. This makes Glean's transcription more of a review tool than a live aid.

Where Glean pulls ahead is its focus on integrating various learning materials. It allows you to import lecture slides (like PDFs or PowerPoints) directly into your notes. As the lecture progresses, you can sync your audio and typed notes to specific slides, creating a cohesive and context-rich study package. Otter.ai can automatically capture and integrate slides from virtual meetings on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. For visual learners, this feature alone can make Glean the superior choice.

Here is a table summarizing the key differences for students:

The Student Use Case: Workflow, Ease of Use, and Accessibility

Beyond features, the practical experience of using Genio or Otter.ai in your daily student life is what truly matters. Both are designed to reduce the cognitive load of taking notes, but they achieve this through very different workflows. Your choice will depend on how you prefer to learn and review material.

The Glean workflow encourages you to be an active participant during the lecture. Instead of trying to write down everything, you focus on listening and hitting a button to tag important moments, add a quick text note, or mark something as a task. Later, you can revisit these tagged moments, flesh out your notes, and listen back to only the crucial parts of the audio. This method can foster better retention and a more organized approach to studying, but it does require you to build a new habit of interactive note-taking.

The Otter.ai workflow is more straightforward and passive. You simply press record at the start of the class and let the app do the work. Your main task is complete once the lecture ends, and you are left with a full, searchable transcript. This is ideal for students who find it difficult to split their attention between listening and typing, or for those who need to be able to search for specific keywords or quotes mentioned in class. UMBC provides a simple guide for getting started with Otter.ai, which highlights its ease of use:

1. Create a free Basic account on the Otter.ai website or app.

2. Download the mobile app for recording on the go.

3. Start recording audio directly in the app or import a file.

4. Review and edit the transcript for any errors after it's generated.

5. Use highlights and comments to mark key points for later study.

Both tools are widely recognized as powerful forms of note-taking assistance and accessibility accommodations. They level the playing field for students with disabilities that may impact their ability to take traditional notes. The key is to ask yourself which workflow matches your learning style. Do you learn best by actively organizing information as you hear it, or by absorbing it first and reviewing a complete record later?

Cost and Availability: Pricing Plans and University Access

For most students, cost is a major factor when choosing software. The good news is that both Genio and Otter.ai offer free plans, and more importantly, many students can gain full access to premium versions at no cost through their university.

Before you consider paying, your first step should always be to check with your campus's Disability Services Center or equivalent office. As seen on the websites for UCI, Berkeley, Harvard, and UMBC, these institutions provide licenses for note-taking technology as an approved accommodation. This means you could get the full-featured version of Glean or Otter.ai for free. The process typically involves registering with the disability office and having a needs assessment.

If you don't qualify for an accommodation or your school doesn't offer a license, both services have publicly available plans. Otter.ai offers a Basic free plan that includes real-time transcription but has limits on the number of minutes you can transcribe per month and the duration of each recording. Glean also typically has a trial or limited version. For full functionality, both require a paid subscription. In a notable move, UMBC announced it will be transitioning fully from Glean to Otter.ai by Spring 2025, suggesting that some institutions may find Otter.ai's offerings to be a better fit for their student population's needs, whether due to features, cost, or administrative simplicity.

Final Verdict: Which AI Note-Taker Should You Choose?

There is no single “winner” in the Genio vs. Otter.ai debate—only the right tool for a specific type of student. The best choice depends entirely on your personal learning needs, habits, and what you want to achieve with your notes. Both platforms are excellent at what they do, but they do very different things.

Glean is the ideal companion for the active, organized learner. If you are a visual person who relies on lecture slides, or if you learn best by creating structured notes that connect key ideas, Glean's system of syncing audio with your own inputs is unparalleled. It turns a lecture into a navigable, multimedia resource that you curate yourself.

Otter.ai is the perfect solution for the student who needs a complete and accurate record. If you struggle with auditory processing, miss details while typing, or simply want the security of having every word captured for later review, Otter.ai's fast and searchable real-time transcription is a game-changer. It prioritizes comprehensive capture over active organization.

Consider these profiles:

• Choose Glean if: You want to improve your note-taking skills, you are a visual learner who uses slides, and you prefer to organize information during the lecture.

• Choose Otter.ai if: You need a full transcript for review, you have trouble keeping up with spoken lectures, and you value the ability to quickly search for keywords.

The most practical advice is to try both. Take advantage of their free plans or trials. Use Glean for one lecture and Otter.ai for another. Pay attention to which workflow feels more natural and which resulting notes are more useful for your study sessions. This hands-on experience will give you the clearest answer and empower you to choose the best AI partner for your academic success.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the best AI lecture recorder?

The best AI lecture recorder depends on your needs. For students who want to create structured notes synced with audio and slides, Genio (formerly Glean) is an excellent choice. For those who need an immediate, searchable transcript of the entire lecture, Otter.ai is often considered the top option. Both are highly regarded and frequently provided by universities as note-taking accommodations.

2. Is Otter.ai the best transcription service?

Otter.ai is one of the most popular and highly-rated transcription services, especially for its real-time capabilities and ease of use in academic and professional settings. While its accuracy is very good, no AI transcription is perfect, and it may struggle with heavy accents or poor audio quality. Whether it's the "best" depends on your specific needs for accuracy, security, and integration, but it is a leading contender.

3. How do these tools work as a disability accommodation?

Tools like Genio and Otter.ai provide equitable access for students whose disabilities may limit their ability to take effective notes. As explained by Harvard's Disability Access Office, they help students with learning, processing, vision, or manual disabilities to independently engage with course material without having to rely solely on handwritten notes or peer note-takers. They reduce the cognitive load of note-taking, allowing the student to focus more on understanding the lecture content.