Granola
Granola is an AI notepad for people whose day is back-to-back meetings. It captures the conversation from the computer's own audio, so no bot joins the call, and instead of replacing your notes it enhances them: you type the fragments that matter and Granola merges them with the transcript into a complete, personal record.
Around that sit calendar-synced briefs before each call, action items and drafted follow-ups after, and chat across every past meeting. Spaces give teams shared folders with access controls, and MCP connectors and APIs feed meeting context into AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor.
It runs on macOS, Windows, iPhone and Android with Zoom, Google Meet and Teams. The free Basic plan keeps a rolling 30-day history window, with Business and Enterprise adding unlimited history, integrations and admin controls.
- Cost
- Free tier + paid plans
- Ease
- Beginner-friendly
- Model
- Hosted service
- Checked
- July 2026
Prices, plans and model versions change fast: this is a mid-2026 snapshot; check the tool's official site for the latest.
Best for
- Bot-free meeting capture from device audio
- Enhancing your own typed notes with the full transcript
- Back-to-back meeting days that still need a usable record
- Chat across past meetings for decisions and commitments
- Feeding meeting context into other AI tools via MCP and APIs
Less suited to
Granola is capture-first, not a system of record. It does not manage projects or tasks, and revenue teams wanting full conversation intelligence, coaching analytics and deal tracking are on the dedicated platforms' ground. The free Basic plan is a working window rather than an archive, since notes older than 30 days need a paid tier, and integrations beyond Slack sit behind Business.
The sharper obligation is consent. Because capture runs from device audio with no visible bot, participants get no automatic signal that a conversation is being recorded, and consent rules vary by jurisdiction, with some requiring all-party consent. Disclosure has to be your habit rather than the tool's default, and client-confidential or privileged conversations deserve explicit retention and deletion settings.
Costs & data, in short
Granola is freemium. The free Basic plan includes AI meeting notes, chat across meetings, shared folders, templates and multi-language support, but notes are viewable and usable only for the last 30 days on a rolling window, model selection is automatic and Slack is the only integration. Business adds unlimited history, advanced models, integrations with Notion, Slack, HubSpot and Zapier, MCP across apps and API access. Enterprise adds SSO and SCIM, admin controls, retention and auto-deletion controls, and analytics. The current lineup is Basic, Business and Enterprise, and it has changed before, so verify against the official pricing page rather than older third-party summaries.
Granola is a closed, venture-backed product, and the data question starts with consent. It captures conversations from device audio without a visible bot, so participants get no automatic recording cue, disclosure is the user's obligation and some jurisdictions require all-party consent. For client-confidential or privileged material, the retention and auto-deletion controls arrive at Enterprise, alongside SSO, SCIM and admin controls. A major 2026 funding round is financing a deliberate enterprise pivot, with Spaces, personal and enterprise APIs and MCP connectors that feed meeting context into other AI tools, which means meeting data increasingly travels to wherever you connect it, so govern those connections deliberately. Public material emphasises enterprise security, consent and retention controls; check the current privacy documentation for training and subprocessor detail before rolling it out on sensitive calls.
In practice
How Granola is used, area by area.
Founders & entrepreneurs
A founder's week is investor conversations, customer discovery, hiring screens and advisor catch-ups, and the person running the meeting cannot also be its scribe. Granola resolves that: it captures the call from device audio with no bot on screen, you type the two-word fragments that matter, and afterwards it merges them with the transcript into a record that carries your judgement. Calendar-synced briefs surface what was said last time before the next check-in, chat across past meetings answers what a customer actually said about pricing when the investor update is due, and follow-up emails draft from the action items. The free Basic plan's rolling 30-day window genuinely covers a solo founder's weekly cadence, with upgrade reserved for when history starts to matter. Founders running high meeting volume without a chief of staff gain most.
Example tasks
- Capture investor calls without a bot appearing in the meeting
- Turn fragments typed mid-call into a complete record
- Ask chat what a customer said before writing the investor update
- Walk into a follow-up with the last conversation surfaced
- Draft follow-up emails from the call before momentum fades
Limits
If meetings are a modest slice of the week, workspace-native AI notes cover the need without another desktop app, and Granola does nothing for the tasks and plans that come after the call. Tell counterparties they are being recorded: fundraising and partnership conversations are exactly where an undisclosed recording, legal or not in your jurisdiction, costs trust a founder cannot spare. Diligence-relevant history older than 30 days needs a paid plan.
Compares
| vs | Pick Granola when | Pick the other when |
|---|---|---|
| Notion AI | Granola captures the conversation itself, bot-free from device audio, and turns half-typed fragments into a full record with follow-ups drafted | meetings are a small slice of the week and the notes matter most where plans and documents already live in the workspace |
Consulting & strategy
Consultants live in client calls, and Granola's stated core users are exactly the people whose day is discovery interviews, stakeholder sessions and steering calls. Capture is bot-free from device audio, so nothing appears in the client's meeting, and the notes-first model means your shorthand observations get enhanced with the transcript rather than replaced by a generic summary, which is where interview nuance usually dies. Chat across the engagement's meetings answers what the CFO said about headcount in week two without replaying recordings, Spaces give the case team a shared folder with access controls, and calendar briefs surface prior context before each stakeholder session. On paid plans, MCP and API access feed engagement context into the tools where the analysis happens. Consultants carrying several workstreams of back-to-back client conversations gain most.
Example tasks
- Capture discovery interviews without a bot in the client's meeting
- Enhance shorthand observations with the transcript after each session
- Query an engagement's meetings for what a stakeholder actually said
- Share a case team's client calls in a Space with access controls
- Prep each steering call with prior context surfaced from the calendar
Limits
Client-confidential and privileged conversations set the boundary. Disclose recording explicitly before capture, since some jurisdictions require all-party consent and a bot-free recorder gives participants no visible cue, and set retention and auto-deletion deliberately, which is Enterprise-tier territory, before this touches privileged material.
Revenue and sales-led engagements wanting full conversation intelligence, coaching and deal analytics should evaluate Gong; Granola is the lighter, cross-functional meeting layer, not a pipeline instrument.
Compares
| vs | Pick Granola when | Pick the other when |
|---|---|---|
| Gong | Granola is the lighter capture layer for the whole engagement, taking discovery interviews, workshops and steering calls bot-free and keeping every workstream searchable | the engagement is revenue-led and the client wants conversation intelligence, coaching and deal analytics from its sales calls |
Product management
Product managers split the calendar between user interviews, stakeholder syncs and delivery reviews, and Granola serves both halves. In interviews it lets you stay present, typing only the fragments worth keeping, then expands them against the transcript so verbatim detail survives to synthesis. Across weeks of discovery, chat answers what users actually said about onboarding rather than what a summary flattened it to. Recurring syncs get calendar briefs that surface last session's open threads, action items are extracted, and follow-ups draft from the call. On paid plans, MCP connectors move meeting context into the tools where specs and prototypes are written, so research stops being trapped in a notes app. PMs whose evidence lives in conversations rather than dashboards gain most.
Example tasks
- Capture user interviews while staying present in the conversation
- Expand mid-call fragments into verbatim detail for synthesis
- Ask chat what users said about a feature across weeks of interviews
- Surface last session's open threads before each stakeholder sync
- Pipe meeting context into spec-writing tools over MCP
Limits
It is not product analytics, a research repository or a roadmapping tool, and the synthesis step, turning weeks of interviews into themes and priorities, still happens elsewhere. Research participants must know they are being recorded, and where consent rules require all parties to agree the obligation is yours, since no bot appears to signal capture. Long-running discovery archives outgrow the free plan's 30-day window quickly.
Compares
| vs | Pick Granola when | Pick the other when |
|---|---|---|
| Notion AI | Granola captures interviews and stakeholder calls at source and keeps weeks of discovery queryable through chat | synthesis lives in the workspace and the meetings arrive as notes someone else already took |
Meeting notes & productivity
Granola is the archetype of the notes-first notetaker. Nothing joins the call: capture runs from device audio, and the product's bet is enhancement rather than replacement, merging the fragments you type with the full transcript so the record carries your judgement of what mattered instead of a generic summary. Around that sit calendar-synced briefs before each meeting, action-item extraction and follow-up drafting after, and chat across the whole archive. The 2026 direction widens the role: Spaces share meetings across a team with access controls, and MCP connectors and APIs feed meeting context into other AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. The free Basic plan works on a rolling 30-day window, with Business adding unlimited history and integrations. People in back-to-back meetings who want their own voice in the notes gain most.
Example tasks
- Capture any meeting from device audio with no bot on screen
- Type a few words per meeting and get a complete record after
- Draft the follow-up email from extracted action items
- Chat across past meetings for decisions and commitments
- Route meeting context into other AI tools over MCP
Limits
If you want the recorder visible precisely because it signals recording, a bot-based notetaker is the more honest default; with Granola, disclosure is on you, and some jurisdictions require all-party consent for captured conversations. The free plan is a working window, not an archive, and organisations wanting coaching analytics and deal intelligence from calls are shopping in a different category.
Compares
| vs | Pick Granola when | Pick the other when |
|---|---|---|
| Otter.aiFull comparison → | Granola captures bot-free from device audio and enhances the notes you type rather than replacing them | generous free transcription minutes and a searchable workspace of speaker-labelled transcripts matter more than notes-first capture |
| FathomFull comparison → | Granola keeps your own judgement at the centre of the record by merging typed fragments with the transcript | free unlimited recording with fast automatic summaries is the whole requirement for an individual |
| Fireflies.ai | Granola offers ambient personal capture plus a meeting-context layer that feeds other AI tools over MCP | a team-wide meeting-intelligence layer with broad integrations and search across everyone's calls is the goal |
Where to start
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Alternatives
Same category, different strengths.
- ChatGPTWriting, research, analysis and everyday professional productivity
- ClaudeAnalysing complex documents, research and large amounts of source material
- ClickUp (Brain)Teams consolidating tasks, docs, chat and calendar onto one platform
- FathomFree unlimited recording, transcription and storage for individuals
Where it fits
Explore this tool in context.
By task
Common questions
What is Granola best at?
Granola is strongest for bot-free meeting capture from device audio; enhancing your own typed notes with the full transcript; back-to-back meeting days that still need a usable record; chat across past meetings for decisions and commitments; feeding meeting context into other AI tools via MCP and APIs.
What is Granola not good for?
Granola is capture-first, not a system of record. It does not manage projects or tasks, and revenue teams wanting full conversation intelligence, coaching analytics and deal tracking are on the dedicated platforms' ground. The free Basic plan is a working window rather than an archive, since notes older than 30 days need a paid tier, and integrations beyond Slack sit behind Business. The sharper obligation is consent. Because capture runs from device audio with no visible bot, participants get no automatic signal that a conversation is being recorded, and consent rules vary by jurisdiction, with some requiring all-party consent. Disclosure has to be your habit rather than the tool's default, and client-confidential or privileged conversations deserve explicit retention and deletion settings.
Is Granola free?
There's a free tier to start; paid plans add capacity and features.
Where does Granola fit best?
Granola fits best in Founders & entrepreneurs and Consulting & strategy; see its practice notes for how.
Before sharing confidential or personal data, check this tool's data-governance and training policies. They differ between providers and can change.
Last checked: July 2026