Granola is a meeting notes & transcription tool for Freelancers and Small businesses, offered as freemium ($14/mo). Founded in United Kingdom in 2023. Popular alternatives include Read AI, Supernormal, jamie.
About Granola
Granola is an AI notepad for meetings built by a London-based startup founded by Chris Pedregal and Sam Stephenson. Unlike Otter, Fireflies or Fathom, it does not send a bot into the call: it captures your device audio from Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack huddles or a phone call, while you type short notes in a simple editor.
After the meeting, Granola combines your rough notes with the transcript and produces clean, structured notes that keep your emphasis, filling in details, decisions and next steps. Templates shape the output for sales calls, user interviews, hiring loops or 1:1s, and AI chat answers questions across a single meeting or your whole history. Notes can be shared by link or sent to Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Attio or Linear, and calendar integration starts recording on time. The free Basic plan keeps only a limited note history, Business is priced per user and unlocks full history, integrations and shared team folders, and Enterprise adds SSO and admin controls.
Granola launched on Mac in 2024 and later added Windows and iPhone apps. It fits founders, investors, recruiters and salespeople who spend the day on external calls and dislike recording bots. It shows a live transcript during the call but never stores the audio, so there is no recording to play back later, and compliance-heavy teams may need the audit and retention features of Gong or Otter Business. Fathom is a strong free alternative when a visible bot is acceptable, and Notion AI meeting notes suit teams already living in Notion.
Key features of Granola
- Bot-free capture of system audio on Mac, Windows and iOS
- Your notes enhanced with transcript context after the call
- Templates for different meeting types
- AI chat across all meetings
- Calendar integration and auto-start
- Sharing to Notion, Slack, HubSpot and Linear
Pros and cons
Pros
- No bot; participants are not disrupted
- Notes reflect what you cared about
- Clean, fast app
- Templates make outputs consistent
Cons
- Limited free tier
- No live transcript view
- Depends on local audio capture setup
- Fewer enterprise features than incumbents
Granola pricing
Granola uses a freemium model.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | AI meeting notes, limited meeting history |
| Business | $14 / user/mo | Unlimited notes and history, integrations, API, MCP |
| Enterprise | $35 / user/mo | SSO, enterprise security and admin controls |
Source: www.granola.ai · checked on Oct 20, 2026
How Granola compares in Meeting notes & transcription
- Rank by votes
- #1 / 15
- Starting price
- $14
- Free alternatives
- 0
0 votes from members
18% below the category median ($17/mo)
Free or open-source tools in Meeting notes & transcription
Granola ranks #1 of 15 meeting notes & transcription tools by community votes and is priced below most tools in the category.
Common use cases
- 1Founder taking investor and customer meeting notes
- 2Recruiter running interviews without a visible bot
- 31:1s and coaching sessions
- 4Sales discovery calls summarized into CRM
Best for
Professionals who take many calls and want excellent notes without a bot in the room.
Not ideal for
Teams needing live transcripts, multilingual support or compliance recording.
Integrations
- Google Calendar
- Outlook
- Zoom
- Google Meet
- Teams (any audio)
- Notion
- Slack
- HubSpot
- Linear
Our take
Granola is the most pleasant way to get meeting notes and the right choice for external meetings. Otter or Fathom still win for recorded internal meetings.
FAQ
- What is Granola?
- Granola is a Meeting notes & transcription tool: AI notepad that works without a bot.
- How much does Granola cost?
- Granola uses a Freemium model; paid plans start at $14 per month.
- What are the best alternatives to Granola?
- Community-listed alternatives to Granola include Read AI, Supernormal, jamie, Tactiq.
- What does Granola integrate with?
- Granola integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, Zoom, Google Meet, Teams (any audio), Notion and more.
- Which platforms does Granola support?
- Granola is available on macos, windows, ios.
- Who is Granola for?
- Professionals who take many calls and want excellent notes without a bot in the room.
Alternatives to Granola
See all 4Read AI
▲ 0AI meeting assistant that summarizes meetings, email and chat
Freemium · $20Small businessesEnterpriseSupernormal
▲ 0Bot-free AI notetaker that turns meetings into docs and slides
Freemium · $20Small businessesAgenciesjamie
▲ 0Bot-free AI meeting notes with EU hosting, for privacy-minded teams
Freemium · $29FreelancersSmall businessesTactiq
▲ 0Bot-free AI meeting transcription for Google Meet, Zoom and Teams
Freemium · $12Small businessesFreelancers
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