Granola is an AI notepad for people who spend their day in back-to-back meetings. Its main difference from most meeting-transcription tools is that no bot or unknown participant joins the call; it captures audio directly from your own device. You write the way you always do, a few words and headings, and after the meeting Granola merges them with the full transcript into a clean set of notes.

What is Granola good for?#

  • Online work meetings: it records Zoom, Google Meet or Teams calls without colleagues or clients seeing a bot, which suits sensitive client conversations.
  • Follow-ups: after the meeting it prepares action items and a draft follow-up email.
  • In-person meetings: the mobile app lets you capture face-to-face conversations too.
  • Meeting prep: connected to your calendar, it shows who is attending and what was discussed before.
  • Questions about past meetings: ask "what did the client say about budget?" and get an answer from your notes.

Strengths and weaknesses#

Strengths:

  • No bot in the call, so it looks more professional and makes people less uneasy.
  • It combines your own notes with the transcript, keeping summaries close to what you care about.
  • Notes are private by default, and you decide what to share.
  • It connects to other AI tools so they can use your notes.

Weaknesses:

  • Official support for non-English meetings is not clearly stated.
  • If you write nothing yourself, the output is less valuable.
  • The free plan limits access to older notes.
  • Recording without telling others can be legally or ethically sensitive; always announce it.

Free version and pricing#

Granola has a free plan that lets you create notes, while viewing and working with older notes and extra features requires a subscription. Check the official site for current prices and limits.

Language support#

Official language support is not clearly stated, so if your meetings are not in English, test with a short recording first.

Getting started in three steps#

  1. Install the app on Windows or Mac and sign in.
  2. Connect your calendar so meetings are detected.
  3. Jot a few headings during the meeting, then review the enhanced notes afterwards.

Granola alternatives#

  • Otter: transcripts and summaries with a recording bot; more common for group meetings.
  • Fireflies: a meeting bot with richer search and reporting for teams.
  • Fathom: online meeting summaries with a focus on sales and team calls.
  • tl;dv: recording and summaries with the ability to clip key moments.