Granola

Takes meeting notes from your Mac's own audio without a bot joining the call, then merges them with whatever rough notes you typed yourself.

Meetings & notes Apps

Checked 25 Sep 2026

Open granola.ai

What you'd use it for

A clean set of meeting notes taken from your own laptop's audio, with nothing announcing itself to the other people on the call.

Take meeting notes from your Mac's own microphone and system audio without a bot joining the call
Merge your own typed notes with what was actually said, rather than replacing them
Ask an AI chat questions within one meeting or across your saved meeting history
Pull action items and a draft follow-up email out of a transcript automatically
Sync with your Google or Microsoft calendar so meetings show up without manual entry

The verdict

Granola is a genuinely good fit for anyone who takes their own rough notes during a call and wants them filled out rather than replaced, and the no-visible-bot approach removes an awkward client-facing moment other recorders create. It costs you an install on every machine you take calls from, since it works off local audio rather than joining remotely, and the free tier's 30-day history is thin if you rely on searching old meetings often. It suits solo operators and small teams on client-facing calls more than larger teams standardising on one recording tool across a mixed fleet.

What it costs

Tier	Price	For	Includes
Basic	$0/user/month	Anyone wanting to try Granola at no cost.	AI meeting notes, a 30-day meeting history, AI chat within and across meetings, shared folders, and customised templates.
Business	$14/user/month	Individuals or small teams needing unlimited access.	Everything in Basic, plus unlimited meeting notes and history, advanced AI models, integrations with Notion/HubSpot/Zapier/Attio/Affinity, and API access.
Enterprise	$35/user/month	Larger companies needing advanced security.	Everything in Business, plus SSO, priority support with usage analytics, org-wide auto-deletion policies, and HIPAA compliance options.

Read from Granola's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.

What you need to start

macOS 14 or later, or Windows 10 or later
A Google or Microsoft account for sign-in
Microphone and system audio permissions granted to the app

Under five minutes from download to a signed-in account with calendar and audio permissions granted, plus a two-minute demo meeting the app walks you through before your first real one.

Your first run Download the Mac or Windows app, sign in with Google or Microsoft, grant calendar and audio permissions, then watch a two-minute demo meeting from Granola's co-founder before your first real meeting appears in the notes panel.

Where it breaks

Native apps on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, all fully released rather than beta. Desktop (macOS and Windows) listens to the machine's own microphone and system audio, so it captures virtual meetings in any app; mobile only captures in-person conversations and, on iOS, outbound phone calls, since phones don't let apps capture audio from other apps. Mobile also can't create workspaces, templates or folders, or share to Notion, Slack or HubSpot - those stay desktop-only and sync to mobile afterwards. Granola Chat is iPhone-only, not on iPad or Android. A newer Apple Watch companion (needs a paired iPhone on watchOS 11 or later) starts notes from your wrist.

First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.

When not to use it

Not for teams wanting a bot-based recorder that can join and capture a meeting nobody personally attends, since Granola only listens through the device that's actually on the call. Not for anyone who needs more than 30 days of meeting history without moving to a paid tier.

Granola’s pitch is the opposite of most meeting recorders: instead of a bot joining the call as a visible participant, it listens through your own laptop’s microphone and speakers, the way you’d hear the meeting yourself. Nothing announces itself to the other people on the call, which matters for anyone who’s had a client raise an eyebrow at an unfamiliar recording bot appearing in a Zoom window.

The other half of the pitch is that it doesn’t replace your own note-taking — it merges with it. Type a rough bullet during the call the way you always have, and Granola fills in the gaps from what was actually said, rather than handing you a wall of AI-generated text disconnected from what you personally flagged as important.

It only works while you are in the call

Unlike a tool that syncs continuously with your calendar and CRM in the background, Granola requires you to actively open the app and be in a call for it to do anything — it’s a desktop tool with access to your own machine’s audio, not a connected service acting on triggers elsewhere. That’s the meaningful difference between it and something like Attio, which pulls from your inbox and calendar without you opening anything.

Against the alternatives

Against Fathom, the real choice is about visibility: Fathom can join as a bot or record bot-free, giving you both options, while Granola is built bot-free by default and doesn’t offer the CRM-sync depth Fathom’s Business tier does. For internal meetings where nobody minds a bot, Fathom’s free tier is hard to beat on price; for client-facing calls where a visible bot would be awkward, Granola’s approach avoids the question entirely.

Windows has followed the Mac release and covers the same desktop feature set, so a mixed Mac-and-Windows team is on equal footing there. The gap to watch is desktop versus mobile: the iOS and Android apps take in-person and (iOS-only) phone-call notes but can’t capture virtual meeting audio, create workspaces, or share to Notion, Slack or HubSpot — those need the desktop app.

Alternatives

Meetings & notesApps

Fathom

A meeting assistant that joins your calls, records and transcribes them, and writes the summary and action items — connected to your calendar, so it turns up without being asked.

Checked 15 Sep 2026