Granola is an AI notepad for meetings that listens through your computer's or phone's audio instead of sending a bot into the call, then turns your rough notes into a full summary. The free Basic plan includes AI notes, AI chat and templates but keeps only 30 days of meeting history. Business costs $14 per user a month for unlimited history, advanced AI models, integrations with tools such as Notion, HubSpot and Zapier, and MCP and API access. Enterprise costs $35 per user and adds SSO, admin controls, HIPAA-compliant workspaces and organization-wide retention rules. Audio is deleted after transcription.
Reviewed by EdGrows·Updated Oct 4, 2026This analysis is based on documentation, public user reports, and vendor materials — not yet on our own hands-on testing. How we rate
The reason people switch to Granola fits in one line on its homepage: notes, actions and memory, without a meeting bot. Most AI notetakers join your call as an extra participant. Granola listens through your own computer or phone instead, so nobody sees a bot in the attendee list.
It also works differently while the meeting runs. You type rough notes as usual, and afterwards Granola combines them with the transcript into a structured summary. Your own notes steer what it treats as important, which is why many people find its summaries closer to what they wanted to remember.
Granola's plans on October 4, 2026, with prices per user per month.
| Basic | Business | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per user a month | Free | $14 | $35 |
| Meeting history | 30 days | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| AI chat across meetings | Automatic model | Model choice, advanced models | Model choice, advanced models |
| Integrations | Slack | Adds Notion, HubSpot, Zapier, Attio, Affinity | Adds Salesforce and other advanced integrations |
| MCP and API | MCP for your last 30 days of notes | MCP for personal and workspace notes, API | Admin-controlled MCP and API |
| Extras | Templates, recipes, shared folders | Pre-meeting briefs, follow-up emails, a workspace dictionary | SSO, SCIM, audit API, HIPAA workspaces, usage analytics |
| Support | Standard | Standard | Dedicated |
Every plan includes bot-free capture, speaker tagging, multi-language support and apps for desktop, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch. Granola says it puts 1.5% of each subscription toward carbon removal through Stripe Climate.
Granola captures the audio playing on your device and transcribes it live. Once transcription is done, it deletes the audio. That's good for privacy and for meetings with clients who dislike bots, and it's also the main limitation. There's no recording to replay, no video clip to share and no way to check a quote against the original sound. If your team relies on recordings, a bot-based tool such as Fireflies or Otter.ai fits better.
Taking notes without a visible bot also puts the responsibility on you. Recording and consent rules differ by country and state, so tell participants when Granola is running. Individual users can show a notice that they use Granola, and Enterprise admins can enforce it across the company, with an organization-wide notification in pilot.
The free plan is a real product, but 30 days of history is the catch. Notes older than a month drop out of view, which defeats the point of building a searchable meeting memory. Business removes that limit and adds the features that make Granola part of a workflow. It writes pre-meeting briefs from earlier conversations, drafts follow-up emails and keeps a shared dictionary of names and terms.
Business also opens the integrations. Notes can flow into Notion, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity or Zapier, and the API and MCP let other tools, including Claude and ChatGPT, read your meeting notes.
Enterprise is mostly about governance. Admins get single sign-on and SCIM provisioning, an audit API, and control over what can be shared or connected. Retention and auto-deletion can be set for the whole workspace, model training can be switched off for everyone, and HIPAA-compliant workspaces are available. On iPhone, Granola supports MDM app wrapping through Intune for managed devices.
Granola deletes the audio once it's transcribed. For some people that's the point, and for others it's a problem. Otter.ai and Fireflies join calls with a bot and keep recordings, with paid plans from $8.33 and $10 a month billed yearly. Fathom records too and has a strong free plan for individuals, while Read AI adds meeting analytics and coaching. The AI meeting tools guide has the full comparison.
Granola is the pick for people who want their notes improved, not their meetings recorded. For anyone who lives in back-to-back calls, Business at $14 a user is the plan that makes it stick, because it keeps every note.
30 days. The free Basic plan includes AI meeting notes, AI chat within and across meetings, shared folders, templates and multi-language support, but meeting history is limited to the last 30 days. Business, at $14 per user a month, keeps everything.
It transcribes your computer's or phone's audio as the meeting happens, without a bot joining the call, and deletes the audio after transcription. There's no recording to replay later, only the transcript and your notes.
Granola is SOC 2 Type II certified, offers a data processing agreement on every plan and lets each user opt out of model training. Enterprise adds SSO, workspace-wide retention and auto-deletion, a training opt-out for the whole team and HIPAA-compliant workspaces. Whatever the plan, tell people when you're taking AI notes.
Yes. Because it captures audio from your own device, it can take notes in a room through your laptop's or phone's microphone, and its mobile apps are built for meetings on the go and phone calls.
Yes, through MCP. On the free plan, MCP covers your personal notes from the last 30 days; Business adds public workspace notes, and on Enterprise admins decide what's shared. Business and Enterprise also include API access.
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