What Is Granola? An AI Notepad That Keeps No Audio

The short answer: if you sit in back-to-back meetings and want your own notes finished for you rather than a recording of the call, Granola fits: it combines what you type with a live transcript of your computer's audio, joins no call as a bot and keeps no audio, and Business costs $14 a user a month, billed monthly, per the pricing page and the billing article, checked on 26 October 2026. If you need replays, clips or uploaded recordings, it is the wrong shape.

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What to know before your team installs it:

1. Billing is per workspace. Every active member is a paid seat and a workspace cannot mix plans, per the billing article. For example, if 4 of 10 people need Business, one workspace costs 10 x $14 = $140 a month, and a separate Business workspace for the four costs 4 x $14 = $56, with notes not shared between the two.
2. It works from your calendar and your machine. Granola transcribes only once you open a meeting's note or start a new one, using your microphone and system audio, per the transcription guide.
3. Spot-check the notes. A magnifying glass beside each enhanced note shows its source in the transcript, per the notes article; check a few per meeting at first.

What Granola does

You type rough notes during the meeting; when it ends, Granola writes enhanced notes from them, the transcript and the calendar event, in a template you choose. Granola Chat answers questions across meetings, and recipes are saved prompts you run with a slash.

On Business, it also prepares a brief before external meetings, drafts follow-up emails and connects to Notion, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity and Zapier; Slack works on every plan. An MCP server puts your notes in Claude or ChatGPT, limited to the last 30 days on Basic. Apps run on macOS, Windows, iOS and Android, and the phone apps handle face-to-face meetings.

Who it suits, and who it does not

It suits founders, marketing leads and account managers who take their own notes in many short meetings and would rather not put a bot in front of a client.

It suits less well a team that wants a shared library of recorded calls, video clips or uploaded files to transcribe: Granola keeps no audio or video and cannot import a recording, per the transcription guide.

What it costs

Checked on 26 October 2026 on the pricing page and in the billing article:

Accepted startups and students get 12 months of Business free. On Basic, notes older than 30 days stay stored but hidden in the app until you upgrade, so the archive you build on the free plan becomes the argument for paying; the CSV export under Settings is the free way to keep it.

How it compares

Fireflies.ai sends a bot that records and stores the call, from $10 a seat a month on annual billing, per its pricing page. Choose it when the team needs the recording itself; choose Granola when you need the notes.

Wispr Flow starts from dictation: speech to text in any app, in 100+ languages, with a meeting notetaker on Mac and Windows. If most of your typing happens outside meetings, it is the closer fit.

Plaud sells recording devices for conversations away from a screen. Granola's phone apps already cover in-person meetings, so Plaud fits when a phone on the table will not do.

Getting started

Use Basic for a week of real meetings. How to use Granola turns briefing calls into written briefs.

FAQ

Does Granola record audio?

No. On desktop it transcribes in real time and keeps no audio; on iPhone it caches audio until transcription ends, then deletes it, per the consent guide.

How do others know I am using it?

You can turn on an automated chat message in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or Slack huddles, or a watermark on your camera, per the transparency guide.

Can I upload a recording to Granola?

No. Granola transcribes live meetings only and does not import audio files, per the transcription guide.