Granola AI

Tool Introduction

Granola AI redefines how teams manage meeting knowledge by blending human input with advanced AI. Founded in March 2023 by Chris Pedregal and Sam Stephenson, the platform addresses a key insight: vital organizational knowledge often lives in conversations, not documents. Granola eliminates the need for visible bots by silently recording system audio, reducing friction during meetings. With strong adoption among startups and venture capital firms, it has secured over $67 million in funding.

Demo Available?

Granola AI offers a free trial with 25 meetings and full feature access; no credit card is required.

Tool's Accuracy

Granola AI delivers high-quality transcriptions with strong noise cancellation and contextual summaries. Users highlight its accuracy in English-language business meetings and its ability to synthesize insights across multiple sessions.

Aggregate Rating

4.6/5 stars (estimated from informal sources and limited reviews)

Detailed Overview

Granola AI captures, processes, and organizes meeting insights using a silent AI assistant built around human-AI collaboration.

What Granola AI Does

Granola AI captures device audio while users type notes into its notepad interface. It records system sound directly without requiring bots or integrations. The tool identifies participant roles and adjusts based on meeting type—such as interviews or sales calls—to produce context-specific summaries. After each session, Granola processes both human notes and transcripts to generate detailed outputs. Teams can organize content into shared folders and query millions of minutes of processed data across their organization.

Who Granola AI is for

Granola AI supports professionals who depend on meetings to do their work. Sales teams use it to track deals, product managers gather user feedback, recruiters standardize interviews, and executives capture strategy discussions. Individual users gain personalized summaries; leaders benefit from cross-team insights. The platform scales from solo use to enterprise-wide deployment.

Top Differentiators

Granola AI records locally without joining calls as a bot, avoiding disruption. Unlike tools that rely solely on transcripts, it uses typed notes as context cues for smarter summaries. Teams can search across shared folders to extract patterns from multiple meetings—a capability most competitors lack.

Introductory Video

Founding Year

2023

Target Industry

B2B, SMB, Enterprise, Venture Capital, Technology Startups, Professional Services

Available Integrations

Zapier: Connects Granola AI to over 8,000 apps for workflow automation without coding.
Notion: Pushes meeting notes and summaries into structured knowledge bases using Zapier.
Google Docs: Transfers AI-generated meeting notes into collaborative documents via Zapier.
Slack: Sends meeting recaps or action items directly to team channels through Zapier.
Google Drive: Archives and shares meeting transcripts using Zapier workflows.
Salesforce: Syncs meeting insights with CRM records through Zapier integration.
Affinity: Enables syncing of meeting data with CRM platforms via Zapier.
Airtable: Logs structured meeting data for project tracking or analytics using Zapier.
ChatGPT (OpenAI): Allows further processing of meetings with generative AI models when API access is available.
Claude AI (via MCP): A community-built setup that queries local Granola data through Claude Desktop, requiring technical configuration.

Plans & Pricing

Free (Trial): Includes 25 lifetime meetings per account. Offers AI chat for all meetings and custom note templates. No ongoing free plan after the 25 meetings.

Individual: $18/month for one user. Provides unlimited meetings, AI-powered meeting chat, custom note templates, and integration with over 8,000 apps via Zapier.

Business: $14/user/month for teams. Offers unlimited meetings per user, team-wide folders, consolidated billing, admin controls, opt-out of model training, priority support, usage analytics, auto-deletion periods, and upcoming features like org-wide participant notifications and Okta SSO.

Enterprise: Starts at $35/user/month. Includes everything in Business plus enhanced admin controls, privacy options, and priority support.

All prices are in USD and billed monthly.

Features & Specs

Silent Audio Capture: Records meeting audio through system-level output without joining calls.
Typed Note Integration: Treats user notes as signals for priority content during summary generation.
Context-Aware Summaries: Adjusts structure based on participant roles and meeting purpose.
Custom Templates: Supports flexible formatting tailored to different types of meetings.
Collaborative Folders: Lets teams share access to categorized meeting content without individual accounts.
Searchable Knowledge Base: Enables natural language queries across all stored conversations with source-linked responses.
Slack Integration: Posts summaries automatically to channels after meetings via one-time setup.
Cross-Platform Support: Available for Mac and Windows desktops with cloud-based processing backend.
Scalable Infrastructure: Handles millions of conversation minutes per day reliably at scale.
Privacy-Centric Design: Local recording keeps raw audio off the cloud during capture phase.

Security & Compliance

Granola AI records audio locally through system-level capture, reducing exposure during live conversations. Transcripts are processed in the cloud after local recording ends. Shared folders offer domain-based access control for enterprise customers, supporting internal collaboration without exposing content broadly. No specific encryption standards or compliance certifications are publicly documented.

Industry Use-Cases

Sales and Business Development

Granola AI helps sales teams capture critical points from customer calls, like objections and pricing. Summaries highlight key trends, enabling better follow-up and strategy adjustments based on real feedback.

Product Management and Development

Product managers use Granola AI to track user feedback across interviews and meetings. The tool identifies recurring issues, helping teams prioritize features that matter most to users.

Human Resources and Talent Acquisition

Recruiters use Granola AI during interviews to create structured summaries for consistent candidate evaluation. Cross-interview analysis reveals patterns, improving hiring decisions over time.

Customer Success and Support

Customer success teams rely on Granola AI to document client conversations and track account health. Shared folders surface common challenges or expansion signals across customer interactions.

Executive Leadership and Strategic Planning

Executives capture key decisions during leadership meetings with Granola AI. Summaries support alignment, while folder queries reveal evolving priorities or persistent organizational blockers.

Tool's Alternatives

ClickUp
ClickUp offers note-taking, task management, and documentation within one workspace. It integrates deeply with project tools but may feel complex compared to Granola’s focused approach.

Fathom
Fathom delivers real-time transcription and CRM syncing, especially useful for sales teams. Its strong Salesforce integration contrasts with Granola’s more general-purpose design.

Otter.ai
Otter.ai supports speaker recognition and mobile access across platforms. Unlike Granola, it lacks a collaborative note model but excels in broad compatibility.

Fireflies.ai
Fireflies.ai provides transcription, summaries, and deep integrations across CRMs and productivity tools. It captures audio and video but is less privacy-centric than Granola.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Granola AI record meeting audio without bots?
Granola AI captures audio directly from the system output. It doesn’t join calls or display a bot, so meetings continue uninterrupted while audio is recorded locally on the user’s device.

What platforms does Granola AI support?
Granola AI runs on Mac and Windows desktops. It uses a cloud-based backend for processing, allowing cross-platform support with local recording and centralized summary generation.

What are the main features of Granola AI?
Features include silent audio capture, typed note integration, context-aware summaries, collaborative folders, Slack integration, custom templates, and searchable archives with natural language queries across stored conversations.

What integrations are available with Granola AI?
Granola integrates with Slack directly. Through Zapier, it connects to Notion, Google Docs, Google Drive, Salesforce, Airtable, Affinity, ChatGPT (OpenAI), and Claude Desktop for extended workflows and CRM syncing.

Who typically uses Granola AI in an organization?
Sales teams track deals; product managers gather feedback; recruiters run structured interviews; executives document strategy sessions. The platform supports both individuals and enterprise-wide use across roles.

What’s included in the free trial plan?
The free trial includes 25 lifetime meetings per account. It offers access to all core features like AI chat for meetings and custom note templates without requiring payment details.

How much does Granola AI cost after the trial ends?
The Individual plan is $18/month for one user. Business plans cost $14/user/month with team features. Enterprise pricing starts at $35/user/month with advanced controls and support.

How does Granola protect meeting privacy during recording?
Audio is recorded locally through system-level capture rather than streamed live to the cloud. Transcripts are processed after recording ends to reduce exposure during meetings.

Can teams organize content collaboratively within Granola AI?
Yes. Shared folders allow domain-based access control so teams can collaborate without needing individual logins for each piece of content.

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