Granola AI Alternatives for Mac and Windows (2026)
Last updated
Looking for Granola AI alternatives on Mac or Windows? Granola is the AI notepad that made bot-free meeting notes popular: it captures audio from your device instead of sending a notetaker into the call. People look elsewhere for three reasons: the free plan only shows the last 30 days of notes, every meeting is transcribed and summarised in the cloud, and Granola trains on anonymised data unless you opt out. Here’s what Granola costs, how it handles your meetings, and the alternatives.
Why people look for a Granola alternative
- The 30-day window: Granola’s free plan only shows notes from the last 30 days. Anything older is out of reach until you pay $14 a month for Business.
- Your meetings go to the cloud: there’s no bot, but transcription runs through providers such as Deepgram and Assembly, notes are written by OpenAI and Anthropic models, and everything is stored in a US-hosted AWS environment. Nothing is processed on your computer.
- Training: Granola trains its own models on anonymised user data unless you opt out in settings. Only Enterprise workspaces are opted out by default.
- No audio to go back to: Granola deletes the audio after transcription, so if the transcript misheard a name or a number there’s no recording to check against.
- Price per seat: $14 per user a month is the only step up from free, and retention policies and SSO start at $35.
What Granola costs
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $0 | AI meeting notes without a bot, AI chat within and across meetings, shared folders, custom note templates, multiple languages, desktop and mobile apps. Notes from the last 30 days. |
| Business | $14 per user / month | Unlimited notes and history, advanced AI models, integrations (Attio, Notion, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier), MCP and API access, central billing and user management. |
| Enterprise | $35 per user / month | Everything in Business, plus single sign-on, admin controls for sharing and API access, org-wide auto-deletion periods, a team-wide model-training opt-out, usage analytics and priority support. |
Granola’s pricing page shows one price per plan and doesn’t mention annual billing, so check at checkout whether paying yearly changes the price.
Every plan is covered on the Granola AI pricing page, including the free plan’s limits.
How Granola handles your data
- No bot: Granola captures audio from your computer or phone; nothing joins the call.
- No stored audio: it transcribes in real time and says the audio is deleted after transcription. On mobile it uses temporarily cached audio.
- Where it goes: transcription runs through providers such as Deepgram and Assembly, and notes are generated with AI providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Notes are stored in a US-hosted AWS environment, encrypted at rest and in transit, and backed up daily.
- Training: those providers aren’t allowed to train on your data. Granola trains its own models on anonymised data unless you opt out; Enterprise is opted out by default.
- Compliance: Granola reports SOC 2 Type 2 and offers a data processing agreement on request. Its security page doesn’t mention HIPAA.
- Deleting: you can delete individual notes, or ask for all your data to be deleted. Enterprise adds org-wide auto-deletion periods.
Granola alternatives and their prices
Prices below are each vendor’s own starting paid plan, checked on the date at the top of this page. They change often — follow the sources at the end before you decide.
| Tool | How it works | Paid plans from | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otter | A notetaker joins your calls | $8.33 per user / month billed yearly ($16.99 monthly) | 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation |
| Fireflies | A notetaker (Fred) joins your calls; the Chrome extension records without it | $10 per seat / month billed yearly ($18 monthly) | 400 minutes of stored meetings per team, limited summaries |
| Fathom | Joins as a bot, or bot-free capture (in beta, Mac) | $16 per user / month billed yearly ($20 monthly) | Unlimited recordings and transcriptions |
| Read AI | A notetaker joins your calls, often from another invitee’s calendar | $15 per user / month billed yearly ($19.75 monthly) | 5 meetings a month, up to 1 hour each |
| QuietNote | Bot-free; records and transcribes on your computer (Mac; Windows planned) | €8 / month or €79 / year (half price for waitlist members) | No free plan |
How to choose
- Local or cloud: Granola is bot-free but processes everything in the cloud. If the meetings themselves shouldn’t leave your computer, you need a tool that transcribes on the device, such as QuietNote.
- How far back you need to look: free plans differ more in history and minutes than in features. Granola’s Basic plan keeps 30 days; Otter’s free plan caps minutes; Fireflies caps stored minutes.
- Whether you want the audio: Granola deletes it after transcription. Otter, Fireflies and Fathom keep recordings you can replay; QuietNote keeps the recording and the transcript on your Mac.
- Bot or no bot: if you’re leaving Granola but still don’t want a notetaker in the participant list, that rules out Otter and Read AI’s default modes; look at Fathom’s bot-free beta or QuietNote.
If a bot-free note taker is what you’re after, see how it works. Switching but Granola keeps showing up in meetings? Our guide shows how to remove AI meeting bots.
Related guides
- Granola AI pricingGranola’s plans and prices, where the free plan stops, and what it does with your meetings.
- Otter AI alternativesWhy people look for an alternative to Otter, what it costs, and bot-free options with their prices.
- Fireflies alternativesWhy people look for an alternative to Fireflies, what it costs, and bot-free options with their prices.
- Best AI note takersOtter, Fireflies, Fathom, Read AI, Granola and QuietNote side by side: how each records, the free plan and the price.
- Remove meeting botsStop Read AI, Otter and Fireflies from joining Zoom, Teams and Google Meet, and block bots when you host.
- Record a Google MeetMeet's built-in recording needs a paid Workspace plan and notifies everyone; here's how it works and how to record locally on a Mac instead.
- Transcribe audio to text on MacWhat macOS can transcribe on its own, what an upload service asks of you, and how to turn an MP3 or WAV into a transcript without it leaving the Mac.
Questions
Is there a free Granola alternative?
Fathom’s free plan includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions, with bot-free capture in beta on Mac. Otter’s Basic plan is free with 300 minutes a month. QuietNote records and transcribes on your Mac.
Does Granola use a bot?
No. Granola captures audio from your computer or phone, so nothing joins the call. The transcription and the notes are still produced in the cloud, through providers such as Deepgram, Assembly, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Is there a Granola alternative that works offline?
Granola needs an internet connection because transcription and notes run on cloud providers. QuietNote transcribes on your Mac with a local Whisper model and can produce summaries with a local model through Ollama, so it works without a connection.
Does Granola use my notes to train AI?
Granola says third-party AI providers can’t train on your data, but Granola itself trains on anonymised data unless you opt out in your account settings. Enterprise workspaces are opted out by default.
Does Granola record or store meeting audio?
Granola transcribes in real time and says it doesn’t store the audio: its pricing page says audio is deleted after transcription. Notes and transcripts are stored in a US-hosted AWS environment.
Sources
Checked on the “Last updated” date above. Vendors change their settings and prices often; follow the links for the current version.