Granola Review 2026

AI notepad for meetings that listens to your call audio locally, merges it with your typed notes, and produces structured summaries — without joining the meeting as a bot.

Granola is a meeting AI product that has won a passionate following by getting one detail right: it does not show up to the meeting as a separate bot. Instead, Granola runs as a local macOS (and increasingly Windows) app that captures the system audio of whatever call is happening — Zoom, Meet, Teams, in-person on a laptop mic — and merges that transcript with the notes you type during the call. The result is a structured summary that knows what was said *and* what you thought was important, which is dramatically better than the standard 'AI took transcript' output. Templates let you generate outputs in your preferred format (customer call notes, 1:1, standup, interview, sales discovery), and the app integrates with CRMs, ticket systems, and Slack to push the summary where it belongs. The company has raised significant venture funding (reports of a $125M round) and is a popular choice with founders, salespeople, and product managers. Pricing in 2026 includes a free tier (limited monthly meetings), an individual plan around $15-$18/month, a Business plan around $180/employee/year, and Enterprise pricing. The 'no-bot' approach is also a meaningful privacy win — guests don't see an unfamiliar AI joining their call.