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Grain vs Granola

Side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, ratings, and alternatives.

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Grain
GrainAI notetaker that records, transcribes, and turns meetings into shareable highlights and action items.
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Granola
GranolaAI notepad that transcribes meetings in the background and turns them into clean notes.
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Overview
Description

Grain is an AI meeting assistant that joins or bot-lessly captures Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams calls, then automatically transcribes and summarizes them. It supports 130+ languages with speaker recognition, extracts action items, and can export clean meeting notes directly into Claude or ChatGPT via an MCP server and API for further AI workflows. Beyond raw transcripts, Grain generates highlight reels and shareable clips from meetings, syncs notes into CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, and surfaces conversation and revenue intelligence for sales and customer-facing teams. It targets growing teams that want meeting context captured automatically rather than relying on manual note-taking.

Granola is an AI meeting notepad built for people who sit in back-to-back calls. Instead of sending a bot into your meetings, Granola runs quietly in the background, transcribes what's said on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other call apps, and turns your own rough notes into a polished, structured summary after the call ends. Because it works from system audio rather than a visible bot, meetings feel like a normal conversation. Granola adds calendar integration to auto-detect upcoming meetings, pre-meeting briefs pulled from prior notes, and an MCP connector so meeting notes can flow into tools like Claude and Cursor.

Pricing
Freemium
Paid (Subscription)
Category
AI Productivity
Note Taking
Best for
Growing sales, customer success, and product teams needing automated meeting intelligence
Professionals who spend much of their day in meetings and calls
Specifications
deployment
Cloud/SaaS
Desktop App
open source
No
No
api available
Yes
No
support options
Email, Live Chat, Help Center
Help Center
key integrations
Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Claude, ChatGPT
Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Claude, Cursor (via MCP)
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • Free tier includes 20 meetings with real AI notes, not just a limited trial
  • Bot-less recording option avoids an intrusive bot joining every call
  • Strong AI-workflow integration via MCP server and direct export to Claude/ChatGPT
  • No long-term contract required, with a 30-day money-back guarantee
  • No bot joins the call, so meetings feel unchanged for other participants
  • Generous free tier for day-to-day note taking
  • Works across major meeting platforms rather than locking you into one
  • MCP integration makes notes usable inside other AI workflows
Cons
  • Free plan caps recordings at 45 minutes, which is tight for longer meetings
  • Business plan pricing is not publicly listed and requires signing up or contacting sales to see
  • Advanced coaching and revenue intelligence features are gated behind the higher-priced Business tier
  • Free tier limits access to notes older than 30 days
  • Requires the desktop or mobile app running during the meeting to capture audio
  • Summary quality depends on how much you type during the call
Community & Metrics
Upvotes
0
0
User rating
Not enough data
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The Verdict

AI-generated from listing data

Both Granola and Grain offer freemium AI meeting note‑taking, but Granola stays local with no bot and broader free retention, while Grain adds richer AI extraction and CRM integrations at the cost of tighter recording limits.

Key differences

  • •Granola records locally without a bot joining; Grain can also join as a visible bot.
  • •Granola’s free tier keeps notes only 30 days; Grain’s free tier limits to 20 meetings and 45‑minute recordings.
  • •Grain provides built‑in action‑item extraction, highlight reels, and CRM sync (Salesforce, HubSpot); Granola lacks these advanced outputs.
  • •Granola is a desktop/mobile app (no cloud SaaS); Grain is a cloud/SaaS platform with an API.
  • •Grain offers an API and live‑chat support; Granola only has a Help Center.
DimensionWinner

Pricing & value

Granola’s free tier is generous for day‑to‑day notes; Grain caps recordings at 45 min and hides business pricing.

Granola

Ease of use / learning curve

Grain’s AI auto‑summaries and action‑item extraction require less manual typing than Granola’s shorthand‑driven summaries.

Grain

Features & depth

Grain adds multilingual transcription, speaker recognition, highlight reels, and CRM export; Granola focuses on basic transcription and summarization.

Grain

Integrations & ecosystem

Grain integrates with Slack, Salesforce, HubSpot, Claude, ChatGPT; Granola integrates only with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Claude, Cursor.

Grain

Collaboration

Granola notes stay private by default with explicit per‑note sharing; Grain emphasizes shareable highlight reels but privacy details not specified.

Granola

Scalability

Grain’s cloud SaaS and API support enterprise scaling; Granola is a desktop app limited to local device resources.

Grain

Support

Grain offers email, live chat, and Help Center; Granola only provides a Help Center.

Grain

Choose Grain if…

Sales, CS, or product teams that want AI‑driven action items, CRM sync, and cloud scalability.

Choose Granola if…

Professionals needing local, bot‑less capture with generous free retention and simple note‑only workflow.

Common questions

Can I use the tool without a bot joining my calls?

Yes for both: Granola records locally; Grain offers a bot‑less audio capture option.

What are the limits of the free plans?

Granola: notes older than 30 days unavailable; Grain: up to 20 meetings, each max 45 minutes.

Do either tools integrate with my CRM (e.g., Salesforce)?

Grain integrates directly with Salesforce and HubSpot; Granola does not list CRM integrations.