The AI meeting notes space is crowded. Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, and a dozen others all promise to transcribe your calls and summarize the key points. Most produce output that needs so much editing you wonder why you bothered. Granola takes a different approach, and it works.
What Is It?
Granola is a macOS app that runs quietly during your meetings. It captures audio from any meeting platform and generates structured meeting notes with action items, decisions, and key discussion points. You can also type your own notes during the meeting, and Granola weaves them into the final output.
What We Liked
The hybrid approach is what sets Granola apart. You jot down quick notes during the meeting, and Granola fills in the context around them using the audio. The result feels like notes you actually wrote, not a robot summary.
Note quality is consistently good. After three months and roughly 120 meetings, we found ourselves editing Granola's output less than 10% of the time.
It works with every meeting tool. There is no bot joining your call, no permission prompts. It just listens through your system audio.
What Could Be Better
Granola is macOS only. No Windows, no Linux, no web version. If your team is cross-platform, only Mac users benefit.
Sharing notes requires exporting to Notion, Google Docs, or plain text. There is no built-in collaboration layer.
Pricing
Granola costs $18 per month with a 7-day free trial. There is a limited free tier for 5 meetings per month.
Final Verdict
Granola is the first AI meeting tool that improved our workflow instead of adding to it. If you are on a Mac and sit through more than a few meetings per week, this will save you real time. Score: 9.0/10. Top Pick.
