Granola is an AI notepad for meetings: it records your computer's sound without joining the call, transcribes it in its cloud and fills out your notes with what was said. It has a free plan with 30 days of history and another at 14 dollars per user per month. It transcribes Spanish, but its interface is in English only, it does not let you upload a recording and it stores notes and transcripts in the United States, with no European option.
What Granola AI is and what it is used for
Granola is a meeting notes app from Granola, Inc., a US company with a team in London. Its website presents it as “the AI notepad for back-to-back meetings” and its central idea is taking notes without a bot: it does not join the video call as one more participant, but transcribes in the background while you pay attention.
It is used for three things:
- Notes of each meeting without writing them up afterwards: topics, decisions and next steps.
- Asking questions across all your meetings with a chat, for example what was agreed with someone last week.
- Sharing the notes in team folders or sending them to Slack, Notion, a CRM or, with Zapier, to other apps.
Granola launched in May 2024. In March 2026 it announced a 125 million dollar round at a valuation of 1.5 billion, according to its own blog and TechCrunch.
How Granola works: no bot, and with your own notes
Granola records your computer's microphone and sound, so it works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or any other app without anyone else joining the call. Its help centre puts it this way: there is no bot, and Granola works only on your computer, with the system audio and the microphone.
Using it takes three steps:
- You open the meeting note. Granola transcribes nothing unless you have opened a note: it does not record on its own.
- You listen and, if you want, jot things down. What you write is taken as what matters. If you write nothing, it makes the notes anyway.
- When it ends, the AI enhances your notes with the transcript, your jottings and the details of the calendar invitation. Each point has a magnifying glass that shows which part of the transcript it comes from.
There are apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. On mobile it works for in-person meetings and outgoing calls, but not for transcribing video calls. The web version only lets you view and edit notes. And it does not accept uploaded recordings: its help centre makes clear that it does not import audio files recorded earlier, such as an MP3.
Is Granola free? Pricing and plans
Granola has a free plan with no limit on meetings, but it only lets you look at the notes of the last 30 days. The plans, according to its pricing page at 3 November 2026:
| Basic | Business | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $14 per user per month | $35 per user per month |
| History | 30 days | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Integrations | Slack only | Notion, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity, Zapier and API | Those in Business and more |
| Use to improve its models | On, can be turned off | On, can be turned off | Off by default |
| What it adds | Advanced AI models and centralised billing | Single sign-on, automatic deletion for the whole organisation and notice to participants (in pilot) |
Prices are in dollars and the page gives no price in euros. Basic and Business are paid month by month; annual billing only exists on Enterprise. No plan sets a daily transcription limit.
Does Granola work in Spanish?
Granola transcribes Spanish: it is one of the 31 languages of its desktop app and one of the 17 on mobile. There are three caveats worth knowing before using it with clients:
- The interface is in English only. Menus, buttons and settings are not translated, and its App Store listing in Spain is in English only.
- The notes language is a setting. On desktop you can choose «English», which writes the notes in English whatever the language of the meeting, or «Auto», which uses the majority language. If you get English notes from a meeting in Spanish, that is the setting.
- The custom vocabulary is short. It accepts up to 30 custom terms for transcription: names of clients, companies or acronyms.
Granola does not publish accuracy data for Spanish or distinguish between accents. On mobile you choose a single language per meeting, and its help centre warns that with several languages or unsupported accents the transcription may fail.
What Granola does with the audio and the notes
Granola does not keep the audio: it uses it to transcribe and then deletes it. What it does keep is the transcript and your notes, on servers in the United States. Its security centre spells it out:
- Where: transcription and summary happen in the cloud, with third-party transcription and AI providers, and the data is stored in the United States. At 3 November 2026 it does not offer storage in the European Union or in any other region.
- How long: notes and transcripts are kept indefinitely until you delete them, unless you set up automatic deletion of transcripts (from one day to one year). That deletion does not affect the notes.
- Training: on the Basic and Business plans, anonymised data may be used to improve Granola's own models unless you turn it off; on Enterprise it is off by default. Granola says it does not let third parties train on your data.
- Certifications and contract: SOC 2 Type II since July 2025 and a data processing agreement with the EU standard contractual clauses. It does not sign custom contracts.
- Telling the others: that is the responsibility of whoever records. Granola offers, if you turn it on, an automatic message in the meeting chat and a visible mark on your video.
To decide whether a tool like this can touch a client meeting, the questions to ask are always the same (where it is stored, for how long, who sees it and whether it trains on it). We go through them in client confidentiality and GDPR when using AI in a law firm.
Granola at a law firm
Granola handles the work meeting well, but a lawyer's day has other meetings. This is what fits and what doesn't:
- The client meeting by video call: it fits. With no bot, the client doesn't see an unfamiliar assistant in the list, and neither does the lawyer on the other side.
- The first consultation at the office: for in-person meetings, Granola points you to its mobile app.
- The recording of a hearing or a witness statement: it doesn't fit. Granola doesn't let you upload a file, so the video the court gives you cannot go through it.
- Following up the matter: notes go into folders and you ask them questions with a chat. There is no matter file that brings together the deadlines or what is pending on each matter.
- The language and where the data lives: interface in English and data in the United States. They are the first two things a law firm working in Spanish looks at.
The other ways to take notes with AI (the platform's own and the bots that join the call, such as Fireflies) are compared in taking meeting notes with AI.
Where Granola wins
Granola has real advantages, according to its own website at 3 November 2026:
No bot, and in any app
It works the same in Zoom, Meet, Teams or any other platform, and tells who is speaking apart in the first three on every plan.
Your notes lead
What you jot down during the meeting guides the summary, and each point links to the sentence in the transcript. It is what sets it apart most from an automatic summary.
The free plan
Unlimited meetings without paying, with the limit of 30 days of history.
Mobile, calls and integrations
Apps for iPhone, Android and Apple Watch, outgoing calls from your phone, chat across all your meetings and integrations with Notion, CRMs, Zapier and an API.
A Granola alternative for lawyers: ablalo
If you are looking for the same as Granola (notes without a bot), but in Spanish and built for a law firm's work, the alternative is an app that separates what each person has to do and takes it to the matter file.
With ablalo, the meeting is recorded on your computer (the microphone and the computer's sound), so no bot joins the call and it works the same in Teams, Zoom, Meet or across the desk at the firm. For each meeting you choose where it is processed: «European cloud», with who is speaking and a summary of what you have to do, what the client has to do and the dates that were mentioned, or «Only on this computer», without the recording leaving it. You can also add the video or the audio of a hearing: if you mark it as a hearing or trial, the summary picks up what the judge said, the key moments and the disputed facts. Each meeting is added to its matter file, which prepares the next one for you. It recognises Spanish speech only.
If you want to see first how one of your recordings comes out transcribed, you can transcribe a meeting for free and without an account on the website (the page is in Spanish).
Granola vs ablalo, point by point
| Granola | ablalo | |
|---|---|---|
| Bot in the call | No | No |
| Systems | Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android | Windows and Mac |
| Upload a recording (hearing, statement) | No | Yes, audio or video (MP4, MOV, MKV, MP3, M4A, WAV…) |
| App language | English | Spanish or English |
| Where it is processed | In its cloud; data stored in the United States | Your choice for each meeting: «European cloud» or «Only on this computer» |
| Trains on your data | It may, on Basic and Business, unless you turn it off | No |
| Summary | General notes, guided by what you jot down | Depends on the meeting type: client meeting, call, hearing or statement |
| Where it ends up | Folders and chat across your meetings | The matter file, with upcoming deadlines, what is pending and the next meeting prepared |
| Dictating documents | In testing, Mac only | Yes, in Spanish, in any program, with more than 30,000 legal terms |
| Price | Free with 30 days of history; $14 a month | See pricing; 14-day trial, no card |
Granola or ablalo?
Granola pays off if your meetings are mostly in English, with teams in several countries, and general notes to share in Notion or a CRM are enough for you. Its free plan lets you try it with no limit on meetings.
ablalo pays off if your meetings are with clients and in Spanish, if you also work with recordings of hearings and witness statements, and if what comes out of each meeting has to end up in the matter file. And if a meeting is especially sensitive, you can keep it only on your computer.
In short
Granola is a no-bot note taker that works with any video call platform, has a free plan with 30 days of history and another at 14 dollars a month, and transcribes Spanish even though its app is in English. It processes in the cloud, stores the data in the United States and does not accept uploaded recordings. For a law firm working in Spanish with clients, hearings and matter files, an alternative such as ablalo covers those three things.
Sources: Granola, home page, pricing, security; Granola help centre, transcription, AI enhanced notes, languages, custom vocabulary, plans and billing, security and data questions, model training, automatic deletion, notices to participants, mobile app; Series C announcement and TechCrunch, Granola raises $125M. Checked on 3 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is Granola AI and what is it used for?
Granola is an AI notepad for meetings: it records your computer's sound without joining the call, transcribes it and fills out your notes with what was said. It is used for keeping the notes of every meeting, asking questions across all your meetings with a chat and sharing them with your team.
Is Granola AI free?
It has a free plan with unlimited meetings, but it only lets you look at the notes of the last 30 days. The Business plan costs 14 dollars per user per month and Enterprise, 35, according to its pricing page at 3 November 2026.
Does Granola work in Spanish?
It transcribes Spanish, one of its 31 languages on desktop, but the interface is in English only. Check the notes language setting: with «English», it writes the notes in English even if the meeting is in Spanish.
Does Granola join the meeting?
No. Granola does not put any bot in the call: it records your computer's microphone and sound, so it works in Zoom, Meet, Teams or any other app without appearing in the attendee list.
Where does Granola store the data?
On servers in the United States, and at 3 November 2026 it does not offer storage in the European Union. It does not keep the audio, but it does keep the transcript and the notes, until you delete them or set up automatic deletion.
What alternative to Granola is there for lawyers?
ablalo also records without a bot, but it is in Spanish, lets you choose for each meeting between «European cloud» and «Only on this computer», accepts the uploaded recording of a hearing and saves each meeting in its matter file. It has a 14-day trial with no card.