Granola

Granola is an AI-powered notepad built specifically for meetings. Instead of sending a bot into your call to record and transcribe everything, Granola works quietly in the background, listening to your system audio while you type your own rough, real-time notes — the same way you always have. Once the meeting ends, Granola merges your notes with what was actually said, filling in gaps, correcting shorthand, and turning a messy bullet list into a clean, structured summary in seconds.

This "notes-first" approach is what sets Granola apart from most meeting-assistant tools. You're not handing the entire job over to an AI and hoping it captures the right things — you're still driving, and the AI is just making sure nothing important slips through.

How It Works

During a call, Granola sits in your menu bar and captures your device's system audio directly, so there's no separate bot joining as a visible participant. As you type quick, imperfect notes — names, decisions, half-formed thoughts — Granola quietly builds a transcript in parallel. After the meeting, it cross-references your notes against the transcript and produces a polished write-up: key points, decisions made, and action items, organized under clear headings.

You can also chat with your meeting notes afterward, asking follow-up questions like "what did we agree on for the launch date?" without having to scroll back through a wall of text.

Key Features

• Real-time note-taking alongside automatic audio capture
• No visible bot joining the call — works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and even in-person conversations
• AI-generated meeting summaries with action items
• Custom templates for different meeting types (sales calls, standups, interviews)
• Ability to chat with past meeting notes to pull up specific details
• Shareable summaries for teammates who missed the call

Who It's Built For

Granola is aimed at anyone who spends a large chunk of their week in meetings and wants a lighter way to keep track of what happened — founders, product managers, consultants, recruiters, and sales teams in particular. Because it doesn't require a bot to join the call, it also works well for people who are uncomfortable with recording-bot etiquette in client-facing meetings, or who take meetings in settings a bot simply can't attend, like an in-person coffee chat.

What It Does Not Do

Granola isn't a full call-recording or video-archiving platform — it's focused on notes and summaries, not video playback. It also currently works primarily on macOS, so teams standardized on Windows may need to wait or use it selectively. And because it depends on you typing at least some notes during the meeting, people looking for a fully hands-off "just record everything and summarize" tool may find other options a better fit.

How It Compares

Compared to bot-based meeting recorders, Granola's biggest advantage is subtlety — no visible participant, no recording disclaimer popping up mid-call. The tradeoff is that it leans on the user typing something during the meeting, rather than being entirely passive.