Granola alternatives

Every Granola alternative is bot-free now. Pick by where your notes go and what can read them.

Shadow wrote this page, so read it knowing Shadow is one of the options. Every claim below was checked against each product's own pricing and documentation pages on October 28, 2026, and the pages are linked at the bottom. Bot-free capture used to be Granola's edge. Today every tool here records from the computer, and local transcription is no longer rare either: Google's Foresight, Meetily, Anarlog and Trace all transcribe on the Mac. What still separates them is where your notes end up, whether your AI agents can read them, what the free plan includes, and what you pay.

Every claim below was checked against each product's own pages on October 28, 2026. Sources are at the bottom.

At a glance

Granola and seven alternatives, side by side

Capture is bot-free across the board. The columns that still differ are where transcription runs, where notes live, how AI agents reach them, the free plan and the price.

Granola

Bot-free Mac capture
Yes
Transcription
Granola's transcription provider
Where notes live
Granola's US-hosted cloud
How AI agents reach them
MCP connector. Basic: last 30 days, no transcripts
Free plan
Basic: 30 days of history
Paid price
$14 per user per month, billed monthly

Shadow

Bot-free Mac capture
Yes, starts automatically with Autopilot
Transcription
On your Mac
Where notes live
Markdown in your own vault
How AI agents reach them
They read the folder as files, with no history limit
Free plan
Unlimited recording and transcription
Paid price
$12 a month, or $8 billed annually

Google AI Edge Foresight

Bot-free Mac capture
Yes
Transcription
On your Mac
Where notes live
On your Mac, format not stated
How AI agents reach them
Not stated
Free plan
No price listed
Paid price
No cloud subscription costs

Wispr Flow Notetaker

Bot-free Mac capture
Yes
Transcription
Cloud
Where notes live
Wispr's cloud
How AI agents reach them
MCP connector, free plan included
Free plan
Limited, with a weekly meeting cap
Paid price
$15 a month, or $12 billed annually

ChatGPT Record mode

Bot-free Mac capture
Yes, from the Mac app
Transcription
OpenAI's servers
Where notes live
A canvas in your chat history
How AI agents reach them
Inside ChatGPT only
Free plan
Not available
Paid price
Included with Plus at $20 a month

Fathom

Bot-free Mac capture
Bot or bot-free (bot-free is beta on Mac)
Transcription
Not stated
Where notes live
Inside Fathom, synced to your tools
How AI agents reach them
MCP on every plan
Free plan
Unlimited recordings and transcriptions
Paid price
$20 a month, or $16 billed annually

jamie

Bot-free Mac capture
Yes
Transcription
Not stated, EU hosted
Where notes live
Inside jamie, EU hosted
How AI agents reach them
MCP on Pro and above
Free plan
10 AI notes a month, 30-minute limit
Paid price
From €21

FaceTime and Notes

Bot-free Mac capture
FaceTime audio calls only
Transcription
Not stated
Where notes live
The Notes app
How AI agents reach them
No connector
Free plan
Free with macOS
Paid price
Free

The shortlist

Seven Granola alternatives, ranked by what you keep.

Ordered by how much of your meeting stays on your Mac and in your own files. Each entry says who it suits and what it gives up.

01Shadow

Best for AI agents and Obsidian reading every meeting as files

Shadow captures meetings on your Mac without a bot and, with Autopilot, starts and stops with your calls. It transcribes and detects speakers on the Mac and saves each meeting as a dated Markdown folder, with People pages and a SHADOW.md guide for agents, in a vault you choose. Claude Code, Codex and Obsidian read the folder as is. Meeting Skills run when the call ends, and Action Skills run on your screen and voice everywhere else.

Price
Free with unlimited recording and transcription. Plus is $12 a month, or $8 a month billed annually.
Trade-off
Mac only: Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later. No Windows or phone app, and no connector for chat apps in a browser.

02Google AI Edge Foresight

Best for an on-device experiment from Google

Google launched Foresight for Mac on October 6, 2026 as an experimental, context-aware meeting companion. It transcribes system audio and your microphone on your computer rather than in the cloud, and Google says meeting audio and notes never leave your computer. It is a direct download optimized for Apple Silicon.

Price
No price is listed. Google's launch post says there are no cloud subscription costs.
Trade-off
Experimental. Google's pages do not say where or in what format notes are saved, or how AI agents can reach them.

03Wispr Flow Notetaker

Best for dictation and meeting notes in one subscription

Launched for Mac on August 5, 2026 as part of the Wispr Flow dictation app. It captures audio on your device without a bot, transcribes in the cloud, and keeps transcripts in Wispr's cloud so they sync. Its MCP connector lets Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini pull your notes, on the free plan too, and it imports your Granola and Otter history.

Price
Free with limited Notetaker access and a weekly meeting limit. Pro is $15 a month, or $12 billed annually.
Trade-off
Cloud transcription and cloud notes. Export formats are not listed on Wispr's pages.

04ChatGPT Record mode

Best for people who already pay for ChatGPT

Press Record in the ChatGPT Mac app and it transcribes and summarizes the meeting into a canvas in your chat history. Audio goes to OpenAI for transcription and is deleted afterwards, and sessions are capped at 4 hours. A newer Meetings plugin, in beta for Pro and Business, can detect a call and offer to take notes.

Price
Included with Plus ($20 a month), Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. Not on the Free plan.
Trade-off
macOS app only. Notes live in ChatGPT, and on Free, Plus and Pro the transcripts may be used for training unless you turn that off.

05Fathom

Best for a free recorder with a choice of bot or bot-free capture

Fathom's free plan includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries, and a choice of bot or bot-free capture, with bot-free on Mac in beta. Notes sync to tools such as Slack, HubSpot and Asana, and Claude and ChatGPT can reach them through Fathom's MCP integration on every plan.

Price
Free. Premium is $20 a month, or $16 billed annually.
Trade-off
Fathom's pages do not say where transcription runs. Notes live inside Fathom.

06jamie

Best for EU data residency

jamie runs on your device without a meeting bot and keeps storage and processing within the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. It works with Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and in-person meetings, and jamie says audio is streamed and never stored.

Price
Free with 10 AI notes a month and a 30-minute meeting limit. Plus is listed at €21 and Pro at €39 a month billed annually.
Trade-off
jamie's pages do not say where transcription runs. Notes live in jamie, hosted in the EU, and MCP and an API come with Pro and above.

07FaceTime and Notes on macOS

Best for free, built-in recording of FaceTime audio calls

macOS can record a FaceTime audio call with one other person. Both people hear a notice, and the recording and transcript land in the Notes app's Call Recordings folder. Notes can also record and transcribe audio on Macs with M1 or later, and Apple Intelligence can summarize a recorded call.

Price
Free with macOS.
Trade-off
Apple's guides cover FaceTime audio calls and Notes recordings, not Zoom, Google Meet or Teams. Apple does not say where transcription runs on these pages.

Questions people ask about Granola alternatives

It depends on what bothered you about Granola. If it was notes living in someone else's cloud, or AI agents reaching them only through a connector, Shadow is built around the opposite: transcription on the Mac and every meeting as Markdown in your own folder, which Claude Code, Codex and Obsidian read directly. It is free for recording and $8 a month billed annually for AI notes. If you want an on-device experiment from Google, try Foresight. If you want dictation in the same app, Wispr Flow. If you already pay for ChatGPT, Record mode. If you need an EU host, jamie.

Start with the one that writes files.

Free forever for recording and transcription. Two weeks of Plus included, no card required.

Download for macOSFree forever. Includes 2 weeks of Plus, no card required.

Requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later.

More comparisons

Sources

Each claim on this page was checked against the pages below on October 28, 2026. Competitor pricing and features change; if a page has moved on, the linked page wins, and this page will be updated.

  1. Granola pricing (granola.ai/pricing)
  2. Granola security: transcription providers and cloud storage
  3. Granola docs: How transcription works
  4. Granola docs: MCP (plans, 30-day Basic history, transcripts on paid plans)
  5. Granola docs: Exporting notes (CSV)
  6. Google AI Edge Foresight product page
  7. Google Developers Blog, October 6, 2026: launch of Google AI Edge Foresight for Mac
  8. Wispr Flow Notetaker page
  9. Wispr Flow pricing
  10. Wispr Flow privacy
  11. TechCrunch, August 5, 2026: Wispr Flow notetaker launch date (used only for the date)
  12. OpenAI Help Center: ChatGPT Record
  13. OpenAI Help Center: What is ChatGPT Plus?
  14. OpenAI Help Center: The Meetings plugin in ChatGPT
  15. Fathom pricing (fathom.ai/pricing)
  16. Fathom homepage: bot or no bot
  17. Fathom: Claude integration via MCP, on every plan
  18. jamie homepage: no meeting bot, EU hosting, audio never stored
  19. jamie pricing (MCP and API on Pro and above)
  20. Apple Support: Record a FaceTime call on Mac
  21. Apple Support: Record and transcribe audio in Notes on Mac
  22. Meetily on GitHub (MIT license, local transcription)
  23. Meetily pricing (Community free, Markdown export on Pro)
  24. Anarlog pricing (free on-device transcription)
  25. Anarlog on GitHub (local SQLite, Markdown export)
  26. Trace (local transcripts as Markdown files)
  27. Shadow pricing (shadow.do/pricing)
  28. Shadow Help: Privacy and data leaving your Mac
  29. Shadow Help: Your vault and local files
  30. Shadow Help: Capture a meeting