Granola alternatives in 2026: for calls and for rooms

Granola is a desktop notepad that listens to your computer’s audio and fills in around the shorthand you type, which is a genuinely different idea from a meeting bot. People look for alternatives for three reasons: history limits on the free tier, per-seat pricing as a team grows, or needing something that works when the conversation is not on a computer at all. Otter and Fireflies cover the first two on different terms. For the third, no software tool qualifies — the alternative is a recording device.

Three reasons to look, three different answers

01 / Your history ran out

Basic limits how far back you can look, which matters more the longer you use it — the value of a conversation archive is mostly in its depth. Business at $14 per user per month removes the limit and is the direct fix. Fireflies’ free tier is the closest thing to a free alternative, trading unlimited transcription against 400 minutes of shared storage.

02 / Per-seat cost as the team grows

At $14 a seat a ten-person team is $1,680 a year. Fathom’s free plan covers unlimited recordings at $0, with a two-user minimum on its paid tiers. Otter Business at $19.99 a seat annually is more expensive but removes minute caps entirely.

03 / You liked that no bot joins

This is Granola’s real distinction and it narrows the field: most alternatives put a visible participant in the call. If that was why you chose it, weigh the history limit against going back to a bot before you move.

04 / The conversation is not on your laptop

Granola needs the app running on a machine in the conversation, which is fine at a desk and awkward across a client’s table. If a meaningful share of your week is rooms rather than calls, the alternative is not another app. Scriben is a pen that records to its own storage for up to 18 hours with nothing switched on and no network.

05 / You want to read notes from your own tools

Granola offers MCP and API access from Business upward. Scriben includes read access over MCP — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and Zed can query your notes — on the $129 purchase rather than a tier.

Where these numbers come from

Competitor pricing moves. Every figure here is quoted from the vendor’s own published pages on the date given — check theirs before you decide anything on ours.

Granola figures checked on 14 September 2026 on granola.ai/pricing: Basic at $0 per user per month with limited history; Business $14 per user per month; Enterprise $35 per user per month. MCP and API access start at Business. Prices change — check theirs before you decide.

Otter figures checked on 15 September 2026 on otter.ai/pricing: Basic free with 300 monthly transcription minutes and a 30-minute conversation cap; Pro $16.99 per user per month, or $8.33 billed annually; Business $30 per user per month, or $19.99 billed annually, with unlimited minutes; Enterprise custom. Prices change — check theirs before you decide.

Fireflies figures checked on 15 September 2026 on fireflies.ai/pricing: Free at $0 with unlimited transcription, limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team; Pro $18 per seat per month, or $10 billed annually; Business $29 per seat per month, or $19 billed annually, with unlimited storage; Enterprise $39 per seat per month. Prices change — check theirs before you decide.

Fathom figures checked on 15 September 2026 on fathom.video/pricing: a free plan with unlimited recordings and instant summaries; Team $19 per user per month, or $15 billed annually; Business $34 per user per month, or $25 billed annually. Both paid tiers state a two-user minimum. Prices change — check theirs before you decide.

Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Notta and Granola each require a virtual meeting or a running app to capture from — checked on 15 September 2026 against each vendor’s own product pages and documentation. All five offer mobile apps that can record in person from a phone; none captures a conversation with no session and no app running. If that changes, this page is wrong and we would like to be told.

Questions

What is the best Granola alternative?

For unlimited history without moving to a bot, Granola Business itself at $14 a seat. For a free tier, Fathom or Fireflies. For conversations that happen away from a computer, a recording device rather than any app — that is a different category, not a cheaper one.

Is Granola free?

Basic is $0 per user per month and limits how far back your history goes. Business is $14 per user per month and removes that limit; Enterprise is $35. Figures from Granola’s own pricing page, checked 14 September 2026.

Does Granola work for in-person meetings?

Through its mobile app, yes — you are holding a phone. Scriben captures from a pen already on the table, which is the difference this page is about rather than a claim that Granola cannot do it at all.

Granola vs Otter: what is the difference?

Otter joins your call as a participant and transcribes it. Granola listens to your computer’s own audio, never appears in the participant list, and is built around you typing shorthand that it fills in around. Different enough that the choice is usually about the bot, not the transcript.

Do I need Granola and a pen?

If your week is a mix of calls at a desk and conversations away from one, running both is the honest answer. We have a full side-by-side that says the same thing with the numbers.

We make a pen, not a notepad app, so for laptop-based calls Granola does something we do not attempt. Prices are from each vendor’s own page with the date we checked. Scriben is recording people know about. You say what the pen is and what it does, they agree, and then it stays out of the way for the rest of the conversation — that second half is the product, and it only works after the first. Recording law varies by jurisdiction and by profession: see recording people lawfully before you start.