Granola meeting notes with no bot in the room

The other side of an external call goes quiet the moment a recorder bot joins. You still want something you can act on when you hang up.

Granola stays off the participant list. It listens through the laptop microphone and the system audio, then expands the shorthand you typed once you stop the note. The homepage puts the mechanism in one line: the app "uses your computer audio, so doesn't invite a bot." You open a note. You jot what you would have jotted anyway. The enhanced version is what you leave with.

Chris Pedregal and Sam Stephenson write, in Why Granola doesn't use a bot, that they "built Granola as an app that uses your computer's system audio and microphone." The same post says audio is processed so it can be transcribed, and that Granola does not record or retain it. They wanted a notepad, not a recorder. A wall of everything said is the raw material. Your bullets are the page you keep.

Allow the mic and system audio

Five minutes, if the installers behave. Granola's setup guide covers the desktop app on macOS and Windows. The transcription page adds the limit that matters before you waste a call. The web app at notes.granola.ai can open notes you already have. It cannot capture a meeting. Transcription needs the desktop app, or the iPhone app.

The guide's install path is short.

1. Download from granola.ai. The setup guide states a minimum of macOS 14. On Windows, open Granola.exe from Downloads and let the installer run. A warning that the app came from the internet is expected. The guide says to click Open.
2. Sign in with Google or Microsoft. On-premises Exchange is not supported. Cloud Microsoft 365 and Google calendars are. Use the account whose calendar actually holds the meetings. When the permission screen appears, select all. Granola asks to view events and the basic metadata on them.
3. On a Mac, allow the microphone prompt and the system-audio prompt. If you need the switches later, the setup guide points at System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Microphone, and the matching control for Screen & System Audio Recording.
4. On Windows, the setup guide says audio permissions are granted automatically. Keep the troubleshooting page anyway. If the live transcript stays empty, it tells you to open Settings, then Privacy & security, then Microphone, and to turn on "Let desktop apps access your microphone." Granola hears the system's default input and output. Those devices have to be the ones the meeting app is using, or the note comes back thin.

First launch includes a two-minute demo from cofounder Sam. The setup guide says it shows once. On a computer that already has the desktop app, grano.la/demo opens it again. granola.ai/demo-meeting is the fallback if that short link fails.

While you are still in Settings, open Preferences, then Transparency. Turn the chat notice on, and turn the watermark on, before this app sits in on a customer call. The walkthrough below is where those switches earn their place. Leaving them off is how a bot-free notepad gets used as a hidden recorder. Granola's own post treats that as a problem you have to solve, not as a feature.

Open the note, then jot

A calendar connection does not start transcription by itself. The transcription page says it in one sentence: "Granola does not automatically transcribe meetings without you having clicked into a note." Open the note attached to that meeting. If the conversation was never scheduled, use New Note. The same page says any audio you can hear through the computer qualifies, including a call that never hit the calendar.

Platform coverage follows from device audio, not from a meeting-platform API. The homepage groups Zoom, Meet, Teams, Huddles, and in-person in one list, and it names the iPhone and Android apps for a walking meeting when the laptop is not the thing in the room. If you can hear it on the device that is running Granola, the note can take it. If you cannot, it cannot.

Check that capture is live before the first sentence you care about. Then type the way you already type. One line for the decision. Another for the owner and the date. The homepage's instruction for the middle of the meeting is the spec: "Write down as much or as little as you like." A blank note can still produce a summary. The lines you bother to type are how the result stays yours, instead of a transcript dumped into headings you did not choose.

Keep the lines as short as the ones you already write. A decision on its own line. An owner and a date on the next. After you stop the note, Granola's pitch is that the enhanced version keeps those points and hangs transcript context on them. If a line was never said, delete it before the note leaves your laptop. The security FAQ puts consent on you, not on the app.

Stop the note when the conversation stops, on any Mac that cannot detect the ending itself. The transcription page says auto-end detection on macOS requires admin rights. Company laptops often lack them. You click stop. Back-to-back calls are the easy place to leak the next meeting into the previous note, so look at the indicator when the second one starts.

What comes back is the enhanced note. The homepage says that note, follow-ups included, is ready when the meeting ends. Read the page before it travels. Zack Proser, in a review dated August 2, 2026, discloses a Granola affiliate link and describes the check he runs on names and on numbers before anything is sent. Treat that check as the minimum. Add context that was visible in the room and never spoken. Cut confident wording the call did not support.

Audio is not what you file. The security FAQ says Granola captures microphone and system audio on the device. No extra attendee appears. Audio is deleted after transcription. The network allowlist names the other half of the pipeline. Transcription traffic is listed against Deepgram and AssemblyAI endpoints. The listening app is local. The transcript is produced by those providers. Proser describes the same split. "On device" is the wrong summary of the whole path.

An empty transcript is usually one of three boring causes, and the troubleshooting page spells them out. The default mic or speaker does not match the meeting app. Microphone or system-audio permission is off. Or the network is filtering the transcription hosts, which is why the same laptop can work at home and go silent on a corporate VPN. The allowlist is the page to forward to IT. It is not a reason to invite a bot instead, unless the room has already agreed to one.

Tell them Granola is transcribing

Bot-free does not mean invisible. Granola's founders say so in the why-no-bot post, and the product is built around that admission.

"Running locally comes with one trade-off: unlike a meeting bot, Granola isn't automatically visible to other participants."

Pedregal and Stephenson write that users need another way to let people know. The same post says the law where you live may require permission before you transcribe someone. It also says that every time you start a note, Granola reminds you to ask. Use the reminder. Do not click past it on an external call and call the result private.

The guide for individuals applies on the free plan and on Business. It puts two controls under Settings, then Preferences, then Transparency.

• Automated chat message. Google Meet needs the Granola browser extension. Zoom and Microsoft Teams need the chat notice switched on. macOS also asks for Accessibility permission before that notice can post.
• Granola Watermark. Turn it on and install the virtual camera. Then select that camera inside the meeting app. A badge stays on your video for as long as transcription is running.

A watermark does nothing across a table. A chat message does nothing when there is no chat. The why-no-bot post's instruction for in-person conversations is still the plain one: tell people you are using Granola. On the external calls this guide is about, say you are taking notes with an AI notepad, then get on with the meeting. The watermark and the chat line are there so you do not have to remember a speech. They are not a substitute for the sentence when the room is not a video grid.

Send Otter or Fireflies when you want a guest

Stay with Granola when you are in the room and a named bot would change how people talk. Move when the job is a record someone else can open later, or a notetaker that attends without you.

Fireflies still leads with a guest. The Fireflies homepage tells you to "Invite fred@fireflies.ai to a live meeting or have it autojoin your calendar meetings." People on the call can see that participant. The directory comparison is Granola vs Fireflies. Fireflies is the better fit when the transcript has to land where the sales team already works, and the room already expects a notetaker.

Otter is both things on its current homepage. That page says you can "Send it to meetings, or record them from your device," and it advertises a desktop app for bot-free meetings on Mac or Windows. The same page says you can schedule the AI Meeting Agent to join Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Bot-free desktop capture is one Otter mode. Auto-join is another. Granola vs Otter is the directory side-by-side. Our Otter page is the longer note. This post is only the fork.

Otter fits a call you will miss. It also fits a team that wants recordings gathered in one shared place, with live words on screen. The Granola path returns the note you started, from a meeting you attended yourself. If you need the original audio later, Granola is the wrong archive. The security FAQ says the audio is deleted after transcription. Otter's homepage offers import of audio and video files on the paid workspace. Importing a file is a different product job.

	Granola	Otter	Fireflies
Who shows up on the call	No extra participant. Mic and system audio on your device, per the homepage and the security FAQ.	Optional. Desktop or Chrome without a bot, or the Meeting Agent joins, per otter.ai.	fred@fireflies.ai, or calendar autojoin, per fireflies.ai.
What you are meant to keep	The shorthand you typed, enhanced after you stop the note.	A transcript and summary of the conversation. Otter's page is built around searchable meetings.	A transcript and summary produced by the bot that joined.
Must you be there	Yes for laptop capture. The phone apps cover in-person when you are holding the phone.	No, if you send the Meeting Agent.	No, if Fred joins without you.
Audio afterward	Deleted after transcription, per Granola's security FAQ.	Paid workspaces can import audio and video files, per the Otter homepage.	The homepage we checked describes the bot recording the meeting. It does not promise a Granola-style delete.

Prices for Otter and Fireflies are left off this table on purpose. Our directory pages for both were last edited in April 2026, and this guide did not re-verify their invoices. Behavior is the fork. Dollars belong on their sites the day you look.

Check the Granola page before you pay

The directory page still prints the May 1, 2026 line. The free tier on that page is capped at 25 meetings, and Pro is listed at $10 a month. Business on the same line is $25 per user. The page flags those figures as not re-verified. The entry was last edited that day. Do not pay from it.

The live pages checked for this guide do not match that line. The pricing page lists Basic at $0 per user per month and Business at $14 per user per month. Its comparison table sets Basic meeting history at 30 days and Business history to unlimited. The homepage says you may take as many notes as you like, and that an upgrade is what lets you view notes older than 30 days. There is no Pro plan on that page. The old 25-meeting cap is not on it either.

The Help Center billing page agrees on those two prices. It also says Basic has no daily transcription cap, and that notes older than 30 days stay stored but stay hidden in the app until you upgrade. A CSV of titles and summaries can be generated from Settings, then Profile, then Generate CSV, and the billing page says it arrives by email within a few hours. That export is the free-plan way to see past the 30-day window without pretending the window is gone.

Read the feature split before you assume the homepage's full pitch is free. The pricing comparison table marks pre-meeting briefs as a Business and Enterprise item, and leaves them off Basic. Follow-up emails get the same mark. Shared folders and customized templates are marked on Basic. Recipes and Slack are on that plan too. Integrations beyond Slack, Notion among them, are marked Business and up on the billing page. Speaker tagging is listed on every plan. The pricing table also marks SOC 2 Type II on every plan. HIPAA-compliant workspaces are marked Enterprise only. None of that is legal advice. It is the vendor's own grid, and it is newer than our May line.

Enterprise is where the two official pages part company. The pricing page shows an Enterprise card at $35 per user per month. The Help Center writes Enterprise as "from $35/user/month." A flat $35 and a floor of $35 are different claims. This guide does not pick one. Read both pages before anyone buys seats. Annual billing, the Help Center says, is an Enterprise conversation with sales@granola.so. Basic and Business are billed monthly.

Phone capture is called out on its own. The billing page says the phone apps are free to use, Apple Watch included, and that a paid subscription is not required to take notes there. Desktop history rules still apply to the workspace those notes sync into. A free phone app does not unlock unlimited history.

Open /tools/granola for the directory note. On the next external call, turn the chat notice on and type a few lines of your own before you trust the enhanced note.