# Granola Alternatives 2027: 11 Paid, Free & Open-Source

Source: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/granola-ai/
Prices checked: 2026-11-13 (Zekai Price Ledger)

The best Granola alternatives in 2027 are Otter.ai (best overall, $8.33/user/mo billed yearly), Fathom (best free plan: Unlimited recordings, free forever) and Meetily (best open source, MIT). Granola itself starts at $14/user/mo. Zekai checked these prices on vendor pages on 13 Nov 2026; 8 more are compared below, including 5 with a free plan and 2 open source.

| Tool | Type | Starting price | Free plan limit | Licence | Best for | Price checked | Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granola (the tool being replaced) | — | $14/user/mo | 30 days of note history, Slack integration only, Auto chat model | — | — | 2026-11-13 | [pricing](https://www.granola.ai/pricing) |
| Otter.ai | Free plan + paid | $8.33/user/mo billed yearly | 300 transcription minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation | — | Live transcripts for individuals and teams | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://otter.ai/) [pricing](https://otter.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/otter-ai/) |
| Fireflies.ai | Free plan + paid | $10/user/mo billed yearly | Unlimited transcription, 400 minutes storage per team, 20 AI credits | — | Meeting bot across many calling apps | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://fireflies.ai/) [pricing](https://fireflies.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fireflies/) |
| Fathom | Free plan + paid | $16/user/mo billed yearly | Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries | — | Free unlimited call recording and summaries | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://fathom.ai/) [pricing](https://www.fathom.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/fathom/) |
| Read AI | Free plan + paid | $15/user/mo billed yearly | 5 meeting transcripts a month, 1-hour meetings | — | Meeting reports with coaching and search | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://www.read.ai/) [pricing](https://www.read.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/read-ai/) |
| Krisp | Paid | $8/user/mo billed yearly | No free plan | — | Meeting notes plus noise cancellation | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://krisp.ai/) [pricing](https://krisp.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/krisp/) |
| MeetGeek | Free plan + paid | $9.99/user/mo billed yearly | 3 hours of transcription a month, 3 months transcript storage | — | Meeting analytics with bot or bot-free capture | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://meetgeek.ai/) [pricing](https://meetgeek.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/meetgeek/) |
| Tactiq | Free plan + paid | $8/user/mo billed yearly | 10 transcripts a month, 5 AI credits a month | — | Browser transcripts for Meet, Zoom, Teams | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://tactiq.io/) [pricing](https://tactiq.io/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/tactiq/) |
| Jamie | Free plan + paid | $24/mo | 10 AI notes a month, 30-minute meetings | — | Notes for in-person and online meetings | 2026-11-13 | [site](https://www.meetjamie.ai/) [pricing](https://www.meetjamie.ai/pricing) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/ai-tools/jamie/) |
| Meetily | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Local Whisper transcription with Ollama summaries |  | [code](https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/meetily/) |
| Muesli | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | MIT | Bot-free local notes on Apple Silicon Macs |  | [code](https://github.com/Muesli-HQ/muesli) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/muesli/) |
| Vexa | Open source | Free (self-hosted) | No limit (self-hosted) | Apache-2.0 | Self-hosted meeting bots with transcript API |  | [code](https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa) [Zekai page](https://zekaiwork.com/free-open-source/vexa/) |

## How each alternative compares with Granola

- **Otter.ai** (Free plan + paid, $8.33/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Otter Pro lists 1,200 transcription minutes a month and 90-minute meetings, and its assistant joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet; Granola lists no daily transcription limit and captures device audio instead. Switch if you want live captions inside Zoom or Meet and a lower yearly seat price than $14 monthly. Stay with Granola if you want device-audio capture with no bot joining client calls and no per-conversation time cap.
- **Fireflies.ai** (Free plan + paid, $10/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Fireflies Pro includes 8,000 minutes of storage per seat and video recording, and its Free plan lists API access and a Chrome extension, which Granola holds back from Basic. Switch if you want video recording, a Chrome extension and API access without moving to a Business-tier seat. Stay with Granola if you would rather capture audio on your own Mac than add a bot to every client call.
- **Fathom** (Free plan + paid, $16/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Fathom's free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, with a bot-free capture mode in beta for Mac; Granola's free Basic plan limits note history to the last 30 days. Switch if you want recordings and summaries kept without a 30-day history window on a free plan. Stay with Granola if you like Granola's notepad that merges your typed notes with the transcript, plus voice typing in any app.
- **Read AI** (Free plan + paid, $15/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Read AI's Free plan allows 5 meeting transcripts a month and 1-hour meetings, while its Pro plan adds a 4-hour limit, unlimited transcripts and Notion, Salesforce, HubSpot and Jira integrations. Switch if you want email and messaging summaries plus enterprise search alongside meetings, and accept 5 free transcripts monthly. Stay with Granola if you would rather pay $14 monthly for unlimited notes than $19.75 monthly for Read AI Pro.
- **Krisp** (Paid, $8/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Krisp Core lists unlimited noise cancellation, an AI note-taker, 10 GB storage and one hour a day of accent conversion, none of which appear in Granola's plan table. Switch if you also want noise cancellation and accent conversion on calls and the lowest yearly seat price here. Stay with Granola if you want one app focused on notes and chat, without audio-processing features you will not use.
- **MeetGeek** (Free plan + paid, $9.99/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): MeetGeek Pro lists 20 hours of transcription a month and one year of transcript storage, with extra hours at $0.50, and offers both bot and bot-free recording plus Zapier, Make and n8n. Switch if you want metered hours with cheap overages, Make and n8n automations, and a choice of bot or bot-free capture. Stay with Granola if you want unlimited transcription history on one flat plan, with no hours to meter.
- **Tactiq** (Free plan + paid, $8/user/mo billed yearly, checked 2026-11-13): Tactiq works as a Chrome extension for Google Meet, Zoom and Teams; Pro gives unlimited transcripts with 10 AI credits a month, against Granola's desktop, iOS, Android and Apple Watch apps. Switch if your calls run in a browser and you want unlimited transcripts for $12 monthly or $8 billed yearly. Stay with Granola if you take calls in desktop or phone apps and need iOS, Android and Apple Watch capture.
- **Jamie** (Free plan + paid, $24/mo, checked 2026-11-13): Jamie lists in-person meeting support, notes in 99+ languages and a 5-hour meeting limit on Pro; its Free plan caps AI notes at 10 a month and meetings at 30 minutes. Switch if you record in-person meetings in many languages and can work within 10 free AI notes a month. Stay with Granola if you want unlimited notes on a single $14 plan rather than a $24 and $46 plan ladder.
- **Meetily** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Meetily is MIT-licensed and transcribes locally with Whisper or Parakeet, using Ollama or a cloud LLM for summaries; Granola is closed-source and routes AI through third-party model providers. Switch if you want local transcription, a free licence and your own choice of Ollama or a cloud summary model. Stay with Granola if you want a supported product with shared folders, integrations and a SOC 2 Type II report.
- **Muesli** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Muesli runs only on Apple Silicon Macs (macOS 14.2 or later) and downloads on-device speech models of about 153 MB to 3.8 GB; Granola also ships Windows, iOS and Android apps. Switch if you use an Apple Silicon Mac and want a free, MIT-licensed, bot-free recorder with on-device models. Stay with Granola if you need Windows, iPhone or Android capture, or team folders and integrations.
- **Vexa** (Open source, Free (self-hosted)): Vexa is Apache-2.0 and bot-based: a bot joins Google Meet, Teams or Zoom and streams transcripts through an API you host, whereas Granola captures device audio with no bot. Switch if you want to run your own meeting-bot API for Meet, Teams and Zoom and build notes into your product. Stay with Granola if you want an installed notepad app, not infrastructure to deploy and maintain.

## Open-source options in detail

- **Meetily** (https://github.com/Zackriya-Solutions/meetily): Licence: MIT; Last release: 2026-09-12
- **Muesli** (https://github.com/Muesli-HQ/muesli): Licence: MIT; Last release: 2026-11-08
- **Vexa** (https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa): Licence: Apache-2.0; Last release: 2026-10-09

## Questions

### What is the best alternative to Granola in 2027?
Otter.ai is the best overall Granola alternative on this page ($8.33/user/mo billed yearly). For no cost, Fathom has a free plan (Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, instant AI summaries). To self-host, Meetily is open source (MIT).

### Is there a free version of Granola?
Yes. Granola has a free plan: 30 days of note history, Slack integration only, Auto chat model. Paid plans start at $14/user/mo, checked on 13 Nov 2026.

### Is there a 100% free alternative to Granola?
Yes. Meetily, Muesli, Vexa are open source and free to self-host. Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Read AI, MeetGeek, Tactiq, Jamie have a free plan with limits, shown in the table.

### What is cheaper than Granola?
Tactiq starts at $8/user/mo billed yearly, against $14/user/mo for Granola, as listed on each vendor's pricing page on 13 Nov 2026.

### How much do Granola alternatives cost for a team of 5?
If each of 5 people buys the entry paid plan, at the prices Zekai checked on 13 Nov 2026, the monthly cost is Krisp $40/mo, Tactiq $40/mo, Otter.ai $41.65/mo, against Granola $70/mo for Granola. Team and business plans can cost more per seat. The Zekai Cost Finder on this page recalculates for any team size.

### Which is better, Otter.ai or Granola?
Otter Pro lists 1,200 transcription minutes a month and 90-minute meetings, and its assistant joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet; Granola lists no daily transcription limit and captures device audio instead. Choose Otter.ai if you want live captions inside Zoom or Meet and a lower yearly seat price than $14 monthly. Stay with Granola if you want device-audio capture with no bot joining client calls and no per-conversation time cap.

### Why are people leaving Granola?
The documented reasons are: Granola's free Basic plan shows only a rolling 30-day window of notes; older notes are stored but stay hidden until you upgrade, and Basic excludes Notion, Zapier and HubSpot integrations (20 Mar 2026); Business is billed monthly only at $14 per user; the Granola help centre says annual billing is available only on Enterprise contracts, which start at $35 per user (13 Nov 2026). Each is sourced in the section above.

### What is the best Granola alternative?
It depends on the need: Fathom for a free unlimited-recording plan, Otter.ai for live transcripts, and Meetily or Muesli for free local open-source notes.

## Related on Zekai

- [Otter.ai alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/otter-ai/)
- [Fathom alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/fathom/)
- [Read AI alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/read-ai/)
- [Krisp alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/krisp/)
- [Fireflies.ai alternatives](https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/fireflies-ai/)
- [AI for Writing, Translation & Localization](https://zekaiwork.com/professions/ai-writing-translation-localization-tools/)

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Live table, team cost finder and price alerts: https://zekaiwork.com/alternatives/granola-ai/