Granola
The best bot-free notetaker is now a context layer — MCP on every plan is the move that matters. Budget for the 25-note free cap and Enterprise-gated privacy controls.
Element scores
Strengths
Bot-free capture (system audio, no participant joins) across Zoom/Meet/Teams/WebEx/Slack Huddles, hybrid notes that expand what you type, and chat grounded in your entire meeting corpus. The 2026 pivot is real: MCP server on every plan (02/2026), personal + enterprise APIs, Spaces with granular access (03/2026), Windows and iOS apps, and a $125M Series C at $1.5B led by Index Ventures. Enterprise roster includes Vanta, Gusto, Asana, Cursor and Mistral AI.
Honest dings
Speaker attribution degrades at 3+ participants. The free tier was re-capped at ~25 notes total in the 02/2026 restructure. Team-wide AI-training opt-out is Enterprise-only. The 02/2026 local-database lockdown broke on-device agent workflows and drew public criticism before a promised fix. No web app, no in-call assistance, and no disclosed user numbers behind the $1.5B valuation.
Sources
Every audit lists the research it rests on — transparency and traceability are the product. Tools evolve: each audit is a snapshot of its audit date, and re-audits supersede older versions (kept below for reference).
- granola.ai/pricing — Official tiers: Basic free, Business $14/user, Enterprise $35/user; per-tier feature matrix incl. MCP, API access, training opt-out (accessed 2026-07-20)
- granola.ai/blog/series-c — Official 25/03/2026: $125M Series C at $1.5B (Index, Kleiner Perkins), Spaces, personal + enterprise APIs, SSO/SCIM/consent/transcript-deletion controls (accessed 2026-07-20)
- granola.ai/blog/granola-mcp — Official MCP launch 04/02/2026: Claude/ChatGPT/Cursor connections, mcp.granola.ai/mcp endpoint, enterprise early-access off-by-default (accessed 2026-07-20)
- granola.ai/blog/granola-integrations-complete-guide… — Official plan matrix for native integrations (Slack, Notion, HubSpot, Affinity, Attio), Zapier 8,000+ apps, MCP on all plans (Basic: 30-day window, no transcripts), API Enterprise-only (accessed 2026-07-20)
- techcrunch.com/2026/03/25/granola-raises-125m-hits-… — Independent: valuation jump $250M→$1.5B in ~10 months, $192M total raised, local-database lockdown criticism from users incl. an a16z partner (accessed 2026-07-20)
- thenextweb.com/news/granola-series-c-meeting-ai-ent… — Independent: London HQ, founded 2023 by Chris Pedregal and Sam Stephenson, no disclosed revenue/user/retention metrics, competitive framing vs Copilot/Gemini (accessed 2026-07-20)
- itsconvo.com/blog/granola-ai-review — Independent review: weak speaker ID at 3+ participants, 25-note Basic cap added 02/2026, training opt-out gating, prosumer→enterprise strategy shift (accessed 2026-07-20)
- tldv.io/blog/granola-review — Independent hands-on: enterprise client list, Spaces, Windows support, org-wide consent-messaging pilot (04/2026), unlimited free recordings caveat (accessed 2026-07-20)
- get-alfred.ai/blog/granola-pricing — Independent: 2026 pricing restructure (Pro $18 and Individual plans retired), full tier comparison table (accessed 2026-07-20)