Granola made bot-free meeting notes popular: you open a notepad, jot a few lines during the call, and afterwards the AI turns your notes and the transcript into a clean write-up. It’s a well-designed product. If you like that approach but want the transcription to happen on your own machine, or you’d rather buy software once, TranscribeX is worth a look. Here is how the two compare, including the areas where Granola is ahead.
The short version
- Both skip the bot. Each records the meeting from your computer, so no extra participant shows up in Zoom, Teams or Meet.
- Where the audio goes. Granola sends audio to cloud speech providers and summarizes with OpenAI or Anthropic models. TranscribeX transcribes on your Mac and can summarize with a model that runs inside the app.
- The recording. Granola deletes meeting audio after transcription. TranscribeX keeps the audio, and optionally the video, as files you own.
- Price. Granola Business is $14 a month. TranscribeX Pro is $39 once.
- Granola is stronger for teams: shared folders, CRM integrations, mobile apps and Windows.
TranscribeX vs Granola at a glance
| TranscribeX | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| Bot joins the call | ✓No bot, records Mac audio | ✓No bot, device-audio capture |
| Where audio is transcribed | On your Mac, works offline | Cloud providers such as Deepgram and AssemblyAI |
| Where summaries are written | Built-in local model, or a provider you choose (ChatGPT, Gemini, Ollama and others) | OpenAI and Anthropic models in the cloud |
| Meeting audio kept | Yes, as local audio or video files | No, deleted after transcription |
| Notes stored | Local files on your Mac | Granola’s servers (AWS, US) |
| Free plan | Unlimited transcription of files and mic recordings, dictation (no meeting automation) | AI meeting notes with 30 days of history |
| Price model | $39 once for Pro | Business $14/user/month; Enterprise $35/user/month |
| Speech models | Whisper, Parakeet, Qwen3 ASR, Nemotron, Apple on-device | Chosen by Granola |
| Team features | ✗Single user, share by export or email | ✓Shared folders, team spaces, HubSpot, Attio, Affinity, Notion, Zapier, API |
| Platforms | Mac only | macOS, Windows, iPhone, Android |
Granola details from granola.ai/pricing and granola.ai/security, checked October 2026. Tell us at support@transcribex.io if anything has changed.
Granola review: what it gets right
Granola’s best idea is the notepad. You write what matters to you while the call runs, and the AI expands it using the transcript, so the summary reflects your priorities. It works with any meeting platform because it listens to your device, and its mobile app covers in-person meetings and phone calls. On the security side, Granola states that third parties may not train on your data and that it holds a SOC 2 Type 2 report.
What you give up is control over where the processing happens. Audio goes to cloud speech providers, summaries come from OpenAI or Anthropic, and the notes live in Granola’s cloud. Granola also deletes the meeting audio after transcribing it, so there is no recording to replay or re-transcribe later.
The same bot-free idea, transcribed locally
TranscribeX also records from your Mac rather than sending a participant into the call. The difference is what happens to the audio next. Speech recognition runs on your Mac with the model you pick: Whisper, NVIDIA Parakeet, Qwen3 ASR or Apple’s on-device model. Speaker diarization runs locally too, and Voice Profiles remember people you meet often. The summary can be written by a small language model that runs inside TranscribeX, which needs no API key and no account.
Your own notes still count. During the call, the live transcript window has a notes field and an AI chat panel, and TranscribeX folds your notes into the meeting report with the key points, decisions and action items. Afterwards the recording, transcript and summary are files on your Mac. Pro can export them and email the recap automatically, matched to the calendar event. See the full meeting workflow.
Is Granola free?
Granola’s Basic plan is free and includes AI meeting notes, but meeting history is limited to 30 days and AI chat across meetings uses an automatic model choice. Unlimited history, advanced models and integrations come with Business at $14 a month.
TranscribeX’s free version is a different kind of free. It transcribes files and microphone recordings without limits using Whisper Tiny and Apple’s on-device model, keeps everything forever because it’s stored on your Mac, and includes dictation in any app. It does not include automatic meeting recording or AI summaries; those are Pro. If you want free AI meeting notes and don’t mind the 30-day window, Granola’s free plan is generous. If you want unlimited private transcription, TranscribeX free covers that.
“great little app—get off the cloud ;)”
What Granola costs over time
Granola Business is $14 per user per month, with no yearly price shown on its pricing page. That is $168 a year. TranscribeX Pro is $39 once with free updates.
| Plan | Billing | 1 year | 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| TranscribeX Pro | One-time, free updates | $39 | $39 |
| Granola Business | $14/month | $168 | $504 |
Cheapest paid individual plan at list price (USD unless marked). Prices checked October 2026 on each vendor’s pricing page (Granola). TranscribeX Pro is a one-time purchase with free updates; the free version has no time limit.
Where Granola is the better choice
- Team workspaces. Shared folders and team spaces let colleagues read each other’s notes. TranscribeX is a personal app.
- CRM integrations. Business connects to HubSpot, Attio, Affinity, Notion and Zapier. TranscribeX exports files and has a CLI and MCP server, but no CRM connection.
- Mobile and Windows. Granola runs on Windows, iPhone and Android. TranscribeX is Mac only.
- Search across all meetings. Granola’s AI chat works across your meeting history, which helps when you want to ask what was decided over several weeks of calls.
- Enterprise controls. SSO, SCIM, admin controls and retention policies are on Granola Enterprise.
Choose TranscribeX if…
- You want meeting audio transcribed on your Mac, not in the cloud
- You want to keep the recording itself, including video
- You’d rather pay $39 once than $168 a year
- You want summaries without sending transcripts to an AI company
Choose Granola if…
- Your team shares meeting notes in one place
- You push notes into HubSpot, Attio or Affinity
- You need the same notes on your phone or a Windows PC
- You want AI chat across months of meetings
Granola alternative: FAQ
Is Granola free?
Granola has a free Basic plan with AI meeting notes and 30 days of meeting history. Business costs $14 per user per month (checked October 2026). TranscribeX’s free version transcribes files and mic recordings without limits; meeting automation and summaries need Pro at $39 once.
Does Granola transcribe locally?
No. Granola captures audio on your device, but its security page says transcription is done by cloud providers and summaries by OpenAI or Anthropic models. TranscribeX transcribes on your Mac.
Does Granola keep my meeting recordings?
Granola says it deletes meeting audio after transcription and keeps the notes. TranscribeX saves the audio, and video if you turn it on, as files on your Mac.
Is TranscribeX bot-free like Granola?
Yes. Neither app adds a participant to the call. Because no one is notified automatically, tell participants when you record.