Granola vs Otter.ai

Quick answer: bot in the call, or nothing in the call?

If you don't want a visible notetaker, Granola is the one that never joins as a participant. It transcribes what your computer hears, so it works with any meeting app and with in-person meetings through its phone apps. The trade-off is that someone has to open the note for each meeting, and there's no recording to rewatch afterwards.

Otter is built around the notetaker. Connect a calendar and it joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls on its own, transcribes live with speaker names and keeps the audio. That suits people who want everything captured without remembering to press a button. We checked both pricing pages on 13 November 2026 and the list prices hadn't changed since our last checks; we haven't tested either tool hands-on.

Who should pick which

Example situations, not customer stories

A consultant running client workshops where a bot would feel intrusive, or who takes a lot of in-person meetings, fits Granola. Typing a few rough notes during the meeting and letting Granola expand them is a different habit from reading a full transcript, and some people prefer it.

A recruiter or researcher who records long interviews and wants the audio kept fits Otter, as long as the calls stay within the plan's limits. Pro caps meetings at 90 minutes; a training company running two-hour sessions would need Otter Business, which allows four hours per meeting. Teams working mainly in Czech, Slovak or another language outside Otter's six should look at Granola's longer language list, and test a real call either way.

Pricing differences that change the bill

On annual billing Otter Pro is the cheapest paid seat here at $8.33 a user a month. On monthly billing it's $16.99, more than Granola Business at $14. Granola's help center says Business is billed monthly only, so there's no annual discount to factor in. Otter Pro is aimed at individuals and teams of up to five, and Business covers up to 25 billed users before Enterprise.

The caps matter more than the headline price. Otter Pro gives 1,200 minutes a month and 90 minutes per meeting; someone in back-to-back calls can use that up. Granola's plans list no minute caps. On the free tier, Otter's 300 minutes a month is a usage limit, while Granola's is a history limit: you can take unlimited notes, but only the last 30 days stay visible.

Privacy, consent and training

Both store data with AWS in the United States and neither offers EU residency on the pages we read. Otter says it de-identifies recordings and transcripts before training its own models, and that its AI providers don't train on customer data. Granola bars OpenAI and Anthropic from training on your data but may use anonymised data for its own models on Basic and Business unless each user opts out; Enterprise turns that off by default.

Consent works in opposite directions. Otter's bot is visible, which itself tells attendees something is recording. Granola leaves no trace in the call, so getting consent is entirely up to you. For EU clients, ask either vendor for a DPA before recording.

Switching between them

Neither publishes an importer from the other on the pages we checked. Moving from Otter to Granola means downloading the recordings and transcripts you need first, because Granola won't hold audio. Going from Granola to Otter, copy important notes into your CRM or wiki before you drop Business, since Basic hides notes older than 30 days.

Trial them on different meetings rather than the same call. Two note-takers in one meeting confuses people and doubles the consent conversation.