Granola vs Otter.ai

These two answer different questions. Otter.ai asks what was said. Granola asks what you thought was worth writing down, and fills in the rest. If you already take notes in meetings, that difference decides this comparison quickly.

Two ideas of what a note is

Granola is a notepad you type into while the call runs. It records your computer's audio alongside your typing and merges the two afterwards, so the summary reflects what you flagged as important as well as what was said. Nothing joins the meeting; you press start yourself.

Otter.ai produces a transcript first. Live transcription runs as people speak, speaker identification is included at no cost, and you can question the result afterwards. A recorder joins the call to make that happen.

Languages and data handling

Otter.ai transcribes six languages and states there are no others. Granola transcribes ten on desktop and seventeen on mobile, with the enumerated list published. Neither is broad by the standards of this category, but Granola's list covers Dutch, Russian and Hindi, which Otter.ai's does not.

On data, both have real caveats. Granola stores everything on servers in the United States with no regional option and trains on anonymised data until you switch that off in settings, though it deletes the audio once transcription finishes. Otter.ai de-identifies user data and uses it to train its own models, and offers a thirty-day trash bin rather than a configurable retention policy.

Which should you choose?

Choose Granola if you type during meetings, work with people who would notice a recorder joining, or want templates and cross-meeting chat without paying. Choose Otter.ai if you want a live transcript to follow while the call runs, need speaker identification at no cost, and meet in one of its six languages. If neither data-handling position satisfies you, this pairing is the wrong shortlist and the privacy-led entries are a better place to start.