Granola vs Otter.ai

Granola

macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch

Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.

EvidenceGranola iOSGranola Android launchGranola Apple Watch launchGranola transcription

Otter.ai

Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Broad app coverage makes Otter easy to use in virtual or room conversations. The desktop app now supports configurable automatic recording for detected calls. Feature parity and allowances differ between in-app and imported usage.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter desktop automatic recording

Granola

Phone, Apple Watch, and laptop room capture

The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.

EvidenceGranola iOSGranola Android launchGranola Apple Watch launchGranola transcription

Otter.ai

Strong mobile live transcription

iOS and Android are mature room-recording tools with live text. Otter separates voices after processing and can learn previously tagged speakers, but new or uncertain voices remain Speaker 1 or Unknown until tagged. Live platform-name labels are a separate Notetaker behavior, strongest on Zoom.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter speaker identification

Granola

No retained audio or video

Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.

EvidenceGranola transcription

Otter.ai

Audio playback broadly; video replay on Enterprise

Audio is synchronized to text on ordinary plans. Video replay requires Enterprise and currently applies to supported Zoom and Google Meet recordings rather than every capture path.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter conversation export

Granola

Concise attendee notes, extracted actions, and cross-meeting chat

Human notes influence the generated document, and paid plans support broad chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Our editorial judgment is that the output is polished but thin and assumes the reader attended, rather than documenting enough context to stand alone. Granola can extract owner- and deadline-aware action-item text with transcript citations, but it does not create and assign native tasks to users. Those actions remain note content rather than a workspace task system, and there is still no source recording for playback.

EvidenceGranola transcriptionGranola spaces and foldersGranola action-item extraction

Otter.ai

Live transcript, search, and automatically assigned action items

Otter’s transcript experience is mature. It automatically detects and assigns action items, links generated work back to transcript evidence, and gives each user a cross-meeting list with edit, reassign, and completion controls. That list only shows work assigned to the signed-in person, rather than a workspace-wide manager view. Allowances and advanced custom workflows vary by plan.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter action itemsOtter automatic action-item assignment

Granola

People and company pages built from calendar contacts

Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.

EvidenceGranola workspacesGranola spaces and folders

Otter.ai

Cross-meeting search and chat

Otter can answer across conversations, but does not emphasize full relationship pages combining meetings, email, calendar, people, companies, and future events.

EvidenceOtter pricing

Granola

Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder

Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.

EvidenceGranola workspacesGranola spaces and foldersGranola sharing controlsGranola note sharing

Otter.ai

User auto-share and Enterprise workspace defaults

Individuals can auto-share by calendar audience and use channels. Enterprise admins can choose the options members see and set a default, but ordinary audience defaults are not fully locked; admins can only force privacy by leaving “Don’t share” as the sole option. External auto-share channels are also Enterprise-only.

EvidenceOtter automatic sharingOtter workspace auto-share controls

Granola

Folder and manual Zapier triggers; less of a native workflow canvas

Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.

EvidenceGranola integrationsGranola spaces and foldersGranola Zapier

Otter.ai

Meeting agents and custom workflows, with plan differences

Otter automatically detects and assigns action items, tracks each person’s work across meetings, can create Jira issues with assignees and due dates, and uses custom workflows, Zapier, and AI Chat actions for role-specific output and downstream work. The personal action view does not give a manager one board for every assignee, and connector or workflow eligibility varies by plan.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter action itemsOtter automatic action-item assignmentOtter Jira integrationOtter AI Chat connectors

Granola

Notion, Slack, Attio, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier, API, and MCP

The catalog is now credible, particularly on Business. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps, while the native catalog remains smaller and more destination-oriented than systems with broad action libraries.

EvidenceGranola integrationsGranola Zapier

Otter.ai

Meeting platforms, CRM, Zapier, Slack, Jira, work-app connectors, and Enterprise exports

Paid plans connect Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier. AI Chat’s Advanced mode can read and act in Gmail, Google Drive, Notion, and Jira, with Salesforce context available separately. Slack can post summaries and action notifications, while Enterprise supports account-manager-enabled SharePoint and automatic Drive exports. Availability and setup vary substantially by plan.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter AI Chat connectorsOtter Jira integrationOtter Slack integrationOtter SharePoint export

Granola

MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits

Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP also has a transcript tool, but uses OAuth, has no service-account key, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.

EvidenceGranola MCPGranola APIGranola data export

Otter.ai

MCP broadly; API and webhooks on Enterprise

MCP is listed even on Basic and can access meetings captured by or shared with the authenticated user. It currently has no public API-key setup for arbitrary AI applications. The public API and webhooks require Enterprise and account-manager enablement.

EvidenceOtter MCP serverOtter public API

Granola

User management on Business; retention and organization controls on Enterprise

SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.

EvidenceGranola pricingGranola subscriptions and billingGranola security and data FAQ

Otter.ai

Business administration; advanced security on Enterprise

Business adds centralized features and bulk export. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, API access, video replay, granular retention, no-training by default, and HIPAA options. Several advanced controls—including retention and automatic Drive export—require account-manager setup.

EvidenceOtter pricingOtter workspace auto-share controlsOtter privacy and model trainingOtter Enterprise controlsOtter retention policyOtter conversation export

Granola

Multilingual transcription

Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.

EvidenceGranola transcription

Otter.ai

Six transcription languages, two still in beta

Otter transcribes English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and spoken Mandarin with Simplified Chinese output. German and Chinese are beta. It normally handles one language per conversation; French can auto-switch with English, and other mixed-language pairs are not supported.

EvidenceOtter supported languages