# Granola vs Read AI: pricing, features, and which is better > Granola and Read AI compared across pricing, capture, speaker labels, recordings, notes, sharing, automations, integrations, AI-agent access, and administration. - Canonical HTML: https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-read-ai - Structured JSON: https://circleback.ai/compare/granola-vs-read-ai.json - Comparison directory: https://circleback.ai/compare - Language: en-US - Editorial perspective: Neutral competitor comparison. Circleback appears only as a clearly labeled third option. ## Short answer Granola is deliberately quiet, personal, and document-first. Read AI is more managed and analytical, with live behavioral signals, recordings on Enterprise, and cross-tool search. The useful buying test is to run both products on the same external call, internal planning session, and noisy in-person meeting. Compare the result, the sharing defaults, and the work that still has to happen by hand. ## Granola at a glance Granola is intentionally calm: no meeting bot, no recording library, and a polished collaborative notepad. It now has Windows, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, integrations, an API, and MCP—so the old “Mac-only solo app” framing is wrong—but it remains a personal, document-first layer rather than an automatic company-wide meeting system. **Best for:** People and small teams who actively take lightweight notes during calls and want AI to expand them into polished documents without saving audio or video. **Less ideal for:** Companies that need recordings and clips, automatic capture, consistent named-speaker transcripts across every device, workspace-enforced sharing, bulk transcript export, service-account agent access, or operational automations across every function. **Price:** Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly Granola currently bills monthly rather than offering an annual discount. Basic is free but only the last 30 days of history remain accessible. Business adds unlimited history, advanced AI, integrations, MCP, API, billing, and user management. Enterprise adds SSO, retention, organization sharing/API controls, training defaults, and participant notifications. A workspace uses one tier and every active member of a paid workspace is a paid seat, although someone who only opens a shared note link does not need a seat. **Free option:** Yes, with a rolling 30-day accessible history. ### Granola strengths - A calm bot-free experience that combines human notes with AI-generated structure. - No durable source recording: audio is processed for transcription and then deleted, which some privacy-sensitive teams prefer. - Windows, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, person/company pages, cross-meeting chat, integrations, API, and MCP make it much more capable than early reviews imply. - Granola can extract source-linked action-item text with owner and date labels, and paid users can route note output into task systems through Zapier. ### Granola tradeoffs - No replayable audio/video, timestamped moments, or clips after processing. - Android and Apple Watch now cover in-person capture, but their launch pages do not document the same multi-speaker labeling that Granola explicitly documents for iPhone. iPhone also cannot capture audio from another calling app; integrations and several settings remain desktop-oriented. - Automatic start for all meetings is still under consideration. Transcript segments can now be copied and redacted, which corrects an older product limitation. - Bulk CSV export omits transcripts, and admins cannot export the entire workspace; each person exports only their own notes. - MCP is OAuth-only, has no service-account/API-key path, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Users must move a note to My Notes and share it explicitly, which changes its default visibility. - Free and Business accounts permit anonymized customer data to be used for Granola model improvements by default unless users opt out. An administrator-enforced organization-wide opt-out is an Enterprise feature. - Notes and transcripts are retained indefinitely by default. Configurable transcript retention is Enterprise-only; SSO is also Enterprise-only and documented for organizations with at least 50 seats. - Granola deliberately aims for a concise collaborative document. In our editorial judgment, the result is often too thin for a coworker who was not in the meeting and needs the notes to stand alone. - Granola can extract owner and date text into a note, but it does not automatically create and assign native action items to users. Actions remain note content unless a team builds a Zapier handoff; there is no workspace-wide task board with assignees, status, due dates, and completion tracking. ### Choose Granola when - You want a notepad first and do not want to retain source recordings. - Your users are on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch and are happy to start notes themselves. - The quality and feel of the final note matters more than a large automation and media system. ## Read AI at a glance Read AI goes beyond notes with live engagement, sentiment, speaker metrics, Search Copilot, and access across meetings and other work sources. Its pricing looks approachable until recording playback and governance requirements push a team into Enterprise tiers. **Best for:** Teams that value live engagement/sentiment signals, speaker analytics, coaching, and a search assistant spanning multiple workplace content sources. **Less ideal for:** Teams that want recordings on ordinary plans, dislike behavioral scoring in meetings, need free viewer economics, or want simple transparent governance below Enterprise+. **Price:** Free for 5 meetings/month; Pro from $15/user/month annually Prices are per user/month: Pro is $15 with annual billing or $19.75 month-to-month; Enterprise is $22.50 or $29.75 and adds playback; Enterprise+ is $29.75 or $39.75 and adds advanced retention, domain, SAML, and HIPAA-related options, with a five-license minimum. **Free option:** Yes: five meetings per month. ### Read AI strengths - Distinctive live engagement, sentiment, speaker, and meeting-quality analytics. - Search Copilot reaches beyond meetings into connected email, messaging, and document sources. - Automatic recaps and recurring-meeting pre-reads can carry action items and open questions into email, Slack, or Teams. - Current macOS/Windows desktop plus iOS and Android in-person capture broaden the product beyond a meeting bot. - Its open-beta REST API and MCP expose full speaker-labeled transcripts, summaries, actions, metrics, and recording download URLs for meetings the user can access. ### Read AI tradeoffs - Audio/video playback requires Enterprise or Enterprise+, while lower-tier source media is deleted after the documented grace period. - Advanced retention, SAML, domain controls, and HIPAA support require Enterprise+ and its license minimum. - Engagement and sentiment scoring can be useful for coaching but uncomfortable or noisy for some company cultures. - Workspace licensing does not offer the same free-viewer model as some competitors. - The API and MCP are open beta: OAuth tokens are short-lived, static keys/client credentials are not supported, and several app features and file upload are not exposed. - Read says meeting data is not used for AI training without explicit opt-in, but its Customer Experience Improvement Program is enabled on an opt-out basis for product evaluation. - Simply removing a person from a workspace does not revoke their account access or transfer their reports. Admins must deactivate the account and transfer workspace-owned reports as separate offboarding steps. ### Choose Read AI when - Live engagement and speaker analytics are genuinely useful to your managers or facilitators. - You want AI search across meetings plus connected workplace sources. - You are comfortable with Enterprise pricing for playback and Enterprise+ for stronger governance. ## Feature comparison | What matters | Granola | Read AI | | --- | --- | --- | | Capture options | Available with limits — Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture. Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting. | Broad support — Meeting bot, macOS/Windows desktop, and mobile. The assistant can join scheduled calls, while desktop records device audio without relying solely on a bot. Disclosure and opt-out flows remain part of the participant experience. | | Desktop and mobile | Broad support — 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. | Broad support — Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Desktop captures device audio for online meetings. The iPhone and Android apps record in-person conversations and put their reports beside Zoom, Meet, and Teams meetings; neither mobile app can record another app or phone call using the same microphone. | | In-person capture and speaker labels | Broad support — 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. | Broad support — iOS and Android real-time transcript and summary. Both mobile apps record room conversations with a live transcript and summary. They do not capture phone calls, FaceTime, or a virtual-meeting app on the same device. In shared-room audio, distinct voices may begin as Conference Room — Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and so on; owners and editors can rename or reassign them afterward. | | Recordings, playback, and clips | Not documented — 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. | Narrow or indirect — Playback only on Enterprise and Enterprise+. Pro and free users can receive notes and transcripts, but source media is not a durable playback library. Read documents a 30-day grace period before lower-tier media deletion. | | Notes, action items, and search | Broad support — 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. | Broad support — Summaries, action items, Search Copilot, and coaching analytics. Read’s differentiated layer is live and post-meeting intelligence: engagement, sentiment, speaker stats, action items, and search across connected content. Recommendations can resurface recent work assigned to the user, but Read does not document a full workspace-wide task board with assignee and completion management comparable to dedicated action trackers. | | People, companies, and context | Available with limits — 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. | Broad support — Cross-source Search Copilot. Search can span meetings, email, messages, and documents, which is broader than a transcript library. The experience is a search layer rather than explicit relationship timelines and upcoming-event pages. | | Automatic sharing and workspace defaults | Narrow or indirect — 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. | Broad support — Workspace-wide participant and team report access. Workspace admins can set automatic report access for internal or external participants and give teams role-based access to matching reports, including retroactive access. Owners can send recaps and recurring-meeting pre-reads through email, Slack, or Teams. Participant rules use calendar invitees, including no-shows, and the owner’s settings govern each report, so teams should configure workspace controls deliberately. | | Automations | Narrow or indirect — 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. | Available with limits — Recaps, pre-reads, scheduled updates, and agent actions. Read can send post-meeting recaps, recurring-meeting pre-reads, and scheduled topic updates, while Ask Read actions can draft and send email, create calendar events, and update HubSpot after user approval. It is more opinionated around its own agents and intelligence outputs than a general meeting trigger/condition/action canvas. | | Integrations | Available with limits — 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. | Broad support — Calendar, conferencing, email, messaging, documents, and premium connectors. Search Copilot’s cross-source coverage is a strength, although connector eligibility varies by paid plan. | | API, MCP, CLI, and data portability | Available with limits — 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. | Available with limits — Open-beta REST API and MCP with full meeting reports. Read’s API and remote MCP can return meeting metadata, participants, summaries, chapters, action items, topics, metrics, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and recording-download URLs. They are open beta, use browser OAuth with short-lived rotating tokens, lack service credentials and file upload, and only reach reports the user can access unless an admin enables global report access. | | Security, privacy, and admin | Available with limits — 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. | Broad support — Core admin on Enterprise; advanced governance on Enterprise+. Retention, domain controls, SAML, and HIPAA-related capabilities are concentrated in Enterprise+. That plan currently carries a five-license minimum. | | Languages | Available with limits — 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. | Available with limits — Read’s pricing page says 20+; its detail table says 16+. Read’s current pricing page uses “20+ languages” in the Free plan card but “16+ languages” in the detailed comparison table. The coverage is useful but materially narrower on paper than competitors advertising 75 or 100+; verify the language you need rather than relying on the headline count. | Ratings describe documented breadth rather than overall product quality: - **Broad support:** Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans. - **Available with limits:** Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits. - **Narrow or indirect:** Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support. - **Not documented:** No current first-party documentation for a native option. ## Detailed analysis ### Capture options **Read AI has broader documented support for capture options.** **Granola:** Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture. Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting. Evidence: [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription), [Granola feature requests](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests). **Read AI:** Meeting bot, macOS/Windows desktop, and mobile. The assistant can join scheduled calls, while desktop records device audio without relying solely on a bot. Disclosure and opt-out flows remain part of the participant experience. Evidence: [Read AI desktop app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/45911611006995-How-to-Use-Read-s-Desktop-App-for-Windows-and-Mac). ### Desktop and mobile **Both products document broad support for desktop and mobile, with different scope and plan limits.** **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. Evidence: [Granola iOS](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started), [Granola Android launch](https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android), [Granola Apple Watch launch](https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch), [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription). **Read AI:** Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Desktop captures device audio for online meetings. The iPhone and Android apps record in-person conversations and put their reports beside Zoom, Meet, and Teams meetings; neither mobile app can record another app or phone call using the same microphone. Evidence: [Read AI desktop app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/45911611006995-How-to-Use-Read-s-Desktop-App-for-Windows-and-Mac), [Read AI iPhone app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/34467337929107-Read-AI-App-for-iPhone), [Read AI Android app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863250182291-Read-AI-App-for-Android). ### In-person capture and speaker labels **Both products document broad support for in-person capture and speaker labels, with different scope and plan limits.** **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. Evidence: [Granola iOS](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started), [Granola Android launch](https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android), [Granola Apple Watch launch](https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch), [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription). **Read AI:** iOS and Android real-time transcript and summary. Both mobile apps record room conversations with a live transcript and summary. They do not capture phone calls, FaceTime, or a virtual-meeting app on the same device. In shared-room audio, distinct voices may begin as Conference Room — Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and so on; owners and editors can rename or reassign them afterward. Evidence: [Read AI iPhone app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/34467337929107-Read-AI-App-for-iPhone), [Read AI Android app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863250182291-Read-AI-App-for-Android), [Read AI mobile capture limits](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863422605203-Can-I-use-Read-s-mobile-app-to-record-calls-from-my-phone), [Read AI speaker editing](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/36169538719379-Can-I-edit-text-and-speaker-names-in-my-meeting-report). ### Recordings, playback, and clips **Read AI has broader documented support for recordings, playback, and clips.** **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. Evidence: [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription). **Read AI:** Playback only on Enterprise and Enterprise+. Pro and free users can receive notes and transcripts, but source media is not a durable playback library. Read documents a 30-day grace period before lower-tier media deletion. Evidence: [Read AI recording availability](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/15107171454739-Why-can-t-I-see-recordings-in-my-report-when-I-received-a-recording-notification-in-my-meeting), [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ### Notes, action items, and search **Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.** **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. Evidence: [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription), [Granola spaces and folders](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders), [Granola action-item extraction](https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction). **Read AI:** Summaries, action items, Search Copilot, and coaching analytics. Read’s differentiated layer is live and post-meeting intelligence: engagement, sentiment, speaker stats, action items, and search across connected content. Recommendations can resurface recent work assigned to the user, but Read does not document a full workspace-wide task board with assignee and completion management comparable to dedicated action trackers. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing), [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution). ### People, companies, and context **Read AI has broader documented support for people, companies, and context.** **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. Evidence: [Granola workspaces](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces), [Granola spaces and folders](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders). **Read AI:** Cross-source Search Copilot. Search can span meetings, email, messages, and documents, which is broader than a transcript library. The experience is a search layer rather than explicit relationship timelines and upcoming-event pages. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ### Automatic sharing and workspace defaults **Read AI has broader documented support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults.** **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. Evidence: [Granola workspaces](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces), [Granola spaces and folders](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders), [Granola sharing controls](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls), [Granola note sharing](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes). **Read AI:** Workspace-wide participant and team report access. Workspace admins can set automatic report access for internal or external participants and give teams role-based access to matching reports, including retroactive access. Owners can send recaps and recurring-meeting pre-reads through email, Slack, or Teams. Participant rules use calendar invitees, including no-shows, and the owner’s settings govern each report, so teams should configure workspace controls deliberately. Evidence: [Read AI workspace sharing settings](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/7962819152659-What-are-all-of-the-settings-and-permissions-available-with-Workspaces), [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution). ### Automations **Read AI has broader documented support for automations.** **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. Evidence: [Granola integrations](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola), [Granola spaces and folders](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders), [Granola Zapier](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier). **Read AI:** Recaps, pre-reads, scheduled updates, and agent actions. Read can send post-meeting recaps, recurring-meeting pre-reads, and scheduled topic updates, while Ask Read actions can draft and send email, create calendar events, and update HubSpot after user approval. It is more opinionated around its own agents and intelligence outputs than a general meeting trigger/condition/action canvas. Evidence: [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution), [Read AI actions](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48863788829971-Using-Ask-Read-actions). ### Integrations **Read AI has broader documented support for integrations.** **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. Evidence: [Granola integrations](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola), [Granola Zapier](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier). **Read AI:** Calendar, conferencing, email, messaging, documents, and premium connectors. Search Copilot’s cross-source coverage is a strength, although connector eligibility varies by paid plan. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ### API, MCP, CLI, and data portability **Both products support API, MCP, CLI, and data portability, with different scope and plan limits.** **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. Evidence: [Granola MCP](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp), [Granola API](https://docs.granola.ai/introduction), [Granola data export](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes). **Read AI:** Open-beta REST API and MCP with full meeting reports. Read’s API and remote MCP can return meeting metadata, participants, summaries, chapters, action items, topics, metrics, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and recording-download URLs. They are open beta, use browser OAuth with short-lived rotating tokens, lack service credentials and file upload, and only reach reports the user can access unless an admin enables global report access. Evidence: [Read AI API and MCP overview](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49379985941523-Read-AI-API-and-MCP-Overview), [Read AI MCP tools](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49381158409491-MCP-Server). ### Security, privacy, and admin **Read AI has broader documented support for security, privacy, and admin.** **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. Evidence: [Granola pricing](https://www.granola.ai/pricing), [Granola subscriptions and billing](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing), [Granola security and data FAQ](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs). **Read AI:** Core admin on Enterprise; advanced governance on Enterprise+. Retention, domain controls, SAML, and HIPAA-related capabilities are concentrated in Enterprise+. That plan currently carries a five-license minimum. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing), [Read AI workspace sharing settings](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/7962819152659-What-are-all-of-the-settings-and-permissions-available-with-Workspaces), [Read AI workspace offboarding](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/27433066427283-How-do-I-offboard-someone-from-my-Read-workspace), [Read AI data handling](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/52055801266579-What-Does-Read-AI-Do-With-My-Data-Read-AI). ### Languages **Both products support languages, with different scope and plan limits.** **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. Evidence: [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription). **Read AI:** Read’s pricing page says 20+; its detail table says 16+. Read’s current pricing page uses “20+ languages” in the Free plan card but “16+ languages” in the detailed comparison table. The coverage is useful but materially narrower on paper than competitors advertising 75 or 100+; verify the language you need rather than relying on the headline count. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ## A third option to consider: Circleback Circleback turns online meetings, in-person conversations, and imported calls into one shared company memory. Record with a bot, with the botless desktop app, from an iPhone or Android phone, or on Apple Watch. Every route produces the same speaker-labeled record, detailed notes designed to stand alone, and automatically assigned action items. Sharing rules and automations carry the useful parts into the teams and tools that need them. Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available to a person is also available programmatically through its API, MCP, and CLI. Circleback can also search connected apps and take action in them. It is built for people and AI agents: the same complete meeting data available to a person is available programmatically to ChatGPT, Claude, other agents, and internal tools through the API, MCP, and CLI. Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which is better: Granola or Read AI? Granola is deliberately quiet, personal, and document-first. Read AI is more managed and analytical, with live behavioral signals, recordings on Enterprise, and cross-tool search. ### Which is less expensive, Granola or Read AI? Granola: Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly. Read AI: Free for 5 meetings/month; Pro from $15/user/month annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need. ### Can Granola and Read AI record without a bot? Granola: Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture. Read AI: Meeting bot, macOS/Windows desktop, and mobile. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names. ### Which is better for a whole company? First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. Granola: Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder. Read AI: Workspace-wide participant and team report access. ### Can I access and move the full meeting data? Granola: MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits. Read AI: Open-beta REST API and MCP with full meeting reports. Check the selected plan, authentication model, transcript scope, export format, and retention window for the workflow you need. ### How was this comparison researched? We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below. ## Methodology Circleback reviews first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes. Prices and capabilities move, so check the linked sources when a detail is important to your decision. Every feature dimension links to the exact first-party documents used for that claim. Ratings describe documented breadth, not an overall score or winner. This page is a neutral competitor-to-competitor comparison. There are no paid placements or affiliate rankings. ## First-party sources ### Granola sources - [Granola pricing](https://www.granola.ai/pricing): Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates. - [Granola subscriptions and billing](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/managing-your-account/subscriptions-and-billing): 30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior. - [Granola integrations](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/integrations-with-granola): Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations. - [Granola Zapier](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/zapier): Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations. - [Granola action-item extraction](https://www.granola.ai/blog/meeting-action-items-ai-extraction): Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes. - [Granola workspaces](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/workspaces): Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior. - [Granola sharing controls](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/sharing-controls): Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions. - [Granola note sharing](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/sharing-notes): No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links. - [Granola spaces and folders](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/folders/spaces-and-folders): Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools. - [Granola feature requests](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/feature-requests): Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start. - [Granola iOS](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/ios/getting-started): In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations. - [Granola Android launch](https://www.granola.ai/blog/introducing-granola-for-android): Android in-person capture and cross-device note access. - [Granola Apple Watch launch](https://www.granola.ai/blog/granola-for-apple-watch): One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement. - [Granola transcription](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription): Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support. - [Granola data export](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes): Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export. - [Granola MCP](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/integrations/mcp): OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and Team-space folder limitation. - [Granola API](https://docs.granola.ai/introduction): Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data. - [Granola security and data FAQ](https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs): Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement. ### Read AI sources - [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing): Current meeting limits, prices, languages, playback gate, governance, and Enterprise+ minimum. - [Read AI desktop app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/45911611006995-How-to-Use-Read-s-Desktop-App-for-Windows-and-Mac): Device-audio recording and participant disclosure behavior. - [Read AI iPhone app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/34467337929107-Read-AI-App-for-iPhone): In-person real-time transcript and summary. - [Read AI Android app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863250182291-Read-AI-App-for-Android): Android in-person capture, live transcript and summary, and report access. - [Read AI mobile capture limits](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863422605203-Can-I-use-Read-s-mobile-app-to-record-calls-from-my-phone): Phone-call and same-device virtual-meeting limitations across iOS and Android. - [Read AI speaker editing](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/36169538719379-Can-I-edit-text-and-speaker-names-in-my-meeting-report): Generic same-room labels plus transcript-wide speaker renaming and turn reassignment. - [Read AI recording availability](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/15107171454739-Why-can-t-I-see-recordings-in-my-report-when-I-received-a-recording-notification-in-my-meeting): Enterprise playback requirement and lower-plan source-media deletion. - [Read AI workspace sharing settings](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/7962819152659-What-are-all-of-the-settings-and-permissions-available-with-Workspaces): Participant auto-sharing, team report access, and workspace distribution controls. - [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution): Owner-level participant sharing, invitee behavior, email/Slack/Teams recaps, recurring-meeting pre-reads, and workspace controls. - [Read AI actions](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48863788829971-Using-Ask-Read-actions): Agent actions for HubSpot updates, approved email sending, calendar creation, and scheduled reports. - [Read AI API and MCP overview](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49379985941523-Read-AI-API-and-MCP-Overview): Open-beta scope, prerequisites, OAuth and rate-limit constraints, permissions, and current feature gaps. - [Read AI MCP tools](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49381158409491-MCP-Server): Full transcript, summary, action, metric, recording-download, agent-dispatch, and sharing tools. - [Read AI data handling](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/52055801266579-What-Does-Read-AI-Do-With-My-Data-Read-AI): Storage, access, AI-training consent, and the opt-out Customer Experience Improvement Program. - [Read AI workspace offboarding](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/27433066427283-How-do-I-offboard-someone-from-my-Read-workspace): Account deactivation, report transfer, and the limits of simply removing a workspace member.