# Granola

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/granola/

7 people recommended Granola in Hacker News comments, 3 had mixed feelings and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 12 months, in 7 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for turning meetings into notes that are useful for agents and prompts; the most common caveat is worry about data use and a limited free tier.

Summary written by Claude from 21 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 15 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Helpful and used heavily (2 comments in the sample): "have been incredibly helpful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50103466)) "I use the hell out of both" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075165))
- Turns meetings into notes for agents (2 comments in the sample): "If you use a tool that turns a meeting into notes automatically, you can use those notes to bootstrap a prompt/plan for agents." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205061)) "that's how you get something like Granola" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46782243))
- Strong summaries, seen as leader (2 comments in the sample): "I think clearly the _leader_ in the space is granola" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49244333)) "the Granola summary is all you need" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46978243))

## What people warn about

- Free tier or subscription cost concerns (2 comments in the sample): "It's free for a limited number of notes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49098608)) "I was getting tired of paying a subscription for Granola" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48518760))
- Worries about data and business model (2 comments in the sample): "Generally speaking, if something is free then my attention or my data tends to be the product" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49091245)) "They're going to enshittify when they run out of money or sell your data." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49092250))
- Stopped working after encryption change (1 comment in the sample): "Granola notes silently stopped working when they decided to encrypt the DB" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48824567))
- Notes miss important points (1 comment in the sample): "They often miss important things, overemphasize the wrong things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47061601))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.granola.ai/)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Granola", https://hackerapproved.com/p/granola/ (7 recommend, 3 mixed, 6 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.