Granola
The most recommended of 4 meeting notetakers
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.
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.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Helpful and used heavily
“have been incredibly helpful”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Things to know when you get cancer” “I use the hell out of both”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “Gemini 4 Argon” Turns meetings into notes for agents
“If you use a tool that turns a meeting into notes automatically, you can use those notes to bootstrap a prompt/plan for agents.”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Has the cost of building software dropped 90%?” “that's how you get something like Granola”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 on Hacker News Strong summaries, seen as leader
“I think clearly the _leader_ in the space is granola”
Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Over 181,000 AI meeting recordings left wide open in note taking app” “the Granola summary is all you need”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 on Hacker News
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Free tier or subscription cost concerns
“It's free for a limited number of notes.”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Granola for Apple Watch” “I was getting tired of paying a subscription for Granola”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “I built a local, free Granola alternative” “one-time payment vs subscription”
Comment from 7 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: AudioTap, record calls, transcribe and diarize locally” Worries about data and business model
“Generally speaking, if something is free then my attention or my data tends to be the product”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Granola for Apple Watch” “They're going to enshittify when they run out of money or sell your data.”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “Granola for Apple Watch” Stopped working after encryption change
“Granola notes silently stopped working when they decided to encrypt the DB”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Rowboat – Open-source, local-first alternative to Claude Desktop” “Granola no longer working was what led us to build it natively.”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Rowboat – Open-source, local-first alternative to Claude Desktop” Notes miss important points
“They often miss important things, overemphasize the wrong things”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “AI has fixed my productivity” “I actually don't find AI notetakers helpful”
Comment from 31 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: How I take notes as a VC, and the app I built for it”
Other meeting notetakers people recommend
The three most recommended other meeting notetakers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GranolaThis page | 11 | 11 | 50% | 8 | — | — |
| Docket meeting note-taking app | 8 | 3 | 73% | 3 | — | — |
| Fireflies.ai | 6 | 11 | 35% | 3 | — | — |
| Summit meeting insights | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 22 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“WisprFlow and Granola are "cooked"”
“I actually don't find AI notetakers helpful”
“have been incredibly helpful”
“I use the hell out of both”
“I think clearly the _leader_ in the space is granola”
“It's free for a limited number of notes.”
“They're going to enshittify when they run out of money or sell your data.”
“Generally speaking, if something is free then my attention or my data tends to be the product”
“Granola no longer working was what led us to build it natively.”
“Granola notes silently stopped working when they decided to encrypt the DB”
“Granola doesn't let you read your own meetings after 30 days”
“I was getting tired of paying a subscription for Granola”
“one-time payment vs subscription”
“they delete your raw audio after transcribing”
“I like the Granola integration. I use it all the time for interviews”
“most tools gloss over - espicially Granola”
“They often miss important things, overemphasize the wrong things”
“sounds like a very useful tool”
“the Granola summary is all you need”
“that's how you get something like Granola”
“If you use a tool that turns a meeting into notes automatically, you can use those notes to bootstrap a prompt/plan for agents.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.