Best Granola alternative in 2026

Five Granola alternatives profiled with pricing checked July 2026 — capture model, platforms, tier names, one honest limitation each, and when Jarvis (getjarvis.eu) is the wrong pick.

How we put this list together: Jarvis is our product — this site is getjarvis.eu — so treat the #1 spot as an editorial opinion with an obvious interest, and check the sourced facts yourself. Every price and tier name on this page was checked in July 2026 against the vendors' own public pricing pages (granola.ai/pricing, otter.ai/pricing, fireflies.ai/pricing, fathom.ai/pricing, tldv.io/app/pricing). Where a vendor does not publish something — tl;dv's exact dollar prices render via client-side JavaScript and could not be confirmed from the vendor page, and none of these vendors name the model behind their core transcription/summarization — we say so rather than quoting a number. Each named limitation is drawn from the vendor's own pages, not from third-party reviews.

1. Jarvis — An on-demand, screen-aware desktop assistant. Press Cmd+/ on macOS or Ctrl+/ on Windows and a floating bar screenshots the active window, answers questions about it, and acts in your apps through 30+ OAuth connectors (Gmail, Slack, Notion, Linear, GitHub, Figma, Microsoft 365). Inference runs on cloud frontier models (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google) routed through Jarvis’s GDPR-aligned backend, with persistent memory across sessions — there is no always-on audio capture by design. Pricing: Free: $0 — 40 requests/week. Pro: $16/month ($144/year billed annually). Unlimited: $32/month. Checked July 2026. Platforms: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows 10+, Linux. Known limitation: Cloud-only inference — Jarvis needs an internet connection and has no offline mode, and because it deliberately ships no always-on audio capture it does not do live in-call transcription. If transcription is the whole job, it is the wrong pick. Pick Jarvis if: what you actually need from a “Granola alternative” is the work around meetings — prep, follow-up emails, tickets, docs — in one shortcut across all your apps, with EU data residency and a real free tier. 2. Otter.ai — The long-established AI meeting notetaker, now billed as a “Conversational Knowledge Engine”: it transcribes and summarizes calls with both bot-based auto-join (via calendar) and bot-free direct recording, integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, and exposes an MCP server for use inside ChatGPT/Claude. Pricing: Basic: free — 300 transcription minutes/month, 30-minute cap per conversation, 3 lifetime file imports, 1 concurrent meeting. Pro: $16.99/user/month billed monthly, or $8.33/user/month billed annually — 1,200 minutes/month, 90-minute cap, 10 file imports/month. Business: $30/user/month billed monthly, or $19.99/user/month billed annually — unlimited meetings, 4-hour cap, 3 concurrent meetings. Enterprise: custom, sales-quoted. Checked July 2026. Platforms: Web app, desktop, and mobile (iOS/Android); calendar-connected bot join or bot-free direct recording for Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. Known limitation: Per otter.ai/pricing, the free Basic tier caps transcription at 300 minutes per month, 30 minutes per single conversation, and 3 file imports for the lifetime of the account — anyone with back-to-back meetings hits the ceiling fast and needs a paid seat. Pick Otter.ai if: you want the most established, calendar-integrated meeting notetaker with the widest adoption and are fine with per-seat plans and minute caps. 3. Fireflies.ai — An AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes conversations captured via a bot (email or calendar auto-join), a Chrome extension, mobile and desktop apps, or dialer/API integrations — and layers conversation-intelligence features (talk-time, sentiment, team analytics) on top of the transcripts. Pricing: Free: $0 — unlimited transcription and AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage per team, 20 AI credits. Pro: $10/seat/month billed annually ($18/month billed monthly) — 8,000 minutes of storage per seat. Business: $19/seat/month billed annually ($29/month monthly) — unlimited storage, multi-language mode, team analytics. Enterprise: $39/seat/month, annual billing only — SSO/SCIM, HIPAA compliance. Checked July 2026. Platforms: Web, desktop app, Chrome extension, mobile (iOS/Android); bot joins Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, plus dialer and API integrations. Known limitation: Per fireflies.ai/pricing, the headline per-seat prices ($10/$19/$39) are annual-only discounts — paying monthly costs noticeably more ($18/$29 for Pro/Business) — and the free plan’s 400 minutes of storage is a cap for the whole team, not per user. Pick Fireflies.ai if: you want conversation-intelligence analytics (talk-time, sentiment, team scorecards) bundled with the transcription, not just notes. 4. Fathom — Fathom (now “Fathom AI Notetaker”, having moved from fathom.video to fathom.ai) records, transcribes, and summarizes Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls with both bot-based and newly added bot-free capture, plus AI action items, clips, and a conversational assistant. Pricing: Free: $0, free forever — unlimited recordings and transcriptions, bot-free or bot capture, instant AI summaries, clips, playlists. Premium (individual): $20/month, or $16/month billed annually. Team (2-user minimum): $19/user/month, or $15/user/month annually. Business: $34/user/month, or $25/user/month annually — CRM field sync, Deal View, coaching metrics, AI scorecards. Enterprise: custom. All paid plans carry a 90-day money-back guarantee. Checked July 2026. Platforms: Web and desktop app; integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Gmail, with ChatGPT/Claude integrations for meeting data. Known limitation: Per fathom.ai/pricing, Team plans require a 2-user minimum — a true solo user is pushed to the pricier standalone Premium tier ($20/$16 monthly/annual) rather than the lower per-seat Team price. Pick Fathom if: you want the most generous free tier in the category (unlimited recordings and transcriptions), or you’re a sales team that wants CRM field sync and coaching analytics baked in. 5. tl;dv — An AI meeting notetaker for Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams that markets itself as requiring no bot join, using an auto-recording integration instead. It targets team collaboration and sales use cases with CRM integrations, speaker insights, and highlight reels, and cites a partnership with Anthropic for its generative AI processing. Pricing: A permanent Free plan with unlimited recordings and transcripts, plus paid Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers (a 40%-off annual promotion was running at the time of this check). The vendor’s pricing page renders its dollar figures via client-side JavaScript, so exact prices could not be confirmed from the vendor page — we don’t quote third-party numbers here. Checked July 2026. Platforms: Web app and browser extension; integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, plus HubSpot, Slack, and Notion for downstream workflows. Known limitation: tl;dv’s own support center (intercom.help/tldv) confirms that unlimited AI-feature usage, CRM integrations, and speaker insights are gated behind the paid Pro/Business tiers — AI summary volume and integrations are capped on the free tier, though the exact numeric caps could not be confirmed from the vendor page. Pick tl;dv if: you want a no-bot recorder with an unlimited-recording free tier and don’t need to lock down exact paid pricing before trying it.

Why people switch: Granola only captures meetings you personally attend; Per-seat pricing with no advertised annual discount; The transcript is where Granola stops; You live on Android or in the browser; You care about EU data residency.

Pick a competitor instead if: You need live meeting transcription and notes — Jarvis deliberately has no always-on audio mode, so it will not transcribe your calls. Otter.ai (free 300 min/month, Pro from $8.33/user/month annual), Fireflies.ai (free unlimited transcription, Pro from $10/seat/month annual), or Fathom (unlimited free recordings) are purpose-built for exactly this. You want Granola’s bot-free feel with unlimited free capture — Fathom’s free tier includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions with bot-free capture, and tl;dv’s free plan includes unlimited recordings and transcripts with no bot joining the call. Both keep the quiet, no-bot experience that draws people to Granola. You’re a sales team that lives in the CRM — Fathom’s Business tier ($34/user/month, $25 annual) adds CRM field sync, Deal View, and coaching metrics, and Fireflies.ai layers talk-time and sentiment analytics on every call. Jarvis can update your CRM through connectors, but it does not score calls. You need to capture meetings you can’t attend — Granola and Jarvis both require you (and your device) to be present. Bot-based tools — Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom — can be invited into a call remotely and take notes without you.

What is the best Granola alternative in 2026? For like-for-like meeting capture: Otter.ai for the most established calendar-integrated notetaker, Fireflies.ai for conversation analytics, Fathom for the most generous free tier, tl;dv for no-bot recording. Jarvis is the pick if what you actually need is the work around meetings — prep, follow-ups, tickets, drafts — across all your apps.

Can I use Granola and Jarvis together? Yes — use Granola for meeting capture and Jarvis for the work around the meeting. Press Cmd+/ over the Granola transcript and ask Jarvis to draft a follow-up email or create Linear tickets from it.

Does Jarvis transcribe meetings? Not by design — Jarvis is a screen-aware desktop assistant with no always-on audio capture. Use Granola, Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, or Fathom for transcription and Jarvis for the work that follows.

Is there a free Granola alternative? Yes. Fathom offers unlimited free recordings and transcriptions, tl;dv offers unlimited free recordings and transcripts, Fireflies.ai offers unlimited free transcription (with 400 minutes of team storage), and Otter.ai offers 300 free minutes per month. Jarvis has a free plan at 40 requests/week. Granola itself also has a free Basic tier with limited history.

Which Granola alternatives work without a bot joining the call? tl;dv markets itself as no-bot, Fathom added bot-free capture alongside its bot, and Otter.ai supports bot-free direct recording next to its calendar bot. Fireflies.ai is primarily bot-based. Granola itself captures computer audio locally with no bot.

Which Granola alternatives work on Android or the web? Per granola.ai (July 2026), Granola has no web app. Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai both ship web and Android apps; tl;dv runs in the browser; Fathom offers web and desktop apps. Jarvis is a desktop app for macOS, Windows 10+, and Linux.

Does Jarvis update Linear or Notion from meeting notes? Yes — connect Linear and Notion via OAuth and ask Jarvis to create tickets, append meeting notes, or update existing pages from a screenshot of your transcript.

Alternatives · Granola alternatives · Last updated July 28, 2026