Compare
MeetWave vs Granola
Granola alternative: Granola and MeetWave share the same bot-free approach, so the real differences are pricing and output. Granola sells a free tier with limited note history and then jumps straight to a per-seat business plan, and it syncs your notes to its cloud across devices. MeetWave pairs a Chrome extension that records web calls on any OS with a Windows desktop app for system-wide audio, at a flat individual price, with role-specific summary types.
Granola’s prices and policies checked on its own pages, 25 Sep 2026.
Does Granola's Chrome extension record audio?
No. Granola's help center says transcription requires the Granola desktop app on macOS or Windows, or its iPhone or Android app, and that its web app cannot capture meetings (How transcription works, checked 3 Oct 2026). In Google Meet the Chrome extension adds speaker tags: it uses Meet's participant names and active-speaker information to show who said what while Granola is transcribing (Speaker tags in Google Meet, checked 3 Oct 2026). Its Chrome Web Store listing, Granola Companion, says it "works with the Granola desktop app". So to record with Granola, you install its desktop app.
No bot joins your calls: the Chrome extension records web calls on macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS, and the Windows desktop app also captures system audio from any app. Stay with Granola if you take calls in the Zoom or Teams desktop app on a Mac: MeetWave has no Mac desktop app, so there you would have to open the call in Chrome.
Is Granola private?
Here is what Granola itself publishes on its pricing page, checked 25 Sep 2026. The free Basic plan keeps 30 days of meeting history; Business keeps all of it. Every plan lets you "opt out of model training any time", and Enterprise can enforce the opt-out for a whole workspace. Granola records without a bot, so nobody sees it in the participant list, and it keeps notes in its cloud so they sync to its Mac, Windows, iOS and Android apps.
MeetWave has no opt-out switch to find: it never uses your meetings to train AI models.
Side by side
| MeetWave | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| How it records | No bot joins your calls: the Chrome extension records web calls on macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS, and the Windows desktop app also captures system audio from any app. | Bot-free desktop app for Mac and Windows, using your computer audio; the Chrome extension "Granola Companion" works with the desktop appchecked 25 Sep 2026 |
| Name in the participant list | No bot — nothing appears in the participant list. | No bot — nothing appears in the participant listchecked 25 Sep 2026 |
| Apps | Chrome extension (macOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS) + native Windows desktop app; no mobile app. | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Apple Watchchecked 25 Sep 2026 |
| Free plan | 10h of recording analysis/month, 25 AI summaries/month | Basic (free): 30 days of meeting historychecked 25 Sep 2026 |
| Cheapest paid plan | Pro $16.00/mo, or $11.00/mo billed annually (up to 5 prior meetings in memory; 20 on Pro+) | Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35/user/mochecked 25 Sep 2026 |
| Trains AI on your meetings? (its policy) | Your meetings are never used to train AI models. | Its pricing page offers "Opt out of model training any time" on every plan, so training is on until you opt outchecked 25 Sep 2026 |
Competitor facts are read from each vendor's own pages; dates show when. Found something out of date? Tell us.
Which one fits you
When Granola is the better choice
Granola is the right choice if you work on a Mac, on a phone, or across several devices. It ships apps for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android and syncs notes between them, while MeetWave has no mobile app — on macOS, Linux and ChromeOS it covers web calls through its Chrome extension, and reserves the native desktop app for system-wide capture on Windows.
If you value the specific interaction model of jotting rough notes during the meeting and having AI expand them afterward — rather than a fully hands-off summary — Granola's workflow is purpose-built for that style of note-taking.
If you want shared folders, integrations into Notion, Slack, or HubSpot, and centralized billing for a team, Granola's Business plan is designed for exactly that scenario.
When MeetWave fits
- Flat individual price, not per seatGranola's free tier limits how far back you can work with your notes, and the next step up is a per-seat Business plan. MeetWave Pro is a flat rate for an individual account, with no per-seat model.
- No bot, on either platformLike Granola, MeetWave never puts a visible participant in your call — it captures system audio directly, so meetings feel completely normal to everyone else on the line.
- 15+ role-specific summary typesGranola's notes are a single freeform AI notepad format. MeetWave generates summaries structured for your specific role — sales, HR, consulting, product, and more.
- Meeting memory across 20 calls on Pro+ (5 on Pro)MeetWave references up to 20 previous meetings on Pro+ (5 on Pro) when generating a new summary, surfacing recurring themes and unresolved items Granola treats each meeting independently of.
Questions people ask
Yes. Granola began as a Mac-only app but now offers apps for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Earlier comparisons describing it as Mac-only are out of date. MeetWave's Chrome extension covers web calls on macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS, and its native desktop app adds system-wide capture on Windows — but there is no mobile app, so Granola still covers more device types natively.
Both record without a bot joining the call. Granola is multi-platform and syncs notes to your account, with a free tier that limits note history and a per-user Business plan above it. MeetWave runs on any OS through its Chrome extension, plus a Windows desktop app for system-wide audio, generates 15+ role-specific summary types instead of one notepad format, references up to 20 previous meetings on Pro+ (5 on Pro), and costs a flat rate per account rather than per seat.
No. Granola, like MeetWave, does not send a visible bot into your meetings. It captures your system audio and microphone through its desktop or mobile app. This is one of the areas where Granola and MeetWave share the same design philosophy.
Granola is the broader product: more platforms, mobile apps, note sync across devices, shared folders, and integrations with tools like Notion and HubSpot. MeetWave is narrower — web calls on any OS through its Chrome extension, plus a Windows desktop app for system-wide audio, with no mobile app — but goes deeper on summary structure with 15+ role-specific formats and memory across up to 20 previous meetings on Pro+ (5 on Pro), at a comparable price for a single user.
Granola has a free Basic tier with limited meeting history, a per-seat Business plan that unlocks unlimited history and integrations, and an Enterprise tier above that. There is no individual paid tier between free and Business. MeetWave Pro, by contrast, is priced per individual account rather than per seat.
Both capture system audio with no bot joining the call. MeetWave differs by generating role-specific summary types for sales, HR, consulting, product, and other contexts rather than a single AI notepad format, and by referencing up to 20 previous meetings on Pro+ (5 on Pro) for context. Granola differs by running on more platforms and syncing notes between them.
No. Granola's help center says transcription requires its desktop app on macOS or Windows, or its mobile app; in Google Meet the Chrome extension adds speaker names while the desktop app transcribes (checked 3 Oct 2026). No bot joins your calls: the Chrome extension records web calls on macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS, and the Windows desktop app also captures system audio from any app.
In-Depth Comparison
Granola built a genuinely well-liked product around a simple idea: instead of joining your call as a bot, it sits quietly in the background, listens to your system audio, and lets you type rough notes during the meeting that its AI then expands into a clean, structured summary afterward. No bot in the participant list, no "Granola Notetaker has joined" message — just a native app running in the background. It is one of the few tools in this category that shares MeetWave's core philosophy of bot-free recording.
Platform support is no longer the dividing line it once was. Granola started as a Mac-only product, but it now ships apps for macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, so Windows users can run it. MeetWave covers every desktop OS too, just differently: the Chrome extension records web calls on macOS, Windows, Linux and ChromeOS with summaries at app.meetwave.io, and the native desktop app — Windows-only, for system-wide audio — is an addition rather than the entry point. What MeetWave has no answer for is mobile. If you need meeting notes on a phone or a native Mac app today, Granola covers ground MeetWave does not.
Where the two genuinely diverge is pricing structure and what happens to your notes. Granola's free Basic tier lets you take notes but limits how far back you can view and work with them, and the next tier up is a per-seat Business plan. MeetWave Pro is a flat rate for an individual account, with no per-seat model. Granola also syncs your notes to your account so they are available on every device you install it on. Recordings are uploaded to your MeetWave account and transcribed on our servers; the audio, transcript and summary are stored encrypted in your account, so you can reopen them on any computer at app.meetwave.io.
On the AI side, Granola's core interaction model is a live notepad: you jot down rough bullet points during the call, and its AI fleshes them out into a polished summary once the meeting ends, using the transcript as context. It is a pleasant, low-friction workflow, but the output format is largely one-size-fits-all — a clean summary regardless of what kind of meeting it was. MeetWave instead asks you to pick a role context before recording and generates a summary structured for that context specifically — a sales call brief looks different from an interview scorecard, which looks different from a consulting engagement summary. MeetWave also carries meeting memory across up to 20 previous meetings on Pro+ (5 on Pro), which Granola's single-meeting model does not offer.
Pricing Breakdown
Granolas Basic tier is free with a fixed window of meeting history; the next step up, Business, is priced per seat, and Enterprise sits above that. MeetWave has no per-seat tier: one flat Pro plan per individual account, with an uncapped Pro+ step above it. Current figures for both are in the facts table above.
When MeetWave Is the Better Choice
MeetWave is the stronger fit if you want summaries structured for your specific professional role rather than a single generic AI notepad format, or if you want the AI to reference your last 20 meetings on Pro+ (5 on Pro) rather than treating each call in isolation.
On price the two are comparable at the individual level — MeetWave Pro includes 40 hours of analysis per month billed per account, while Granola's unlimited note history sits behind a per-seat Business plan — so choose on capability, not cost.
MeetWave has no mobile app, and outside Windows coverage means web calls via the Chrome extension — so it suits people whose meeting day happens at a computer, on whichever OS that computer runs.
The Verdict
Granola and MeetWave share the same core philosophy — bot-free recording instead of a visible meeting participant — which makes them philosophically closer to each other than either is to bot-based tools like Otter or Fireflies. Platform support is not the deciding factor it used to be, since Granola now runs on Windows as well as macOS, iOS, and Android.
Granola is the better choice if you want notes on several devices, shared team folders, and integrations into tools like Notion or HubSpot. MeetWave is the better choice for an individual who wants role-specific summary formats, cross-meeting memory, and a flat per-account price instead of a per-seat plan — using the Windows desktop app, or the Chrome extension for web calls on other platforms.
