Does Granola record audio? It listens to your meeting, but it does not keep a recording. Granola sends your microphone and computer audio to a transcription service while the call happens, then throws the audio away and saves only the transcript and your notes. On a phone it holds the audio in a temporary cache until transcription finishes, then deletes it.
That answer matters in two directions. If you were hoping to replay a meeting later, Granola cannot do it. If you were worried that a copy of your voice sits on a server somewhere, Granola says it does not. The rest of this guide walks through how capture works on each device, what is stored and where, how long transcripts last, and what you owe the other people on the call.
Everything below comes from Granola's own help center and security pages, checked on October 24, 2026.
Does Granola record audio? The short answer
No, not in the sense of saving a file you can play back. Granola's How transcription works page says the app passes audio from your microphone and system audio straight to its transcription provider, and that it does not record or save audio or video at any point during the call. The same page adds that there is no way to access audio from your meetings afterward.
Granola's security page puts it the same way under the heading "No stored recordings": it transcribes in real time on macOS and Windows, or after the meeting from temporarily cached audio on mobile, and it only stores the transcript and any notes you add. The pricing page lists "Audio deleted after transcription" as included on every plan, from the free Basic plan up to Enterprise.
In short: Granola hears everything your computer hears while a note is running. It keeps words, not sound.
How Granola captures a meeting
Granola does not send a bot into your call. Nothing joins Zoom, Google Meet or Teams as an extra participant. Instead, the desktop app runs on your own computer and listens to two sources at once:
- Your microphone, which shows up as green bubbles on the right side of the live transcript.
- Your system audio, meaning whatever plays through your computer, usually the other people in the call. That shows up as grey bubbles on the left.
Because it listens at the device level, it works with almost any call app, including internet calling apps that are not on your calendar. There is a catch the help page spells out: Granola cannot isolate one app's sound. If music or a video plays during the meeting, it ends up in the transcript too, even if it goes to a different output device.
When capture starts and stops
Granola only starts transcribing after you act. According to its help center, that means clicking a meeting notification, opening a meeting from the home screen after its start time, clicking New Note for an unscheduled call, or opening an upcoming meeting before it begins (in which case it starts at the scheduled time). It does not start on its own if you never open a note.
You can stop it with the stop button at any time. Granola also stops automatically when it decides the call has ended, after 15 minutes with no new audio, or when your computer goes to sleep. The help center warns that unscheduled calls are harder to detect, and if you keep talking after hanging up, it may keep transcribing. If you jump straight from one call into another, both can merge into a single transcript. The practical habit: click stop when the meeting ends.
You can tell it is listening by the moving green bars at the bottom of the note.
What Granola stores and where
Here is what stays after a meeting, based on Granola's Security, Privacy and Data FAQs:
| Item | Kept? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Meeting audio | No | Deleted once transcription is complete |
| Video | No | Granola does not capture or save video |
| Transcript | Yes | Kept indefinitely unless you turn on auto deletion |
| Your notes and AI notes | Yes | Kept until you delete them |
| Screen snapshots | Optional | Only if you use the shared screen snapshot feature |
Notes and transcripts live on Amazon Web Services servers in the United States, encrypted at rest and in transit and backed up daily. Granola does not offer EU, UK or other regional data storage yet. Your notes are also cached on your own device so you can open and edit them quickly, including offline. Granola holds a SOC 2 Type II certification and offers a data processing addendum for GDPR.
Your notes are private by default. You choose whether a note stays private, is visible to people signed in with your company email, or is open to anyone with the link. Granola says workspace admins cannot read your private notes.
Model training
Granola uses outside providers for transcription and for writing summaries; its security page gives Deepgram and Assembly as transcription examples and OpenAI and Anthropic as AI examples. Granola says those providers are not allowed to train on your data. Granola itself may use anonymized data to improve its own models on the Basic and Business plans. You can switch that off under Settings, Preferences, by turning off "Use my data to improve models for everyone." Enterprise workspaces are opted out by default.
How long Granola keeps transcripts
By default, transcripts and notes stay until you delete them. If you would rather not keep a word for word record, Granola's transcript auto deletion setting removes transcripts after 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year. Find it under Settings, Preferences, Data and sharing.
A few details are worth knowing before you switch it on:
- A one week cooldown applies before anything is deleted, so you can change your mind.
- Only the transcript goes. Your notes stay.
- Once a transcript is gone, you cannot regenerate the notes for that meeting, and Granola Chat answers about it get thinner.
- Deletion is permanent. On Enterprise, an admin policy overrides your personal setting and removes old transcripts right away, with no cooldown.
Deleting a single note works differently. Notes you move to the trash stay there for 30 days and are then deleted permanently. Deleting your whole account (Settings, Profile, Delete Account) removes all associated data.
On the free Basic plan, the app only shows 30 days of meeting history. Granola's export help page says the CSV export still includes your full note history, including notes older than 30 days.
Desktop vs mobile differences
Granola runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch. The web app at notes.granola.ai only lets you view and edit notes. It cannot capture a meeting.
| | Desktop (Mac, Windows) | Mobile (iPhone, Android) | |:-|:-|:-| | Audio source | Microphone plus system audio | The phone's active microphone, or a connected Bluetooth mic | | When transcription happens | Live, during the call | From a temporary cache, finished after you tap end | | Audio kept afterward | No | No, the cache is deleted once transcription completes | | Speaker labels | Names in Meet, Zoom and Teams when speaker tags are set up, otherwise Me and Them | Speaker A, Speaker B and so on | | Best for | Video calls | In person conversations |
The mobile transcription page says the phone app records from whichever microphone is active, so a connected Bluetooth headset may become the input instead of the built in mic. It also notes that very short recordings (under about five minutes on Android) may not produce notes, and very long ones, roughly ten hours or more, may fail.
That temporary cache is the one place Granola briefly holds audio. Granola says it is deleted from all Granola and third party systems once transcription is complete.
Consent and telling other people
Since no bot joins the call, other people may have no idea Granola is running unless you tell them. Granola is clear that this is your job: its FAQ says you are responsible for getting consent from participants, and its guide to consent recommends always letting people know, whether the meeting is a video call, an in person chat or a phone call. Recording and transcription laws vary by place, and Granola notes its guidance is not legal advice.
Granola gives you two optional ways to make it visible, both under Settings, Preferences, Transparency:
- Automated chat message. Posts a short notice in the meeting chat. For Google Meet you install the Granola browser extension. Zoom and Teams are supported on Mac and Windows, and Slack huddles on Mac.
- Granola Watermark. Shows a small badge on your video while Granola is transcribing. You turn it on, install the Granola camera and pick it as your camera in the meeting app.
On Basic and Business these are per user settings. On Enterprise, admins can require them for everyone.
If a conversation turns sensitive partway through, pause transcription and resume later. If something private was captured anyway, you can delete individual chunks from the transcript panel.
One more limit to know: Granola says HIPAA support is only for Enterprise customers, and Free or Business accounts should not be used for protected health information. It also says Granola is not FERPA compliant, which matters if you work with student records.
If you need a replayable recording
If you need to hear what someone said, not just read it, Granola is the wrong tool on its own. A few options, depending on the job:
- Otter puts the transcript at the center and lets you play back speaker labeled text. Our Granola vs Otter comparison covers that tradeoff in detail.
- Fathom lists unlimited recordings on its free plan, so you keep a record of the call itself.
- Fireflies offers a Chrome extension that captures without a bot.
- For in person conversations, a dedicated recorder may suit you better. See our AI note taker device guide.
- For notes that never leave your Mac, read about Google AI Edge Foresight.
Granola also cannot transcribe a file you already have. Its help center says it does not support importing or uploading recorded audio such as MP3s. It is built for live meetings only.
For the full field of options, see our best AI meeting note taker roundup, the Meetings category, or, if you live in Google Meet, our AI note taker for Google Meet guide.
Who Granola's approach suits
Granola's design is a good fit if you take part in your meetings and want tidy notes rather than an archive of sound. Not keeping audio means less sensitive data stored about you and your colleagues, and no bot means nobody sees an extra attendee.
It suits you less if you need verbatim proof of what was said, if you work in healthcare without an Enterprise plan, or if your data has to stay in the EU. In those cases, compare the alternatives above before you commit.
FAQ
Can I play back a meeting in Granola?
No. Granola deletes the audio once it is transcribed, so there is nothing to play back. You can read, search and copy the transcript, and ask Granola Chat questions about it.
Does a Granola bot join my call?
No. Granola captures audio on your own device, so no extra participant appears in Zoom, Google Meet or Teams. That is why you should tell people yourself, or turn on the chat message or watermark.
Where does Granola store transcripts?
On Amazon Web Services servers in the United States, encrypted at rest and in transit and backed up daily. Notes are also cached on your device. Transcripts are kept until you delete them or turn on auto deletion.
Does Granola work offline?
You can open and edit cached notes without a connection, but transcription needs a live internet connection to Granola's transcription providers. Its troubleshooting page says VPNs, proxies and firewalls can block transcription even when other sites load.
Can Granola transcribe an uploaded MP3?
No. Granola's help center says it only transcribes live meetings and does not support importing recorded audio files. Use a transcript first tool such as Otter for that.
Is Granola's free plan different on privacy?
No. Audio deletion, private notes by default, the model training opt out and per user transcript auto deletion are all on the free Basic plan. The main free plan limit is that the app shows 30 days of meeting history.
