AI Meeting Notes: Granola and Similar Tools, Without Forgetting Consent

AI meeting notes transcribe and summarize meetings. Granola records without a bot. How to choose one, what it keeps, what it costs and what consent to ask for.

info Quick Definition

AI meeting notes are tools that transcribe a conversation and produce a summary with decisions, agreements and tasks. Granola is one of the most used in product design because it captures your computer’s audio without a bot showing up on the call.

What do these tools do?

Three pieces, in almost all of them:

Audio capture, in two ways: with a bot that joins the call, or with the device’s own audio.
Transcription, which turns audio into text, sometimes identifying who is speaking.
Summary and actions, which groups what was said into topics, decisions and tasks with an owner.

What changes is the first piece, because it defines the relationship with participants: a bot shows up in the attendee list; device capture does not.

Why does it matter to a designer?

Because research sessions and product meetings produce decisions that get lost. A good note lets you return to a user interview without rereading an hour of audio, and share what was said with the team without rewriting it.

This fits with the transcription and tagging workflow and with interview synthesis. The note does not replace your judgment: the summary is a proposal you must check against what was actually said.

Which tools exist and what do they cost?

According to the official pages checked on November 6, 2026, in US dollars:

Tool	How it captures audio	Free plan	Paid plans
Granola	Computer audio, no bot; also on mobile	Basic: 30 days of history	Business 14 per user per month; Enterprise 35
Otter	A bot that joins the meeting	Basic: 300 minutes per month per user and up to 30 minutes per meeting	Pro, Business and Enterprise (see its page)
Fathom	A bot, or bot-free capture in beta on Mac only	Unlimited recordings and transcriptions, with limited AI use	Premium 20 per month (16 billed annually); Team 19 (15), minimum two users
Fireflies	A bot	Free plan	Pro, Business and Enterprise; billed per seat (see its page)

Granola states that it deletes audio after transcription and that it is SOC 2 Type II certified. The option to keep your data from training models is turned off per user on Basic and Business, and on Enterprise it is managed for the whole workspace. Its help center specifies that on macOS and Windows it does not store meeting audio; on iPhone it keeps it temporarily and deletes it once transcription finishes. Prices change, so check them before you buy.

Which differences matter when choosing?

Aspect	What to look at
How it captures audio	A bot visible on the call, or device capture
Free plan	Limits on history, minutes and available AI models
Retention	How long the transcript is kept and who manages it
Training	Whether you can stop your data from training models, and whether that also covers people who are not users
Compliance	Certifications such as SOC 2 and data processing agreements

This is the most important point, and the tool does not solve it. In the United States two rules coexist. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 2511(2)(d)) allows a person to intercept a communication if they are a party to it or if one of the parties gave prior consent, unless it is done to commit a crime or a tort. But some states require the consent of all parties: section 632 of the California Penal Code prohibits recording a confidential communication without everyone’s consent.

That is why capturing without a bot does not remove the duty to disclose. Granola’s own help center recommends making sure participants know when you use an AI notetaking tool, checking with your admin or legal team which meetings may be transcribed, and it offers built-in notices: a watermark on your camera and an automatic message in the meeting chat. Other countries have different laws; check the rules where the participants are.

What has been sued over

Two cases show why it matters. In both, these are allegations, not proven facts.

Chamberlain v. Granola, Inc. (case 3:26-cv-07926, US District Court for the Northern District of California), filed on July 30, 2026 as a proposed class action. It alleges that Granola is designed so that the other participants do not know they are being recorded and that, by default, it uses the content to train its AI systems, an option only Granola users can turn off and not the people taking part in the meeting. It invokes the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and California privacy law, among others. According to the law firm Barnes & Thornburg, Granola had not responded on the merits and no court had ruled.
Brewer v. Otter.ai, filed in August 2025 in a federal court in California. It alleges that Otter asked permission only from hosts, sometimes not even from them, and that it used recordings to train its models.

Whatever the outcome, they work as a checklist: who knows they are being recorded, who can object, and what the content is used for.

When should you NOT use it?

In user interviews where you do not have explicit, documented consent.
For meetings with medical, financial or minors’ information, unless the provider and your company allow it.
When the automatic summary would replace the team’s decision: a summary has no political context.
When the team has no retention policy: accumulated transcripts are a risk.

Example

Illustrative example: a designer has a 45-minute interview with a user. Before starting, she announces that the session will be recorded with a notetaking tool, asks for permission and records that consent on audio. Afterward, she reviews the summary, corrects one sentence where the AI misheard a word and deletes the transcript according to her team’s policy. The notes she shares with the team are the ones she validated. The summary saved her time, but the validation was hers.

What should you say when announcing the recording?

The notice does not need to be long, but it must cover three things: what is recorded, why and who can see it. A sentence like “We are going to record this session with a notes tool to capture what you say; only the design team will use it and we will delete it when the study ends. Is that okay?” covers all three. If someone says no, nothing is recorded and the session continues with manual notes.

What should you do with the note after the meeting?

The note is a draft. A workflow that works:

Check the summary against the transcript at the moments where a decision was made.
Split three lists: decisions made, open questions and tasks with an owner. If something has no owner, it is not a task.
Fix the attribution of each decision: who proposed it and who accepted it.
Share only the validated version, with a note that a person reviewed it.
Apply your team’s retention policy: delete the transcript when it is no longer needed, or keep it somewhere with controlled access.

If the meeting included an important decision, the responsible person should confirm it in writing, even if the summary is correct.

Common mistakes

Recording without telling anyone because “there is no bot”.
Sharing summaries without checking them against the transcript.
Keeping client transcripts indefinitely.
Choosing by price without looking at the training and retention policy.
Using the tool in meetings with sensitive data without reviewing the data processing agreement.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What are AI meeting notes?

They are tools that transcribe a conversation and generate a summary with decisions, agreements and tasks. Granola is one of the best known; Otter, Fireflies and Fathom also exist, with different approaches.

What does it mean that Granola does not use a bot?

According to its website, it uses your computer’s audio, so it does not invite a bot to the call. That does not remove the duty to tell participants: Granola’s help center recommends making sure they know when you use an AI notetaking tool.

Do I need permission to record a meeting with AI?

It depends on where the parties are. US federal law allows recording with the consent of one party, but California requires everyone’s. Always ask, and check with your legal team if you work with clients in several jurisdictions.

How much does Granola cost?

According to its pricing page, checked on November 6, 2026, the Basic plan is free with 30 days of history, Business costs 14 US dollars per user per month and Enterprise costs 35. Confirm the figures before you decide.

Have AI notetaking tools been sued?

Yes. In July 2026 a class action was filed in California against Granola, Chamberlain v. Granola, Inc., and in August 2025 another against Otter.ai. In both cases these are allegations that a court still has to assess.