Granola captures microphone and system audio without a bot, then builds AI-enhanced summaries from the transcript and your typed notes. Fireflies.ai primarily joins supported calls as a visible notetaker and also offers bot-free system-audio tools, plus summaries, Q&A, and CRM integrations. WhisperJot, our app, transcribes only the microphone on-device and does not write summaries.
Facts come from each vendor's public pages, linked in Sources. The date above is the earlier of the two registry checks.
| Feature | Granola | Fireflies.ai | WhisperJot |
|---|---|---|---|
| How meetings are captured | You manually start botless capture of microphone and system audio on the device. No bot joins, and there is no calendar auto-join or auto-record. | Primarily a visible Fireflies.ai Notetaker participant invited to Zoom, Meet, Teams, or Webex. Bot-free options include a Meet Chrome extension, desktop system-audio capture, and mobile recordings. | You manually start microphone-only local capture for meetings you can hear. No bot joins, but remote system audio is not captured. |
| Where transcription runs | Audio is captured locally, then streamed to cloud transcription providers Deepgram or AssemblyAI. Cloud AI providers create enhanced notes. | Cloud processing on servers in the United States and other countries. | Meeting transcription always runs on-device with local engines; it stays local even if you use opt-in Jot Cloud for dictation. |
| Works offline | No offline mode documented; transcription and AI note enhancement depend on cloud services. | No offline mode documented. | Yes, after the local model download. |
| AI summaries and action items | Blends the transcript with your typed notes into AI-enhanced summaries, with templates, live transcript view, and chat across meetings. Speaker labels depend on setup and often distinguish only Me and Them. | Provides AI summaries and action items, AskFred Q&A, Live Assist suggestions, speaker recognition, search and analytics, soundbites, and CRM integrations. | None. WhisperJot provides a transcript to review and export. |
| Price | Basic is free. Business is $14/user/month with monthly billing; annual billing is available through sales. Enterprise starts at $35/user/month. | Free is $0. Pro is $10/seat/month billed annually or $18 monthly; Business is $19/seat/month billed annually or $29 monthly; Enterprise is $39/seat/month with annual billing. | $99/year with no per-minute or storage caps; meetings can last up to six hours. |
| Free tier | Basic provides unlimited meeting notes, but history access is limited to the last 30 days. Older notes remain stored and become accessible again after upgrading. | Free includes unlimited transcription, limited AI credits, and 400 minutes of storage per team; published limits can change. Pro includes 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, while Business includes unlimited storage. | No free tier; a 30-second browser demo is available. |
| What happens to your audio | Meeting audio is not retained after cloud transcription, so post-meeting playback is unavailable. Transcripts are encrypted in a US-hosted AWS environment. Granola trains on anonymized data by default for non-Enterprise users, with a Settings opt-out. | Fireflies says it does not use personal information for AI model training and contractually prohibits vendors from doing so, with zero-day vendor retention for meeting data. Transcripts are deletable anytime and encrypted at rest. Enterprise adds a healthcare compliance option and private storage. | Audio stays on your machine, with configurable retention that defaults to 90 days. Optional cloud library sync includes text, titles, and timestamps, never audio. |
You want botless capture with no in-call participant and no calendar auto-join.
You want summaries that blend the transcript with notes you type during the meeting.
You want Basic free with unlimited notes and 30-day history access.
You want a visible bot in Zoom, Meet, Teams, or Webex, or bot-free system-audio tools.
You want AskFred Q&A, Live Assist, speaker recognition, and CRM integrations.
You want a free plan with unlimited transcription and 400 minutes of storage per team.
You want on-device transcripts from meetings you can hear, with audio kept on disk.
You want $99/year with no minute caps and system-wide dictation included.
You do not need a meeting bot, AI summaries, action items, or speaker labels.
Granola can capture both microphone and system audio without a bot, so it can capture every participant in a remote video call in a way WhisperJot cannot. It then blends typed notes with the transcript into useful AI-enhanced summaries and offers templates, cross-meeting chat, shared folders, integrations, and an API on Business. Audio is not stored after processing, and its providers are contractually barred from training on user data. Because capture has no in-call indicator, the user remains responsible for appropriate consent.
Fireflies can capture every participant in remote video calls through its visible bot or bot-free desktop and Chrome system-audio options, which WhisperJot cannot do. Its meeting workflow adds speaker recognition, summaries, action items, Q&A, real-time suggestions, search, analytics, soundbites, and broad CRM integrations. Fireflies also says neither it nor its vendors use personal information for model training, and Enterprise adds private storage and a healthcare compliance option.
Granola captures microphone and system audio through its desktop or mobile app, so it does not add a participant; the user starts recording manually. Fireflies primarily joins as a visible Fireflies.ai Notetaker, though it also offers a Google Meet Chrome extension, desktop system-audio capture, and mobile recording that do not add a participant. WhisperJot never joins a call.
Granola captures audio on the device, then passes it to cloud transcription providers, and it does not document an offline mode. Fireflies documents cloud processing and does not document an offline mode. WhisperJot's meeting feature uses local transcription engines, works offline after the model download, and never streams meeting audio to the cloud.
Yes. Granola captures microphone and system audio, which lets it cover every participant in a remote video call. Fireflies can capture every remote participant with its meeting bot or bot-free system-audio options. WhisperJot, our app, captures microphone audio only, so it fits in-person meetings, interviews, lectures, and your side of calls.
Granola Basic is free with unlimited meeting notes and access to the most recent 30 days of history; older notes return after you upgrade. Fireflies has a free plan with unlimited transcription, limited AI credits, and 400 minutes of storage per team; published limits can change. WhisperJot has no free tier. Its $99 annual plan has no per-minute or storage caps and includes system-wide dictation.
See the full WhisperJot comparison with Granola or Fireflies.ai. For a three-way table, visit the dictation app comparison.
Sources, checked August 24, 2026: Granola, Granola pricing, Granola security, Granola transcription docs, Fireflies pricing, Fireflies privacy policy, Fireflies security, How Fireflies joins meetings (FAQ). Pricing and features change — check each vendor's site for the current numbers.
Use local transcription by default, or explicitly opt in to Jot Cloud when you select it.
