When should I choose Glimpse over Granola?

Choose Glimpse if: Your meeting audio never leaves your computer. Transcription and speaker labels work offline. You want to keep the recording and play it back, with your mic and the call on separate tracks. You want to record only the apps you pick, not everything playing on your computer. A one-time license instead of a monthly plan, with free, unlimited dictation in the same app. You want to read the code. Glimpse is open source.

When should I choose Granola over Glimpse?

Choose Granola if: You want polished AI notes that build on what you jot down during the call. You want templates, team folders, and integrations like Notion, HubSpot or Zapier. You want an app on your phone too. You'd rather no audio is kept at all once the meeting is transcribed.

Glimpse vs Granola

Neither one puts a bot in your call. Granola sends the audio to cloud transcription providers and turns it into AI meeting notes. Glimpse transcribes on your own computer, works offline, keeps the recording, and labels speakers locally. You get a transcript, not AI notes.

Last updated October 5, 2026

The short answer

Pick Granola if

You want polished AI notes that build on what you jot down during the call.
You want templates, team folders, and integrations like Notion, HubSpot or Zapier.
You want an app on your phone too.
You'd rather no audio is kept at all once the meeting is transcribed.

Pick Glimpse if

Your meeting audio never leaves your computer. Transcription and speaker labels work offline.
You want to keep the recording and play it back, with your mic and the call on separate tracks.
You want to record only the apps you pick, not everything playing on your computer.
A one-time license instead of a monthly plan, with free, unlimited dictation in the same app.
You want to read the code. Glimpse is open source.

Side by side

Feature	Glimpse	Granola
Price	Free dictationRecording from $25 one-time	Free + paid plansBusiness $14 per user a month
Free tier	Unlimited dictationtwo-week free trial of recording	Basic planlimited meeting history
Where meetings are transcribed	On your computercloud only if you add your own key	In the cloudproviders like Deepgram and AssemblyAI
Works offline	Yesrecording, transcription and speakers	No
Bot in the call	Neverrecords your computer's audio	Neverrecords your computer's audio
Record only some apps	Yesor your whole computer	Nocaptures all system audio
Speaker labels	Yes, on-deviceNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Diarization, up to 8	Partlynames from Zoom, Meet or Teams, otherwise me and them
Keeps the audio	Yes, on your computeryour mic and the call on separate tracks	Nodeleted after transcription
AI notes and summaries	Noexport Markdown to the AI tool you like	Yes
Dictation in any app	Yes, freeevery model, no limits	No
Open source	Yes, AGPL-3.0audit it on GitHub	No
Runs on	Mac, Windows	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

In detail

Same idea, different destination

Granola and Glimpse both record your computer's audio, so no bot joins and nobody gets an invite from a notetaker. The difference is where that audio goes next. Granola streams it to cloud transcription providers, like Deepgram and AssemblyAI, then uses AI providers like OpenAI and Anthropic to write your notes, which are stored in its cloud. Glimpse transcribes on your computer with local models like Parakeet and Whisper, and nothing is uploaded unless you choose a cloud provider with your own key. It works with the wifi off.

Real speaker detection

Granola tags speakers by their display name in Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, and otherwise splits the transcript into you and them. Glimpse keeps your microphone and the call on separate tracks, then runs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Diarization on your computer to tell up to 8 voices apart, whichever call app you use. Rename, merge or recolor speakers, or move one line to someone else.

A transcript, not meeting notes

Granola is a notepad first. You jot notes during the call and its AI fills them out afterward. Glimpse doesn't write summaries. It gives you the full, speaker-labeled transcript with bookmarks, plus the recording itself, which Granola doesn't keep. Search it, play it back, or export it as text, Markdown, SRT or VTT and hand it to the AI tool you trust. If AI notes are what you want, Granola is the better fit.

Monthly plan vs. one-time license

Granola has a free Basic plan with limited meeting history, and Business is $14 per user a month. Glimpse dictation is free and unlimited, and recording meetings comes with every license: $25 once for 1 device or $39 for up to 3, with a two-week free trial.

Sources checked

Comparison copy was checked against these public sources on October 5, 2026.