Listenr vs Granola
Pick Listenr if you want the transcription done on your Mac and want to choose the model that writes the notes, including one running locally or one billed to your own API key. Pick Granola if you also work on Windows or a phone, or want the cheaper seat. Both record from your computer with no bot in the call; the difference is that Granola sends the audio to a transcription provider it does not name.
| Feature | Listenr | Granola |
|---|---|---|
| Does a bot join the call | No, capture is from the Mac | No, capture is from the device |
| Where your audio is transcribed | On the Mac by default; four of five backends are offline | At a third-party transcription provider |
| Who writes the notes | A local model, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud | Granola picks the notes model; Business can pick a model for chat; no API key |
| Speaker names | Zoom app (opt-in), Google Meet (Listenr extension) and Teams | Read from Google Meet, Zoom and Teams on macOS and Windows |
| Devices you can use it on | macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon | macOS, Windows, iPhone, Android, Apple Watch |
| Reading notes away from the Mac | The Mac app; only a shared meeting has a web page | A web interface, though it cannot record or transcribe |
| Price | Pro $19/month, or $15/month billed yearly | Business $14/user/month, Enterprise $35/user/month |
| What the free plan gives you | Recording, transcription and notes from a local model or your own key; personal use only | 30 days of meeting history |
| Is your content used for training | Local models send nothing; Listenr Cloud stores no transcript | De-identified data trains its models, opt-out on every plan |
| Getting at meetings from a terminal or an assistant | CLI and local MCP server on every plan, read-only by default | MCP with per-user OAuth; API from Business up |
| Where the recording ends up | Deleted after transcription unless you keep it; kept files stay on the Mac | Audio not retained after transcription, notes in a US AWS VPC |
Both apps record from your computer and neither puts a bot in the call. The difference is what happens to the audio next. Granola sends it to a transcription provider it does not name. Listenr transcribes it on the Mac and lets you pick the model that writes the notes. If sending meeting audio to a cloud service is fine for your work, Granola is the more complete product.
Where does your audio go?
Granola’s documentation says it “passes audio directly from your microphone and system audio to our transcription provider”, and its privacy policy, effective 8 September 2026, says: “We do not retain or store such recordings once the transcription is created.” You are trusting the transit and the processing, not a stored archive.
Listenr’s default backend is Apple’s on-device engine, which transcribes in one language you set. Parakeet, a download you choose in Settings, adds 25 European languages with detection. Four of the five backends run on the Mac; the fifth, OpenAI’s cloud transcription, only receives audio if you select it.
Who writes the notes
Granola chooses the notes model for you. Its Business plan lists “advanced AI thinking models and features” and lets you pick a model for AI chat, but there is no way to supply your own key.
Listenr asks which model writes the notes: a model running on the Mac, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud on Pro. The first two make no network call. Your own key sends the prompt from your Mac straight to that provider and bills you for the tokens.
Speaker names
Both name speakers on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Granola reads participant names and active-speaker data from all three in its desktop app, on macOS and Windows, and on Meet it works through Chrome accessibility or its optional extension.
Listenr separates the voices on the Mac and names them in three places: the Zoom desktop app through macOS Accessibility (a setting, off by default), Google Meet through the Listenr browser extension for Chrome, Brave, Edge, Arc and Safari, and Microsoft Teams. Zoom in a browser and other apps show Speaker 1, Speaker 2.
What can you do with a meeting a month later?
Listenr’s meetings are a SQLite database and files on your own disk, so a terminal can search all of them:
listenr search "budget review" --since 30d --language de
Granola has MCP too, per user over OAuth, and an API from the Business plan up. The difference is where the reading happens. Listenr’s command line tool and MCP server run on your Mac against your own database, on every plan including the free one, so Claude Desktop can answer “what did this customer object to last quarter” signed out and offline. More in meetings your scripts can read.
Reading notes away from the Mac
Granola gives you a web interface for reading notes. A Listenr meeting has no web page until you share it, a Pro feature that uploads a copy and mints a public link. That link has no expiry and no revoke command; deleting the uploaded copy is how you take it down. What leaves your Mac covers the details.
Where Granola is the better choice
Reach. Granola runs on macOS, Windows, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch, with a web interface for reading notes. Listenr is a Mac app and nothing else.
Training policy. Granola’s privacy policy says: “We only use de-identified data to train AI models, which you can opt-out of within your Granola account settings,” and “We do not allow third parties such as OpenAI or Anthropic to use your Personal Data to train AI models.” Enterprise workspaces are opted out by default.
Price. Granola Business costs less per seat than Listenr Pro; the table above has both.
Pick Listenr when
You work on a Mac and would rather the transcription happened on it than at a provider Granola does not name, or you want to choose the model that writes the notes and pay for the tokens yourself.
Pick Granola when
Take Granola if Windows, Android or an iPhone are part of your week, or if the cheaper seat decides it for your team. Its training opt-out also reaches free users.
Common questions
What is a good Granola alternative for Mac?
Listenr is the closest Granola alternative if you want the transcription to stay on your Mac. Like Granola it records from the computer with no bot in the call, but its default transcription runs on Apple’s on-device engine, and you choose the model that writes the notes, including a local one or your own API key. It runs only on macOS 15 or later on Apple Silicon.
Does Granola put a bot in the meeting?
No. Granola’s documentation says it passes audio from your microphone and system audio directly to its transcription provider, so nothing joins the call as a participant. Listenr also records from the Mac itself. Neither tool announces itself to the other people on the call.
Does Granola transcribe on my device?
No. Granola captures the audio on your device and sends it to a third-party transcription provider, which it does not name, and its privacy policy says the recordings are not retained once the transcription is created. Listenr’s default transcription backend is Apple’s on-device engine, and four of its five backends run on the Mac.
Can I use my own Anthropic or OpenAI key with Granola?
No. Granola chooses the model that writes the notes, and its Business plan adds model selection for AI chat only. Listenr lets you pick a model running on the Mac, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud, the model Listenr hosts.
Which shows speaker names on more meeting apps, Listenr or Granola?
They cover the same three: Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Granola reads names in its desktop app on macOS and Windows. Listenr separates the voices on the Mac and names them in the Zoom desktop app (a setting, off by default), in Google Meet through its own browser extension, and in Microsoft Teams.
Which is cheaper, Listenr or Granola?
Granola, on list price. Granola Business is $14 per user per month and Enterprise is $35, which is less than Listenr Pro per month. Both have a free tier: Granola’s keeps 30 days of history, and Listenr’s is unlimited but licensed for personal use.
Try it against your own meetings.
The free plan records, transcribes and writes notes with a model on your Mac. No account needed to find out whether the transcript is good enough.