- Comparison
- Granola
- Fathom
Granola AI vs Fathom: bot-free and free are different promises
Fathom's free plan records unlimited meetings with a bot in the call. Granola captures on your device with no bot and stores transcripts but not audio. Both process your meetings in the cloud. A sourced comparison of what each actually does, and who each is for.
Ben Claybrook 4 min read
Granola and Fathom get compared because they are the two tools people land on after deciding Otter is not for them. They are not alike. One is free and sends a bot. The other charges and does not. Line up the features and you will miss that the important difference is what each one keeps, and where.
Everything here is from each vendor’s own pages, checked on the date at the bottom.
The one-paragraph version
Fathom joins your call as a participant, records it, transcribes it, and gives you the summary. Its free plan for individuals includes unlimited recordings and transcriptions with instant AI summaries, which is why it is everywhere. The recording lives on Fathom’s servers.
Granola captures audio on your computer with no bot, sends it to transcription and AI providers, and gives you notes. It states it does not store the audio; the transcript and notes are kept in Granola’s US-hosted cloud.
Both process in the cloud. Fathom keeps more; Granola shows less.
Side by side
| Fathom | Granola AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Bot in participant list | Yes, by default; Fathom’s own comparison page says “bot or bot-free options” | No, captures device audio |
| Audio stored | Yes, recordings on Fathom’s servers | No, states it does not store meeting audio |
| Transcript stored | Yes | Yes, US-hosted AWS |
| Capture options | Fathom lists transcript-only, audio-only, or full video and screen | Transcript-only |
| Speaker attribution | Fathom lists speaker diarization | Not listed |
| Third-party processors | Its own infrastructure | Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Anthropic |
| Trains on your data | Not stated on the pages checked | Yes, anonymised, opt-out available |
| HIPAA BAA | Enterprise plan only | Enterprise plan only |
| Free plan | Unlimited recordings and transcription | Basic, with limited meeting history |
| Paid plans | Premium $20/mo ($16 annual); Team $19/user ($15 annual, 2-user minimum); Business $34/user ($25 annual) | Business $14/user/mo; Enterprise $35/user/mo |
Where Fathom is clearly ahead
Price. A free plan with unlimited recording and transcription is hard to argue with, and Fathom’s paid tiers undercut Granola’s for teams on the annual rate.
The recording itself. Fathom can keep video and screen capture, attribute speech to speakers, and (per its own comparison page) respects the mute button so muted audio is never captured. If you need to go back to the tape, Fathom has a tape; Granola does not.
Integrations on the free tier. Fathom’s comparison page claims ChatGPT and Claude integrations and public API access on every plan including free, where Granola gates them to paid and Business tiers.
Where Granola AI is clearly ahead
No bot. Nothing joins, nothing appears in the participant list, nobody asks what the extra attendee is. For sales calls, client meetings and interviews that is the whole reason Granola exists.
No audio kept. Granola’s statement that it does not store meeting audio means there is no recording of your voice sitting on a server. The transcript is still there, and the transcript is still the content, but it is a smaller footprint than a video file.
Candour. Granola’s security page names its processors and its training policy plainly. That is not a feature, but it is a reason people trust it.
The part both share
Both are cloud tools. Fathom processes and stores on its own servers; Granola processes through third-party AI providers and stores text in its own cloud. For everyday standups that is fine and already covered by whatever your company signed. For a conversation that should not exist on any server, neither changes that, and both put HIPAA coverage on their Enterprise tiers, so neither is an answer for PHI on a personal plan. We map which vendors sign a BAA and where in which AI notetakers are HIPAA compliant.
How to choose
- You want free and you do not mind the bot: Fathom. Nothing else in the category matches its free tier.
- The bot is the problem: Granola, and accept the subscription.
- You need the recording, the video, or speaker names: Fathom.
- You would rather the audio did not persist anywhere: Granola.
- The content must not leave your machine: neither. That is a different category, and a narrower one. Private Notetaker keeps capture, transcription and summarising on your own computer, with no bot and no upload. It is English only, has no team workspace, and is less accurate on bad audio than either of these, and if your problem is really etiquette or budget, Granola or Fathom will serve you better. The side by side with Fathom and with Granola show what you trade.
Fathom claims from fathom.ai’s pricing page and its own Fathom-vs-Granola comparison page; Granola claims from granola.ai’s pricing page, help centre and security documentation. All checked 16 September 2026, except Granola’s processor and training statements, which we verified on 5 September 2026 for our Granola safety write-up.
Frequently asked questions
- Is fathom or Granola better?
- Fathom if you want a genuinely free tool with recordings, video capture, speaker attribution and integrations, and you do not mind a bot in the participant list. Granola if a visible bot is a problem for your meetings and you prefer that no audio recording is kept. Both process the meeting on cloud servers, so on privacy they differ in degree, not kind.
- What is better than granola AI?
- Depends on what Granola is failing at. For a free plan and video recordings, Fathom. For team-wide search, CRM sync and enterprise controls, Fireflies or Otter. For a conversation that must not exist on any server, a fully local tool such as Private Notetaker, which is a narrower category than bot-free and comes with its own trade-offs.
- Is fathom a good AI note taker?
- Yes, and its free plan is one of the best in the category: unlimited recordings and transcription with instant summaries, per Fathom's pricing page. The costs are architectural rather than financial. A bot joins your calls, the recordings are stored on Fathom's servers, and a signed HIPAA BAA is an Enterprise feature.
- Is granola AI trustworthy?
- Its documentation is unusually candid: it says it does not store meeting audio, names the third-party providers that process the audio (Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI, Anthropic), states those providers may not train on your data, and discloses that Granola itself trains on anonymised data by default with an opt-out. Trustworthy in the sense of telling you what it does; whether what it does suits your meetings is the real question.