Granola AI Tutorial & Walkthrough (2026)

In the productivity space, there's almost a must-have tool now, and it is the AI Noteaker.

There are so many of them, so many that I have no time to review them all. They all do a relatively similar job with some differences between them. Some of them are better at security, some of them are better at the AI chat abilities, but there's such a range of them that has almost become a must-have for your daily productivity if you have a lot of meetings and your company is okay with

it. Now, today I'm taking a look at Granola. Yes, these apps are getting wilder with their names.

it. Now, today I'm taking a look at Granola. Yes, these apps are getting wilder with their names.

You've got Granola, Bento, loads of apps like that that just have these weird and wacky names, but I want to give you an idea of whether Granola is a good app, take you around it, and show you about to see whether it's worth it for you. So, as you can see here, Granola is available for free on Mac and iPhone. You can find it linked below if you're interested, but the app is designed

around trying to save everything that is meeting related. Now, you can use this for personal or work and it has a few abilities. Now, on the free plan, just be aware there are some limitations.

14 days of meeting history and then there's no limitations on the amount of plans, I think, but you have unlimited meeting notes and history. They're very obscure about what that means. But if

you want to go to that next level for individuals or small teams, it's $14 with integrations with the following that are on screen now. So, what's the feature that makes Granola a little bit special? Well, basically, this app does a few things differently. The first off is that it it

special? Well, basically, this app does a few things differently. The first off is that it it records in the background without the need for a meeting bot to join. Some people like that because it gives them the freedom to it, but obviously you do have to disclose it in meetings. I always

say disclose it. I think it's just a healthy thing to do. But at the same time, it allows you to record without having that awkward extra bot join the call, which some people do like, some people don't like. It's really dependent on what the setup is. But what's nice as well is it records your local storage of your sound as well, which is helpful, and obviously their end as well.

So once you've got set up, you can literally start recording any meeting cuz you connected it to your calendar. Now, what's nice about this is it plugs in and you can still say take notes at the same time. Many of the others do, but this was sort of Granola's special source or special I don't know what the granola thing is. Anyway, it allows you to take meeting notes at the same time,

which means it compares those with what you've got from the transcription, making a better structure of your meeting note. So, here's one I created earlier, and you can see you can share the transcript. And what's new down at the bottom is something called AI chat. They added

that fairly recently, but basically, it's quite nice because there's things called recipes added, following on for that foodie type theme. Recipes are basically ways to build on or grow from your transcript. So for example, if you want somebody to you want to use a recipe for creating a linear

transcript. So for example, if you want somebody to you want to use a recipe for creating a linear ticket that has been created by Vicki, then what you're going to do is click that button and it's going to generate it into what is best suited for those who are using linear. So you can use these longer. For example, if you want to write TLDDR, you can also choose a range of them like create

longer. For example, if you want to write TLDDR, you can also choose a range of them like create a help document from this. And it really depends on what you need, which is a really nice touch to turning your notes that are from AI meetings into something more useful pretty instantaneously. So

there's a whole section here about recipes and there's even ones like will it go viral or coach me Matt which helps you to break down topics that are within your meeting to give you an idea of how to do better. So maybe you record all your sales in here. Then basically it's going to help you to compound those and work out what problems you're making in the call and to be able to improve that

uh obviously for you. So you need to browse that and see which ones are right for you. But actually

quite a decent feature. So the chat feature that I talked about a moment ago is quite a good one because you can have a conversation with that particular chat asking it particular questions.

Um, you can do that during the meeting, after the meeting, and before the meeting apparently, which does help you to form a better idea of what you're working on. So, did I mention this? In

the meeting, while you're in the meeting could be helpful before you end the call to be able to get an answer. Inside of the workspace, you can create something called um these sort of like folders

an answer. Inside of the workspace, you can create something called um these sort of like folders where you essentially can use these for user interviews, meetings, sales calls, and then it's compiling types of sections. And then that allows you to add files which could be more useful for later. It adds context to the chat feature. So for example, if you're doing loads of sales call and

later. It adds context to the chat feature. So for example, if you're doing loads of sales call and then you wanted to add your document for pitching your product or something like that or some of the product outlines, making sure that you're using the chat to then prompt whether you did better or not, then that could be quite helpful. Granola have this app. It's an iOS app. They don't have an

Android one. Basically, I've tried this before. If you're doing an IRL meeting, even if it's offline,

Android one. Basically, I've tried this before. If you're doing an IRL meeting, even if it's offline, you can go and bring it along with you and then obviously it records both sides of the meeting, which is perfect. Now, what's really nice about this one is it comes up on your live activities.

I quite like it cuz you just press a button and it press start granola and it starts recording, which is helpful just to get start taking notes. And you can even use it on your own to take notes, then use the AI to compound them, which is again a helpful feature. So, you're probably wondering, what does Granola do that the others don't? Well, to be honest, there's not a massive deal,

but they do have some integrations with other partners like Notion, Slack, HubSpot, Affinity, and Zapia. Most of the others do, but here's what I think it does slightly better from looking at

and Zapia. Most of the others do, but here's what I think it does slightly better from looking at some of the other ones. It's recipes, which are the chatbased stuff. They have loads of community orientated ones that are actually built by people in the startup space. So,

if you're running a startup or a founder or even an individual building a company, then you'll find this one better. I like the files ability to asking adding context to each of the different folders that you do have. That feels nice. And obviously, they do pride themselves on having a solid iPhone app, which does work very well, and the ability to record locally as well

to your device. So, that's what I would say is probably the differences between the others. At

the same time, I think it's obviously designed for iOS and Mac, and it's really designed for small teams or founders looking to really take the weight off their meetings. I think these days, if you don't have an AI meeting noteaker, and you take more than two meetings a day, then it's almost like a big upgrade for you. At this point, it's almost like, why haven't you got one? Um,

cuz it seems like the default these days. So, I would highly recommend it if you haven't. And if

you're still in that search for them, I've got a great video on AI meeting notetakers that just outlines a fair of them and just dives into what they slightly do differently. Or you can jump over to toolfinder.co to explore loads more tools over on there. Anyway, Granola, check it out. I'll put

the link in description and you can check out more if you're interested. Cheerio for now.