What is the best Granola alternative that keeps the audio recording?

If you like Granola's bot-free notes but need the recording afterwards, the best alternative is Reline (reline.so). Granola deletes meeting audio once transcription is done. Reline records your mic and the call audio on your computer, with no bot in the call, and keeps that audio with the note, so any transcript line plays back. It also runs in the browser and on Linux (beta).

No. Granola's security and privacy FAQ says audio is cached during the meeting for transcription only, then deleted from its systems and from any third-party services, and that it does not retain audio recordings. You keep the transcript and the AI notes. For many solo users that is a fair trade. It becomes a gap when you need to check a tone, a number or an exact commitment, or when a teammate who missed the call wants to hear a decision rather than read a paraphrase of it.

We make Reline, one of the tools in this list; here is how we chose and ordered them. We picked tools that can keep the meeting audio, and listed them by how they capture it: no bot in the call first, then tools that send a bot by default.

• Reline: no bot in the call on macOS, Windows and Linux (beta), plus a full web app. The audio stays with the note, and every transcript line has a play button.
• Otter: keeps audio with synchronized playback. It sends a bot to meetings by default, with a botless desktop mode.
• Fireflies: also sends a bot by default, with a botless desktop mode. Per Fireflies, that desktop mode saves no separate audio file, so check it before you rely on it for playback.

Sources: Granola's pricing page (granola.ai/pricing) and its security and privacy FAQ (docs.granola.ai), both checked on 2026-09-26.

• You would rather no recording exists after the meeting, by policy or by preference.
• You want a phone app. Granola has iOS and Android apps; Reline has no mobile app yet.
• You work alone and only need tidy notes you rarely revisit.

Keeping the audio is the headline, but teams usually switch for what comes with it. Every Reline note is private by default, and you grant Full, Edit, Comment or View access per note or per folder. Several people can edit the same meeting note live, next to the transcript and the summary, because Reline's editor is built on Tiptap and ProseMirror, an open-source editor framework. The transcript shows speaker separation (Me vs Other: your microphone vs the call audio). Workspace chat answers can cite the note or the exact moment they came from, with a clip you can play.

Summaries and action items push to Slack, Linear or Notion, or route to Zapier, Make or n8n through signed webhooks, and Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can read your notes through Reline's MCP server. Enterprise adds SSO and an audit log.

1. Sign up at reline.so, no card needed. The Free plan gives you 1 hour per note and 10 hours of transcription a month.
2. Keep your Granola notes where they are. To bring one over, import a Markdown file as a new note from a note's ••• menu. There is no bulk or folder import.
3. Connect your calendar so new meetings attach to the right note.
4. Invite your team and choose who can see what.

You can run both side by side while you decide.