COMPARISONEvery claim sourced · verified Jun 2026

Granola vs Krisp: the honest comparison.

Granola is the cleaner meeting-notes pick. Krisp is the call-audio and noise-cancellation pick. Ottex is ours: a Mac/iOS option for dictation, meetings, files, and finished written work.

Ottex

Mac, iOS · Free tier · $14/mo · PAYG

Ottex is unusually broad for a young Mac/iOS-first tool: it turns dictation and meetings into emails, tickets, CRM updates, notes, and docs, but it is not the pick if you need Windows, Android, web, browser extension, or compliance paperwork.

Choose if

You want one tool for system-wide dictation, meeting recording, and finished written outcomes like follow-up emails, Linear tickets, CRM updates, PRDs, and docs
You want a real free path: unlimited local dictation, file transcription, and meetings on Mac with Whisper/Parakeet, or BYOK instead of a forced subscription
You need multilingual dictation with 100+ languages, auto-detection, mixed-language speech, personal vocabulary, and per-app output rules

Look elsewhere if

You need Windows, Android, Linux, web access, or a browser extension
You need mature team infrastructure such as a shared workspace, API/webhooks, third-party note destinations, or assistant chat over transcripts today.

Granola

Mac, Windows, iOS, Android · Limited free · $18/mo

Granola is a strong bot-free meeting notes tool with polished AI summaries and team memory, but it is not a general dictation or file-transcription app.

Choose if

You want bot-free meeting capture that records from your mic and computer audio without joining calls.
You want AI meeting notes shaped by your own notes, with action items, decisions, follow-up emails, and reusable prompts.
You want a team meeting memory with shared workspaces, folders, cross-meeting Q&A, and Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar support.

Look elsewhere if

You need system-wide dictation, hotkeys, voice commands, auto-formatting, snippets, or text insertion into other apps.
You need imported audio or video file transcription, batch processing, timestamps, or export controls with public vendor claims behind them.

Krisp

Mac, Windows, Android, Web · Limited free · $16/mo

Krisp is strongest as a noise-cancelling meeting assistant with solid notes, summaries, and compliance signals, but it is not a live dictation tool for writing across apps.

Choose if

You want bot-free meeting recording and transcription on macOS or Windows, with noise cancellation as a core part of the workflow.
You spend a lot of time in calls and want summaries, action items, speaker identification, decisions, and chat across past meetings.
You need team or enterprise controls such as SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, encryption at rest, and SSO/SCIM on Enterprise.

Look elsewhere if

You need system-wide live dictation, hotkey-triggered insertion, voice commands, snippets, or per-app writing rules.
You want a local/offline transcription setup; Krisp’s noise cancellation is on-device, but meeting recordings and notes use cloud services broadly speaking.

The evidence

What actually differs, claim by claim.

Each section opens with the takeaway. The table underneath is the receipt — every cell carries its source and the date we checked it.

Pricing

Ottex wins if Mac/iOS fits: it has free local AI, free BYOK, $0.2/hour PAYG, and Pro at $14/mo. Krisp is the cheapest paid subscription between the compared pair at $16/mo, with a free tier capped at 60 min/day noise cancellation, 2 meetings/day notes, and 60 min/day transcription. Granola is simpler but pricier at $18/seat/mo after a free 25 meetings/month Basic plan.

See the evidence — 13 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Granola	Krisp
Free tier	YesWhisper & Parakeet run on your Mac. Dictation and meetings, $0.	Partial25 meetings/month	Partial60 min/day noise cancellation; 2 meetings/day to take notes; 60 min/day transcription; 10 min/day accent conversion
Subscription	$14/mo$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.	$18/moBusiness is $18 per member/month or $14 per member/month billed annually.	$16/moPro is priced at $16 monthly or $8/month billed yearly.
Pay-as-you-go / one-timeEscape the flat subscription	$0.2/hourHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).	NoSubscription only	NoSubscription only
Bring your own keyPay the model provider, not the middleman	YesOpenRouter, Google AI, OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, and compatible providers.	No public claim	NoNo bring-your-own-model-key support is published.
Education discount	NoSame pricing for everyone.	No public claim	YesStudents, teachers, faculty, and staff can apply for a 50% education discount.

Platforms

Granola has the broadest app coverage across the trio with Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. Krisp covers Mac, Windows, Android, and Web, so it beats Granola for web access but loses iOS. Ottex is the clear platform loser if you need Windows, Android, Linux, or web because it is Mac and iOS only.

See the evidence — 4 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Granola	Krisp
Platforms	Mac, iOS	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android	Mac, Windows, Android, Web
Native app footprintLight on memory, instant to invoke	YesNative Swift app, ~50MB RAM.	No public claim	No public claim

Meetings & team memory

Granola wins for bot-free meeting capture and team memory: it records from mic and computer audio without joining calls, then organizes shared workspaces, folders, and cross-meeting Q&A. Krisp also supports bot-free meeting recording and transcription on macOS and Windows, and adds noise cancellation as its core strength. Ottex covers meetings too, but the notes flag its team infrastructure is less mature today.

See the evidence — 17 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Granola	Krisp
Meeting recordingThe call is captured at all	YesWith speaker separation.	YesGranola records and transcribes meetings without joining as a bot.	YesKrisp can record and transcribe online and in-person meetings.
Bot-free captureNo "recording bot" joins your call	YesSystem-audio capture, no bot joins the call.	YesGranola does not send a bot to meetings.	YesThe desktop app can record and transcribe meetings without adding a bot to the call.
Speaker separation	Yes	No public claim	YesKrisp supports speaker identification for meeting transcripts.
Calendar detection	YesCalendar-based meeting detection.	YesGranola surfaces calendar events and can start notes from upcoming meetings.	YesKrisp detects meetings from the desktop app and prompts to record or transcribe.
Cross-meeting search	Yes	YesAsk Granola can answer across past meetings.	YesKrisp AI Chat can answer questions across Krisp meetings.
Shared team memory	PartialPublic share links, not a full team workspace.	YesBusiness workspaces include shared notes and folders for teams.	PartialMeeting notes can be shared, but no persistent team memory model is publicly described.

From meeting to finished work

Granola wins if you want meeting notes shaped by your own notes, with action items, decisions, follow-up emails, reusable prompts, and team memory. Krisp is strong for summaries, action items, speaker identification, decisions, and chat across past meetings, especially when noise cancellation matters. Ottex is the broader finished-work tool because it turns meetings and dictation into follow-up emails, Linear tickets

See the evidence — 9 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Granola	Krisp
Decisions, owners, action itemsLeave the meeting with next steps clear	YesDecisions with owners extracted.	YesGranola can extract decisions from meetings through templates and AI notes.	YesKrisp AI Chat can highlight decisions from meeting content.
Follow-up email draftedThe outcome is sent, not summarized	YesDrafted from templates or your own.	YesRecipes can generate follow-up emails from meetings.	No public claim
CRM update / ticket draft	YesStructured for the target app.	YesGranola lists Attio as an integration for sending meeting notes to CRM records.	No public claim
Your rough notes steer the result	YesRough notes and instructions steer the result.	YesUser notes are used to guide the generated meeting notes.	No public claim

Dictation & transcription AI

Ottex wins dictation AI clearly: Granola and Krisp are not system-wide live dictation tools, while Ottex supports dictation, local models, BYOK, 100+ languages, personal vocabulary, and per-app output rules. Krisp has on-device noise cancellation but not local/offline transcription, and Granola has no local option. Granola and Krisp are meeting tools first; Ottex is the only one of the three built for writing across apps.

See the evidence — 10 claims across 3 toolsverified Jun 2026

	Ottex	Granola	Krisp
Engines	Cloud: Whisper, Gemini 3 Flash, Voxtral. Local: Whisper, Parakeet v3.Hosted routing, BYOK, or fully local.	No public claim	No public claim
Local / on-device optionAudio never leaves the machine	YesWhisper and Parakeet v3 run fully on-device.	NoGranola states it requires an internet connection to transcribe and generate notes.	NoLive system-wide dictation is not a supported feature.
Model selection per task	YesChoose the model per task and per provider.	No public claim	NoNo user-selectable speech recognition model is published for live dictation.
Languages & mixed speechWork that crosses languages mid-sentence	Yes100+ languages · Mid-sentence language switching.	No public claim	No public claim
Per-app output rules	YesPer-app output rules: exact in AI chats, polished in email.	NoNot supported	NoNot supported

Cost

What a year actually costs at your volume.

Personal or team — switch tabs. Subscriptions are flat; usage-based pricing depends on how much you speak and meet.

You dictate about 3 h a week≈ 23,400 words at ~130 wpm

0 h5 h10 h

and sit in 4 h of meetings a weekhours you'd want captured and turned into follow-ups

0 h7.5 h15 h

Fill the gaps with:

Dictation appadded to meetings-only toolsMeetings appadded to dictation-only tools

KrispPro$96/yr$96 + $0Pro is priced at $16 monthly or $8/month billed yearly. · Unlimited noise cancellation; unlimited meetings to take notes; 1200 min/month transcription; 60 min/day accent conversion

OttexOttex Provider — PAYG$135/yrHosted models at cost: dictation ~$0.2/h, meetings ~$0.5/h (~$3/mo average).

OttexPro$168/yr$14/mo — unlimited dictation and meeting intelligence, all hosted models included.

GranolaBusiness$168/yr$168 + $0Business is $18 per member/month or $14 per member/month billed annually. · Unlimited meetings

KrispBusiness$180/yr$180 + $0Business is priced at $30 per user monthly or $15/user/month billed yearly. · Unlimited noise cancellation; unlimited meetings to take notes; unlimited transcription; 60 min/day accent conversion

Estimates, not quotes. Striped bar segments are the cost of the second app you picked above to cover the gap — rankings use that combined total. PAYG and BYOK usage are estimated at provider at-cost rates ($0.2/h dictation, $0.5/h meetings) — bring-your-own-key plans still pay the model provider per use. One-time licenses are amortized over 2 years. Subscriptions use published pricing, checked Jun 2026.

FAQ

Questions people actually ask.

Granola vs Krisp: which should I pick?

Pick Granola if your main job is bot-free meeting notes, shared meeting memory, and follow-up drafts from calls. Pick Krisp if call audio quality, noise cancellation, transcription, and compliance signals matter more. Ottex is the better fit if you want dictation, meetings, files, and finished written outputs in one Mac/iOS tool.

Is Granola free?

Granola has a Basic free plan capped at 25 meetings/month. The paid Business plan is $18/seat/mo for unlimited meetings. For a genuinely free option, consider Ottex: it supports free local AI and free BYOK paths.

Is Krisp free?

Krisp has a limited free plan with 60 min/day noise cancellation, 2 meetings/day notes, 60 min/day transcription, and 10 min/day accent conversion. That is useful for trying the product, but serious usage points to Pro at $16/mo or Business at $30/seat/mo. For a genuinely free option, consider Ottex: it supports free local AI and free BYOK paths.

How much does Granola cost compared with Krisp?

Granola Business is $18/seat/mo after the free 25 meetings/month plan. Krisp Pro is $16/mo with 1200 min/month transcription, while Krisp Business is $30/seat/mo with unlimited transcription. Ottex is cheaper on Mac/iOS at $14/mo Pro, $0.2/hour PAYG, or free with local AI or your own key.

Is Granola or Krisp safer for privacy?

Krisp has the stronger listed enterprise privacy and compliance signals, including SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, encryption at rest, and SSO/SCIM on Enterprise. Granola wins if your privacy concern is avoiding a meeting bot, because it records from your mic and computer audio without joining calls. Ottex is the better fit if local or BYOK processing is the privacy requirement.

Should I switch from Granola to Krisp?

Switch from Granola to Krisp if noise cancellation, macOS or Windows meeting recording, transcription, and compliance controls are the reason you are unhappy. Stay with Granola if your workflow depends on polished AI meeting notes, your own note context, reusable prompts, shared workspaces, folders, and cross-meeting Q&A.

Does Granola or Krisp work on Windows and Android?

Both Granola and Krisp work on Windows and Android. Granola also has iOS, while Krisp adds Web instead. Ottex is not the choice for Windows or Android because it is Mac and iOS only.

More Granola alternatives Krisp icon

More Krisp alternatives