Hi, I’m Hoda.
I covered Granola in detail in this article, but a lot of people reasonably wonder: “Do I really need a separate app for this? Doesn’t Zoom already have an AI note feature built in?” And it’s true — Zoom ships a native AI notetaking feature called My Notes.
I use Granola as my main tool day to day, so I’ll say up front where I land: I’m still Team Granola. Here’s the reasoning, based on the actual features and current pricing.
So what’s actually different
- Granola: An independent app that layers on top of any meeting tool — Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and more. It captures your conversation from your mic and system audio.
- My Notes: Zoom’s built-in AI notetaking feature. It covers Zoom Meetings, and Zoom says it also extends to third-party meeting platforms and in-person conversations.
You might think, “If I’m already on Zoom, My Notes should be enough.” But once you look closely at the free-plan limits and platform coverage, the gap turns out to be bigger than it first appears.
Quick comparison
| Granola | Zoom My Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Independent app (works with any meeting tool) | Native Zoom feature |
| Bot joins the call | No (invisible design) | No (built into the Zoom client) |
| Supported platforms | Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and more | Zoom Meetings, plus third-party platforms |
| AI notes on the free plan | Unlimited (but only the last 30 days are viewable) | 3 per month (Workplace Basic) |
| Free-plan meeting limits | None specified | 40 minutes / 100 participants per meeting |
| In-person (offline) conversations | iOS, Android, and Apple Watch apps; no published cap found | Handled via a separate “in-person transcription” feature — free-tier allowance and paid-plan limits are not entirely clear (see note below) |
| AI search across past meetings | Yes (query across every note) | Available, but Zoom’s free plan caps it at a small combined total of files/meetings, and even paid tiers center on Zoom-ecosystem data |
| Paid plan, roughly | Business: from $14/user/month | My Notes via paid Workplace or the standalone AI add-on: roughly $8–10/user/month. ZoomMate (a separate, newer product — see note below): about $20/user/month |
| Data handling | Designed not to store the audio itself | States it does not use audio/video/chat content to train Zoom’s or third-party AI models |
The free plans aren’t close
This is the difference that’s easiest to feel day to day.
On Workplace Basic (Zoom’s free plan), AI note creation, meeting summaries, and in-meeting questions are all capped at 3 per month. Meetings themselves are also limited to 40 minutes and 100 participants — though that’s a general Zoom Basic constraint rather than something specific to My Notes.
Granola’s free “Basic” plan, by contrast, doesn’t cap how many AI notes you can create — the limit is on how far back you can see: notes older than 30 days become hidden until you upgrade (more detail in the Granola pricing guide). If you only need this occasionally, My Notes’ 3-per-month might be plenty. But for anyone in calls or meetings most days, that gap adds up fast.
Granola has the edge for in-person conversations
Zoom also offers “in-person transcription” for offline conversations, but it’s handled as a feature separate from My Notes’ meeting summaries, and the published usage limits for it aren’t entirely consistent across sources.
Granola, through its iOS, Android, and Apple Watch apps, lets you capture in-person meetings and conversations on the go with roughly the same experience as an online call. As of this writing, Granola doesn’t publish an explicit cap on how many in-person notes you can take.
If your work mixes online Zoom meetings with a lot of face-to-face conversations, this difference shows up directly in how useful the tool feels day to day.
Looking back across past meetings
Ask Granola’s AI chat something like “what do I need to follow up on this week?” and it searches across every past meeting to answer.
My Notes also offers AI-powered querying and search, but Zoom’s own documentation caps the free plan at a combined total of around 10 files / 3 meetings, and even on paid plans the search scope centers on data inside the Zoom ecosystem. If all your meetings happen on Zoom, that’s plenty. If you also use Google Meet or Teams and want to search across all of them in one place, Granola is the more practical choice.
On price, My Notes is actually the cheaper option
This part deserves to be said plainly, in fairness.
My Notes itself — accessed through a paid Zoom Workplace plan or Zoom’s standalone AI add-on — runs roughly $8–10 per user per month, which isn’t more expensive than Granola’s paid Business plan ($14/user/month). If you’re already paying for Zoom Workplace, adding My Notes at a low incremental cost is a genuine strength.
That said, this price specifically reflects “adding AI on top of an existing Zoom account.” If you’re not on Zoom at all, or your team mainly meets on Google Meet or Teams, this price advantage doesn’t apply to you.
On data handling
Zoom states publicly that it does not use audio, video, chat, screen-sharing, or similar customer content to train Zoom’s or third-party AI models. That should be reassuring if you’re already comfortable with Zoom generally.
Granola takes a different approach: it’s designed not to store the audio itself in the first place. Different methods, but both are responding to the same underlying concern — not wanting your conversations used to train AI without your say-so.
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AI note creation has no cap, so you can use it freely for everyday meetings
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Works the same way across Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and in-person conversations
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Ask AI questions across every past meeting, not just one
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iOS, Android, and Apple Watch apps cover in-person and on-the-go conversations
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If you're already paying for Zoom Workplace, My Notes is the cheaper add-on
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No video recording — audio-only notes may feel limiting for some use cases
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Supported on Windows/Mac/iOS/Android only — no browser-only option like Zoom
Which one should you pick
- You only meet on Zoom, and you’re already paying for Zoom Workplace → My Notes is a genuinely solid option
- You use other meeting tools too, have a lot of in-person conversations, or are in back-to-back meetings most days → Granola has the edge
Bottom line
If you’re already paying for Zoom, My Notes is the more budget-friendly option to bolt on — that much is true. But factor in the free tier’s 3-per-month cap, the separate and less clear-cut limits on in-person capture, and a search scope that’s centered on the Zoom ecosystem, and for anyone with a lot of meetings and conversations, I’ve found Granola — which works the same way across any platform with no note-count cap — holds up better in daily use.
I’d recommend trying Granola’s free plan first and seeing how it feels in your own meetings. Sign up through the link below and you’ll get a free first month if you decide to upgrade to a paid plan.
For more on Granola’s features and multi-language support — Japanese included, alongside several other languages — see our full Granola review; for pricing details, see the pricing guide.
