# Minutes vs Granola AI

Last reviewed: 2026-07-10

Granola and Minutes both skip the meeting bot and capture audio locally — but they draw the privacy line in different places. Granola sends that audio to cloud transcription and AI services, then stores your transcripts and notes on its own US servers. Minutes transcribes on your device and writes markdown to your own disk, so nothing leaves your machine. It's the difference between "we delete your audio" and "we never had it."

## Quick verdict

- Choose **Granola AI** if you want a polished, collaborative AI notepad and you're comfortable with cloud transcription and hosted storage on US servers — backed by SOC 2, audio auto-deletion, and no third-party model training.
- Choose **Minutes** if your conversations must never leave your machine — for compliance, client confidentiality, or principle — and you want inspectable files your own agents can read, not a hosted app.

## Where your conversation goes

Both apps capture audio locally and neither drops a bot into your call. The difference is what happens next.

**Granola** (leaves your device): mic capture (on-device) → transcribe in the cloud (Deepgram / AssemblyAI) → enhance notes in the cloud (OpenAI / Anthropic) → store transcripts + notes on Granola's servers (AWS, US only). Audio is deleted after transcription, but the transcripts and notes live in Granola's US cloud; no EU data residency yet.

**Minutes** (stays on device): mic capture (on-device) → transcribe on-device (whisper.cpp / parakeet.cpp) → store transcripts + notes as markdown on your own disk. Nothing is uploaded; there is no vendor cloud to trust, breach, or subpoena.

## At a glance

- Where audio is transcribed — Granola: cloud (Deepgram, AssemblyAI); Minutes: on-device (whisper.cpp / parakeet.cpp)
- Where transcripts and notes live — Granola: Granola's servers (AWS, US only); Minutes: your own disk, as markdown
- Audio retention — Granola: streamed to the cloud, then deleted after transcription; Minutes: never uploaded
- EU data residency — Granola: not available yet; Minutes: moot, data never leaves your machine
- Compliance posture — Granola: SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR DPA on request, no model training; Minutes: no vendor in the loop
- Open source — Granola: no; Minutes: yes, MIT

## Where Granola wins

- Polished, collaborative standalone note-taking experience
- Genuinely privacy-conscious for a cloud tool: bot-free capture, audio deleted after transcription, SOC 2 Type 2, no third-party model training
- Simpler feel for non-technical teams who want one hosted app

## Where Minutes wins

- Nothing leaves your machine: on-device transcription and markdown on your own disk — "no client audio in anyone's cloud," not just "audio deleted after"
- No US-only data residency problem, no vendor to breach or subpoena, no DPA to negotiate
- Inspectable files any agent can read across MCP, CLI, desktop, SDK, and the Claude Code plugin

## When Minutes is not the right fit

- When the top priority is a hosted, collaborative note-taking product for teams
- When local files, inspectable output, and agent workflows are not important, and you'd rather trade on-device control for collaboration and ease

## Sources

- https://www.granola.ai/security
- https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/security-privacy-data-faqs
- https://www.granola.ai/pricing/
- https://docs.granola.ai/article/integrations-with-granola
- https://help.granola.ai/article/granola-mcp
- https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/ai-enhanced-notes
- https://useminutes.app/for-agents
- https://useminutes.app/docs/mcp/tools
- https://useminutes.app/docs/errors