Alternatives / Granola

5 Best Open Source Granola Alternatives in 2026

Looking for an open source Granola alternative? We compared 5 local-first AI meeting note-takers and dictation apps by license, privacy, transcription, self-hosting, and pricing. Most record system audio without a bot and keep your data on your device.

Maxime DERAME's profile

Written by Maxime DERAME

Last updated:

Best Granola alternatives at a glance

AlternativeBest forLicense
MeetilyPrivate, local meeting summariesMIT
AnarlogTurning rough notes into summariesMIT core + enterprise
MinutesAI agent workflows with MCPMIT
AmicalAI dictationMIT
PrismicalFree local note-takingMIT

How we chose these Granola alternatives

We looked for open-source projects that overlap with Granola's core experience: capturing meeting audio without a bot, transcribing it, and turning it into structured notes. We then verified each project's license in its GitHub repository, how much runs locally, and pricing. Some projects are meeting note-takers, while Amical is primarily a dictation app. See our methodology for the full criteria.

Important: check the license details

Meetily, Minutes, Amical, and Prismical are MIT. Anarlog is MIT outside its enterprise/ directory, which is under a commercial license; older listings show it as GPL, but the repository is now MIT after its rename from Hyprnote. Meetily also sells a paid Pro tier and Enterprise plans alongside its free Community Edition.

Meeting note-takers vs dictation

Meetily, Anarlog, Minutes, and Prismical record meetings and produce summaries. Amical is an AI dictation app for speech-to-text in any application, useful for notes and hands-free typing but not a meeting assistant on its own.

Local transcription and model choice

Meetily, Minutes, and Prismical transcribe locally with Whisper, whisper.cpp, or Parakeet. Anarlog and Meetily let you pick AI backends, including local models through Ollama or cloud providers. Local processing needs a reasonably capable machine, and cloud models send text to third parties.

Agents and MCP

Minutes exposes 31 MCP tools so AI agents can query your conversation history, and Prismical offers an MCP server. This suits developers who want meeting notes inside their existing AI workflows.

Why look for a Granola alternative?

Granola records and summarizes meetings on your device without a bot, but it is a proprietary, cloud-connected service. Teams and individuals look for open-source alternatives to keep audio and transcripts as local files, choose their own transcription and AI models, work offline, and meet privacy or compliance requirements in healthcare, legal, and finance.

#1

Meetily

Private AI meeting assistant that runs on your device.

Meetily records, transcribes, and summarizes meetings locally using Whisper or Parakeet, without bots or cloud uploads. It offers pluggable AI summaries through Ollama, Claude, OpenAI, or Groq, audio file import, offline use, and export to Markdown, PDF, and DOCX.

31.3K3.4KMITSelf-hosted

Pricing: Free Community Edition; Pro from $10/user/month (annual); Enterprise plans available.

  • Local transcription with GPU acceleration
  • Bot-free recording and offline use
  • Pluggable AI summaries and multiple export formats
  • Some features are in paid Pro and Enterprise tiers
  • Local transcription needs suitable hardware
#2

Anarlog

Open-source Granola alternative that keeps notes as local files.

Anarlog (formerly Hyprnote) records system audio without joining your call and turns rough notes into editable summaries. Audio, transcripts, and notes stay as local files, with a flexible AI backend that can run offline or use cloud models. The community app is MIT; the enterprise/ directory is commercially licensed.

9.4K779MIT core + enterpriseSelf-hosted

Pricing: Free community app; enterprise components are commercially licensed.

  • System audio capture without a bot
  • Rough notes become structured, editable summaries
  • Local file storage and flexible AI backend
  • Mixed-license repository with commercial enterprise components
  • Older sources list a different (GPL) license
#3

Amical

Open-source, local-first AI dictation app.

Amical is an AI dictation app that turns speech into context-aware formatted text in 50+ languages, with custom vocabulary learning and voice shortcuts. It supports local and cloud processing and works for notes, meetings, and hands-free typing.

1.5K140MITSelf-hosted

Pricing: Free and open source.

  • Context-aware formatting in 50+ languages
  • Custom vocabulary and voice shortcuts
  • Local and cloud processing options
  • A dictation tool, not a meeting summarizer
  • No bot-free meeting capture workflow of its own
#4

Minutes

Local meeting recorder that agents can query through MCP.

Minutes records meetings and voice memos locally using whisper.cpp or Parakeet, writes structured Markdown to disk, and exposes 31 MCP tools so AI agents can query your conversation history. It includes speaker diarization, action item extraction, cross-meeting memory, and dictation.

1.5K168MITSelf-hosted

Pricing: Free and open source; optional summaries use Claude or Ollama.

  • 31 MCP tools for agent integration
  • Speaker diarization and action items
  • Markdown files on disk
  • Small project with a young community
  • Geared toward developers and AI-heavy workflows
#5

Prismical

Free AI note-taker for meetings and voice notes.

Prismical transcribes meetings and voice notes locally using Whisper and Parakeet, with real-time transcription, speaker identification, automatic summaries and action items, and an MCP server. It captures system audio without bots joining calls and runs on Mac, Windows, and mobile.

9516MITSelf-hosted

Pricing: Free and open source.

  • Local Whisper and Parakeet transcription
  • System audio capture with no bot
  • Summaries, action items, and MCP server
  • Very young project with a small community
  • Less proven than Meetily or Anarlog

Compare Granola alternatives

AlternativeTypeLicenseSelf-hostedPricingBest for
MeetilyMeeting assistantMITYesFree; Pro $10/user/monthRegulated teams
AnarlogMeeting notesMIT core + enterpriseYesFree community appPrivacy-conscious users
MinutesMeeting recorderMITYesFreeAgent workflows
AmicalDictation appMITYesFreeSpeech-to-text
PrismicalMeeting notesMITYesFreeStudents and creators

Which one should you choose?

Want the most popular open-source option

Meetily has the largest community, with local Whisper and Parakeet transcription, pluggable AI summaries, bot-free recording, and exports to Markdown, PDF, and DOCX.

Meetily

Want the closest Granola-style workflow

Anarlog records system audio without joining the call, then turns rough notes into editable summaries, keeping audio, transcripts, and notes as local files.

Anarlog

Want meetings available to AI agents

Minutes records locally with whisper.cpp, writes Markdown to disk, and exposes 31 MCP tools to query your conversation history.

Minutes

Want dictation instead of meeting notes

Amical converts speech to formatted text in 50+ languages with custom vocabulary, using local or cloud processing.

Amical

Want a free, simple local note-taker

Prismical transcribes meetings and voice notes locally with speaker identification, summaries, and action items, but it is a much smaller project.

Prismical