Grain

Grain turns meetings into searchable notes and shared conversation records, with features aimed especially at sales, customer success, and product teams. It is a strong fit when teams need to retrieve context across calls and move it into other tools, but its free plan is tightly capped and advanced capabilities carry custom pricing.

Overview

Grain combines meeting capture with AI summaries, cited answers, and team sharing. Its bot-free computer-audio option is useful when adding a participant to a call is undesirable; video recording instead uses a meeting bot. That choice gives teams flexibility, though capture depends on which mode suits the meeting.

It reaches beyond note-taking: teams can share clips, projects, and full recordings, or configure automatic group sharing. Integrations include meeting services as well as CRM and work tools, and meeting data can also be sent to Claude, ChatGPT, and other AI tools through exports, an MCP server, and an API.

Key features

Grain supports Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Slack Huddles, and in-person meetings. AI notes include next steps and automatic recaps; questions across the meeting library receive cited answers. This is particularly useful for finding decisions or commitments across multiple conversations, rather than relying on memory or replaying calls. Transcription supports 130 languages, and calendar integrations are available.

Its integration page names Webex, Teams, Meet, Zoom, HubSpot, Salesforce, Aircall, Slack, Productboard, and Zapier. The mix can connect meeting records to sales and product workflows, while exports, MCP, and API access offer routes to external AI tools. Grain also states that neither it nor its subprocessors use customer data to train AI models.

Security credentials include SOC 2 Type II certification, AWS hosting in the USA, and encryption at rest and in transit. Enterprise customers can require organizational SSO. Those controls strengthen its fit for larger teams, although SSO is reserved for the Enterprise plan.

Pricing

Grain uses a freemium model, with paid plans starting at $15 a month and a 14-day trial. The Free plan costs nothing, billed annually, and includes one free Notetaker seat. Meetings are limited to 45 minutes; personal-email users also have a limit of 20 bot-recorded meetings. The free plan's 90-day meeting history means it works better for trying the workflow or handling recent calls than maintaining a long-term archive.

Starter costs $15 a month and includes 10 uploads per month. That is a straightforward paid step for users who need more than the free plan, but the upload quota makes it a poor fit for heavier meeting volumes. Business has custom pricing and includes everything in Starter, plus AI coaching, custom follow-up emails, trackers, CRM and dialer integrations, and an advanced MCP server. It suits teams that need those sales-oriented workflows, but the price requires a direct evaluation rather than a simple comparison with Starter.

Enterprise also has custom pricing. It adds enhanced security controls, single sign-on, dedicated account management, and custom invoicing to Business, making it the relevant tier for organizations that require centralized access controls or account support. Grain's pricing page directs customers to its support team for help with the 30-day money-back guarantee.

Platforms

Grain offers a desktop app for macOS and Windows, and its workspace is accessible in a browser. Its platform availability also includes an API, which supports integration-oriented workflows alongside the desktop and web experience.

Who it's for

Grain is best suited to small and mid-market teams, as well as enterprise sales, customer success, and product groups that need searchable meeting context, shared recordings, and connected follow-up. Its cited answers and integrations are most valuable when a team has enough conversations to make retrieval and handoff a recurring task. Individuals or light users may find the free limits adequate, but the 45-minute cap and 90-day history constrain longer meetings and lasting archives.

Pros and cons

Pros: Bot-free audio capture alongside bot-based video recording accommodates different meeting preferences.

Pros: Cited answers across the meeting library, 130-language transcription, and automatic recaps help teams recover and share meeting context.

Pros: Sharing controls, integrations, and export, MCP, and API routes connect meeting records with team workflows and external AI tools.

Pros: SOC 2 Type II certification, encryption, and an Enterprise SSO option address security needs for organizational use.

Cons: Free meetings stop at 45 minutes, history lasts 90 days, and personal-email users are limited to 20 bot-recorded meetings.

Cons: Starter's 10 uploads per month may not suit high-volume use, while Business and Enterprise require custom pricing.

Alternatives

Fellow is worth considering if a broad set of mobile and desktop platforms matters more than Grain's stated meeting-library features; its free plan includes five AI notes per user for life. MeetNotes is a fit for buyers who prefer a one-time 100-minute allowance on its free plan, with speaker-labelled transcripts and PDF and Word minutes. Notta offers a free monthly allowance of 120 transcription minutes for one seat, making it an alternative for users who want a recurring minutes quota.

Laxis is another freemium option, with a Basic plan that includes 300 transcription minutes per month, 30 days of conversation history, and a 45-minute recording maximum. MeetGeek offers three hours of transcription per month and three months of transcript storage on its free plan. Read AI provides five free meetings per month and supports 20-plus languages; its Pro plan is $15 a month.

Fyxer is a paid alternative with Starter at $22.50 a month, billed annually, for one inbox and one calendar. Wudpecker may suit users who want a free allowance of 10 meetings per month with its notetaker bot and three Ask AI questions per recording. For a broader category comparison, see Meeting Assistant Software, Audio Transcription Software, Meeting Recording Software, Meeting Transcription Software, Meeting Notes Software, and Meeting Intelligence Software.

Verdict

Choose Grain if your sales, customer success, or product team needs searchable meeting records, cited answers, and sharing that carries call context into connected workflows. Its main strengths are flexible capture and useful retrieval across conversations; look elsewhere if you need generous free usage, predictable pricing for advanced team features, or a larger Starter upload allowance.