A Granola alternative that keeps the meeting on your Mac.
Both skip the bot. The difference is what happens to your words: Granola turns them into AI notes in its cloud, on a subscription. Chirp keeps the verbatim transcript, every speaker named, on your Mac, for $39 once.
Free for 7 days. No account, no card.
Respect first, then the difference.
Granola got a lot right. It proved you don't need a bot crashing your call to capture a meeting, and its AI-written notes are why teams love it. Chirp captures meetings the same bot-free way, so that part is a tie, and it deserves to be said.
The honest difference is what happens to your words afterward, and what the result is. Granola's product is AI notes: your transcripts and notes live in its cloud, where its models turn them into summaries, on a subscription. Chirp's product is the meeting itself: a verbatim transcript that names each speaker, kept on your Mac, searchable forever, paid for once.
Where Chirp is different
Your words stay on your Mac
Transcripts, audio, speaker profiles: all of it lives locally. Nothing is uploaded to anyone’s cloud, including ours. There is no "ours."
The record, not a retelling
Chirp keeps what was actually said, word for word, with the audio a click away. Summaries are an interpretation; sometimes you need the source.
Every speaker, named
Transcripts label who said what, and the speaker library remembers voices across meetings. Name a teammate once and they’re recognized next time.
History without a meter
Granola's free plan keeps 30 days of notes. Chirp keeps everything you've ever recorded, searchable, with no clock running.
It also dictates
Meetings are half of Chirp. The other half is hotkey dictation that types what you say into any app, at your cursor.
Pay once
$39 for one Mac, every feature, forever. No monthly fee for access to your own meetings.
Every word, with a name on it.
Granola writes notes about the meeting. This is the meeting itself, every speaker labeled.
FaceTime100% on-device · Speaker profiles never leave your Mac
Side by side
As of June 2026. Check granola.ai for their current plans.
What Granola does better
The notes write themselves
If what you want from a meeting is a tidy summary you never have to write, that's Granola's entire product and it's good at it. Chirp gives you the faithful transcript instead, and leaves the summarizing to you.
Built for teams
Shared folders, templates, and integrations with Slack, Notion, HubSpot and others. Chirp is built for one person’s Mac, not a team workspace.
Windows and iPhone
Granola travels across platforms. Chirp is Mac-only by design.
If you want notes written for you and a team workspace around them, Granola is good at that, honestly. If you want the meeting itself, who said what, on your own machine, with no meter running, that's what I built Chirp for.
Questions
Granola doesn't use a bot either, so what's actually different?
Three things. Where your words end up: Granola keeps transcripts and notes in its cloud, Chirp keeps everything on your Mac. What you get: Granola writes AI summaries, Chirp keeps the verbatim record with each speaker named. And the deal: a subscription versus $39 once.
Does Chirp write AI summaries of my meetings?
No. Chirp gives you the accurate, speaker-labeled record of what was said, with the audio attached. The transcript is yours to summarize with whatever tool you trust, or to read as it happened.
Does Chirp keep my meeting history?
Yes, all of it. Every recording is saved on your Mac with its transcript, speaker names, and audio, fully searchable. There is no 30-day window and no plan that unlocks your own history.
How does Chirp know who said what?
It separates the voices in the recording and labels each speaker automatically. The speaker library then remembers voices across meetings, so once you name someone, future transcripts use their name.
What does the $39 include?
Everything. Meeting Mode with speaker labels, the speaker library, solo dictation, searchable history with audio playback, exports, and all future updates. No subscription, no tiers.