Glean vs Granola
A detailed side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right AI productivity agent for your needs.
Glean
Glean is the leading enterprise AI work assistant — a search-and-answer engine that indexes your company's entire content footprint (Slack, Google Drive, Confluence, Notion, Jira, GitHub, Salesforce, ...
- Indexes 100+ enterprise apps with permission-aware retrieval
- Glean Assistant: chat with your company's entire knowledge
- Glean Protect: real-time DLP + sensitive-data classification
- Glean Agents: build custom AI workflows on company data
- Cross-app search results sorted by personal relevance
- Permission-aware retrieval — no data-leakage risk across employees
- 100+ integrations cover most enterprise stacks out of the box
- Cited answers ground AI in your actual company knowledge (not hallucinated)
- Premium pricing — typical mid-market commitments start ~$30-50/employee/year
- Sales-led with no transparent pricing or self-serve trial
Granola
Granola is the privacy-first alternative to Otter — instead of auto-joining meetings as a bot (which signals everyone you're recording and triggers HR/IT pushback at many companies), Granola listens t...
- No bot joins your meeting — listens via mic + your notes
- Hybrid AI + manual note format
- Templates for 1:1, sales, customer interview, board, brainstorm
- AI Assistant (Q&A across prior meetings)
- Mac + Windows + iOS apps
- Solves the consent / privacy issue auto-join tools create
- Hybrid notes format feels like the notes you would have written yourself
- SOC 2 Type II + explicit no-training policy
- Requires you to be in the meeting (no async / I-skipped-this-meeting use case)
- Newer than Otter — less mature CRM integration
Verdict: Glean vs Granola
Pick Glean if you need ai-powered enterprise workplace search across slack, gdrive, jira, and 100+ apps. Pick Granola if you need meeting note-taker that doesn't auto-join — privacy-first hybrid notes.
Glean integrates with 13 platforms.
Who should buy this
Glean
- Mid-market or enterprise CIO / CTO consolidating internal AI search
- Knowledge worker drowning in Slack threads + scattered docs across 20+ apps
- IT / security org wanting AI search WITH permission enforcement (not retroactive cleanup)
- SMBs and startups (cost prohibitive — ChatGPT Team or Notion AI fit better)
- Teams not on a sprawling app stack (Glean shines with 10+ data sources)
Enterprise per-employee licensing — typically $30-50/employee/year (mid-market) to $100+/employee/year (large enterprise). Glean Protect + Agents are additional.
Verified 2026-05-03
Granola
- Executive / founder / consultant who values meeting privacy and dislikes bot auto-join
- Sales / CS rep at company with strict consent policies on call recording
- 1:1 manager who wants AI-augmented manager-employee notes
- Buyers needing async / meeting-I-couldn't-attend transcripts (Otter / Fireflies fit better)
- Heavy CRM-sync workflows (Otter has more depth on MEDDIC + Salesforce)
Free 25 meetings. Individual: $14/mo or $144/yr (~$12/mo). Team: $25/seat/mo Business. Enterprise: custom annual.
Verified 2026-05-06
Capabilities at a glance
| Capability | Glean | Granola |
|---|---|---|
| 100+ enterprise app integrations | — | |
| Permission-aware retrieval | Inherits source ACLs | — |
| Cited / sourced AI answers | — | |
| Glean Protect (DLP + sensitive-data) | Add-on | — |
| Glean Agents (custom workflows) | Add-on | — |
| Slack / Teams native apps | — | |
| Public API | ||
| On-prem / self-hosted | VPC deployment for select customers | — |
| No bot joining (listens via mic + notes) | — | Privacy-first |
| Templates (1:1 / sales / customer interview / board) | — | |
| AI Assistant Q&A across prior meetings | — | |
| Mac / Windows / iOS apps | — |
Security & compliance
| Standard / control | Glean | Granola |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 | Type II | Type II |
| ISO 27001 | — | |
| HIPAA | — | |
| GDPR | ||
| SSO / SAML | ||
| RBAC | — | |
| Audit logs | — | |
| Trains on customer data | No | No |
What users say
Glean
Plaid, Pinterest, Redis, Zapier, Databricks, Webflow, Grammarly, Duolingo, WealthSimple, Citi, Intuit, Samsung, Booking.com, Instacart, Zillow, Rivian, Samsara
Granola
Y Combinator companies, VC partners, Executive coaches
Frequently asked questions
What AI models do Glean and Granola use?+
Glean runs on GPT-4 family, Claude family, Glean proprietary retrieval models. Granola runs on Custom Granola models, GPT-4 family, Claude family.
What is the main difference between Glean and Granola?+
Glean is positioned as best ai-powered enterprise workplace search across slack, gdrive, jira, and 100+ apps, while Granola is positioned as best ai meeting note-taker that doesn't auto-join — privacy-first hybrid notes. Pick the one whose strength aligns with your primary use case.
Which has better integrations, Glean or Granola?+
Glean integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Notion and 9 more. Granola integrates with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Notion and 2 more.
What are the main weaknesses of Glean and Granola?+
Glean's main drawback: premium pricing — typical mid-market commitments start ~$30-50/employee/year. Granola's main drawback: requires you to be in the meeting (no async / i-skipped-this-meeting use case).
Are Glean and Granola worth it in 2026?+
Both remain competitive productivity options in 2026. Glean stands out for permission-aware retrieval — no data-leakage risk across employees. Granola stands out for solves the consent / privacy issue auto-join tools create. Choose based on which trade-offs fit your workflow and budget.