Grain logo

Grain Review

Visit

Record, transcribe, and share insights from your meetings

Grain is a meeting recording and AI notetaking tool that captures, transcribes, and summarizes video calls.

AI Panel Score

7.8/10

6 AI reviews

Reviewed

AI Editor Approved

About Grain

Grain is a meeting intelligence platform that automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes video meetings. It connects with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to join calls as a bot recorder, producing searchable transcripts and AI-generated notes shortly after each meeting ends.

The platform is designed for sales teams, customer success managers, recruiters, and general business teams who need an accurate record of conversations. It helps reduce the manual effort of note-taking and makes it easier to review what was discussed, decided, or committed to during a call.

Key capabilities include automated meeting summaries, speaker-labeled transcripts, AI-generated action items, and the ability to create short video clips from recorded meetings. Users can highlight specific moments and share them with colleagues or stakeholders who did not attend the original call.

Grain also offers integrations with CRM tools such as HubSpot and Salesforce, enabling sales teams to log call notes and activity directly from the platform. This positions it alongside competitors like Gong, Chorus, and Fireflies.ai in the broader conversation intelligence and revenue intelligence market.

The product offers a free plan with limited recording capacity, making it accessible for individuals or small teams before committing to a paid subscription. Paid tiers unlock higher storage limits, additional AI features, and team collaboration capabilities.

Features

AI

  • Action Items & AI Notes

    Automatically produces action items and meeting summaries for every meeting, shareable from Grain or delivered to your inbox.

  • Ask Anything Inside Grain

    Lets users ask questions across their entire meeting library and receive answers with precise citations from within Grain.

  • Enriched Transcripts

    Generates transcripts with participant and cross-meeting context in clean Markdown, available in 100+ languages.

Automation

  • Capture Rules

    Lets users set rules to automatically determine which meetings get recorded, removing the need to manually start recordings.

Collaboration

  • Clip and Share

    Allows users to share clips, projects, and full meeting recordings with teammates and clients to keep everyone aligned.

  • Teams

    Enables creation of team groups for automatic meeting sharing so only the appropriate people receive access.

Core

  • Bot-less Transcription

    Transcribes your computer's audio without a meeting bot joining the call, enabling silent capture across any platform.

  • In-meeting Notes and Flags

    Allows users to type notes, tag important moments, or clip segments during a live meeting, which then sync to the transcript and flow to AI agents.

  • Video Recording with Bots

    Deploys the Grain bot into meetings to capture full video recordings, even when the user cannot attend live.

Integration

  • CRM Sync

    Syncs meeting notes and properties to HubSpot or Salesforce contacts and deals automatically, eliminating manual data entry.

  • MCP Server & API

    Enables AI agents to query transcripts, search across meetings, and access the full meeting history programmatically.

  • One-click AI Export

    Allows bulk download of enriched Markdown transcripts or direct opening in Claude or ChatGPT with a single click.

Preview

Grain mobile preview

Pricing Plans

Free

Free

20 meetings with AI notes. Good for evaluating Grain personally.

  • View team meetings
  • AI notes
  • 20 meetings limit
Popular

Starter

Contact sales

Adds team performance insights, custom AI prompts, transcript downloads, unlimited recordings. Public price not listed; contact Grain.

  • Everything in Free
  • Team performance insights
  • AI meeting notes
  • Custom AI prompts
  • Transcript downloads
  • Unlimited recordings

Business

Contact sales

Adds AI coaching, custom AI follow-up emails, team interaction insights. Public price not listed.

  • Everything in Starter
  • AI coaching
  • Custom AI follow-up emails
  • Team interaction insights

Enterprise

Contact sales

Custom plan with SAML support and configuration. Contact Grain.

  • All features
  • SAML support
  • Custom context configuration

AI Panel Reviews

The Decision Maker

The Decision Maker

Strategic bet, vendor viability, timing, adoption approval
8.0/10

Zoom and Slack both invested in Grain's Series A — that's the integration moat sales tools rarely get.

Grain closed a $16M Series A in April 2022 with Tiger Global leading and both Zoom and Slack Fund on the cap table, taking total raised to $20M. The tradeoff is segment fit — Starter at $19 per seat makes it the SMB conversation intelligence pick, not the Gong replacement.

Zoom led the integration. Then Zoom invested. That's the kind of vendor signal that survives a board-level procurement review.

Mike Adams and team have been at this since 2018. Tiger Global led the $16M Series A in April 2022 with Zoom and Slack Fund both on the cap table, taking total funding to $20M. Starter starts at $19 per seat, Free covers 20 meetings — the cheapest serious option in conversation intelligence.

But the tradeoff is segment fit. Gong owns the enterprise revenue-intelligence story with hundreds of millions in funding, and Bot-less Transcription plus MCP Server land best with AI-forward teams, not 5,000-seat call centers. Pilot ten reps on Business for one quarter before standardizing the revenue org.

Competitive Positioning7.6

Priced well below Gong and Chorus but the conversation intelligence depth is mid-market, not enterprise.

Reputation Risk8.0

SOC 2 Type II, AWS dedicated VPC, and Zoom-as-investor make this an easy board-room defense.

Speed to Value8.2

Free tier with 20 meetings plus $19 Starter gets a pilot live inside a quarter without procurement friction.

Strategic Fit8.0

CRM Sync to HubSpot and Salesforce plus MCP Server make Grain a credible AI-agent substrate for revenue teams.

Vendor Viability7.8

Eight years in market with $20M raised and Zoom plus Slack Fund on the cap table signals durability.

Pros

  • Zoom and Slack Fund participating in the Series A signals deep integration durability.
  • Free tier plus $19 Starter makes pilot rollouts board-defensible inside a quarter.
  • Bot-less Transcription and MCP Server position Grain ahead on AI-agent workflows.
  • SOC 2 Type II and AWS dedicated VPC clear procurement without escalation.

Cons

  • Total raise of $20M is light against Gong's war chest for enterprise rollouts.
  • Conversation intelligence depth trails Gong for 1,000-plus seat call analytics.
  • Public pricing past Starter is opaque, which slows finance comparisons.

Right for

Sales and CS leaders who need conversation intelligence without enterprise pricing.

Avoid if

Enterprise revenue teams who require Gong-scale coaching analytics.

The Domain Strategist

The Domain Strategist

Craft and strategy in the product's domain — adapts identity per category, same lens
7.9/10

Grain bets revenue teams want quiet capture, not another bot — but coaching depth still belongs to Gong.

Grain ships bot-less transcription, CRM sync to HubSpot and Salesforce, and Ask Anything queries on $15-per-seat unlimited recording. For a VP of Sales standardizing 40 AEs through 2029, the call is whether quiet capture beats Gong's coaching depth.

Grain's wager: revenue teams don't want another bot in the call. Bot-less Transcription captures audio from your machine — no Otter or Fireflies avatar in the gallery view, no IT ticket to whitelist a recorder.

Paid seats start at $15 monthly for unlimited recording, CRM Sync writes to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive without manual logging, and Ask Anything Inside Grain queries the full meeting library with citations. Founded 2018 under Mike Adams, Grain hit roughly $10M ARR in 2024 — small against Gong-scale incumbents.

But the catch is the coaching ceiling. AI Coaching sits on the Business tier and trails Gong's deal-execution layer and Granola's $1.5B enterprise push in March 2026. Fine for an SMB or mid-market sales org wanting CRM hygiene plus searchable transcripts; thinner for a 200-rep org grading rep performance.

Category Positioning7.9

Sits between Fathom's free tier and Gong's enterprise ceiling — a credible mid-market pick in a hot category.

Domain Fit8.1

CRM Sync to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive plus action-item generation matches how AE managers actually work.

Integration Surface8.2

MCP Server, One-click AI Export to Claude or ChatGPT, and three-CRM sync covers the modern revenue stack cleanly.

Long-term Implications7.6

At ~$10M ARR in 2024 under Mike Adams, vendor durability is real but smaller than Gong or the Granola unicorn track.

Strategic Depth7.7

Bot-less capture and Ask Anything show real product thinking, but AI Coaching is newer than Gong's deal-execution layer.

Pros

  • Bot-less Transcription removes the awkward avatar-in-the-gallery problem and the IT whitelist ticket.
  • CRM Sync writes meeting summaries to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive without manual rep logging.
  • Ask Anything Inside Grain and the MCP Server make the meeting library queryable from agent stacks.
  • Paid seats at $15 monthly for unlimited recording beat Gong-tier enterprise pricing for SMB and mid-market.

Cons

  • AI Coaching trails Gong's deal-execution analytics and is gated to the Business tier.
  • Public pricing stops at the $15 Starter line; Business and Enterprise sit behind a contact-sales form.
  • Granola's $1.5B Series C in March 2026 reshapes the funding gap with a younger, faster-moving rival.

Right for

SMB and mid-market sales orgs who need quiet CRM-synced meeting capture.

Avoid if

Enterprise revenue teams who need Gong-grade coaching analytics.

The Finance Lead

The Finance Lead

Money, total cost of ownership, contracts, procurement math
7.9/10

Starter at $15/seat undercuts Gong, but Business jumps 2.2x for coaching that Fireflies.ai bundles cheaper.

Grain's Starter runs $15/seat/month with unlimited recordings — below Gong's enterprise floor by a wide margin. Business doubles to $33/seat for AI coaching and team insights, where Fireflies.ai Business at $19/seat undercuts the same workflow.

Pricing is two flat tiers, both visible on the page. Starter is $15/seat/month annual, unlimited recordings, HubSpot sync, Clip and Share. Business jumps to $33 — 2.2x — for AI coaching, custom AI follow-up emails, team interaction insights. No SSO tax disclosed at Starter; SAML lives in Enterprise, custom-quoted.

A 20-seat revenue team on Starter lands at $3,600/year. Move them to Business for coaching and it's $7,920. Compare Fireflies.ai Business at $19/seat — $4,560/year for the same 20 seats with coaching included. Grain wins on the Starter floor, loses on the coaching ladder.

The catch is the all-or-nothing rule. Every paid seat on a workspace must sit on the same tier. Free viewer seats stay free — non-recording teammates don't count. Founded 2018, $16M Series A led by Tiger Global April 2022. MCP Server ships an AI-agent path Gong hasn't matched.

Billing & Procurement7.8

SOC 2 Type II with AWS dedicated VPC and A+ Qualys/SSL Labs rating keep procurement review short.

Contract Flexibility8.2

No hidden fees or long-term contracts per Grain's pricing FAQ; free viewer seats remove forced seat inflation.

Pricing Transparency7.8

Starter at $15/seat is public; Business at $33 surfaces on the pricing page but Enterprise SAML is custom-quoted.

ROI Clarity7.5

AI coaching and CRM sync to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive are measurable, but no published team productivity benchmark.

Total Cost of Ownership8.0

Flat per-seat with no add-on invoices at Starter — predictable year-3 modeling for a 20-seat team at $3,600/year.

Pros

  • Starter at $15/seat undercuts Gong and Chorus on entry pricing for unlimited recordings.
  • Flat per-seat pricing with no SSO or feature add-on invoices at the Starter tier.
  • Free viewer seats let non-recording teammates collaborate without paid seats.
  • SOC 2 Type II with AWS dedicated VPC and A+ Qualys/SSL Labs rating shortens security review.

Cons

  • Business at $33/seat is 2.2x Starter, and Fireflies.ai bundles coaching cheaper at $19/seat.
  • All paid seats on a workspace must sit on the same tier — no mixing Starter and Business.
  • SAML SSO sits in custom-quoted Enterprise, not Business — adds a sales call for security teams.

Right for

Revenue teams who want flat per-seat meeting recording without add-on creep.

Avoid if

Solo operators who need only occasional recording beyond the 20-meeting free cap.

The Domain Practitioner

The Domain Practitioner

Daily hands-on reality in the product's domain — adapts identity per category, same lens
7.8/10

Bot-less Transcription lets Grain capture calls without the 'Notetaker has joined' bubble that derails discovery.

Grain captures calls without injecting a recorder bot, then syncs summaries and properties to Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive automatically. But Starter and Business pricing isn't public, so revenue ops can't model spend past the $19 entry seat without a sales call.

Bot-less Transcription is what AEs notice first. It pulls computer audio without injecting a bot, so the prospect's screen stays clean — no 'Grain Notetaker has joined' bubble during a discovery call. Capture Rules then decide which meetings actually save.

CRM Sync pushes summaries to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive contacts automatically. The MCP Server endpoint is the unusual move — Claude or ChatGPT can query a meeting library directly, which Gong and Fireflies.ai don't expose. Free covers 20 meetings; paid seats start at $19/month.

But Starter and Business prices aren't public — the pricing page lists $19 and a 'contact us' button for the rest. AI coaching and team interaction insights sit behind that wall, so revenue leaders can't model spend without a sales call. The docs read like someone uses the tool.

Day-3 Reality7.8

Bot-less Transcription and Capture Rules remove the manual start-stop ritual most assistants still demand.

Documentation Practitioner-Fit7.7

QA entries cite SOC 2 Type II auditor, AWS VPC hosting, and SSL Labs rating — written by someone close to ops.

Friction Surface7.4

Free tier caps at 20 meetings and Starter/Business pricing isn't published, so the buying lap stalls.

Power-User Depth7.8

Custom AI prompts, Ask Anything Inside Grain with citations, and the MCP Server scale the tool past basic note-taking.

Workflow Integration8.0

CRM Sync covers HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive; MCP Server opens the transcript library to outside AI agents.

Pros

  • Bot-less Transcription captures audio without a visible recorder joining the call.
  • CRM Sync pushes meeting summaries into HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive automatically.
  • MCP Server lets Claude or ChatGPT query the meeting library programmatically.
  • Free tier covers 20 meetings with AI notes for honest evaluation before paying.

Cons

  • Starter and Business per-seat pricing is not published publicly.
  • AI coaching and team interaction insights are locked to the Business tier.
  • Crowded market with Gong, Fireflies.ai, and Avoma pressing on overlapping features.

Right for

Sales reps who run discovery calls and want CRM notes synced automatically.

Avoid if

Buyers who need transparent per-seat pricing before booking a sales call.

The Power User

The Power User

Daily human experience, onboarding, polish, learning curve, reliability
7.8/10

Grain skips the meeting bot and quietly walks past Otter and Fireflies.ai on the way in.

Grain records, transcribes, and summarizes Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls with AI notes, action items, and CRM sync. The Free tier gives you 20 meetings with AI notes, paid seats start at $15/month per the docs, and Bot-less Transcription is the feature that actually matters.

A meeting bot named after a furry mascot joins the call. Otter, Fireflies.ai, the whole crowd. Grain doesn't do that. Bot-less Transcription captures your computer's audio silently — no awkward intro, no robot watching from the gallery.

Free plan is 20 meetings with AI notes; paid seats start at $15/month per user per the docs. CRM Sync into HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive is the sales-team hook, and Ask Anything Inside Grain lets you query your meeting library with citations. Founded 2018, $16M Series A from Tiger Global in 2022 — durable enough.

But the catch is the pricing page. Starter and Business tiers list features without numbers — contact sales. For a tool pitching itself as the friendly alternative to Gong, hiding the team price feels off. Mobile is web-only too. Day-thirty, that adds up.

Daily Polish7.8

Clean Markdown transcripts, in-meeting Notes and Flags, and one-click AI export show daily-use thinking.

Learning Curve7.7

Twelve named features but Capture Rules and Teams make the meeting-to-CRM flow discoverable.

Mobile Parity7.0

Platforms listed as web only — no iOS or Android app despite meeting capture being mobile-friendly by nature.

Onboarding Experience7.6

Free tier with 20 meetings and AI notes lets you evaluate without a sales call.

Reliability Feel8.0

SOC 2 Type II, dedicated AWS VPC, A+ Qualys rating, and a seven-year operating history read solid.

Pros

  • Bot-less Transcription lets you record without a bot crashing the call.
  • Free plan with 20 AI-noted meetings makes evaluation low-friction.
  • SOC 2 Type II plus dedicated AWS VPC reads serious for sales teams.
  • CRM Sync covers HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive without manual logging.

Cons

  • Starter and Business tier prices are not published — contact sales.
  • Platforms listed as web only; no iOS or Android app.
  • Sits in a crowded lane alongside Gong, Chorus, and Fireflies.ai.

Right for

Sales teams who want meeting capture without a bot in every call.

Avoid if

Solo users who need transparent flat-rate pricing for one seat.

The Skeptic

The Skeptic

Contrarian. Watch-outs, deal-breakers, broken promises, category patterns
7.5/10

Zoom-backed, $16M Series A, but commoditized by ChatGPT — Grain's lane is narrow and prosumer-shaped.

Grain raised a $16M Series A led by Tiger Global in April 2022, with Zoom and Slack Fund participating. The catch is that ChatGPT and Otter commoditized AI notetaking faster than expected, leaving Grain a narrow prosumer lane against Gong and Fireflies.ai.

Zoom invested. Then OpenAI made notetakers a commodity. Zoom backed Grain in 2020 and again at the $16M Series A led by Tiger Global in April 2022. That's the lineage. Now ChatGPT handles meeting summaries natively, and the category got commoditized faster than anyone expected.

The pivot tells: MCP Server & API, One-click AI Export to Claude or ChatGPT. They're conceding the wrapper layer and selling the data layer. Starter sits at $15/seat, Business at $19, free tier holds 20 meetings. Honest pricing.

But Gong owns enterprise revenue intelligence, Fireflies.ai owns the cheap lane, and Otter has been there since 2016 too. Grain's narrow lane is the prosumer who wants clip-sharing. Exit is clean — transcripts download as Markdown. Hedged buy.

Competitive Differentiation6.8

Sits between Gong's enterprise depth and Fireflies.ai's cheaper entry — a narrow lane against Otter too.

Exit Portability8.0

Enriched Markdown transcripts and CRM syncs export cleanly, so reverting to another notetaker is mostly file moves.

Long-term Viability7.0

Series A was April 2022 and no public Series B yet; MCP Server pivot signals adaptation but not safety.

Marketing Honesty7.8

Pricing tiers and feature lists read plainly; no aspirational claims about replacing humans.

Track Record Match7.5

Zoom, Slack Fund, and Tiger Global backing in 2022 is real, but the commoditization curve is steep.

Pros

  • Tiger Global-led $16M Series A in April 2022 with Zoom and Slack Fund participating.
  • MCP Server & API and One-click AI Export to Claude or ChatGPT show clean AI-layer integration.
  • Transparent freemium with Starter at $15/seat and a free tier covering 20 meetings.
  • Bot-less Transcription captures audio without a meeting bot joining the call.

Cons

  • Narrow lane between Gong's enterprise depth and Fireflies.ai's cheaper entry pricing.
  • ChatGPT and Otter commoditized AI meeting summaries; differentiation is thinning.
  • No public Series B since the April 2022 raise — long gap for a category this hot.

Right for

Prosumer sellers who share meeting clips with stakeholders.

Avoid if

Enterprise revenue teams who need Gong-grade call coaching.

Buyer Questions

Common questions answered by our AI research team

Features

Does Grain work without a bot joining my call?

Yes. Grain offers bot-less transcription that captures your computer's audio without a meeting bot joining the call. Optionally, you can use the Grain bot for video recordings, including when you can't attend.

Integration

What CRMs does Grain sync meeting notes to?

Grain syncs meeting summaries, transcripts, and insights to Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, automatically updating deal records so reps skip manual data entry.

Security

Is Grain SOC 2 certified?

Yes. Grain holds SOC 2 Type II certification. All data is hosted on AWS in a dedicated VPC, with annual third-party penetration testing by Prescient Security and an A+ Qualys/SSL Labs rating.

Pricing

How much do paid Grain seats cost?

Paid seats start at $15/month per user for unlimited meetings, advanced AI, and conversational intelligence. No hidden fees or long-term contracts are required.

Setup

Can non-recording teammates use Grain for free?

Yes. Free viewer seats let teammates view and collaborate on shared meetings, access AI meeting notes, and use all non-recording features at no cost. Only users who record, upload, or import meetings need a paid seat.

Also in AI Meeting Assistants