# Granola Transcripts: Capture, Export, Download and Delete Them

> How Granola transcripts work: no recording is kept, how to copy, trim and export them (CSV, Zapier, API), and how auto-deletion from 1 day to 1 year works.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/granola-transcripts — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_

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Granola keeps a text transcript of every meeting you capture, but **no recording**. On the Mac and Windows apps the audio goes straight to the transcription provider and is never saved; on the phone it is cached only until transcription finishes. So the transcript is your record. You can read it, copy it, delete chunks of it, set it to auto-delete after anything from 1 day to 1 year, and pull it out through Zapier or the API on paid plans. You cannot edit it, replay it or translate an old one. Plan around that from the first meeting.


**0 audio files** — Granola keeps no meeting audio: the transcript is the only record of a call.



- **1 day to 1 year** — Transcript auto-deletion periods, per user on every plan
- **1 per 24 hours** — CSV exports per account; the link expires after 24 hours
- **30+ / 17** — Transcription languages on desktop / on mobile


## Stage 1: capture it live, because there is no second chance

No bot joins the call. The desktop app captures your microphone and your computer's system audio, the same way for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and other apps, and passes it to transcription without saving audio or video at any point [1]. Granola also never starts on its own. It transcribes only when you click the notification that appears one minute before a calendar meeting with two or more attendees, open the meeting's note after its start time, or click New Note. A meeting you never started cannot be recovered later. Automatic start for every meeting is not available.

Watch the stop rules too. Desktop transcription ends when the call is detected as over, after 15 minutes without new audio, or when the computer sleeps. Back-to-back meetings can merge into one transcript unless you click stop between them. If a call runs on after Granola stopped, resume on the same note: the new audio is added to the existing transcript and you can regenerate the notes. Granola cannot isolate one app's audio, so music playing during the call lands in the text. On a Mac it needs both Microphone and Screen and System Audio Recording permission.

The phone apps work differently. iPhone and Android capture in-person meetings and outbound phone calls only; they cannot capture Zoom, Meet or Teams audio, so virtual meetings need the desktop app. Mobile audio is cached during the meeting, transcribed afterwards and then deleted from Granola's and third-party systems. Android recordings under about five minutes may not produce notes, and ones of roughly ten hours or more may fail to process. You also cannot upload a pre-recorded MP3 for transcription. Consent stays your job, since other participants see nothing unless you switch on a notice feature; our [setup guide](/articles/how-to-use-granola) covers those options.


> 💡 **Click stop between back-to-back calls:** Desktop transcription can merge consecutive meetings into one transcript unless you stop it between them.


## Stage 2: get cleaner text while the meeting runs

Without speaker tags, a desktop transcript has two voices. Your microphone appears as Me in green bubbles, and that includes anyone sitting in the same room; system audio from everyone else appears as Them in grey. **Speaker tags** add real names on macOS and Windows for Google Meet, Zoom and Teams. Zoom needs the Zoom Workplace desktop app and Teams its desktop app, because neither web client is supported. Meet works through Chrome's accessibility features or the Granola Chrome extension, which also runs in Edge, Arc and Brave. Tags cannot separate people sharing one room microphone, and they never add names to older transcripts.

Language is set before the words land. Granola transcribes more than 30 languages on desktop and 17 on mobile. On desktop, multi-language mode can switch languages mid-meeting; the phone apps pick one language per meeting, so stick to one. Settings apply to new meetings only. For product names and client jargon, add up to 30 personal terms, or ask an admin for workspace jargon of up to 50 terms on Business. Jargon boosts recognition but never replaces words. Headsets matter as well: a Bluetooth headset drops to lower quality when Granola uses its microphone, so pick the laptop's built-in mic in the transcript window.

## Stage 3: read, copy and trim a finished transcript

On desktop, the transcript panel under each note lets you copy the whole transcript, copy or delete single chunks, search, and stop or resume capture. On the phone, open it from the note's three-dot menu, where it can also be shared. That is the full toolset. **Transcripts cannot be edited.** A misheard name stays misheard in the transcript, though you can correct it in the notes or through Chat. Redaction is manual too: Granola has no automatic detection of personal data, so you find the sensitive passage yourself and delete that chunk.

After you delete a chunk, Granola prompts you to regenerate the note so the removed content also leaves the summary. Do it every time. Deleted segments are no longer reachable through MCP. Sharing follows its own rules. People you share a single note with cannot read the full transcript, and web links on notes.granola.ai show summaries only. Folder collaborators in the desktop app do see full transcripts. A shared note also opens Chat on that meeting to its readers, so trim sensitive chunks before you share, not after.


> ⚠ **Deleted transcripts cannot come back:** Once a transcript is deleted, its note cannot be regenerated and Chat answers about that meeting become limited.


## Stage 4: export or download what you need

| Route | Plan | What comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Copy all (transcript panel) | Every plan | The full transcript, to your clipboard |
| CSV export (Settings > Profile) | Every plan; off on Enterprise until admins enable it | Titles and summaries for your full note history |
| Zapier | Paid plans, desktop apps | Summary in Markdown, full transcript, attendees, share link |
| Granola API | Business and Enterprise | Transcript per note, with speaker source labels |

The CSV is the bulk route, but treat it as a note archive. Generate it from Settings > Profile and it covers only notes you own, including notes older than 30 days on Basic, and leaves out deleted notes and notes without a summary [2]. It arrives by email within a few hours. The download link lasts 24 hours, and each account gets one export every 24 hours. No admin or company-wide export exists, so on a team each person runs their own.

For full transcripts in bulk, use Zapier or the API. A Zap fires when a note is added to a chosen folder (new notes only) or when you share a note to Zapier by hand, and its payload carries the full transcript. Zapier's own plan is billed by Zapier. The API returns a transcript when you ask for it on Get Note, or through a Get Transcript endpoint that pages 1 to 100 items at a time, 50 by default. It returns only notes that already have a summary and a transcript, and nothing if an admin has turned off transcript access over the API. Our [API and integrations guide](/articles/granola-api-integrations) walks through keys and webhooks.

Both routes start at Business, which costs $14 per user per month, billed monthly. On free Basic the app shows only the last 30 days of notes; older ones are kept and return on upgrade, as our [pricing breakdown](/articles/granola-pricing) explains. Basic also limits AI access: the MCP server reaches only your personal notes from the last 30 days, with no transcripts. Moving to a new account is a separate case. Note import, on desktop, moves all notes and transcripts between two Granola accounts, including ones older than 30 days, without upgrading the old account.

## Stage 5: delete transcripts on a schedule or for good

By default Granola keeps notes and transcripts indefinitely. Every user on every plan can switch on transcript auto-deletion after 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or 1 year, and the notes themselves stay untouched [3]. Turning it on or changing the period starts a one-week cooldown before new deletions are scheduled. Think before you pick a short window. A deleted transcript is gone permanently: its note cannot be regenerated, and Chat answers about that meeting become limited.

On Enterprise the decision moves to the company. A workspace retention policy overrides personal settings and members cannot opt out. Granola's team sets these org-wide policies on request, and activating one immediately deletes existing transcripts older than the window. Whole notes follow other rules. A deleted note sits in the trash for 30 days. Deleting your account from Settings > Profile permanently removes it and every note you own, shared folders included, and cannot be undone. Uninstalling the app deletes nothing. Before any deletion, pull what you want to keep through the routes in Stage 4.


> 💡 **Set your export path first:** Pull transcripts through copy, Zapier or the API (Business and Enterprise) before switching on a short auto-deletion period.


## What Granola will not give you

Some requests have no answer in Granola. There is no audio or video file, no playback, and Granola says it does not plan to add recording or storage. Pre-recorded files cannot be uploaded, so a call captured by another tool stays outside Granola. There is no live translation. The transcript stays in the language spoken, though you can set summaries to English or ask Chat for a translation, and old transcripts cannot be translated at all. Granola also publishes no accuracy percentage. If your team needs replayable calls or file imports, this tool is the wrong fit.


## FAQ

**Do other people on the call see that Granola is transcribing?**

No, unless you turn on a notice: the automated chat message and the video watermark are per-user options on every plan, and the Heads Up pre-join page is Enterprise only. Obtaining consent is the user's responsibility.

**Can I transcribe a meeting from the web app?**

No. The web app at notes.granola.ai only views and edits notes. Transcription runs in the Mac or Windows desktop app, which captures virtual meetings, and in the iPhone and Android apps, which handle in-person meetings and outbound phone calls.

**Who processes the audio behind a Granola transcript?**

Granola names Deepgram and AssemblyAI as its transcription providers, and it stores notes and transcripts on AWS in the United States with no regional data residency.

**Does Granola train AI models on my transcripts?**

Granola trains its own models on anonymized data unless each user opts out in Settings; Enterprise workspaces are opted out by default, and third parties such as OpenAI or Anthropic may not train on it.


## The bottom line

Treat a Granola transcript as text that exists only if you started capture, cannot be corrected, and lives as long as your retention setting allows. Start each meeting deliberately and stop between back-to-back calls. Trim sensitive chunks and regenerate before sharing. Then decide early how transcripts leave the app: copy, or the CSV of titles and summaries, on any plan; Zapier and the API on Business also pass full transcripts to other tools. Set auto-deletion only after that export path runs.



## Sources

[1] Granola help: How transcription works — https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/taking-notes/transcription (2026-11)
[2] Granola help: Exporting notes — https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/sharing/exporting-notes (2026-11)
[3] Granola help: Transcript auto-deletion — https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/consent-security-privacy/transcript-auto-deletion (2026-11)
[4] Granola pricing page — https://www.granola.ai/pricing
[5] Granola help center — https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/search
[6] Granola Application Terms of Service — https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/policies/terms-of-service/application-terms-of-service
[7] Granola Privacy Policy — https://docs.granola.ai/help-center/policies/privacy-policy