# Grain — AI Meeting Assistants & Notetakers

Grain by Grain Intelligence, Inc. holds a panel rating of 3/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 3/5), as of 2026-11-06. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: 2 of 6 dimensions proven.

- Vendor: Grain Intelligence, Inc. (https://grain.com)
- Category: [AI Meeting Assistants & Notetakers](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/grain
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/grain/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/grain/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-06 · evaluated 2026-11-06 · oldest source captured 2026-11-05

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Grain Intelligence, Inc.
- Headquarters: Incorporated in United States [S7]
- Data hosting: Outside the EU by default; pages mention United States [S5]
- Free plan: Yes, per the vendor’s own page [S2]

## The panel's verdict

Grain is an AI meeting assistant that captures calls with a bot on Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and Webex or through botless desktop recording, producing transcripts, summaries, action items and sync to HubSpot and Salesforce. Persona-weighted totals ran 6.0 to 6.7. Its strongest scoring is integrations and workflow at 7-8, crediting a versioned REST API with a 300 requests per minute per token limit, webhooks, OAuth2 and an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor; summaries and knowledge followed at 7-8. Sovereignty is the weak point at 3-4: Grain Intelligence, Inc. is a Delaware corporation under California law, data is hosted in data centers located in the United States, and the listed summarisation and speech-to-text processors sit in the United States, with Rev AI also listing the European Union. Consent and codetermination and pricing transparency both landed at 6: no response is treated as consent, and consent requests need Business or Enterprise plans. The judges did not genuinely split — scores sit within a point on every criterion and no notable disagreement was flagged.

**Speaks for it:**
- A bot captures Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and Webex meetings alongside botless desktop capture and API upload of external recordings.
- The versioned REST API offers 300 requests per minute per token, webhooks and OAuth2, with an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor.
- Notes and properties sync to HubSpot and Salesforce contacts and deals.
- Workspace-wide auto-deletion policies, SOC 2 Type II, encryption at rest and in transit, and a stated commitment never to train AI on meeting data on any plan.
- Consent emails go out 24 hours before auto-captured meetings and a single decline turns auto-capture off for the whole meeting.

**Held against it:**
- Data is hosted in data centers located in the United States and the listed summarisation and speech-to-text processors sit in the United States, with Rev AI alone also listing the European Union.
- No response is treated as consent, "Record anyway" records against a stated preference, and consent responses are emailed to the recorder rather than tracked in the product.
- Desktop capture has no in-meeting consent mechanism and consent requests require Business or Enterprise plans.
- The captured pages give different figures for supported languages — 99 and 100+ — and never name German.
- SAML SSO, SCIM and audit event logs sit on Enterprise at contact-sales pricing, and we found no public information on storage limits, transcription minutes or VAT treatment.

**Best for:**
- You run customer calls on Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or Webex and want notes and properties pushed to HubSpot or Salesforce.
- You want to build on the meeting data yourself, through the documented REST API, webhooks and MCP server.
- You want predictable entry pricing: Free forever at $0 with no credit card, Pro at $15 per month billed annually, Business at $29 per seat/month billed annually with a 2 seat minimum, and no required annual contracts.
- US hosting and a Delaware contracting entity pose no obstacle for your procurement.

**Avoid if:**
- You need recordings and transcripts to stay in the EU — data is hosted in the United States and the listed AI and transcription processors are US-based.
- Your works council requires a documented, in-product consent trail — responses land in the recorder's email and no response is treated as consent.
- You need every capture path consented in-meeting — desktop capture has no such mechanism.
- You must budget SSO, SCIM and audit event logs before signing — these sit on Enterprise at contact-sales pricing.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Management Consultant | The Sales Team Lead | The Works Council Chair | The Data Protection Officer | The IT Lead | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Recording, transcription & languages | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Summaries, action items & meeting knowledge | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Integrations, API & workflow | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 4/5 |
| Consent, participant rights & works council | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| Retention, AI training & administration | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **3/5** | **3.5/5** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **3.5/5** | **3/5** |

### The judges

- **The Management Consultant** (v1.0): Partner at a twelve-person management consultancy in Munich with six client calls a day, half in German, half in English, and workshops in the client's meeting room. Writes the minutes at night and wants that to stop. Wants accurate German transcripts with the right names, minutes by meeting type with decisions and action items, capture of in-person workshops without a laptop on the table, and a promise in writing that client conversations train nobody's model.
- **The Sales Team Lead** (v1.0): Leads eight account executives at a software vendor for the German Mittelstand. Discovery calls run on Teams and Zoom, and the CRM is only as good as the notes someone found time to type. Does not want a coaching platform that scores the team: wants the call summary, next steps and the fields that matter written into HubSpot after every call, a follow-up email draft, and prospects told politely that the call is recorded.
- **The Works Council Chair** (v1.0): Chairs the works council of a machine builder with 2,300 employees in Baden-Württemberg. Management wants a notetaker in every Teams meeting; the council has to agree to it under § 87 BetrVG first. Wants to know who is told that a recording runs and who can say no, whether talk time or engagement scores per person exist and can be switched off for good, how long recordings are kept, and material the vendor provides for a works agreement.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Data protection officer of a private bank in Frankfurt that falls under DORA. Has to write the data protection impact assessment before the first recording. Reads the subprocessor list before the feature page, because the language model that reads the transcript is a processor too, and wants its name and region, contractual exclusion from training, retention and deletion by policy, voice profiles explained, and a DPA that matches what the security page claims.
- **The IT Lead** (v1.0): Head of IT at a 450-person engineering services firm on Microsoft 365, where a dozen employees already signed up for free notetakers with their work address. Wants one tool for everyone instead: single sign-on and SCIM, admin policies for when the assistant joins and what may be shared outside the company, retention set centrally, audit logs, Teams and SharePoint working properly, and a seat price that holds at four hundred users.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has seen "99% accuracy in 100 languages" turn a German meeting into English nonsense, a bot that joined a meeting its owner never attended and mailed the summary to every guest, and an action item no one in the room had agreed to. Asks which model wrote the summary and where it runs, whether each statement can be traced to the transcript, who told the external participants, what "we do not train on your data" covers in the DPA — and how the archive leaves.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: 2 of 6 dimensions proven.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Incorporated in US | 0/2 | [S7] |
| Hosting location | Outside the EU | 0/4 | [S5] |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Access controls: yes · operational need only [S16]
- Audits: yes · yes [S16]
- DPA available: DPA links referenced for AssemblyAI and Amplitude · yes [S9]
- Encryption: yes [S7]
- Encryption: yes · yes · yes [S16]
- Encryption rest: yes · yes [S5]
- Encryption transit: yes · A+ [S5]
- GDPR: yes [S1]
- GDPR: yes · yes [S15]
- GDPR SOC 2: yes · yes [S16]
- Mcp security: yes · yes [S12]
- No certification claim: security standards followed but no specific certification named [S8]
- No data sale: no [S6]
- No data sale: no [S14]
- Pentest: at least annually · yes [S5]
- Phi prohibited: no [S7]
- SOC 2: yes [S1]
- SOC 2: yes [S15]
- SOC 2 GDPR: yes · yes · yes [S4]
- SOC 2 type2: clean Type II · yes [S5]
- Trust center: yes [S5]
- Vulnerability disclosure: yes [S5]

**Data**
- Auto deletion policies: workspace · yes [S16]
- Children age: 16 [S8]
- Collected account: name, email address, preferences at signup [S15]
- Collected integration: data from third-party integrations such as calendar or CRM [S15]
- Collected metadata: transcripts plus metadata: timestamps, participants, tags [S15]
- Collected recordings: video and audio recordings of meetings [S15]
- Collected usage: platform interaction and preferences, used to improve services [S15]
- Credit card intermediary: third-party intermediary [S8]
- Deidentify: yes · yes [S6]
- Free account no card: no [S8]
- Llm sharing: yes · yes [S15]
- Marketing opt out: yes [S8]
- Mcp access scope: only data user already has access to; cannot access meetings user wasn't part of [S12]
- Minimization and deletion: yes · yes [S14]
- No selling: no [S16]
- No selling: no [S15]
- Retention duration: as long as needed to provide the Services [S8]
- Retention request window: 30 [S8]
- Storage: AWS-managed PostgreSQL RDS · Elastic Search [S5]
- Third party auth: yes [S8]
- User controls: yes · yes · yes · yes [S15]

**Hosting**
- Aws: AWS [S16]
- Data residency: United States · 30 [S7]
- Provider: USA · AWS [S5]
- Vpc: yes [S5]

**Integrations**
- AI export: bulk download Markdown transcripts; open in Claude or ChatGPT [S1]
- API version: 2025-10-31 · Public-Api-Version [S11]
- Asana: Slack · Notion · Productboard · Asana [S2]
- Auth pat plans: yes [S11]
- Auth wat plans: yes · Business · Enterprise [S11]
- Business CRM slack: yes · yes · yes · yes [S4]
- Calendar video: Microsoft · Google · Zoom · Meet · Teams · Webex [S4]
- Chatgpt setup: ChatGPT App integration via Apps · yes [S12]
- Claude setup: Claude Connector via Customize → Connectors · yes [S12]
- CRM sync: HubSpot · Salesforce [S1]
- Cursor setup: one-command install in Cursor · yes [S12]
- Docs URL: developers.grain.com [S11]
- Hubspot required for deals: yes [S10]
- Listed: Claude · ChatGPT · Slack · HubSpot · Zapier · API [S1]
- Mcp alternative: Grain MCP connects Grain to Claude or ChatGPT so external AI tools work with your meetings [S10]
- Mcp API: yes · yes [S1]
- Mcp matrix: personal · personal · personal_and_workspace · personal_and_workspace [S4]
- Mcp server: MCP server gives AI assistants access to meetings, transcripts, AI notes, workspace data [S12]
- Mcp tool toggles: individual MCP tools can be toggled on/off in Claude; ChatGPT offers a similar permission feature [S12]
- Native: Slack · Notion · Productboard · Zapier · HubSpot · Claude connector · ChatGPT plugin [S2]
- Oauth2: yes · yes [S11]
- Pat generation location: Account settings → Integrations → Personal API · yes [S11]
- Rate limit: 429 Too Many Requests · 300 [S11]
- Sandbox: no [S11]
- SSO configuration: SAML config managed in identity provider, not Grain [S16]
- SSO plan: Enterprise · yes · yes [S16]
- V1 sunset: v2 · 2026-09 [S11]
- Wat generation location: Workspace settings → Integrations → API · workspace admins on Business and Enterprise plans [S11]
- Webhook events: new recording processed · recording settings change · clip created [S11]
- Webhooks new recording: new recording processed · yes [S11]

**Legal**
- Address: 94104 · San Francisco · CA [S7]
- Arbitration: no · yes [S7]
- Change notification: prominent notice on website [S8]
- Consent contact: privacy@grain.co [S8]
- Entity: Grain Intelligence Inc. [S2]
- Entity: Grain Intelligence Inc. [S1]
- Entity: Grain Intelligence Inc. [S4]
- Entity name: Grain Intelligence, Inc. · Delaware [S7]
- Entity name: Grain Intelligence Inc. · copyright line indicates legal entity [S9]
- Entity name: Grain Intelligence, Inc. [S8]
- GDPR controller subscriber: yes [S8]
- Governing law: California · San Mateo County [S7]
- Policy reviewed: 2025-08-21 [S8]
- Privacy email: privacy@grain.co [S8]
- Privacy policy URL: grain.com/privacy-policy [S6]
- Sharing with service providers: yes [S8]
- Trademark year: 2026 [S8]
- Transfer acquisition: yes [S8]
- Usage data sharing: yes [S8]

**Pricing**
- Business price: 2 · per seat/month · 29 · 39 [S4]
- Consent plans: Business · Enterprise [S13]
- Enterprise custom price: yes · custom [S4]
- Free forever: yes [S2]
- Free price: 0 · forever · no [S4]
- Free tier: yes [S5]
- Free tier: yes [S6]
- No annual contracts: no [S4]
- Pro price: per month · 15 · 19 [S4]
- Trackers deals plan requirement: Trackers and deals require Business or Enterprise plan; deals also require connected HubSpot integration [S10]

**Product**
- Access control: Team-scoped collections with automatic sharing/visibility rules [S2]
- Action items summaries: action items and meeting summaries [S1]
- Admin features: yes · yes · yes · yes [S4]
- AI features: yes · yes · yes · yes · yes [S4]
- Allowed domains control: controls which email domains can join your workspace [S15]
- API capabilities: API can read meeting data, manage recordings, and receive real-time events [S11]
- API download formats: JSON · plain text · VTT · SRT · yes [S11]
- API manage recordings: upload external recordings, update metadata, add/remove tags, control sharing at user or team level [S11]
- API read meeting data: retrieve recordings, transcripts, AI notes and action items, participants, tags, teams, meeting types [S11]
- Ask access scope: Ask can only see meetings the user has access to [S10]
- Ask clips stories: Create clips, list clips, create stories, add clips to stories [S10]
- Ask find meetings: Search meetings and transcripts by topic, person, date; pull notes, action items, transcripts [S10]
- Ask grain location: Ask bar in bottom right corner of Meetings page, meeting pages, playlist pages [S10]
- Ask grain purpose: Ask Grain AI answers questions about your meetings and takes actions: summaries, clips, playlists, tags, settings [S10]
- Ask library: Q&A across meeting library with citations [S1]
- Ask no confirmation: no [S10]
- Ask people deals: Look up contacts, companies, workspace members, and deals [S10]
- Ask playlists: Create playlists, add meetings, change visibility [S10]
- Ask scope meetings page: On Meetings page Ask works across all meetings the user has access to [S10]
- Ask settings: View and change personal settings such as Auto-record [S10]
- Ask tags: Add or remove tags on one meeting or many at once [S10]
- Ask trackers: View workspace Trackers and create new ones [S10]
- Ask uses grain mcp tools: yes [S10]
- Ask workspace limitations: yes · yes [S10]
- Beta services: no · yes · no [S7]
- Bot consent host: participants see disclaimer modal and can consent or leave [S16]
- Bot consent non host: yes [S16]
- Bot host consent: participants see disclaimer modal, can consent and stay or leave [S15]
- Bot less transcription: transcribes computer audio without meeting bots [S1]

**Subprocessors**
- Amplitude: Amplitude · Analytics on product use · United States [S9]
- Anthropic: Anthropic · Automated summarization and other generative data transformations · United States [S9]
- Assemblyai: AssemblyAI · Speech-to-text processing service · United States [S9]
- Aws: Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Video call recording storage · United States [S9]
- Basic category: Category of subprocessors with access to only basic customer information (name and email) and behavioral data [S9]
- Google ads: Google Ads · Advertising service · United States · France [S9]
- Hubspot: Hubspot · Customer relationship management · United States [S9]
- Intercom: Intercom · Customer support service · United States [S9]
- List URL: grain.com/grain-subprocessors [S16]
- List URL: https://grain.com/grain-subprocessors [S15]
- Openai: OpenAI · Automated summarization and other generative data transformations · United States [S9]
- Profitwell: ProfitWell · SaaS subscription revenue analytics and recovery · United States [S9]
- Recall AI: Recall.ai · Meeting bot API service · United States [S9]
- Rev AI: Rev AI · Speech-to-text processing service · United States · European Union [S9]
- Segment: Segment · Customer data platform · United States [S9]
- Sendgrid: Sendgrid · Email marketing · United States [S9]
- Sensitive category: Category of subprocessors with access to video/audio streams, recordings of meetings, and/or payment information [S9]
- Sentry: Sentry · Crash & error monitoring · United States [S9]
- Snowflake: Snowflake · Data warehousing · United States [S9]
- Sprig: Sprig · User research platform · United States [S9]
- Stripe: Stripe · Payment processor · United States · France [S9]
- Vitally: Vitally · Customer success management · United States [S9]

**Support**
- Privacy email: privacy@grain.com [S6]
- Security response SLA: security@grain.com · 24 [S5]
- SSO help: customer success manager or help@grain.com [S16]

82 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/grain

## Questions

### Is Grain European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Grain as Rest of world. Its vendor, Grain Intelligence, Inc., is incorporated in United States, per [the vendor’s page captured 5 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/18796).

### Where does Grain store data?

Grain stores customer data outside the EU by default, per [the vendor’s page captured 5 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/18784). The vendor’s pages mention United States as hosting location, per [the vendor’s page captured 5 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/18796).

### Does Grain have a free plan?

Yes. Grain has a free plan, per [the vendor’s page captured 5 Nov 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/18767).

### What are the best alternatives to Grain?

As of 6 Nov 2026, the panel rates [MeetGeek (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/meetgeek), [Noota (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/noota) and [Jamie (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/jamie) highest among the other 14 AI Meeting Assistants & Notetakers products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [MeetGeek](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/meetgeek) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Grain alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/grain/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 4 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 data fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 sovereignty dimension could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and is shown as unknown.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://grain.com/ (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S2] Features page (product and UX teams): https://grain.com/use-case/product (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S3] Integrations page: https://grain.com/integrations (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S4] Pricing page: https://grain.com/pricing (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S5] Security / trust page: https://grain.com/security (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S6] Privacy page (recording and sharing): https://grain.com/privacy (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S7] Terms of service: https://grain.com/terms (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S8] Privacy policy: https://grain.com/privacy-policy (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S9] Subprocessor list: https://grain.com/grain-subprocessors (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S10] Summaries, action items & meeting knowledge — found from sitemap: https://support.grain.com/en/articles/9189989-ask-grain-ai (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S11] Integrations, API & workflow — found from sitemap: https://support.grain.com/en/articles/15507288-grain-api (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S12] Integrations, API & workflow — found from sitemap: https://support.grain.com/en/articles/14811968-grain-mcp (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S13] Consent, participant rights & works council — found from sitemap: https://support.grain.com/en/articles/17218482-recording-consent (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S14] Consent, participant rights & works council — found from sitemap: https://grain.com/consent (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S15] Retention, AI training & administration — found from sitemap: https://support.grain.com/en/articles/4256976-security (checked 2026-11-05)
- [S16] Retention, AI training & administration — found from sitemap: https://support.grain.com/en/articles/4256976-grain-security-and-privacy (checked 2026-11-05)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Grain — AI Meeting Assistants & Notetakers", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-06. https://whats-best.ai/software/meeting-assistants/grain

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1586?target=page