# Circleback vs Granola (slim)

> Circleback scores 67.6 (B) to Granola's 64.1 (B) for meeting transcripts. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circleback-vs-granola.md (~4,400 tokens) · this version ~2,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circleback-vs-granola.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circleback-vs-granola
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
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Circleback scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Granola's 64.1 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Granola leads on security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do meeting transcripts.

- Circleback: B 67.6, rank #315 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/circleback.min.md
- Granola: B 64.1, rank #482 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/granola.min.md
- Circleback, good for Agents that need a person's meeting notes, transcripts and action items from a notetaker they already use, including on Free. Ahead on Reliability, 77 against 70; Payments & pricing, 30 against 25; Maintenance & community, 78 against 60.
- Granola, good for People and teams who already take notes in Granola and want an agent to read notes, summaries and transcripts. Ahead on Security & auth, 70 against 61; Transparency & trust, 76 against 70.

| Category | Circleback | Granola |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 77 | 70 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 81 | 82 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 72 | 71 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 61 | 70 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 25 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 78 | 60 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 70 | 76 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Circleback | Granola |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Circleback AI, Inc. | Granola, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://circleback.ai/api/mcp` | `https://public-api.granola.ai` |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Circleback's Terms of Service. The `@circleback/cli` npm package is MIT | Proprietary service under Granola's Platform Terms and User Terms. No SDK or open-source component was found |
| Tools exposed | 28 | 9 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `ai.circleback/circleback` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-04-07 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-07-15 | 2026-09-08 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Circleback +18: Circleback 78 (`@circleback/cli` 1.2.1 published on 3 November 2026 and a release entry on 2 November (30). Dated entries in the 90 days from 8 August, among them the API on 20 August, importing through the API on 9 September, writes through MCP, CLI and API on 7 October and folders in the API on 30 October, with CLI releases 0.9.0 to 1.2.1 since 6 October (20). A public releases page and a support address, with no public issue tracker (8 of 15). In the official MCP registry as ai.circleback/circleback (15). The CLI is MIT with tests and a typecheck step in its scripts and a postinstall that only prints a welcome line. Its repository isn't public (5 of 10). 30+20+8+15+5 = 78.); Granola 60 (The newest API changelog entry is v1.6.0, labelled October 2026 with no day. Our 8 October check found v1.5.0 as the newest entry, so v1.6.0 was posted after 8 October, and the docs sitemap dates the changelog and the new Search notes page 27 October and the List Spaces page 9 October, all within 30 days (30). Entries in the last 90 days are v1.4.0 (August, 28 of whose 31 days fall after 4 August; the Get Transcript page it added carries a sitemap date of 11 August), v1.5.0 (September) and v1.6.0 (October) (20). A public changelog, a support address, incidents each closed with a note, and published security reports. No public issue tracker (10 of 15). No entry from Granola in the official MCP registry, where the one match is a third party's server, and no official SDK (0). No packages to assess (0). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 60.)
- Security & auth, Granola +9: Circleback 61 (OAuth with dynamic client registration and two scopes on MCP, and API keys that are read-only or read and write, shown once (28 of 30). Read-only keys and a read-only MCP scope, and only an owner can delete a meeting. No confirmation step on the API for shares or deletes (14 of 20). Transcripts, notes and emails are participant-written text, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). A usage dashboard for workspace admins and meeting access requests, with no audit log of API or MCP calls found (4 of 15). SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework certification, HIPAA, an external penetration test report on the security portal and a valid security.txt. No bug bounty found (15 of 20). 28+14+0+4+15 = 61.); Granola 70 (API keys go in a Bearer header, carry Personal notes, Public notes or both, and can be edited and revoked. Workspace keys do not expire. Audit and legal hold keys do one job each, capped at five active keys. The MCP server uses OAuth with S256 PKCE, dynamic client registration and one scope, `mcp`, or enterprise-managed authorisation (25 of 30). The notes API cannot edit or delete notes, Enterprise admins can limit scopes and switch off transcripts for MCP, and webhook payloads carry no note content. A notes key can still register a webhook to any public HTTPS URL (16 of 20). Transcripts are untrusted speech and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). The Audit API records each API key use and MCP tool call for a year, on Enterprise only (12 of 15). SOC 2 Type II, a valid security.txt, a disclosure policy with safe harbour and paid rewards, and published post-mortems. No formal bug bounty (17 of 20).)
- Reliability, Circleback +7: Circleback 77 (Graded on the hosted REST API and MCP server with the hosted lines. incident.io status page at status.circleback.ai with four components, none of them the API (20). Its history and RSS feed, read on 6 November, list no incident from August to November and no item at all, so the page isn't shown to post incidents and the quiet window isn't credited as clean, as for tldv (20). Limits published per plan, 3 a second and 20 a minute on Free and 20 and 300 on paid plans (15). 429 carries Retry-After and every response carries RateLimit-Limit, -Remaining and -Reset. No idempotency key or safe-retry guidance for writes (12 of 15). No SLA found in the Terms or on the pricing page (0). The API has no beta label (10). 20+20+15+12+0+10 = 77.); Granola 70 (Graded on the hosted REST API and MCP server. status.granola.ai is an incident.io page with five components, two of them API and webhooks and MCP (20). For August to November 2026 it shows 100 per cent uptime for API and webhooks and 99.89 per cent for MCP. Of nine incidents in its feed since 4 August, the app ones name the desktop or mobile apps or describe app functions (the 28 October "Granola app services down" marks no component and lists syncing and note generation), one names a third party only, and one on 8 October 2026 is MCP not connecting for Claude Code users, which hits one client group and reads as partial. Minor only (20). REST limits are published (burst 25, 5 requests a second), and MCP limits as about 100 a minute, subject to change (15). 429 is stated with no `Retry-After` or backoff guidance. Webhook retries run for four days with a stable `event_id`, and adding legal hold custodians is idempotent (5 of 15). No uptime SLA was found (0). The API is at v1.6.0 with no beta label (10). 20 + 20 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 70.)
- Transparency & trust, Granola +6: Circleback 70 (Closed service with clear terms, effective 7 April 2026, naming Circleback AI, Inc. under Delaware law (15 of 30). The security page says customer data isn't used to train models, retention settings are documented per data type with permanent deletion, the Terms delete data when an account is deleted, and a DPA and BAA are published. The Privacy Policy dates from 15 July 2024 and gives no periods (22 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated deprecation notice found (0 of 20). US processing under the Data Privacy Framework is stated. Sub-processors weren't found outside the DPA, which wasn't read in full (10 of 20). 15+22+0+10 = 47.); Granola 76 (Closed service with published Platform Terms and User Terms, both dated 19 December 2025, which count related APIs as part of the Services (15 of 30). The privacy policy (effective 8 September 2026), the DPA (17 July 2026) and the help centre agree that data sits on AWS in the United States, audio is deleted after transcription, third parties may not train on customer data and Granola trains on de-identified data unless the user opts out. Notes and transcripts are kept indefinitely unless a retention period is set (24 of 30). No deprecation policy was found. The Audit API page says existing fields will not change without a new API version (5 of 20). Storage location is disclosed and the security page names Deepgram, AssemblyAI, OpenAI and Anthropic. The full sub-processor list is on a trust centre we could not read, with ten days' notice of changes per the DPA (14 of 20).)
- Payments & pricing, Circleback +5: Circleback 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Seat prices are public, $15 and $25 a user a month, with nothing priced per call (10). The Free plan includes API, MCP and CLI access with 30 days of history and costs nothing. A card isn't mentioned for it (20). A person signs up in a browser and creates a key or approves OAuth (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.); Granola 25 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public, $0, $14 and $35 a user a month, with nothing priced per call (10). The free Basic plan includes MCP for personal notes from the last 30 days with some tools withheld, while the REST API and webhooks need a paid plan or a time-limited trial (15 of 20). A person installs the app, signs in with Google or Microsoft and creates a key or approves OAuth (0).)