You’re in a meeting with a potential client. Ten important things come up. You try to take notes, but miss half of them. Afterwards, you can’t remember exactly what was said. Grain records your video calls, automatically transcribes everything, and pulls out the key moments. You can share clips with colleagues without them having to watch an hour of footage.
Who is behind Grain?
Grain Intelligence, Inc. was founded in 2018 by brothers Mike and Jake Adams in San Francisco. The idea came about when Mike was conducting admissions interviews via Zoom at his previous startup, MissionU. He noticed that valuable information from those conversations was simply being lost. No good notes, no way to search back, no ability to share important moments with the team. He called these ‘spoken assets’ – things that were said but never truly captured.
The brothers wanted to make that spoken information searchable and shareable. They built Grain as a solution for teams that conduct many video calls but struggle with capturing knowledge. The company grew steadily and has since raised $1 million, with investors like Tiger Global. Notably, both the Zoom Apps Fund and the Slack Fund invested in Grain – both platforms saw potential in the integration.
More than 100,000 people now use Grain, including teams at well-known companies like Webflow and Zapier. It’s no longer a small startup, but not a giant like Gong either. They’re somewhere in the middle – big enough to be reliable, small enough to stay agile.
Who is Grain for?
Grain is primarily aimed at teams that conduct many video calls and want to extract value from them. Think of sales teams that want to analyze customer conversations and share highlights with the team. Or user researchers conducting interviews who want to clip specific moments for presentations. Recruiters use it to review job interviews and discuss them with hiring managers. Customer Success teams can search conversations for complaints or feature requests.
The tool is less suitable for individuals who only have occasional meetings. If you only have a few conversations per month, Grain is overkill. Teams that purely record audio without video also won’t benefit much from the clip functionality, which is one of Grain’s strong points. And if you don’t have a business email, you’ll quickly hit the limits of the free plan.
What can Grain do?
The free version of Grain already offers quite a bit of functionality, but for advanced features like in-depth analytics and extensive CRM integrations, you need a paid plan. Here’s what Grain does:
- Automatic recording and transcription: Grain automatically records your Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams calls. You don’t have to start anything—it happens automatically once you set it up. Transcription works in multiple languages, though real-time transcription during the call is only available in English.
- AI summaries: After the call, you get a summary of the conversation. The AI picks out key points and lists them. Handy if you want to quickly know what it was about without watching everything back. The quality does depend on how structured the conversation was.
- Create video clips: This is where Grain really shines. You can cut specific moments from a conversation and share them as individual clips. Someone asks a good question at minute 23? Cut it out, share the link with your team. No one has to watch the entire hour. The clips include transcription, so you can view them without sound too.
- Searchable archive: All conversations are stored in a searchable format. You type a search term and Grain finds all moments when that word was mentioned, in any conversation. Ideal when you’re trying to figure out three months later who said something about a specific topic.
- Automatic action items: Grain detects when action items are mentioned in a conversation. “I’ll send you that data next week” is recognized as an action. This works reasonably well but isn’t perfect—sometimes it misses things or interprets something incorrectly.
- CRM integrations: You can connect Grain to Salesforce, HubSpot, and other CRM systems. Conversations are then automatically linked to the right contacts and deals. Notes and highlights appear in your CRM without having to transfer them manually.
- Slack integration: Share clips and summaries directly in Slack channels. The team gets a notification with the key points from a customer call without everyone having to watch the entire recording.
- Desktop Capture: Sometimes a customer unexpectedly calls via another platform. With Desktop Capture, you can still record your screen and audio, even if it’s not through one of the standard video platforms.
- Template library: Grain has pre-made prompts for different types of conversations. Sales calls, user interviews, performance reviews—a template for each type that helps the AI extract the right information.
What does Grain cost?
Grain has a free plan, but with significant limitations. If you use a business email, you can record unlimited meetings. With a personal email address, you’re limited to 20 meetings. The free plan is for one user, so you can’t collaborate with team members.
The Starter plan costs $1 per month, or $1 per month if you pay annually ($1 per year). This gives you access to more storage and advanced features. The Business plan costs $1 per month, or $1 per month with annual billing ($1 per year). This plan is designed for teams and offers extensive integrations and analytics.
New users get 14 days to test the paid features. Plenty of time to see if Grain fits your workflow. The pricing is reasonable for what you get, especially compared to enterprise solutions like Gong that can quickly cost thousands of dollars per year. But it’s not cheaper than some competitors like Tactiq.
What should you watch out for?
The free plan sounds attractive, but 20 meetings run out quickly if you meet regularly. You’ll hit the limits pretty fast. For teams that want to get serious, a paid plan is basically unavoidable.
If you compare Grain with Gong, you’re missing the in-depth sales analytics. Gong analyzes conversations much more extensively and provides coaching tips based on what works and what doesn’t. Grain doesn’t do that. It’s more of a recording and sharing tool than a complete sales intelligence solution.
The pricing transparency could be better. The website doesn’t always clearly state what exactly is included in which plan. You sometimes have to click around to figure out whether a feature you need is in Starter or Business. That makes comparing difficult.
Real-time transcription only works in English. If you conduct conversations in other languages, the transcription will only appear after the fact. Not ideal if you want to read along during the conversation or if you have hearing issues.
Grain stores data in the United States via AWS servers. The company is SOC 2 Type II compliant, so security is solid. But if you prefer European servers for privacy reasons, that’s not an option. For companies with strict data residency requirements, this can be a problem.
Grain alternatives
Grain isn’t the only player in this space. Depending on what exactly you’re looking for, there are alternatives that might be a better fit:
- Otter.ai: Choose this if you’re mainly recording audio without video. Otter is stronger in pure transcription of in-person meetings and phone calls. The video interface and clip feature are less developed than Grain’s.
- Fireflies.ai: Go with this if you want maximum workflow automation. Fireflies has more integrations and automation options, but the visual interface for viewing and clipping video is less intuitive.
- Gong: Choose this if you’re running a large enterprise sales team and are prepared to invest significantly. Gong is much more expensive and complex, but offers extensive sales coaching and analytics that Grain doesn’t have.
Frequently asked questions
A few questions that frequently come up about Grain:
Does Grain work with all video platforms?
Grain integrates directly with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. For those platforms, automatic recording works out-of-the-box. For other platforms, you can use the Desktop Capture feature, but then you have to start manually and the integration is less seamless.
Is my data safe with Grain?
Grain is SOC 2 Type II compliant and encrypts all data. Storage takes place on AWS servers in the United States. For most companies, this is sufficient, but if you have strict European data residency requirements, Grain is not an option.
Can I upload old recordings?
Yes, you can upload existing video or audio files to Grain. The tool then transcribes and analyzes them as if it were a live recording. Handy if you already have an archive you want to make searchable.
Conclusion
Grain is a solid choice for teams that conduct a lot of video calls and want to systematically extract value from them. The clip feature is really handy – you can finally share specific moments without making people watch an hour of video. The transcription is accurate and the searchable archive saves time. For sales teams, recruiters, and user researchers who regularly analyze and share conversations, Grain solves a real problem. It’s not an enterprise beast like Gong, but for mid-sized teams often more than enough. If you mainly record audio or only have a few meetings per month, there are cheaper alternatives that are a better fit.
