Grain vs Sonix Comparison 2026
Grain is built around live meetings: a notetaker joins the call, and the free plan covers unlimited meetings and unlimited seats capped at 45 minutes each. Sonix is built around files you already have, billed $10 an hour with no monthly commitment, or from $25 a month for a block of hours, with only a 30-minute trial rather than an ongoing free plan. Pick based on when the recording exists: Grain if it happens live on a call, Sonix if it already sits in a file waiting to be transcribed.
At a glance
- Sonix starts cheaper, at $10.
- Only Grain has a free tier.
Side by side
Grain | Sonix | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $15 | From $10 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
Grain
Notes and clips from calls, free tier included
Grain records and transcribes meetings, writes notes and lets a moment be clipped out and shared without anybody rewatching the recording. Its free plan carries unlimited meetings and unlimited notetaker seats, capped at forty-five minutes each and thirty days of history, which is a real working tier rather than a demo. Paying removes both limits and adds custom prompts. The conversational intelligence in the higher tiers is aimed at sales teams and does nothing for a solo creator.
Our note
The 45-minute limit rather than the seat count is what decides whether the free plan works, so check your typical call length before anything else. Against tl;dv, Grain gives away seats and caps duration while tl;dv gives away duration and caps the AI, which makes the choice a question about your calls rather than about the products.
Sonix
Transcription you can pay for by the hour
Sonix will bill by the hour rather than by the month, which is the right shape for somebody who transcribes a batch of interviews twice a year and nothing in between. Accuracy across its 54 languages is good and the editor lines the text up against the audio. Subscribers get storage and an AI workspace that the hourly rate does not include.
Why people weigh these two
- Sonix instead of Grain
- Sonix sells transcription by the hour from $10, priced per recording rather than per seat.
- Grain instead of Sonix
- Grain pulls clips and notes out of a call automatically, with a free tier and a $15 plan, aimed at calls rather than the batch interview work Sonix bills by the hour.
Which one should you pick
Pick Grain if the job is recording and clipping live meetings, and you want a whole team doing it without a per-seat bill. The free plan is unlimited on meetings and seats, capped only at 45 minutes a call, and Starter at $15 a seat a month billed annually removes that cap once calls run long.
Pick Sonix if transcription happens in bursts, an interview series done twice a year, rather than continuously. Pay As You Go is $10 an hour with no subscription at all, which suits exactly that pattern, and the 30-minute trial is an honest way to judge accuracy across its 54 languages before committing to either the hourly rate or a monthly block of hours.
Common questions
- Does Sonix have a free plan the way Grain does?
- No. Sonix offers a 30-minute trial rather than an ongoing free plan, and its cheapest paid option is $10 an hour with no monthly commitment. Grain's free plan is unlimited on meetings and seats, capped only at 45 minutes per call.
- Which is better for occasional, bursty transcription work?
- Sonix, by its own listing's framing: Pay As You Go costs $10 an hour with no subscription, built for somebody who transcribes twice a year rather than every week. Grain is priced as an ongoing subscription once you outgrow its free plan's 45-minute call limit.
- Can Sonix join a live meeting the way Grain does?
- Its listing does not describe joining a live call; Sonix works from recordings and files you already have. Grain is specifically built to join a meeting and capture it as it happens.
- How does Sonix's monthly plan differ from paying by the hour?
- Core at $25 a month includes 5 hours of transcription and 25GB of storage, plus an AI workspace the hourly Pay As You Go rate does not include. Grain does not offer an hourly, no-subscription option at all; every paid tier is a per-seat monthly plan.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.