Abstract: The present apparatus cools and granulates thermoplastic strands. For this purpose two cooling chutes are arranged in mirror symmetric, back to back fashion between the strand ejecting nozzles and the input gap between two feeding rollers which supply the strands to a cutting roller. The upper ends of the chutes receive the strands from two sets of nozzles such as extruder nozzles. The nozzles in one set are arranged in a row staggered relative to the nozzles in the other set so that the strands emerging from one set of nozzles fit into the spaces between the strands emerging from the other set of nozzles when the strands enter into the cutter.