Fireflies.ai Review
Reviewed by Carlos Gil · Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Updated 7 min readEditorially reviewed
Quick facts
- Starting price
- Free; Pro $10/seat/mo billed annually ($18 monthly)
- Free plan
- Yes
- Best for
- Teams that want every meeting recorded, transcribed and searchable, with summaries pushed into a CRM or Slack
- Platforms
- Web app, meeting bot, desktop app (Mac and Windows), Chrome extension, iOS and Android
BestStacked Score
Weighted average of 5 categories. Methodology below.
Quick answer
What is Fireflies.ai, and is it worth paying for?
Fireflies.ai is an AI meeting notetaker. Its bot, Fred, joins your Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams calls (or you record without a bot from the desktop app, Chrome extension or phone), then produces a transcript, a summary and action items you can search and question with AskFred. It's worth paying for if your team wants a searchable record of every call and summaries sent to a CRM or Slack, and you'll use the integrations. Pro costs $10 per seat a month billed annually ($18 monthly) and Business $19 ($29 monthly), checked on Fireflies' pricing page on October 13, 2026. Its free plan got tighter for new sign-ups on September 1, 2026.
- Best for
- Sales, customer success and recruiting teams that want every call transcribed, searchable and synced to HubSpot, Salesforce or Slack.
- Skip it if
- You only want a free notetaker for occasional calls (Fathom's free plan is broader), or you need HIPAA, SSO or custom retention without paying for Enterprise.
- Strongest capability
- Coverage and search: bot, bot-free desktop, Chrome extension, mobile and uploads, with AskFred, topic trackers and 100+ listed integrations.
- Biggest limitation
- Plan rules are easy to misread: AI features run on a separate credit pool, the free plan's limits differ across Fireflies' own pages, and the help center says it doesn't refund subscriptions or credits.
The Verdict
Fireflies.ai covers more ways to capture a conversation than most notetakers: a meeting bot for Zoom, Meet, Teams and 10+ other platforms, a bot-free desktop app, a Chrome extension, mobile recording, uploads and dialer integrations. Paid plans include unlimited transcription and summaries, and the transcripts become a searchable library with AskFred, topic trackers and analytics. Pricing is reasonable at $10 a seat billed annually for Pro, but there are moving parts. AI features such as AskFred on Live Assist, CRM autofill and AI Skills draw on a shared credit pool (20 on Pro, 30 on Business) that you top up with paid add-ons. The free plan changed for sign-ups from September 1, 2026, and Fireflies' pages describe it differently. Video starts on Pro at 720p, and HIPAA, SSO and custom retention are Enterprise only. Fireflies says it doesn't train on customer content. We score Fireflies.ai 8.7/10.
Best for
Teams that record many external calls and want transcripts, summaries and CRM updates in one searchable system.
Skip if
You need a free notetaker for occasional use, or regulated-industry controls without an Enterprise contract.
The Background
What Is Fireflies.ai?
Fireflies.ai, from Fireflies.ai Corp., is an AI meeting assistant founded by Krish Ramineni (CEO) and Sam Udotong (CTO). Its notetaker, Fred, joins calendar meetings automatically or when invited at fred@fireflies.ai, on Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting and other platforms. You can also record without a bot from the desktop app or Chrome extension, record in person with the iOS and Android apps, upload audio or video files, or connect dialers such as Aircall, RingCentral and Zoom Phone. After each meeting Fireflies produces a transcript, summary and action items, and its library supports search, AskFred questions, soundbites, topic trackers and conversation analytics. Fireflies says it is used by more than 1 million companies (its about page says 500,000+); those are the company's own figures. It also offers Fireflies Talk, a voice-dictation tool for Mac and Windows included on every plan.
The Product
Fireflies.ai Features: What You Actually Get
Capture: bot, bot-free and mobile
The bot records Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and other platforms on every plan. The Chrome extension records without a bot on every plan, and the desktop app does the same; Fireflies tells users to get consent from all participants. The mobile apps record in-person meetings, and uploads accept MP3, M4A, WAV and MP4. Recording limits per meeting are 2 hours on Free and Pro, 3 on Business and 4 on Enterprise.
A consultant records client calls with the bot, in-person workshops on the phone app, and internal calls bot-free from the desktop app, all in one library.
Summaries, AskFred and search
Each meeting gets a transcript, summary and action items; paid plans include unlimited summaries. AskFred answers questions about a meeting or across meetings, and the library supports search, soundbites and channels. Fireflies advertises transcription in 100+ languages, though its pricing FAQ says English is the primary language and Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and the rest are in beta. Fireflies claims 95% accuracy; that's its own figure.
A product manager asks AskFred what customers said about pricing across last month's calls and gets quotes with links to the moments.
AI credits
AI Skills, the Personal Assistant (daily digest and meeting prep), custom summary sections, Voice Agents, Sales Assist, the Slack assistant, CRM autofill for HubSpot and Salesforce and AskFred on Live Assist consume AI credits, charged per query. Transcription doesn't. Plans include a one-time allowance (20 on Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise) that's shared across the team and doesn't grow with seats; add-on subscriptions run from $5 a month for 50 credits to $600 for 10,000, and unused add-on credits don't carry over.
A sales team turns on CRM autofill, budgets an add-on of 1,000 credits ($90 a month, or $72 billed annually) and checks usage monthly.
Conversation intelligence and team insights
Pro adds sentiment and question detection, talk-time analytics and topic trackers. Business adds conversation intelligence, team insights for admins, multi-language mode, user groups and priority support. Enterprise adds a rules engine, audit-log API and transcript-and-summary-only mode.
A sales manager tracks how often competitors and pricing come up in discovery calls and coaches reps who talk more than 60% of the time.
Integrations, API and MCP
Fireflies lists 100+ apps, including Salesforce, HubSpot, monday CRM, GoHighLevel, ActiveCampaign, Slack and Zapier (audio transcription via Zapier from Pro). Every plan includes the Fireflies API, with rate limits from 500 requests a day on Free to pooled limits on Business and Enterprise. An MCP server lets AI assistants such as Claude query your meetings; Fireflies says it joined Anthropic's Claude connectors directory on August 21, 2025.
A RevOps lead sends call summaries to the matching HubSpot deal and posts action items to the account's Slack channel.
Feature recap
- Meeting bot for Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and 10+ other platforms
- Bot-free recording via desktop app and Chrome extension; mobile and file uploads
- Unlimited transcription and summaries on paid plans
- AskFred, search, soundbites and topic trackers
- AI credit pool for CRM autofill, AI Skills and assistants
- 100+ listed integrations, API on every plan, MCP server
- SOC 2 Type II and GDPR; HIPAA, SSO and custom retention on Enterprise
The Numbers
Fireflies.ai Pricing: Every Plan Explained
Fireflies prices per seat, and every teammate added to a workspace counts as a seat. Prices below are from Fireflies' pricing page and billing terms, checked October 13, 2026, in USD. Annual billing saves up to 44%, according to Fireflies.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Included Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Bot, Chrome extension and mobile recording; limited AskFred and summaries; 400 minutes of storage; 20 AI credits; 2-hour recordings; no video or downloads. Unlimited transcription only with Auto-join on (sign-ups from Sep 1, 2026) | Trying Fireflies |
| Pro | $18/seat | $10/seat/mo | Unlimited transcription and summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, 720p video, downloads, AI apps, talk-time analytics, topic trackers, all integrations, 20 AI credits | Individuals and small teams |
| BusinessBest value | $29/seat | $19/seat/mo | Unlimited storage, 3-hour recordings, conversation intelligence, team insights, multi-language mode, user groups, priority support, 30 AI credits. Default plan for the 7-day trial | Sales and success teams |
| Enterprise | Not offered | $39/seat/mo (contact sales) | 1080p video, 4-hour recordings, HIPAA, SSO, SCIM, custom data retention, private storage, audit-log API, dedicated support, 50 AI credits | Regulated and large organizations |
For five people on Business billed annually, that's $1,140 a year; the same team on Pro pays $600 (our arithmetic from Fireflies' per-seat prices). Two costs sit outside the seat price. AI credits: the plan allowance is one-time and shared, so teams that lean on CRM autofill, AskFred on Live Assist or AI Skills will likely buy an add-on, from $4 a month billed annually for 50 credits to $480 for 10,000. Transcription from uploads, the API, Zapier and dialers is capped at 3,000 minutes per user a month per source on paid plans, then $0.01 a minute. The 7-day free trial starts on Business, needs a card and converts automatically unless cancelled. Fireflies' help center says it doesn't refund subscriptions or AI credit purchases, while its billing terms say refund eligibility depends on timing and usage; budget as if payments are final.
Free plan
What changed in Fireflies' free plan in September 2026
For accounts created on or after September 1, 2026, Fireflies' help center says the free plan starts with a small number of transcription credits (3 on the web app, 5 via the Chrome extension, 10 for new mobile users), with each meeting using one. Unlimited free transcription requires the Auto-join setting, which has Fred join your calendar meetings automatically; inviting Fred manually doesn't qualify. Accounts created earlier keep their previous limits.
The pricing page card still says 'Unlimited transcription*', with a tooltip limiting it to shared bot meetings, the Chrome extension and the mobile app, while its comparison table says 'Limited'. Fireflies' July 2026 pricing blog describes free transcription and summaries as unlimited. If the free plan matters to you, check the limits in your account after signing up.
Privacy
Recording consent and AI training
Fireflies' terms of service (updated September 28, 2026) say it won't use your content to train, retrain or fine-tune AI models, though it may derive usage and statistical data to improve the service. Its privacy policy says it doesn't use personal information for model training and prohibits vendors from doing so. The security page's wording is softer: 'We don't train on it by default.'
The same terms make you responsible for getting every participant's consent to recording, and the desktop app page repeats that for bot-free recording. Fireflies lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA compliance; HIPAA, custom retention and private storage are Enterprise features.
Read before you buy
Where Fireflies' own pages differ
Free storage: 400 minutes per team on the pricing page, 400 minutes per seat in the free-plan guide. Free AI credits: 20 a month in the free-plan guide, a one-time allowance that doesn't expire in the AI credits article, and blank in the pricing table.
Video: the plan cards and table put 720p video on Pro, while the pricing FAQ says the Business tier gets video recording.
Integrations: the integrations page says 100+ apps, the free-plan guide 50+, and a pricing tooltip 40+; the free-plan guide also says all integrations are available on Free, while the pricing table leaves Free blank.
Refunds: one help article says Fireflies doesn't offer refunds on subscriptions or AI credits; the billing terms say eligibility depends on when the charge occurred and how much was used.
The Tradeoffs
Fireflies.ai Pros and Cons
What we love
- Records via bot, bot-free desktop app, Chrome extension, mobile and uploads
- Unlimited transcription and summaries on paid plans
- AskFred, search and topic trackers across a meeting library
- 100+ listed integrations, including Salesforce, HubSpot and Slack
- API on every plan and an MCP server for AI assistants
- Says it doesn't train AI models on customer content
What could be better
- AI features use a separate, shared credit pool that seats don't grow
- Free plan tightened for sign-ups from September 1, 2026
- Video starts on Pro at 720p; 1080p is Enterprise only
- HIPAA, SSO and custom retention require Enterprise
- Trial needs a card; help center says no refunds
- English is primary; other languages are in beta
The Audience
Who Should Use Fireflies.ai?
Best for: sales and customer success teams
Teams that run many external calls get transcripts, summaries, talk-time analytics and CRM autofill in one place, with Business adding team insights and conversation intelligence.
Best for: teams with mixed meeting types
If calls happen on Zoom, Teams, phone dialers and in person, Fireflies captures more of them in one library than tools built around a single platform.
Skip if: you want a free notetaker or need compliance on a budget
Fathom's free plan is broader for individuals, and Microsoft or Google's built-in meeting AI may already be included in your suite. Regulated teams should price Enterprise before committing.
The Methodology
How We Reviewed Fireflies.ai
This is an editorial review, not a documented hands-on test. We didn't use a Fireflies account for this review. It's based on Fireflies' pricing page and comparison table, its help-center articles on billing terms, AI credits, the free plan, transcription credits, the free trial and refunds, its integrations, desktop, Talk, security and HIPAA pages, its terms of service and privacy policy (both updated September 28, 2026), its pricing, MCP and Perplexity blog posts and its about page, all checked on October 13, 2026. Where Fireflies' pages differ, we report both statements. No transcription-accuracy or time-saving results are claimed.
Our editorial evaluation considers product information, official documentation, pricing, features and professional experience. It is not a claim of documented hands-on testing.
Our review methodology →What changed
- : First published. Editorial review based on Fireflies' pricing page, help-center articles (billing terms, AI credits, free plan, transcription credits, free trial, refunds), integrations, desktop, Talk, security and HIPAA pages, terms of service and privacy policy (September 28, 2026) and blog posts, all checked October 13, 2026.
The Field
Fireflies.ai vs The Competition
Fireflies competes with other AI notetakers and with the meeting AI built into Zoom, Teams and Google Meet. Prices below were checked on each vendor's pricing page on October 13, 2026.
| Tool | Starting Price | Free plan | Best Feature | BS Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fireflies.ai | Free; Pro $10/seat/mo billed annually ($18 monthly) | Yes | Capture: bot, bot-free and mobile | 8.7/10 |
| Fathom | Free; Premium $16/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) | Yes | Generous free plan and simple summaries | 9.1/10 |
| Otter | Free (300 min/mo); Pro $8.33/mo billed annually ($16.99 monthly) | Yes | Live transcription and a low Pro price | 8.8/10 |
| MeetGeek | Free (3 hours/mo); Pro $9.99/mo billed annually ($15.99 monthly) | Yes | Automated meeting insights at a low price | 8.8/10 |
| tl;dv | Free; Pro €18/mo billed annually (€29 monthly) | Yes | Free recordings and multi-meeting reports | 8.5/10 |
Fathom: Fathom's free plan is the easier starting point for individuals, and Premium costs $16 a month billed annually. Fireflies offers more capture options, a meeting library with analytics and more integrations for teams.Read our Fathom review →
Otter: Otter's free Basic plan includes 300 monthly transcription minutes and its Pro plan is cheaper billed annually. Fireflies is stronger on integrations, analytics and recording options beyond the bot.Read our Otter review →
MeetGeek: MeetGeek is priced close to Fireflies Pro and covers summaries, highlights and integrations. Compare the two on the specific CRM and meeting platforms you use.Read our MeetGeek review →
tl;dv: tl;dv shows the same price numbers in dollars or euros depending on where you are, and its free plan records unlimited meetings, though free AI notes stop after 10 meetings. Fireflies Pro is cheaper per seat on annual billing.Read our tl;dv review →
Use cases
Example setups by buyer type
A five-person sales team on HubSpot
Business at $19 a seat billed annually adds conversation intelligence and team insights. Turn on CRM autofill and budget an AI credit add-on, since the plan's 30 credits are shared by the whole team.
A recruiter running back-to-back interviews
Pro at $10 a seat billed annually covers unlimited transcription and summaries, with AskFred to pull answers to the same question across candidates. Get each candidate's consent to recording.
A founder who wants free meeting notes
Fireflies Free works if you turn on Auto-join; check the September 2026 limits in your account. If you only need summaries of your own calls, compare Fathom's free plan.
The Ecosystem
Fireflies.ai Integrations
Fireflies lists more than 100 integrations across meeting platforms, dialers, CRMs and collaboration tools.
- →Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting
- →Aircall, RingCentral, Zoom Phone and other dialers
- →Salesforce and HubSpot (with AI CRM autofill)
- →monday CRM, GoHighLevel, ActiveCampaign
- →Slack
- →Zapier (audio transcription from Pro)
- →Fireflies API and MCP server
Fireflies' pages disagree on integration counts (100+, 50+ and 40+ appear on different pages) and on whether integrations are available on the free plan; the pricing table lists them from Pro.
Common Questions
Fireflies.ai FAQ
The Final Word
Should You Use Fireflies.ai?
Fireflies.ai is a strong choice for teams that want every conversation captured, wherever it happens, and turned into a searchable record with summaries pushed to their CRM and Slack. Pro at $10 a seat billed annually is fair value; Business is the plan for sales and success teams that want analytics. Watch the AI credit pool, which is separate from seats, read the September 2026 free-plan rules carefully, and assume payments aren't refundable. We score Fireflies.ai 8.7/10.
Yes, if
Your team records many external calls across several platforms and wants transcripts, search and CRM updates in one system.
No, if
You want a free notetaker for occasional calls, or need HIPAA and SSO without an Enterprise contract.
About the reviewer
Carlos Gil
Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Carlos Gil is the Founder & Editor of The Best Network, bestselling author of The End of Marketing, and a LinkedIn Top Voice. His digital marketing career began in 2008 and spans corporate roles at LinkedIn and BMC Software, consulting for global brands, creator partnerships, and building his own businesses.
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