Fireflies.ai Review (2026): Features, Price, the Bot and What Users Say

Fireflies.ai is a full-featured AI note taker with well-rated transcripts and summaries, but it records most calls through a bot named "Fireflies.ai Notetaker" that joins as a participant, and new free accounts get only 3 meetings unless they let that bot auto-join their calendar. Users rate it 4.7 on G2 and 4.5 on Trustpilot, and their top complaints are the bot, who-said-what mix-ups and billing, so if you want the notes with no bot in the call, Scribbl is the pick: Start free, no bot, works when you're not the host, free plan.

This review covers what Fireflies does, how its bot gets into your calls, what the free plan really includes, every price, privacy and the lawsuit, and what users say on G2 and Trustpilot, then who Fireflies is built for and why Scribbl is the better pick for most people. Every Fireflies fact comes from fireflies.ai/pricing, Fireflies' help center and its security page, and every user quote from the G2 and Trustpilot pages linked below, all checked on October 23, 2026. We make Scribbl. We reviewed Fireflies from its own pages and its users' reviews; we didn't create a Fireflies account.

What Fireflies.ai does

Fireflies is an AI note taker for online meetings. After a call it gives you:

• A transcript, in 100+ languages per its plan cards, with search, comments and clips.
• An AI summary with an overview, notes and action items. On Free, summaries are limited.
• AskFred, a chat about your meetings that runs on AI credits, and AI Skills, 200+ ready-made templates for custom notes, on paid plans.
• Integrations with CRMs, Slack and other tools; Fireflies' pages give the count as 100+, 40+ and 50+ in different places.
• Apps for Mac and Windows, iPhone and Android, plus a free dictation feature in the desktop app called Fireflies Talk.

Its bot supports Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Dialpad, GoToMeeting, Lifesize, Webex and Jitsi, per its help center. For each meeting app in detail, see does Fireflies work with Zoom, Teams and Google Meet.

How Fireflies joins your calls: the bot

The thing most reviews skip is how Fireflies gets into the meeting. From its help center (How Fireflies joins and records your meetings):

• It's a participant. "It appears as Fireflies.ai Notetaker," joining as fred@fireflies.ai.
• Three ways in: Auto-join from your calendar, adding fred@fireflies.ai to an invite, or "Add to live meeting."
• You can't hide it. To "Can I hide the bot's presence?" Fireflies answers "No."
• It waits to be let in. It has to be admitted from a waiting room, and waits up to 10 minutes on Google Meet or 15 on other apps.
• It can send recaps. For free transcription, Fireflies says you can "share recaps with all invitees."

Fireflies has two ways to record without the bot, and both give you less. The Chrome extension "only works with Google Meet in Chrome," and asked whether it records video, Fireflies says it "only records audio." The desktop app's no-bot mode "does not save separate audio or video files": you get a transcript and summary, with speakers shown as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2.

So on Fireflies, the video of your meeting, the speaker names and the free plan's no-cap meetings all come through the bot.

Do it with Scribbl: no bot in the call

If the bot is what's holding you back, Scribbl does the same job with nothing joining the call, and keeps the video:

1. Add Scribbl. The Chrome extension for Google Meet, or Scribbl Desktop for Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows for Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
2. Join your meeting as usual, as host or guest. Nothing joins the call, and no Notetaker tile shows up for your clients. Tell everyone you're recording.
3. Open the notes when it ends. You get the video recording, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items.

The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Start free.

Fireflies pricing in 2026

Fireflies has four plans, priced per seat per month in US dollars, from fireflies.ai/pricing on October 23, 2026. Scribbl is first for comparison. For every limit, the credit packs and what a team pays, see Fireflies pricing.

Feature	Scribbl	Fireflies Free	Fireflies Pro	Fireflies Business	Fireflies Enterprise
Price, billed annually	Free plan; Pro $13	$0	$10	$19	$39
Price, billed monthly	Free plan; Pro $20	$0	$18	$29	Annual only
Does anything join the call?	No, on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams	The bot, unless you use the extension or desktop no-bot mode	The bot, unless you use the extension or desktop no-bot mode	The bot, unless you use the extension or desktop no-bot mode	The bot, unless you use the extension or desktop no-bot mode
Video of the meeting	Every meeting, free plan included	– No	720p	720p	1080p
AI notes and action items	Every meeting	Limited AI summaries	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited

Free and Pro stop each recording at 2 hours, Business at 3 and Enterprise at 4. Free has 400 minutes of storage, Pro 8,000 minutes per seat, and Business and Enterprise unlimited. AI credits run AskFred and AI Skills: 20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise. Annual billing saves "up to 44%," per the pricing page. Downloads, AI Skills and video start on Pro; Multi-language Mode and conversation intelligence on Business; HIPAA, SSO and SCIM, custom data retention and private storage on Enterprise.

What the Fireflies free plan really includes

The Free card on the pricing page says "Unlimited transcription*" and "Limited AI summaries," and the asterisk isn't explained there. The help center fills it in (Unlock Unlimited Transcriptions on the Fireflies Free Plan, What's included in the Fireflies Free plan):

• 3 meetings, or the bot. "These limits apply to users who sign up on or after September 1, 2026." With Auto-join off, you're "limited to 3 meetings." With Auto-join on, there's "no cap." Choosing "Only when I invite fred@fireflies.ai" "does not support unlimited transcriptions."
• Summaries run on credits. You get 3 to 10 transcription credits at sign-up, depending on where you sign up, and each summary uses one.
• 400 minutes of storage. The pricing page says per team; the help center says per seat.
• 2 hours per recording, 20 AI credits, and "Downloading transcripts requires a paid plan." No video.

In short, the free plan's no-cap meetings depend on letting the Fireflies bot join the meetings on your calendar.

Is Fireflies.ai safe? Privacy and the lawsuit

Fireflies' security page says it is "Certified for GDPR, SOC 2 Type II, and HIPAA compliance," with a "BAA for healthcare and DSA for education, available on Enterprise with Private Storage." On training it says "Your data is never used for AI training or any purpose outside your direct business needs," though the same page also says "We don't train on it by default."

Fireflies is also the defendant in Fricker v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 1:26-cv-02675, a proposed class action in federal court in Chicago. It alleges that Fireflies' Notetaker captured the voiceprints of meeting participants who never signed up, without the consent Illinois' biometric privacy law requires. As of October 19, 2026, Fireflies' motion to dismiss was awaiting a ruling, and no court had ruled that Fireflies broke the law. See the Fireflies AI lawsuit and is Fireflies AI safe for the full picture.

What users say: Fireflies.ai reviews on G2 and Trustpilot

Ratings as shown on October 23, 2026:

• G2: 4.7 out of 5 from 755 reviews (G2 reviews). G2's own summary of the top complaints: "AI Inaccuracy, Meeting Management, Expensive, AI Limitations, Poor Summarization."
• Trustpilot: 4.5 from 869 reviews, with 81% five stars and 13% one star (Trustpilot).

What users like. The notes. A small-business reviewer on G2 says "The transcriptions are accurate, the summaries are detailed" (G2 pros and cons). On Trustpilot, Hanna writes that "It saved me many many hours" (5-star reviews).

What users complain about. Mostly the bot, accuracy and billing:

• The bot joining calls. "it tries to join every call I make on my Mac" (Steve, Trustpilot, October 7, 2026, 1-star reviews).
• Who said what. "notes were inaccurate in terms of who said what" (Brian, Trustpilot, September 25, 2026, 2-star reviews). On G2: "Sometimes the transcriptions are totally wrong."
• Billing. "my account automatically turned into a paid account without my knowledge" (Trustpilot, September 16, 2026, 1-star reviews).
• Sign-up to read notes. One G2 reviewer calls it a tool "that forces you to sign up to view meeting notes."
• AI credits. A G2 reviewer on Pro: "Wish there were more available for the Pro Plan."

Who Fireflies is built for

Fireflies is built for teams that want a bot in every calendar meeting: sales teams who want conversation intelligence and team analytics on Business, and companies that need HIPAA or SSO on Enterprise. If a bot in your clients' calls, summaries capped on the free plan, video only on paid plans or AI credits to manage are what you want to avoid, Scribbl is the better pick.

Fireflies vs Scribbl: the better pick

Scribbl is an AI note taker for Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and for most people reading Fireflies reviews it's the better pick. Nothing joins the call: a Chrome extension for Google Meet, and Scribbl Desktop for Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows for Zoom and Teams. Every meeting comes back with the video recording, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items, in one account for all three meeting apps.

It also does the work after the call. Smart Collections sort your meetings by themselves. Automations do the follow-up when a meeting lands in a collection: they draft the follow-up email (copy it or open it in Gmail; it never sends by itself), log a note in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Microsoft Teams, save to Google Drive, Notion or Confluence, open an Asana, Monday, Linear or Jira ticket, or add a Google Sheet row. They ask before they change anything by default. On Pro, connect Scribbl to ChatGPT or Claude and ask about past meetings. Recordings are private by default, and Scribbl doesn't use your meetings to train AI for anyone other than you.

Feature	Scribbl	Fireflies
Does anything join the call?	No, on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams	Fireflies.ai Notetaker joins as a participant and can’t be hidden
Video of the meeting	Every meeting, free plan included	Paid plans only, through the bot
Transcript with speaker names	Yes	With the bot; Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 in the desktop no-bot mode
AI notes and action items on the free plan	Every meeting	Limited AI summaries, from credits given at sign-up
Free plan	10 meetings a month on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams	3 meetings for new accounts, or no cap with the bot on Auto-join; 400 minutes of storage
Follow-up after the call	Automations draft the email, log notes in HubSpot or Pipedrive, post to Slack or Teams, open tickets	AI Skills on paid plans, paid in AI credits
Ask about past meetings	ChatGPT or Claude, on Pro	AskFred, paid in AI credits
Paid plan	Pro, $13 per user billed annually, or $20 monthly	Pro, $10 per seat billed annually, or $18 monthly; Business, $19 or $29

For more options side by side, see the best Fireflies alternatives.

The short version. Fireflies gets good marks for its notes, but its video, its speaker names and its free plan's no-cap meetings all come through a bot in your call. Scribbl gives you the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items on every meeting with nothing joining the call. The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Start free.

FAQ

Is Fireflies.ai any good?

Fireflies.ai is a full-featured AI note taker, and users rate it 4.7 out of 5 on G2 (755 reviews) and 4.5 on Trustpilot (869 reviews), as of October 23, 2026. Reviewers praise the transcripts and summaries. The most common complaints are the bot joining calls people didn't expect, mix-ups over who said what, and charges after the free plan. If you want the notes with no bot in the call, Scribbl, which we make, is the better pick.

Is Fireflies.ai free?

Yes, Fireflies has a Free plan at $0, but accounts made on or after September 1, 2026 get 3 meetings unless they turn on Auto-join, which sends the Fireflies bot to the meetings on their calendar. Free also has limited AI summaries, 400 minutes of storage, 20 AI credits, 2 hours per recording, and no video or downloads. Pro is $10 per seat per month billed annually, or $18 monthly.

Does Fireflies.ai join my meetings?

Yes. Fireflies records most meetings with a bot that appears as Fireflies.ai Notetaker. It joins through Auto-join, through an invite to fred@fireflies.ai, or when you add it to a live meeting, and Fireflies' help center says you can't hide it. The Chrome extension records Google Meet without the bot, audio only, and the desktop app's no-bot mode saves no audio or video files.

Is Fireflies.ai safe to use?

Fireflies says it is certified for GDPR, SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA, with a BAA on Enterprise with Private Storage, and that your data is never used for AI training. It is also the defendant in a proposed class action in Illinois, Fricker v. Fireflies.AI Corp., which alleges it captured meeting participants' voiceprints without consent. As of October 19, 2026, no court had ruled on those claims.

What is the best alternative to Fireflies.ai?

Scribbl, which we make, for meetings on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Nothing joins the call, and every meeting comes back with the video recording, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items. The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month. Start free.

Is Scribbl free, and will people see anything join the call?

Yes, Scribbl has a free plan, and no, nothing joins the call, so no Notetaker tile and no extra name in the participant list, whether or not you are the host. The free plan includes Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, with 10 meetings a month, and every meeting gets the video, a transcript with speaker names, AI notes and action items. Tell everyone you're recording. Start free.

Sources

Every Fireflies fact and user quote above was checked on these pages on October 23, 2026, except the lawsuit status, checked October 19, 2026.

• Fireflies: pricing, security
• Fireflies help center: Learn about the Fireflies' pricing plans, What's included in the Fireflies Free plan, Unlock Unlimited Transcriptions on the Fireflies Free Plan, How Fireflies joins and records your meetings, supported meeting platforms, Chrome extension, Recording without a bot on the desktop app, Getting started with AI apps
• User reviews: G2, Fireflies.ai reviews and pros and cons; Trustpilot, fireflies.ai, 5-star, 2-star and 1-star reviews
• The lawsuit: Fricker v. Fireflies.AI Corp., No. 1:26-cv-02675 (N.D. Ill.), via CourtListener
• Scribbl: pricing