Fireflies.ai
Meeting bot that records, transcribes and summarises Zoom, Meet and Teams calls, with a public GraphQL API and completion webhooks for piping transcripts into systems you control.
Overview
Founded in 2016, based in Miami, and one of the older survivors in a category that has churned badly. The bot joins Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams as a participant, records, transcribes across 100+ languages and produces summaries and action items. Around 100 staff, a valuation past a billion dollars in March 2026 and recent releases including Daily Briefs and a sales suite, so the roadmap is still moving.
For an engineer the interesting surface is the API. A GraphQL endpoint with bearer auth returns transcript text, speaker turns, sentiment and summary fields, and a webhook fires when processing completes. That pair is what lets you build a meeting index, feed a retrieval store or trigger downstream automation without scraping the front end. Rate limits are tiered: 50 requests a day on Free, 500 on Pro, 60 per minute on Business and Enterprise, with uploads capped at 3,000 minutes per source per month.
The commercial model has sharp edges. Transcription is unlimited on every tier including Free, but the AI features draw on a metered credit pool, just 30 a month on Business. Storage is where Free bites, 400 minutes for the whole team. Private storage and data residency are Enterprise only at $39 a seat. There is also live litigation: a BIPA class action filed on 10 March 2026 alleges the bot captured voiceprints from meeting participants who never had accounts. Otter and Granola face structurally similar claims, so this is a category problem more than a company one, but it belongs in any serious evaluation.
Key Features
- ✓ Public GraphQL API at api.fireflies.ai/graphql with bearer auth, returning transcript text, speaker turns, sentiment and summary fields
- ✓ Webhooks fire when a transcript finishes processing, so downstream jobs do not have to poll
- ✓ Joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams as a participant, with dial-in capture for phone calls
- ✓ Transcription across 100+ languages, with multi-language mode from the Business tier upward
- ✓ AskFred assistant queries your whole meeting history, metered against the AI credit pool
- ✓ Enterprise tier adds private storage, custom retention and SSO for teams that need data residency
Where it holds
- • The API is the actual reason to pick this over Fathom or tl;dv: a transcript is addressable data, not just a web page
- • Language coverage is genuinely broad, which helps on mixed Mandarin and English calls
- • Free tier is usable for evaluation, unlimited transcription plus 50 API calls a day
- • Independent and well funded, valuation crossed $1B in March 2026, so shutdown risk is low
Where it breaks
- • Hit with a BIPA class action in the Northern District of Illinois on 10 March 2026 over voiceprints collected from non-users, so procurement will want the consent flow reviewed
- • AI features are metered on a credit pool, only 30 a month on Business, and top-ups add up fast
- • Free plan API is capped at 50 requests a day, too low to build anything real against
- • Free storage is 400 minutes for the entire team, which is about two meetings
- • A visible bot in the participant list changes how people talk, and some customers refuse it outright
My Take
Most of this category is one product wearing different colours. What sets this one apart for anyone building rather than just attending is that a transcript is an addressable object: a GraphQL endpoint plus a webhook on completion, enough to pipe meetings into a search index or a RAG store without scraping the web app. Free gives you 50 API calls a day, fine for a spike and useless for anything real, so a genuine integration starts at $19 a seat on annual Business. Read the March 2026 BIPA complaint before you roll it out anywhere. It turns on voiceprints taken from people who never opened an account.
Quick Info
- Pricing:
- freemium
- Openness:
- Proprietary
- Starting at:
- Free tier gives unlimited transcription but only 400 minutes of team storage, 20 AI credits and 50 API calls per day. Pro is $18 per seat monthly or $10 billed annually with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat. Business is $29 monthly or $19 annually with unlimited storage and 30 AI credits. Enterprise is $39 per seat, annual only, adding private storage, SSO and a 4-hour recording cap. Extra AI credits run roughly 6 to 10 cents each depending on bundle size.
- Added:
- Aug 2026
- Updated:
- Aug 2026
Use Cases
Judge it on your own work
The notes above say where Fireflies.ai holds and where it breaks. The fastest check is your own workload.
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