I'll admit it—I used to dread meetings. Not just because meetings themselves can be tedious, but because of everything that came after. Taking notes while trying to pay attention, missing important details, spending 30 minutes post-meeting organizing my scattered thoughts, then inevitably forgetting who was supposed to do what by next week.
Then a colleague mentioned Fireflies.ai, and I was skeptical. Another productivity tool promising to fix my life? I'd heard that before. But after three months of daily use, Fireflies has legitimately changed how I handle meetings. It's one of the few tools I'd actually pay for out of my own pocket if my company stopped covering it.
This is an honest, in-depth review based on real use across dozens of meetings—sales calls, team standups, client presentations, and brainstorming sessions. I'll tell you what actually works, what's frustrating, and whether it's worth your time and money.
What is Fireflies.ai?
Fireflies is an AI meeting assistant that joins your video calls, records them, transcribes everything said, and creates searchable, shareable meeting notes. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other major platforms.
Think of it as having a dedicated note-taker in every meeting who never gets distracted, captures everything verbatim, and organizes it all for you—except it's AI, not a person.
The core workflow is simple: Fireflies joins your meeting (either automatically from your calendar or when invited), silently records and transcribes in real-time, then provides you with a full transcript, summary, action items, and searchable database of everything discussed.
How Fireflies Actually Works
Let me walk you through the actual user experience because understanding the workflow is crucial to knowing if this fits your needs.
Setup and Integration
Getting started took me about 10 minutes. You connect Fireflies to your calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, or Office 365) and your video conferencing tools. The setup wizard is straightforward—follow the prompts, grant permissions, and you're done.
Once connected, Fireflies can:
- Automatically join meetings on your calendar
- Be invited to specific meetings via email (add fred@fireflies.ai to the invite)
- Be manually started for unscheduled calls
- Join recurring meetings automatically or only when you specify
I set mine to automatically join external meetings and client calls, but I manually control it for internal team meetings where recording might feel weird.
During the Meeting
When the meeting starts, a "Fireflies Notetaker" joins. On Zoom, it appears as a participant with a small badge indicating it's a bot. On Google Meet, similar—it's clearly labeled as an AI assistant.
This is important: everyone in the meeting knows they're being recorded. Fireflies announces itself. There's no stealth recording, which is both legally important and ethically right.
The bot sits silently and doesn't interrupt. Participants quickly forget it's there. I was initially worried it would make meetings awkward, but after the first minute, people stop caring—it's just another participant box on the screen.
If you're concerned about privacy, you can pause recording at any time or configure Fireflies to ask permission before joining. More on privacy concerns later.
After the Meeting
Within minutes of the meeting ending, Fireflies processes everything and sends you:
- Full transcript: Every word spoken, attributed to speakers (with surprising accuracy on who said what).
- AI-generated summary: Key points discussed, organized by topic.
- Action items: Tasks mentioned during the call, automatically extracted.
- Keywords and topics: What was discussed most frequently.
- Searchable database: You can search across all your meetings for specific terms or topics.
- Shareable link: Send the transcript and recording to anyone who needs it.
This all appears in your Fireflies dashboard and optionally gets sent to Slack, email, or your CRM automatically.
Real-World Use Cases
After three months of use, here are the scenarios where Fireflies has been genuinely game-changing:
Client Calls and Sales Meetings
This is where Fireflies provides the most obvious value. During sales calls or client meetings, I can focus entirely on the conversation instead of frantically scribbling notes.
After a recent product demo with a potential client, I reviewed the transcript and caught three specific feature requests I'd completely missed while talking. I was able to follow up with detailed responses to each one, which impressed the client and likely helped close the deal.
The searchable transcript is clutch for reference. "What exactly did the client say about their budget?" Search "budget" in the transcript, instantly find the relevant section. No more re-watching 45 minutes of video to find one specific comment.
Team Meetings and Standups
For recurring team meetings, Fireflies creates a historical record that's surprisingly valuable. New team members can catch up by reading past meeting transcripts. When someone says "didn't we discuss this last month?", you can actually search past meetings to find exactly what was said.
I've used this feature multiple times to settle debates about previous decisions or commitments. Instead of relying on faulty memory, we pull up the transcript and see exactly what was discussed.
Interviews and Research
I use Fireflies for user research interviews and it's been transformative. During the conversation, I maintain eye contact and engage naturally instead of typing notes. Later, I have a complete transcript to analyze, pull quotes from, and identify patterns across multiple interviews.
For a recent project, I conducted 15 user interviews. Being able to search across all transcripts for specific terms or themes saved me probably 10 hours of manual review and analysis.
Training and Onboarding
When training new team members, recorded meetings with transcripts provide excellent reference material. Instead of explaining something multiple times, I can share a Fireflies link to a previous meeting where the topic was covered in detail.
A new developer joined our team and asked about our deployment process. Instead of scheduling a separate meeting, I shared the Fireflies recording from when we last discussed it. He watched at 1.5x speed, could pause and rewatch confusing parts, and came back with specific, informed questions.
Remote Team Collaboration
For distributed teams across time zones, Fireflies is invaluable. Team members who can't attend live can review the transcript and recording at their convenience. The summary gives them the highlights quickly, and they can dig into full details if needed.
Our designer in Europe regularly misses our afternoon calls due to time zones. Fireflies recordings let her stay completely in the loop without requiring live attendance at inconvenient hours.
Performance Reviews and Feedback
This is a sensitive use case, but when done ethically, Fireflies recordings provide objective records for performance discussions. Instead of vague memories of "I think you said you'd have this done by Tuesday," you have exact quotes and timelines.
I've also used it for self-improvement—reviewing my own performance in sales calls or presentations to identify verbal tics, improve my pitch, or note where I lost the audience.
Key Features That Actually Matter
Let me break down the features I use regularly versus those that sound good but don't matter much in practice:
Features I Use Daily
- Speaker identification: The AI assigns names to voices with 85-90% accuracy in my experience. You can manually correct misidentifications, and it learns over time.
- Search across all meetings: This is killer. Search for any term—a project name, client name, technical concept—and find every meeting where it was discussed. I use this multiple times per week.
- Action item extraction: Fireflies automatically identifies tasks and commitments. "I'll send that by Friday" or "Can you review the document?" get flagged as action items. It's not perfect—maybe 70% accuracy—but it catches things I would've missed.
- Soundbites: You can clip important moments from meetings and share them. Great for "here's exactly what the client said about this feature" situations.
- Smart notes: AI-generated summaries organized by topic. These are genuinely useful for quick reviews. I can skim the summary in 2 minutes instead of reading a 30-minute transcript.
- CRM integration: Automatic logging of calls to Salesforce, HubSpot, or other CRMs with transcript and summary attached. For sales teams, this is huge—complete call records without manual data entry.
- Slack integration: Get meeting summaries posted automatically to relevant Slack channels. Our team has a #client-calls channel where all external meeting summaries get posted automatically.
Features That Sound Good But I Rarely Use
- Video recording: Fireflies can record video, but I almost always stick to audio-only. Video files are massive, take longer to process, and I rarely need to see faces—the transcript captures what matters.
- Collaboration features: You can comment on transcripts and tag team members. In theory, great. In practice, people just discuss in Slack or email instead of within Fireflies.
- Custom vocabulary: You can teach Fireflies company-specific terms or acronyms. I set this up initially, but the AI is good enough at context that I haven't needed to adjust it much.
- Topic tracking: Fireflies can track specific topics across meetings. Sounds useful, but the general search function accomplishes the same thing more flexibly.
Pricing: Free vs. Paid Tiers
Fireflies offers several pricing tiers. Understanding what you actually get at each level is important because the limitations on free/cheap tiers can be dealbreakers.
Free Plan
- 800 minutes of transcription per month (about 13 hours)
- Transcription of meetings up to 40 minutes
- Basic search and storage
- Limited integrations
For individuals with occasional meetings, the free plan works. I used it for the first month. However, if you have multiple meetings per week, you'll hit the 800-minute cap quickly.
Pro Plan ($10/user/month, billed annually)
- 8,000 minutes per month (about 130 hours)
- Unlimited meeting length
- Advanced search and filters
- Full CRM and app integrations
- Custom vocabulary
- Video recording
This is the sweet spot for most individuals and small teams. The jump from 800 to 8,000 minutes makes it actually usable for regular meeting-heavy roles.
Business Plan ($19/user/month, billed annually)
- Unlimited transcription
- Team workspace and organization
- Custom integrations and API access
- Admin controls and analytics
- Priority support
For teams and organizations where multiple people need Fireflies, the Business plan adds collaboration and management features that matter at scale.
Enterprise Plan (Custom pricing)
- Everything in Business
- Dedicated support
- Custom contracts and security
- Volume discounts
For large organizations with specific needs or compliance requirements.
My Recommendation
If you have more than 5-6 hours of meetings per week, the free plan won't cut it. At $10/month (annual billing), Pro is reasonable if Fireflies genuinely improves your productivity. The key question: does it save you more than $10/month worth of time?
For me, absolutely yes. Fireflies saves me probably 3-4 hours per week in note-taking and meeting review. At my hourly value, that's easily worth $10/month. But if you rarely have important meetings or already have a note-taking system that works, it might not justify the cost.
Privacy and Security Concerns
This is critical and probably the biggest barrier to adoption for many organizations. You're recording conversations, often with clients or sensitive topics. Privacy matters.
What Fireflies Does Right
Clear notification: The bot announces itself when joining. Everyone knows they're being recorded.
Consent management: You can configure Fireflies to ask for permission before recording or only record when explicitly invited.
Data encryption: Transcripts and recordings are encrypted in transit and at rest.
Access controls: You control who can view each meeting. Recordings aren't public by default.
Compliance: Fireflies claims SOC 2 Type II compliance and GDPR adherence.
What You Should Worry About
Data storage: Your meeting data lives on Fireflies' servers, not yours. For highly sensitive conversations (legal, medical, confidential business strategy), this may be a dealbreaker.
Third-party access: If Fireflies experiences a breach, your meeting data could be exposed. This risk exists with any cloud service but is worth acknowledging.
International participants: Recording laws vary by jurisdiction. In some places, recording conversations without explicit consent from all parties is illegal. Fireflies notification usually satisfies this, but verify your local laws.
Client discomfort: Some clients may be uncomfortable being recorded, even for note-taking purposes. I've had a few ask me not to record, and I respect that. Always be prepared to turn Fireflies off if requested.
I use Fireflies for most internal meetings without concern. For client meetings, I mention during the intro that I'm using an AI note-taker and ask if everyone is comfortable with that. I've only had maybe 5% of people ask me not to record, and when they do, I turn it off immediately.
For highly confidential discussions, I don't use Fireflies at all. Better to take manual notes than risk sensitive information being stored on third-party servers.
Limitations and Frustrations
No tool is perfect. Here's what frustrates me about Fireflies after three months of use:
The Bot Can Make Meetings Awkward
Having an AI participant join your meeting feels weird at first. Some people find it off-putting or distracting. I've had prospects comment "what's that bot?" and need to explain. It's not a huge deal, but it's not seamless.
For personal or sensitive conversations, the bot's presence changes the dynamic. People are more guarded when they know they're being recorded.
Processing Delays
Fireflies promises transcripts "within minutes," but in reality, it's often 10-20 minutes after the meeting ends. For hour-long meetings, sometimes 30+ minutes. If you need to reference something immediately after a call, you're waiting.
False Positives on Action Items
The AI's action item extraction is useful but imperfect. It flags things like "Can you hear me?" as potential action items because it contains the phrase "can you." You need to review and clean up the automatically extracted tasks.
No Real-Time Collaboration
During the meeting, Fireflies is just recording. You can't see the transcript live or make notes in real-time. Some competitors offer live transcription during calls, which can be useful for following along if someone is hard to understand.
Transcript Formatting
The raw transcript is one continuous block of text. While you can search it, actually reading through a 60-minute transcript is tedious. The AI summaries help, but sometimes you need the detail and the formatting doesn't make it easy.
Speaker Attribution Errors
When speakers sound similar or speak back-to-back, Fireflies sometimes attributes statements to the wrong person. You can manually correct this, but it's extra work.
Limited Language Support
English works great. Other languages have varying support, and many aren't supported at all. If your meetings are multilingual or primarily in non-English languages, Fireflies may not work for you.
Fireflies vs. Competitors
Fireflies isn't the only AI meeting assistant. Here's how it compares to alternatives:
Vs. Otter.ai
Otter is probably Fireflies' closest competitor. It offers similar features—transcription, AI summaries, action items, etc.
Otter advantages: Better real-time collaboration during meetings, more polished mobile app, arguably better speaker identification.
Fireflies advantages: Better CRM integrations, more generous free tier, better video conferencing platform support.
I've used both and prefer Fireflies for the integrations and post-meeting workflow, but Otter is genuinely good and worth trying if Fireflies doesn't fit your needs.
Vs. Fathom
Fathom is newer and specifically targets salespeople and customer success teams. It's free, which is compelling.
Fathom advantages: Completely free (currently), very focused on sales use cases, excellent CRM integration.
Fireflies advantages: More mature product, broader use case support, better team features.
If you're specifically in sales, Fathom is worth trying. For general meeting transcription, Fireflies is more developed.
Vs. Grain
Grain focuses on recording specific moments and creating highlight reels from meetings.
Grain advantages: Better for coaching and training scenarios where you want to clip and share specific moments.
Fireflies advantages: Better overall transcription and search, more comprehensive meeting documentation.
Different use cases. Grain for coaching teams on sales calls; Fireflies for comprehensive meeting documentation.
Vs. Gong or Chorus
These are enterprise sales intelligence platforms with meeting recording as one feature among many. They're expensive ($1000s per year) and packed with analytics.
Their advantages: Deep sales analytics, conversation intelligence, coaching features, team performance tracking.
Fireflies advantages: Much cheaper, works for any type of meeting not just sales, easier to use.
If you're a sales organization willing to spend serious money on sales enablement, Gong/Chorus are more powerful. For everyone else, they're overkill and Fireflies is the better choice.
Fireflies is the best all-around option for most users. It balances features, price, and ease of use well. Otter is the closest alternative and worth trying both to see which you prefer. Niche tools like Fathom (sales) or Grain (coaching) might be better for specific use cases.
Tips for Getting the Most Value
After three months, here's what I've learned about using Fireflies effectively:
Use good audio equipment: The single biggest factor in transcription quality is audio input. Use a decent microphone. Encourage meeting participants to do the same.
Review and correct transcripts: Don't trust them blindly. Skim the transcript after important meetings to catch errors, especially in action items or key decisions.
Be selective about recording: Don't record every meeting just because you can. Be intentional about which meetings benefit from recording and transcription.
Set up integrations early: Connect Fireflies to your CRM, Slack, or project management tools. Automation is where the real time savings happen.
Create a naming convention: Name your meetings consistently so you can find them later. "Client Call - [Company Name] - [Date]" works better than default names.
Use the search function: This is the killer feature. Get in the habit of searching past meetings when questions arise instead of asking someone or trying to remember.
Share selectively: Just because you have a transcript doesn't mean everyone needs it. Share relevant clips or summaries, not 60-minute transcripts, unless someone specifically needs full detail.
Combine with manual notes: I still take brief notes during meetings—key decisions, my thoughts, tasks for me. Fireflies captures what was said; my notes capture what I need to do about it.
Review your own performance: Occasionally watch recordings of yourself to improve presentation skills, identify verbal tics, or refine your pitch.
The Verdict: Is Fireflies Worth It?
After three months of daily use across dozens of meetings, here's my honest assessment:
Fireflies is worth it if:
- You have regular meetings where taking notes divides your attention
- You work remotely with distributed teams across time zones
- You do sales, customer success, or client-facing work
- You conduct interviews or research calls
- You frequently need to reference past conversations
- Your time is valuable enough that saving 30 minutes per meeting justifies the cost
Skip Fireflies if:
- You rarely have important meetings
- You already have a note-taking system that works perfectly
- Your meetings involve highly sensitive information that can't be stored externally
- You're in an industry with strict recording regulations
- Meeting participants are uncomfortable with recording
- Budget is extremely tight and you can't justify even $10/month
For me personally, Fireflies has been genuinely valuable. It saves me probably 3-4 hours per week, improves my meeting follow-through, and provides a searchable historical record that's proven useful many times.
The free tier is worth trying to see if it fits your workflow. If you find yourself hitting the limits and wishing for more, Pro at $10/month is reasonable. For teams, the collaboration features in Business tier become more valuable.
FAQ
What is Fireflies.ai?
Fireflies.ai is an AI-powered meeting assistant that automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings. It works with popular video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to generate searchable meeting notes and action items.
How does Fireflies.ai work?
Fireflies joins your meetings as a virtual notetaker bot. It records and transcribes conversations in real time, then provides summaries, key points, and action items. It also integrates with tools like Slack, CRMs, and calendars to automate post-meeting workflows.
Is Fireflies.ai free?
Yes. Fireflies offers a free plan with up to 800 minutes of transcription per month and basic features. Paid plans start at $10 per user per month and include unlimited meeting length, advanced search, and full integrations.
How accurate is Fireflies.ai’s transcription?
Fireflies’ transcription accuracy is typically 90–95% for clear audio and native speakers. Accuracy may decrease with heavy accents, background noise, or overlapping conversations.
Is Fireflies.ai safe and secure?
Yes. Fireflies.ai uses data encryption, access controls, and is SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant. The bot announces itself before recording for transparency. However, it’s best to avoid recording highly confidential meetings.
Who should use Fireflies.ai?
Fireflies.ai is ideal for sales teams, remote professionals, managers, recruiters, and researchers — anyone who wants to save time on note-taking and meeting summaries.
What are the main benefits of Fireflies.ai?
Key benefits include:
- Automatic transcription and summaries
- Searchable meeting history
- AI-generated action items
- CRM and Slack integrations
- Easy sharing and collaboration
- Time savings and improved productivity
What are the downsides of Fireflies.ai?
Some users report:
- Delays in transcript processing for long meetings
- Occasional speaker attribution errors
- Lower accuracy with poor audio or heavy accents
- Awkwardness when the AI bot joins sensitive meetings
How does Fireflies.ai compare to Otter.ai?
Both tools provide AI transcription and summaries. Fireflies.ai offers stronger integrations, automation, and CRM syncs, while Otter.ai excels at real-time transcription and a more polished mobile app experience.
Is Fireflies.ai worth it?
Yes. If you attend frequent meetings, Fireflies can save 3–4 hours per week by automating note-taking and follow-ups. The $10/month Pro plan provides excellent value for professionals who rely on consistent meeting documentation.
Wrap up
Fireflies isn't perfect. The bot joining meetings still feels slightly awkward sometimes. Privacy concerns are real. Transcription accuracy isn't 100%. The interface could be more polished.
But despite these limitations, it's one of the few productivity tools I've adopted that I can't imagine giving up now. The ability to be fully present in meetings while knowing everything is being captured accurately has meaningfully improved both my meeting experience and my follow-through.
The search functionality alone—being able to find any conversation about a topic across months of meetings—has saved me countless hours and prevented important details from falling through the cracks.
If you're drowning in meetings and struggling with follow-up, Fireflies is worth trying. Start with the free tier, use it for two weeks on real meetings, and see if it changes your workflow. For many people, it will. For some, it won't fit. But the only way to know is to try it.
The meeting productivity problem is real. Fireflies is one of the better solutions available. Not perfect, but genuinely useful—and in the world of productivity tools, that's rare enough to be worth attention.
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