Granola vs Fireflies: do you need a meeting bot?

From the video's published English caption track. Prices said in the video were checked on Nov 10, 2026.

0:00 Granola vs Fireflies: not the same kind of tool

If you're trying to pick an AI meeting notetaker, you've probably seen the same two names: Granola and Fireflies. They're not really the same kind of tool. One is built so nothing extra joins your call.

The other is built as a meeting teammate that can show up in the participant list — and, officially, it also has ways to record without a bot now. Here's how to decide, using their official pricing and privacy pages as of November tenth, twenty twenty-six.

0:25 How they capture a meeting

Start with how they capture a meeting. That's the split most people are really choosing. Granola's help pages say it runs locally on your computer and captures audio from your microphone and your system audio.

No bot joins the call. Other people will not see an extra attendee. That works the same way for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other meeting apps on the desktop. Two limits, though. The mobile apps cannot capture audio from virtual meeting apps.

And because nothing visible joins, you are still responsible for getting consent. Granola itself says that, and it offers a way to let people know you're taking notes. Fireflies is the one most people know as a bot that joins the meeting —

including from your calendar, and including when you can't be there. That's still a core path. But it would be wrong to say Fireflies always means a bot. Its pricing page lists a Chrome extension that records without the Fireflies bot. Its Chrome extension page says it can record Google Meet without a bot joining.

An official blog also describes a desktop app and a native Google Meet integration as bot-free options. The real difference is this. The Fireflies bot can attend a call without you. The bot-free paths, and Granola, only work when you're in the meeting on that device.

If you do client calls, or you work with companies that block meeting bots, and you'll be in the room, Granola is built for that. If you need something that can join when you're double-booked, Fireflies' bot is the one designed for it.

1:48 Which is cheaper: month to month vs annual

And once you get to price, which one is cheaper actually flips depending on how you pay. If you pay month to month, Granola Business at fourteen dollars a month is cheaper than Fireflies Pro at eighteen.

Pay annually, and Fireflies Pro drops to ten dollars a month — cheaper than Granola Business, which is fourteen dollars a month, billed monthly only. That's from the official pages we checked on November tenth. They do change, so look at the live page before you pay.

2:12 Granola plans

Granola has three plans. Basic is free. You get AI meeting notes and thirty days of history in the app. The billing docs say older notes are stored, not deleted — you just can't open them in the app until you upgrade.

And no plan, including free, has a daily transcription limit. Some older posts still claim the free plan stops after a set number of meetings. Officially, it doesn't. Business is fourteen dollars per user per month, billed monthly only. That unlocks unlimited history,

the more advanced models, and the bigger integrations. Annual billing isn't an option on Business. It's only on Enterprise, which starts at thirty-five dollars per user per month. That's also the only Granola plan with HIPAA support and a business associate

agreement. Free and Business should not be used for protected health information.

2:56 Fireflies plans and the Free-plan asterisks

Fireflies has four plans, and the paid ones get cheaper if you pay annually. The live pricing page shows Pro at eighteen dollars per seat per month, or ten dollars a month billed annually. Business is twenty-nine if you pay month to month, or nineteen billed annually.

Enterprise is thirty-nine a month, annual only. Video recording starts on Pro. Storage is eight thousand minutes per seat on Pro, and unlimited from Business up. On Fireflies' Free plan, the company's own pages disagree, so check your account.

The help articles say you get three meeting transcriptions by default, and that Auto-join unlocks unlimited transcriptions. The live pricing page shows four hundred minutes of storage, and limited AI summaries.

3:35 Privacy and training defaults

Privacy is the other place these two actually differ. Granola's official policy is that third parties like OpenAI or Anthropic can't train on your data. On the free and Business plans, though, anonymized data may be used to improve Granola's own models,

and that is on by default. You can opt out in settings. Enterprise is opted out by default. After transcription, Granola says the audio is deleted. It does not keep the recording.

Your notes and transcripts stay unless you delete them or set an auto-deletion period. Fireflies' privacy policy, updated September twenty-eighth, twenty twenty-six, says it does not use personal information for AI model

training, and it contractually prohibits its vendors from doing that too. Its security page says the same about meeting data, and that vendors don't keep it after processing. Both companies advertise SOC 2 Type 2 certification.

HIPAA-ready features are Enterprise-only on both sides. Fireflies also requires Private Storage and a signed business associate agreement for that.

4:33 Otter, Fathom, and other alternatives

Otter and Fathom show up in the same searches, and this isn't the place for a full comparison of either. Otter is the other name people type next to Fireflies — that's its own comparison, for a future video. Fathom is the generous free-plan option: official pricing shows unlimited

recordings and transcriptions at zero dollars, with a bot or bot-free capture, and bot-free is listed as a Mac beta. Fathom's help pages also say it uses de-identified customer data to improve its own models, with an opt-out. That's closer to Granola's default than to Fireflies.

If the decision you actually need is Fathom versus Fireflies, that's a follow-up, not this video.

5:11 How to pick Granola or Fireflies

So, how do you pick? If you attend your calls, you don't want a bot in the participant list, and you want a notepad that cleans up the notes you already take, Granola is the better fit. Stay on Basic if thirty days of history is enough. Pay fourteen dollars a month for Business if you need the archive and the

integrations. If training defaults matter to you, opt out, or look at Enterprise. If you need a teammate that can join when you're not there, a shared searchable archive, or CRM-style workflows, Fireflies is the better fit. Paying annually for Pro at ten dollars a seat is cheaper than Granola Business,

as long as that's the feature set you actually need. If you only wanted the free plan, go in with those asterisks in mind. If your whole question was "what's the best free unlimited recorder," look at Fathom's official free plan first.

That's a different search. And if you're only in a couple of meetings a week, and you already keep your own notes, you may not need to pay either of them yet. Before you pay, open the official pricing and privacy pages and check the date. We checked these on November tenth, twenty twenty-six.

If you want more current plan-versus-plan explainers when these pages move again, subscribe.