Fireflies AI Review: Stop Forgetting What Was Decided in Meetings
Stop me if this sounds familiar: You sit through a one-hour strategy call, nod along, and by the time you hang up, you've already forgotten half of what was agreed upon. Fireflies AI is the cure for that specific type of "corporate amnesia."
It is an AI-powered meeting assistant that automates the tedious triad of recording, transcription, and summarization. But unlike simple dictation tools that just give you a wall of text, Fireflies turns spoken conversations into structured, searchable data and actionable outputs.
The Core Promise vs. The Reality
The Promise: It is built to integrate deeply with your existing stack (Calendars, CRMs, Slack), serving as a "conversation memory system" for your company. Whether it's a live meeting or an uploaded file, Fireflies promises you will never have to write "as per our conversation" again without proof.
The Reality: It is widely considered one of the most powerful tools for teams (especially Sales, HR, and Ops) who need to push conversation data into other systems like Salesforce or Asana. However, be warned: its "bot-first" approach can feel intrusive to clients, and the "Free" plan has a storage trap that eventually forces you to upgrade.
Workflow & Core Features
1. Automatic Recording & Transcription
Method: Fireflies joins meetings as a participant bot (via calendar automation) on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Webex.
Transcription: Real-time or post-call processing in 60+ languages with automatic language detection.
Accuracy: Typically 90–95% in good audio conditions, though it drops with accents or noise.
Video: It can record video (Business plan only), but it captures the "screen" rather than a raw video feed, often resulting in lower quality than native Zoom recordings.
2. AI-Generated Summaries & Actions
Outputs: Automatically creates bulleted summaries, action items, and highlights.
Customization: You can customize summary structures for different meeting types (e.g., Sales Calls vs. Standups).
3. "AskFred" (The GPT-4 Analyst)
What it is: A ChatGPT-style sidebar where you chat with your meeting transcript.
The Power: You can dig for specific details you forgot (e.g., "Did the client mention a budget?"). It pulls answers with citations.
Verdict: Excellent. It is much smarter than standard summaries.
4. Conversation Intelligence (Analytics)
Metrics: Provides "Talk-to-Listen Ratio" (did you talk too much?), sentiment analysis, and filler word counts ("um," "ah," "like").
Use Case: Crucial for Sales Managers training new reps.
5. The Integration Ecosystem (The Killer Feature)
Verdict: Best in Class. No other tool moves data as well.
Workflow: It sends "Action Items" to Asana, "Client Needs" to HubSpot, and "Summaries" to Slack channels automatically.
6. Searchable Database & Soundbites
Smart Search: Search across all past meetings by keyword, topic, or sentiment (e.g., "Python experience" across 10 interviews).
Soundbites: Create audio "clips" (e.g., a 30-second customer testimonial) to share with marketing.
Specific Use Cases
Sales Teams: Updating CRMs automatically (Salesforce/HubSpot) because "sales reps are lazy" and hate data entry.
Recruiters: Searching across dozens of interviews to remember who said what.
Agencies: Using transcripts as an "insurance policy" to prove deadlines or client promises.
Product Teams: Harvesting technical decisions and keeping longitudinal records.
Less Ideal For: Sensitive/Confidential discussions (bot presence is visible) or simple personal note-taking (Overkill).
Pros & Cons: The Honest Truth
✅ The Strengths
Broad Integrations: Deep connections to CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot) and project tools (Asana, Trello) make it a workflow powerhouse.
Platform Agnostic: Works on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, and even ringers like Aircall and RingCentral.
Searchable Knowledge Base: Useful as a "conversation memory" for the whole team.
AskFred: A genuinely useful "Meeting Analyst" that goes beyond basic summaries.
Collaboration: Features like Soundbites and timestamped comments help teams align.
❌ The Weaknesses
The "Ghost" Bot: By default, it tries to join every meeting (even doctor’s appointments). You must aggressively configure settings to stop it.
The Storage Trap: The Free plan offers unlimited transcription but only 800 minutes of storage. Once hit, you cannot view old meetings without paying or deleting.
Platform Gaps: Support for certain platforms like Slack Huddles is limited.
Video Quality: Video recording is only available on the Business Plan ($19/mo) and is often lower quality than native tools.
Privacy Concerns: Audio is processed on third-party servers. While SOC 2/GDPR compliant, the "bot" recording everything is a security nightmare for some.
Delayed Processing: Transcripts take 10–30+ minutes to appear; it is not instant like some rivals.
Accuracy Hiccups: Inconsistent with accents/overlapping speech; often necessitates manual correction.
Pricing
Free Plan
You get Unlimited Transcriptions, but you are capped at 800 Minutes of Storage. The Trap: 800 minutes is ~13 hours of meetings. Once you hit this, you must delete old meetings to record new ones.
Fireflies does NOT capture the video on the free plan. If your client shares their screen to show a design, you won't see it in the playback, you’ll only hear them talking about it.
Best For: Individuals who just want a text transcript and don't care about the video recording.Pro ($18/mo or $10/mo billed yearly)
Storage jumps to 8,000 Minutes (approx. 130 hours). This is effectively "unlimited" for most solo users.
The Trap: STILL Audio Only. Even if you pay $10/month, you still do not get video recording. You are paying strictly for the text transcript and storage.
The "AskFred" Limit: You get access to the AI chatbot ("AskFred"), but it uses Credits. You don't get unlimited questions; you get a bucket of ~50 credits/month.Business ($29/mo or $19/mo billed yearly)
The Real Value: Video Recording. This is the first plan that actually records the screen. If you need to see what was shared during the Zoom call, you must buy this tier.
The Integration: CRM Sync. If you want your notes to automatically appear in HubSpot or Salesforce, you need this plan. The Pro plan connects to Slack/Zapier, but not the heavy CRMs.
Best For: Sales teams who need to review visual demos.
Fireflies AI vs. The Competition
Fireflies vs. Fathom
Fathom Wins: Exceptional Value (Unlimited recording/transcription/storage for $0 on the free tier); Higher accuracy (92% vs Fireflies' 90-93%); Bot-free options via Krisp, Tactiq, and Bluedot.
Fireflies Wins: Extensive Integrations (Zapier + Native); Works across all platforms (Fathom is Zoom-focused); Deeper analytics.
Verdict: Use Fathom for accurate, free transcripts. Use Fireflies if you need to analyze patterns across hundreds of meetings or sync to a CRM.
Fireflies vs. Otter.ai
Otter Wins: Higher accuracy (95%); Better for Real-Time Collaboration (colleagues can highlight material during the meeting); Great mobile app; Can transcribe uploaded files of any size.
Fireflies Wins: Better CRM integration; Deeper Conversation Intelligence (sentiment/talk-time).
Verdict: Fireflies for Teams/Budget. Otter for live collaboration and accuracy.
Fireflies vs. tl;dv
tl;dv Wins: Better Free Version (includes video recording/clips); Fully localized in 7 languages; Multi-meeting trend analysis (feed it a batch of up to 100 meetings).
Fireflies Wins: More versatile (supports more platforms); More affordable for larger teams; Better CRM automation.
Final Verdict
Fireflies AI is one of the most powerful AI meeting assistants available today, specifically for teams that need structure. It excels when you prioritize automation over perfection.
The Reality: It is a "data entry killer" for Sales and HR. However, the bot's presence, accuracy hiccups, and tiered features (e.g., No Video on Pro) make it overhyped for individuals, with some users migrating to bot-free alternatives like Jamie for privacy.
Decision Guide:
BUY IT IF:
- You Live in Your CRM: If you want notes to magically appear in Salesforce/HubSpot.
- You Manage a Team: You need analytics (Talk-time, Sentiment) to coach performance.
- You Use Mixed Platforms: Your team uses Zoom, but clients use Teams.SKIP IT IF:
- You are Privacy-Paranoid: The bot recording to a cloud server is a dealbreaker.
- You Hate "Bots": Having "Fireflies Notetaker" in client meetings is awkward.
- You Just Want Personal Notes: Use Fathom (Free) or the built-in AI in Zoom/Teams.