Alternative to
6 Alternatives to Fireflies.ai in 2026
Buyers who look past Fireflies.ai usually bump into its free storage cap, the credit system behind its AI features, or the notetaker bot that appears in every call. They tend to end up with Fathom for uncapped free recording, Granola when no bot may join, or Otter and Read AI for a simpler plan ladder.
Why people look for an alternative to Fireflies.ai
Free storage is small and shared
The Fireflies free plan lists 400 minutes of storage per team and limited AI summaries. Pro raises that to 8,000 minutes per seat, so a team with weekly calls can see older recordings crowd out new ones within a few months.
AI features are metered in credits
Fireflies lists 20 AI credits on Free and Pro, 30 on Business and 50 on Enterprise, next to recording limits of two to four hours. Buyers who want predictable cost per meeting often prefer a tool without a separate credit counter.
The bot joins unless you opt out
Fireflies sends its notetaker to calls by default, though its pricing page lists a Chrome extension that records without the bot. Consultants and recruiters who do not want a named participant in client calls look for tools built around capture on their own device.
The best Fireflies.ai alternatives
- 1
Fathom's free plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions, and lets you pick bot-free capture (a beta feature for Mac) or a bot. Team is $15 per user monthly on annual billing with a two-user minimum. Several AI extras are limited on free.
Switch if you Switch if the 400-minute free storage cap, not feature depth, is what pushes you away.
- 2
Granola
Granola never joins as a participant. It captures device audio, deletes the audio after transcription and lets each user opt out of model training. Business is $14 per user monthly, and Basic shows only 30 days of meeting history.
Switch if you Switch if you take most calls from one laptop and clients dislike seeing a bot.
- 3
Otter's free Basic plan lists 300 transcription minutes a month, while Pro allows 90 minutes per meeting and Business up to four hours. It publishes monthly and annual prices side by side, with promotional discounts that change often.
Switch if you Switch if you want a familiar live-transcript tool and your calls are mostly English and under 90 minutes.
- 4
Read AI
Read AI's free plan covers five meetings a month with a one-hour length limit. Pro is $15 per user on annual billing, and Enterprise adds audio and video playback. Reports include speaker sentiment and engagement measures beyond a plain summary.
Switch if you Switch if engagement metrics and a meeting coach matter more than a large free tier.
- 5
tl;dv
tl;dv's homepage advertises a free-forever plan, a no-bot option, and GDPR and SOC 2 compliance. It is built around team libraries and CRM logging, and the company is based in Germany. Its pricing page is rendered client-side, so exact tiers were not checked.
Switch if you Switch if European company status or highlight clips shared across a team count for more than raw integrations.
- 6
Fellow
Fellow puts agendas, private notes and recurring-meeting templates around the AI notes. Team is $7 per user monthly on annual billing but allows 10 AI notes and recordings per user monthly, and Free allows five for life.
Switch if you Switch if you run the same weekly one-on-ones and want the agenda and the notes in one place.
Before you switch away from Fireflies.ai
Download the transcripts and recordings you still need before changing plans, because Fireflies lists downloads of transcripts, summaries and recordings from the Pro plan upward. Note which integrations push notes into your CRM or Slack and which people rely on AskFred searches, since those workflows will not move across. Check what Fireflies keeps after you cancel by reading its terms, which the security page says state that you own your data. Then record two real calls in the new tool, one long and one in your own language, and compare names, jargon and action items.
The full ranking of this category is in Best AI Meeting Assistants in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free alternative to Fireflies.ai?
Fathom is the closest free match for most people, since its plan lists unlimited recordings and transcriptions as of October 2026, against 400 shared storage minutes on Fireflies Free. Granola's free Basic plan limits history to 30 days. Test a week of real calls first, because some Fathom AI features are limited on free.
Is there a Fireflies alternative that does not send a bot into the call?
Yes. Granola captures audio on your own device on every plan, and Fathom lists a bot-free option as a beta feature for Mac. tl;dv's homepage also advertises a no-bot option. Fireflies itself lists a Chrome extension that records without its bot, so check that before leaving.
Which Fireflies alternative supports as many languages?
Fireflies lists transcription in 100 or more languages, and Fellow's feature list also shows 100 or more for transcription. Read AI's free plan lists more than 20 languages, and Granola lists multi-language support without a count. Language quality varies, so test your own language on a real recording before paying.
Does Fireflies train on my meeting data, and do the alternatives?
Fireflies' security page says it does not train on your data by default. Granola lets each user opt out of model training, and Enterprise can set the opt-out for the whole workspace. Policies for the other tools were not re-checked for this page, so read each vendor's privacy page before moving sensitive calls.