Fireflies.ai Review 2026: Pricing, Credits & the Bot-Free Laxis Alternative

Fireflies.ai is an AI meeting assistant that turns Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls into transcripts and summaries, files every conversation in a searchable notebook, and pushes the results into your CRM, Slack and task tools. It is mature and genuinely good at that last part. It also runs on two meters that decide what you actually get: AI credits and storage.

We make Laxis, so we know this category from the inside. Every Fireflies fact below comes from Fireflies' own pricing page and help center as of October 1, 2026, and where Fireflies wins, we say so.

The verdict in 30 seconds

Choose Laxis if you want notes without a bot in the call by default, plans metered in transcription minutes instead of AI credits, and live translation plus a voice keyboard on your phone.

Try Laxis free — 14-day Premium trial, no credit card. See the full Laxis vs Fireflies comparison

Fireflies.ai in 2026: how it works and what just changed

You sign in with Google or Microsoft (Fireflies' pricing FAQ lists no other route), and the calendar connection drives everything else. The notetaker, Fred, joins scheduled calls that have a conferencing link and returns a transcript, a summary with action items and a recap email. You can also invite [email protected] to one meeting, record in person with the mobile app, or upload files. On top sit AskFred, AI Skills, Live Assist, conversation intelligence and integrations with more than 100 apps.

Three recent changes that most reviews still miss:

• Free "unlimited transcription" now comes with a condition. For accounts created since September 1, 2026, it applies only while Auto-join calendar meetings is on. Turn auto-join off, or pick "only when I invite Fred", and Free covers three meeting transcriptions.
• There is a no-bot mode. The desktop app for Mac and Windows can capture system audio with a feature called Take Notes, so nothing joins the call. Trade-offs below.
• Fireflies Talk adds dictation. It's free and unlimited on every plan, but desktop-only for now; iOS and Android are "coming soon".

What Fireflies gets right

Integrations. Fireflies connects to HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Notion, Asana, applicant-tracking systems and dozens more, and opens its API even to free users.

Search and AskFred are excellent. Global search finds the sentence and timestamp from a call months ago, and AskFred answers plain-language questions across meetings. After a year of calls, that archive is hard to leave.

Free is generous if you accept the bot. With auto-join on, transcription has no cap, the mobile app records in person without limit, and Fireflies Talk dictation costs nothing.

The price is fair. Pro at $10 per seat per month, billed annually, sits at the low end of the category, and Fireflies says more than a million companies use it.

Fireflies.ai pricing in 2026, plan by plan

Per seat per month, from fireflies.ai/pricing on October 1, 2026. AI credit add-ons are extra. The pricing page lists free storage per team; the help center lists it per seat.

Is Fireflies AI free? Yes, with strings. The bot must auto-join for transcription to be unlimited, storage stops at 400 minutes, and downloads and video need a paid plan. Free transcripts are also raw text: the help center says summaries, action items and analytics on Free depend on your credit balance. To test paid features, the 7-day Business trial requires a card and bills when it ends unless you cancel.

AI credits: what they pay for and how the meter behaves

Transcription, standard notes and recap emails don't use credits. The advanced layer does, priced per query, so complex requests cost more. Fireflies' AI-credits guide lists:

• AI Skills, such as BANT, MEDDIC or interview-feedback templates
• AskFred in Live Assist, Sales Assist and Slack Assistant queries
• Voice Agents, AI soundbites and custom summary sections
• Daily Digest and Meeting Prep, which run on a schedule
• Autofill CRM for HubSpot and Salesforce, one credit per meeting

The allowance is small and shared: 20 credits on Free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise, pooled across the workspace rather than per seat, so a ten-person Business team shares 30. Fireflies' pages even disagree on timing: the credits guide calls plan credits a one-time grant, the free-plan guide calls the 20 monthly. Check the usage page in your account.

When credits run out, free users hit a paywall and paid accounts get moved up automatically. Fireflies' billing guide says it subscribes you to an extra 50 credits at $5 a month; tiers climb to 10,000 credits for $600. Purchased credits auto-renew and don't roll over.

Metering costly AI while leaving transcription alone is defensible. The trouble is forecasting: per-query pricing, a shared pool and automatic upgrades make the bill hard to predict.

Two settings to check on day one. Under Settings, then Billing, decide whether credit auto-upgrade stays on. Then, in AI Skills settings, switch off Daily Digest or Meeting Prep if nobody reads them; scheduled features spend credits whether or not anyone opens the output.

Storage: the meter that decides what you keep

Storage counts the total minutes you can hold, not minutes per month. Free gets 400, roughly six one-hour meetings; Pro gets 8,000 per seat, about 133 hours; Business and Enterprise are unlimited. At the cap, the help center's advice is to delete older files.

That bites because the archive is Fireflies' best feature. Two hours of calls a day across 20 working days adds 2,400 minutes a month and fills a Pro seat in just over three months. After that, each new meeting costs an old one, or the seat moves to Business. Free uploads are capped at 100 MB and 150 minutes per file.

Rather pay for minutes than watch credits and storage? Laxis has no AI credits, and paid plans keep your full meeting history, so try it free for 14 days, no card needed.

The bot, the calendar and Fireflies' new no-bot mode

By default the notetaker follows an auto-join rule: every meeting with a web-conference link, only meetings you own, only meetings with teammates, or only when you invite Fred. It sits in the participant list. Nobody minds at a stand-up; on a first sales call or a delicate one-to-one, it can change how people talk. Video recording and Sales Assist both require it.

There are now two ways around it. The Chrome extension records audio without a bot, but only on Google Meet; Fireflies' guide says Zoom and Teams need the bot. The desktop app's Take Notes mode captures system audio on Zoom, Meet, Teams, WhatsApp, FaceTime and phone calls, and by default plays a spoken consent notice (plus a chat message on Mac). Good manners. But that mode labels speakers as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2, saves no audio or video, and drops Sales Assist. In Fireflies, the no-bot path is the lighter one.

Is Fireflies.ai safe? Privacy and data terms

For most business meetings, yes. Fireflies is SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant on every plan, encrypts data with 256-bit AES at rest and TLS in transit, and says meeting content is never used to train AI models, with zero-retention terms for vendors including OpenAI and Anthropic. Its privacy policy, updated September 28, 2026, commits to deleting account-related personal information within 30 days of closure.

Three caveats. HIPAA, BAAs, private storage and custom retention are Enterprise-only, so a clinic on Pro isn't covered. Auto-join can record meetings you never meant to, so set the rule in week one. And Fireflies Talk reads "screen context" from the app you're dictating into; you can turn that off, and Fireflies' own policy says not to dictate while viewing health records, card numbers or passwords.

Laxis vs Fireflies: the comparison that matters

Scored on what usually decides the purchase. The "Edge" column is our call, and it doesn't always go our way.

Where Fireflies falls short, and what Laxis does instead

The AI bill is hard to predict

Laxis doesn't sell AI credits; plans are metered in transcription minutes: 300 a month on Basic, 2,000 on Premium, unlimited on Business. One pool covers meetings, Voice Keyboard dictation and live translation, and Business removes the cap entirely.

Storage caps decide what you keep

Laxis Premium and Business keep your full history. The free plan has its own limit: Basic shows the last 30 days, with older meetings archived, not deleted, and unlocked if you upgrade.

The full-featured path needs a bot

Laxis captures device audio by default on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex and more; its bot joins from your calendar only if you switch it on. Its Chrome extension shows speaker names on Meet, Zoom Web and Teams Web by reading live captions, but doesn't record audio or video, and video recording replay is a Business feature.

Multilingual meetings get a beta

Fireflies' auto-detect picks one dominant language per meeting; multi-language mode is a Business-tier beta. Laxis covers 100+ languages and adds live translation on Premium, which Fireflies' pricing page doesn't list.

Dictation stays on the desktop

The Laxis Voice Keyboard runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, with Translate and AI Agent Mode on Premium, so the dictation you start at your desk continues on your phone.

Fireflies alternatives, in brief

If you've already decided to leave, Laxis is our pick for bot-free capture and minute-based plans, and our Fireflies alternatives roundup weighs seven options by use case. On a tight budget, start with the best free AI note takers; for the wider market, see the best AI note takers of 2026.

Switching from Fireflies to Laxis

If you're already halfway out the door, this order keeps you from losing anything.

1. Export your history. On Pro and above, each meeting downloads as a transcript (PDF, DOCX, SRT, CSV, JSON or MD), a summary, and MP3 or MP4. On any plan, Free included, Fireflies' data request form produces a full account export: audio, any video, transcripts with speaker names, summaries and metadata. The link arrives within 24 to 48 hours and expires after seven days.
2. Upload the recordings you'll revisit. Laxis turns uploaded audio and video into searchable transcripts and summaries. Uploads draw from your monthly minutes and follow the per-recording cap (45 minutes on Basic, 2 hours on Premium, 4 on Business), so bring over live deals and recurring accounts; keep the rest as files.
3. Turn off Fireflies' bot and calendar access. In Fireflies settings, switch off Auto-join calendar meetings, remove [email protected] from recurring invites, and cancel any AI-credit subscription under Billing; it renews separately from your plan. Then remove Fireflies from the third-party app connections in your Google or Microsoft account.
4. Set up bot-free capture in Laxis. Install the Laxis AI meeting assistant desktop app on Mac or Windows; it captures device audio, so nothing joins the call. Add the Chrome extension for browser meetings and the mobile app for phone and in-person conversations, and leave the optional bot off unless you want calendar auto-join. Tell people you're taking notes.

What you keep

You keep your exported history, summaries with action items and owners, 100+ languages, an assistant for questions about meetings (AI Chat, Premium), and HubSpot or Salesforce sync on Business.

Weigh it all against the full Laxis vs Fireflies comparison before you cancel.

The verdict

Laxis is the pick if you want the notes without the meter or the bot. Capture is bot-free by default on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex, plans are counted in plain transcription minutes with no AI credits, paid plans keep your full history, and the same account covers live translation and a Voice Keyboard on desktop and phone. The 14-day Premium trial needs no card.

Fireflies is solid meeting infrastructure with a bill you have to manage. Search and AskFred work well, and Pro at $10 is fair for a small team that meets on video, stays under the storage cap and uses the assistant lightly. As usage grows, credits pool, storage fills, and the most complete capture still puts a participant in the call.

Try Laxis on your next three meetings

Bot-free by default, metered in minutes, 100+ languages.

Try Laxis free — 14-day Premium trial, no credit card. Or see the full Laxis vs Fireflies comparison first.

Frequently asked questions

Is Fireflies.ai free?

Yes, Fireflies.ai has a permanent free plan, but its unlimited transcription only applies while the notetaker auto-joins your calendar meetings. With auto-join off, accounts created since September 1, 2026 get three meeting transcriptions. Free also caps storage at 400 minutes, limits AI summaries and AskFred, and excludes downloads and video recording.

How do Fireflies AI credits work?

Fireflies AI credits pay for advanced AI features, not transcription. AI Skills, Live Assist questions, Sales Assist, Voice Agents, soundbites, Daily Digest and Autofill CRM draw from one team-wide pool: 20 credits on Free and Pro, 30 on Business, 50 on Enterprise. Extra credits start at 50 for $5 a month, and paid accounts auto-upgrade when they run out unless you switch that off.

Is Fireflies.ai safe to use?

Fireflies.ai is safe enough for most business meetings: it is SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant on every plan, encrypts data at rest and in transit, and says meeting content is never used to train AI models. HIPAA and a BAA are Enterprise-only, and the auto-join default can bring the bot into calls you did not mean to record.

How much does Fireflies.ai cost?

Fireflies.ai costs $0 on Free, $10 per seat per month on Pro, $19 on Business and $39 on Enterprise, billed annually. Monthly billing is $18 for Pro and $29 for Business; Enterprise is annual only. AI credit add-ons cost extra, from $5 a month for 50 credits, and the 7-day Business trial requires a card.

What is the best alternative to Fireflies?

Laxis is the best Fireflies alternative if the bot or the AI-credit meter is what's pushing you out: it records without a bot by default, meters plain transcription minutes, keeps your full history on paid plans, and adds live translation and a voice keyboard on desktop and phone. It comes with a 14-day Premium trial and no card; our alternatives guide compares more options.

Is Laxis better than Fireflies?

Laxis is better than Fireflies for people who want bot-free capture by default, minutes instead of AI credits, live translation on Premium, and a voice keyboard on their phone as well as their computer. Fireflies suits teams that are happy with a bot in the call and want to keep their existing AskFred archive.