Granola vs Fireflies.ai: Bot or No Bot, Pricing and Who Should Pick Which (2026)

Which is better, Granola or Fireflies?

As an AI notetaker for one person taking their own calls, Granola. For a team that wants every call logged somewhere, Fireflies.ai. The split is not about transcript quality. It is about where the recording lives and who sees it.

Granola listens to your computer’s audio and never joins the meeting. Fireflies sends a named bot into calendar-synced calls, then pushes the output to your CRM, Slack or Zapier. Both give you a free plan, SOC 2 Type II, and AI chat over past meetings. Their paid plans differ in billing shape: Granola has one $14 tier that covers most needs, while Fireflies charges less per seat if you commit to a year. If you are comparing Granola with a different bot-based tool, see Granola vs Otter.ai.

How does each tool record your call?

Granola uses no bot. Its home page says it “uses your computer audio, so doesn’t invite a bot,” and its security page says it does not auto-join or auto-record. You start it, it transcribes in real time on Mac and Windows, and it does not keep the audio. That also means there is nothing to replay later.

Fireflies’ default is the opposite. A bot joins your Zoom, Teams or Meet calls from calendar sync, so every participant sees it. Fireflies also offers a bot-free path. Its desktop app on Mac and Windows records system audio and auto-detects Zoom, Meet, Teams, WhatsApp, Aircall, FaceTime and Discord. The Chrome extension is bot-free on Google Meet only. The trade-offs are in Fireflies’ own docs: bot-free recordings label speakers as Speaker 1 and Speaker 2, save no separate audio or video file, and cannot use Sales Assist, which needs the bot.

Our Fireflies review describes it as a visible-bot tool. That holds for the default, but it leaves out the bot-free desktop app.

Who writes better notes?

We did not run a head-to-head test, and neither vendor publishes accuracy figures, so this part is about method, not scores.

Granola merges what you type during the call with the transcript. Jot “follow up on pricing” and the final note expands it using what was said around it. The result follows your priorities. Fireflies generates the transcript, summary and action items without needing your input, then lets you run AI Skills over them. Choose Fireflies when you want to stay hands-off; choose Granola when you want your own judgment in the note. See our Granola review for how that plays out in use.

Speaker labels depend on setup. Granola shows named speaker tags on Google Meet, Zoom and Teams desktop calls on Mac and Windows. Otherwise you get Me and Them, mapped to your microphone and system audio. Granola’s docs warn that one shared meeting-room device, overlapping speech and outside audio can all cause errors.

What do Granola and Fireflies cost?

Granola has three plans and no published annual discount. Fireflies has four and a clear annual saving.

For five seats, Granola Business costs $840 a year. Fireflies Pro costs $600 billed annually or $1,080 billed monthly. Fireflies Business, the tier with multi-language mode, conversation intelligence and team analytics, is $1,140 a year annually or $1,740 monthly. Run your own seat count through the true cost calculator before you decide.

Fireflies’ pricing page shows the $18 and $29 monthly figures struck through next to the annual prices. Its pricing blog states them as the monthly rates, so we treat them that way. Confirm at checkout.

Storage and AI credits matter more on Fireflies. Pro includes 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, pooled across the team, and Business and Enterprise are unlimited. AI credits are a separate allowance: the pricing page lists 20 on Free and Pro, 30 on Business and 50 on Enterprise. Granola meters by time instead, so the question is how far back you need to search.

What do the free plans actually give you?

Both are usable. Both have a catch.

Granola Basic includes AI meeting notes, AI chat over your history (auto model only), shared folders, templates, voice typing, multi-language support and Slack. It does not include pre-meeting briefs, follow-up emails, or Notion, Zapier and HubSpot. The limit is history. You see 30 days of meetings, and older notes stay stored but locked until you upgrade.

Fireflies Free gives you 400 minutes of storage, 20 one-time AI credits that are not renewed, and a recording cap of two hours per meeting. Without Auto Join you get 3 transcriptions. Turn Auto Join on and transcription is unlimited for supported meetings, until storage fills and you must delete older meetings. Fireflies’ own sources disagree on whether the 400 minutes is per seat (help center) or per team (pricing page and pricing blog), so assume the lower figure.

Which is better for CRM sync and sales calls?

Fireflies, if the CRM is the point. Its blog names Salesforce and HubSpot as targets for AI Skills, which need Pro or higher, and Slack as a destination for action items. Pro and up list unlimited integrations and Zapier. Our Fireflies review calls its integration surface the deepest in the category, which fits.

Granola’s Business plan connects Attio, Notion, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier and Slack. Salesforce is not included until Enterprise at $35 per user. Granola also has an MCP connector for Claude and other AI apps. For a solo salesperson who logs deals in HubSpot or Attio, $14 covers it. For a team standardized on Salesforce, Fireflies Pro is the cheaper way in.

Consent is the sales-specific risk. A bot on the call tells the other side they are recorded. Granola does not, so a prospect may not know. Choose based on how your buyers react and what your state’s recording law requires.

What about security, data training and lawsuits?

Both claim SOC 2 Type II. Granola says it reached full SOC 2 Type 2 in July 2025, and Fireflies says it holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 42001 on every plan, including Free.

Training differs. Granola says it trains on anonymized user data unless you opt out in Settings, that Enterprise has training off by default, and that third parties like OpenAI or Anthropic may not train on your data. Fireflies says it does not use customer data to train AI models and applies zero data retention with its AI vendors. Those are vendor statements; we have not audited either.

Both companies face litigation, and these are allegations only. A proposed class action against Granola was filed on July 30, 2026 in the Northern District of California, alleging recording without every participant’s consent. An October 2026 update listed it as early stage with no ruling, and Granola had not responded on the merits in the reports we found. Separately, two Illinois suits against Fireflies, filed in December 2025 and March 2026, allege it collected voiceprints without the notice and written consent Illinois law requires. We found no rulings in either. Law firm alerts, such as Barnes & Thornburg’s analysis, are the best public summary.

The practical rule is the same for both: tell participants you are recording.

How do Granola and Fireflies compare with Otter and Fathom?

Many people weigh a third tool, usually Otter.ai or Fathom. Figures below come from each vendor’s pricing page on November 8, 2026.

Otter looks like Fireflies on capture: a bot joins the call. Its free plan caps each conversation at 30 minutes, against Fireflies Free’s two hours per meeting. Our Granola vs Otter.ai page covers that pairing in depth. Otter’s page also shows a Pro promo price valid only with an India-issued card; ignore it unless that is you.

Fathom is the free plan to beat if you only want recordings and transcripts: unlimited on Free, against Granola’s 30-day history window and Fireflies’ 400 minutes of storage. Its Team and Business plans need two seats, so a solo user cannot buy them. See the Fathom review for the bot no-show complaints reviewers raise.

What about trials, refunds and cancelling?

Fireflies offers a 7-day Business trial that needs a card, and each account gets it once. Its refund policy gives a full refund within 7 days of a new subscription if you have logged 3 meetings or fewer on a monthly plan (20 or fewer on annual), a pro-rated refund on monthly plans otherwise, no pro-rating on annual plans, and no refunds on AI Credits add-ons. One older help page still says no refunds, so request it through support chat promptly. Cancelling drops you to Free at the end of the billing cycle. Our review covers the billing complaints that reviewers raise.

Granola’s pricing page mentions no trial or refund terms. Its line is “Try Granola for a few meetings today. It’s free to get started.” Since Basic costs nothing, the free plan is your test.

So which should you pick?

Run Granola free for a week if you take your own calls and want to stay out of a bot’s way. Upgrade to Business at $14 when you need history past 30 days or the HubSpot and Notion links.

Pick Fireflies if you manage a team that needs shared transcripts and CRM updates, and go annual if you can, since the $10 Pro price is where it beats Granola. Set a renewal reminder first.

If neither fits, read our best AI meeting note takers guide, plus Circleback and Claap for bot-optional and sales-focused options.