Fireflies
vs
Granola

Fireflies.ai vs Granola

A practical look at price, capture, notes, workflows, and what each product is actually good at.

The short answer

Which one fits better?

Best fit

Fireflies.ai

Live assistance and a broad integration catalog

Price

Free; Pro from $10/user/month annually

Pricing details

Prices are per user/month: Pro is $10 with annual billing or $18 month-to-month; Business is $19 or $29; Enterprise is $39 with annual billing. Storage, AI credits, video, advanced integrations, and governance differ by plan.

Free option: Yes. Unlimited transcription requires both Auto-join and Share-all; otherwise initial transcription credits, storage limits, and plan-gated summaries or AI features apply.

Good for

  • Live meeting help
  • Lots of integrations at a low price

Watch for

  • Bot-free mode loses media and names
  • Free unlimited requires share-all

Best fit

Granola

A calm personal notepad without saved recordings

Price

Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly

Pricing details

Granola currently bills monthly rather than offering an annual discount. Basic is free but only the last 30 days of history remain accessible. Business adds unlimited history, advanced AI, integrations, MCP, API, billing, and user management. Enterprise adds SSO, retention, organization sharing/API controls, training defaults, and participant notifications. A workspace uses one tier and every active member of a paid workspace is a paid seat, although someone who only opens a shared note link does not need a seat.

Free option: Yes, with a rolling 30-day accessible history.

Good for

  • Writing notes as you meet
  • A polished final document

Watch for

  • Thin notes assume you attended
  • No auto-created, assigned action items

Side by side

The details that matter.

Ratings show documented breadth, not overall product quality. Open a row for specifics.

Capture options

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaAvailable with limits

Fireflies.ai

Bot, bot-free desktop, mobile, and SDK-based capture

Fireflies has unusually broad capture. The modes differ: desktop bot-free capture works across apps but drops stored media and named speaker labels; the bot preserves the richer meeting record.

EvidenceFireflies bot-free desktop recordingFireflies desktop app

Granola

Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture

Granola listens locally without a bot and combines typed notes with the transcript. It does not currently offer an “always automatically start every meeting” setting.

EvidenceGranola transcriptionGranola feature requests

Desktop and mobile

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaBroad support

Fireflies.ai

Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android

Desktop supports system-audio recording and live assistance. Mobile supports in-person recording, reviewing meetings, search, sharing, and tasks.

EvidenceFireflies desktop appFireflies mobile app

Granola

macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Apple Watch

Desktop is the full experience. iOS and Android cover in-person conversations, and Apple Watch can start an in-person note with one tap and sync it to the phone and desktop apps. iPhone also supports outbound speakerphone calls but cannot capture another app’s audio; integrations and several workspace settings remain desktop-oriented.

EvidenceGranola iOSGranola Android launchGranola Apple Watch launchGranola transcription

In-person capture and speaker labels

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaBroad support

Fireflies.ai

Mobile and desktop room capture

iOS and Android can capture in-person conversations. Fireflies documents that mobile recordings often do not auto-detect speakers, so names may need manual correction. Bot-free desktop can also hear room/system audio, with its own media and generic-label caveats.

EvidenceFireflies mobile appFireflies speaker labels

Granola

Phone, Apple Watch, and laptop room capture

The iPhone app handles in-person conversations, identifies up to ten speakers, and can place outbound speakerphone calls. Android and Apple Watch also capture in-person meetings, though their launch pages do not promise the same speaker-label behavior. Desktop does not diarize individual voices: its transcript uses Me and Them for microphone versus system audio. iPhone cannot transcribe another calling app running on the same phone.

EvidenceGranola iOSGranola Android launchGranola Apple Watch launchGranola transcription

Recordings, playback, and clips

FirefliesAvailable with limits
GranolaNot documented

Fireflies.ai

Bot mode saves AV; bot-free desktop saves neither

This is the key evaluation detail: bot meetings can preserve audio/video and named speakers, while desktop bot-free mode produces notes/transcript without recording files and uses Speaker 1/Speaker 2 labels.

EvidenceFireflies bot-free desktop recording

Granola

No retained audio or video

Granola deliberately deletes audio after transcription. That is a privacy benefit for some teams and a hard limitation for anyone who needs playback, evidence, clips, or coaching review.

EvidenceGranola transcription

Notes, action items, and search

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaBroad support

Fireflies.ai

Notes, search, and a workspace-wide assigned task feed

Fireflies offers strong meeting search and multiple AI surfaces. It automatically creates and assigns meeting tasks, lets teams manage all accessible tasks in one feed, and can turn action items into trackable work in several project tools. Usage credits and plan gates still apply to advanced AI apps and assistant capabilities.

EvidenceFireflies pricing guideFireflies AI creditsFireflies Tasks Feed

Granola

Concise attendee notes, extracted actions, and cross-meeting chat

Human notes influence the generated document, and paid plans support broad chat across meetings, folders, people, and companies. Our editorial judgment is that the output is polished but thin and assumes the reader attended, rather than documenting enough context to stand alone. Granola can extract owner- and deadline-aware action-item text with transcript citations, but it does not create and assign native tasks to users. Those actions remain note content rather than a workspace task system, and there is still no source recording for playback.

EvidenceGranola transcriptionGranola spaces and foldersGranola action-item extraction

People, companies, and context

FirefliesAvailable with limits
GranolaAvailable with limits

Fireflies.ai

Meeting channels and cross-meeting search

The meeting library is searchable and collaborative, but the product is less centered on a unified relationship timeline combining meetings, email, calendar, people, and companies.

EvidenceFireflies pricing guide

Granola

People and company pages built from calendar contacts

Granola groups meetings around people and companies, with chat across those groups. Directory entries are inferred from calendar data and cannot be manually added, so imperfect associations can happen.

EvidenceGranola workspacesGranola spaces and folders

Automatic sharing and workspace defaults

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaNarrow or indirect

Fireflies.ai

Enterprise rules can auto-route, share, and enforce privacy

Enterprise admins can match meeting title, host, participants, or internal/external type, then route to a channel, share with users or teams, or enforce privacy. This is genuinely strong automation. The default recap visibility is broader than many buyers expect—teammates plus anyone holding the link—so configure the workspace default deliberately.

EvidenceFireflies Rules EngineFireflies recap privacy defaults

Granola

Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder

Notes are not auto-shared with attendees. A user shares a note or adds it to a team-space folder; recurring meetings can auto-add to a folder and new folder notes can auto-post to connected tools. Enterprise can enforce how links work across the workspace, but it still does not provide conditional rules that automatically distribute each matching meeting to the right internal people or teams.

EvidenceGranola workspacesGranola spaces and foldersGranola sharing controlsGranola note sharing

Automations

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaNarrow or indirect

Fireflies.ai

Meeting rules, AI apps, CRM workflows, and automatic task handoff

Fireflies can automatically create and assign tasks, then route them to Linear, Asana, Monday.com, Planner, Salesforce, and other systems with meeting filters on eligible plans. It also supports specialized AI apps. The experience spans several feature systems rather than one simple general condition/action canvas.

EvidenceFireflies Rules EngineFireflies pricing guideFireflies Tasks FeedFireflies Linear integration

Granola

Folder and manual Zapier triggers; less of a native workflow canvas

Paid users can trigger Zapier when a note is added to a chosen folder or manually shared, then create tasks in Linear, Asana, Trello, Monday, and thousands of other apps. This is useful, but there is no automatic every-meeting trigger in the documented integration and Granola does not center conditional custom extraction and multi-action workflows in the product itself.

EvidenceGranola integrationsGranola spaces and foldersGranola Zapier

Integrations

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaAvailable with limits

Fireflies.ai

100+ integrations plus Zapier and API

Breadth is a major advantage across CRM, collaboration, storage, dialers, and productivity tools. Verify the plan required for each connector and direction of sync.

EvidenceFireflies integration directoryFireflies Linear integration

Granola

Notion, Slack, Attio, HubSpot, Affinity, Zapier, API, and MCP

The catalog is now credible, particularly on Business. Zapier can turn folder notes into tasks across 8,000+ apps, while the native catalog remains smaller and more destination-oriented than systems with broad action libraries.

EvidenceGranola integrationsGranola Zapier

API, MCP, CLI, and data portability

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaAvailable with limits

Fireflies.ai

GraphQL API, webhooks, and a rich remote MCP server

Fireflies exposes transcripts and core meeting data through GraphQL plus webhooks for custom integrations. Its OAuth or API-key remote MCP server can retrieve full transcripts, summaries, action items, active meetings, analytics, soundbites, channels, and user data; it can also share, rename, organize, and clip meetings. Some advanced search and fetch tools remain experimental. Super Summary and Custom Apps data are still absent from the documented GraphQL API, and content passed into an external AI follows that provider’s retention terms.

EvidenceFireflies APIFireflies MCP tools

Granola

MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits

Personal API keys are beta on Business/Enterprise and can return transcripts for notes the key owner may access; Enterprise organization keys can cover Team-space notes. MCP also has a transcript tool, but uses OAuth, has no service-account key, and cannot directly access Team-space folders. Bulk CSV export excludes transcripts and admins cannot export every member’s notes, so programmatic access exists but workspace portability is not complete.

EvidenceGranola MCPGranola APIGranola data export

Security, privacy, and admin

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaAvailable with limits

Fireflies.ai

Business and Enterprise governance

Enterprise adds SSO/SCIM, Rules Engine governance, custom retention, and private storage. Its Super Admin role can access every workspace meeting, including “Only Me” content—useful for compliance, but a material privacy-policy decision. Fireflies says meeting content is never used for internal or external model training.

EvidenceFireflies pricing guideFireflies storage limitsFireflies Rules EngineFireflies data safetyFireflies compliance recording modesFireflies Enterprise controls

Granola

User management on Business; retention and organization controls on Enterprise

SSO, retention, enforced sharing/API controls, participant notification, and organization training defaults require Enterprise; Granola documents SSO for organizations with at least 50 seats. There is no native password or MFA system—authentication delegates to Google, Microsoft, or Enterprise SSO. Notes and transcripts persist indefinitely unless deleted or covered by Enterprise retention, and admins do not get a one-click workspace export.

EvidenceGranola pricingGranola subscriptions and billingGranola security and data FAQ

Languages

FirefliesBroad support
GranolaAvailable with limits

Fireflies.ai

100+ languages advertised

Fireflies advertises broad transcription coverage. Real-world speaker separation and accuracy still depend on capture mode, room acoustics, accents, and vocabulary.

EvidenceFireflies pricing guide

Granola

Multilingual transcription

Granola supports multiple languages, but it does not publish the same 100+ headline count as several rivals. Test switching, accents, and domain vocabulary on real calls.

EvidenceGranola transcription

Worth a look

Circleback

If neither Fireflies nor Granola quite fits, Circleback covers a different job: capturing online and in-person meetings and sharing them by rule. It is built for people and AI agents, with the same full meeting data available through its API, MCP, and CLI.

Every meeting

Bot, botless desktop app, iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch. Speaker labels every time; recording optional.

Shared company memory

Detailed notes, automatic sharing, and people and company context across every team.

People and AI agents

Assigned actions and automations for people; the same full meeting data for agents through API, MCP, and CLI.

Sources

First-party pricing, product docs, help articles, and release notes.

Fireflies.ai sources18 first-party references
Granola sources18 first-party references
  • Granola pricing

    Basic, Business, and Enterprise prices and feature gates.

  • Granola subscriptions and billing

    30-day free history, workspace privacy, plan uniformity, and removal behavior.

  • Granola integrations

    Notion, Slack, CRM, Zapier, MCP, and API integrations.

  • Granola Zapier

    Paid-plan manual and folder triggers, note payload, workspace sharing, and task handoff across Zapier destinations.

  • Granola action-item extraction

    Automatic extraction of source-linked commitments, owners, and due dates from the transcript and human notes.

  • Granola workspaces

    Private-by-default notes and team-space collaboration behavior.

  • Granola sharing controls

    Personal link defaults and Enterprise-enforced workspace link restrictions.

  • Granola note sharing

    No attendee auto-sharing, note and integration sharing, and limited transcript visibility on public note links.

  • Granola spaces and folders

    Shared folders, recurring-meeting auto-add, and automatic posting to connected tools.

  • Granola feature requests

    Current product-request status, including automatic meeting start.

  • Granola iOS

    In-person/outbound calls and mobile limitations.

  • Granola Android launch

    Android in-person capture and cross-device note access.

  • Granola Apple Watch launch

    One-tap in-person capture, reminders, syncing, availability, and watchOS requirement.

  • Granola transcription

    Desktop “Me/Them” behavior, iPhone diarization, transcript copying, segment deletion, and lack of prerecorded-file support.

  • Granola data export

    Individual and bulk exports, CSV transcript omission, and the absence of workspace-wide admin export.

  • Granola MCP

    OAuth access, plan gates, transcript tool, 30-day Basic history, and Team-space folder limitation.

  • Granola API

    Personal beta keys, Enterprise keys, permitted-note scope, transcripts, and meeting data.

  • Granola security and data FAQ

    Model-improvement defaults, individual opt-out, and Enterprise organization-wide enforcement.

Questions people usually ask

Which is better: Fireflies.ai or Granola?

Fireflies is a broad assistant with bots, desktop, mobile, live help, API, and many integrations. Granola is a calmer notepad that keeps no recording and shares deliberately.

Which is less expensive, Fireflies.ai or Granola?

Fireflies.ai: Free; Pro from $10/user/month annually. Granola: Free; Business $14/user/month; Enterprise from $35/user/month, billed monthly. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need.

Can Fireflies.ai and Granola record without a bot?

Fireflies.ai: Bot, bot-free desktop, mobile, and SDK-based capture. Granola: Manual bot-free desktop, phone, and Apple Watch capture. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names.

Which is better for a whole company?

First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. Fireflies: Enterprise rules can auto-route, share, and enforce privacy. Granola: Private by default; sharing starts with a note or folder.

Can I access and move the full meeting data?

Fireflies: GraphQL API, webhooks, and a rich remote MCP server. Granola: MCP and API on Business+; material export and scope limits. Check the selected plan, authentication model, transcript scope, export format, and retention window for the workflow you need.

How was this comparison researched?

We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below.