Granola vs Fireflies: Pricing, Privacy and Note Quality Compared

Hannah runs a five-person product team. Her week is Zoom and Google Meet calls, and she types her own notes because writing is how she thinks. Last month a customer asked her to "remove the bot" from a call, and she has not stopped thinking about it. Leo runs sales operations for a team of eight account executives who live in video demos and want every call logged in the CRM without anyone typing a word. (Both are composites, not real people.)

Both searched Granola vs Fireflies in the same week. They should not end up with the same answer.

Granola and Fireflies are two of the best-known AI note takers, and they start from opposite ends. Granola never sends a bot: it listens through your computer and turns the rough notes you type into finished ones. Fireflies is best known for its notetaker bot, which joins calls from your calendar, records them and writes the summary for you. It also has a desktop app that works without a bot.

This comparison uses only each company's own pages, all checked on October 22, 2026. It is not a hands-on test, and every claim links to the page it came from.

One disclosure: ParrotNotes publishes this blog, and ParrotNotes is our app. It appears once, near the end, for readers whose important conversations happen in a room rather than on a screen. If that's you, try ParrotNotes free and come back for the rest.

Granola vs Fireflies: the short answer

Choose Granola if you like to write your own notes, you don't want anything joining the call, and you'd rather no audio was kept after transcription.

Choose Fireflies if you want every calendar meeting recorded and summarized automatically, your team wants recordings to replay and share, and you need the notes pushed into a CRM or project tool.

Look at a third option if your important conversations happen face to face, on a site visit or across a table, or in more than one language. That's the section on meetings in a room, near the end.

How each one captures a meeting

The biggest difference in the Granola vs Fireflies decision is how the audio gets in, because that decides who knows a tool is listening and what gets kept.

Granola listens through your computer. Its homepage says it "uses your computer audio, so doesn't invite a bot" and "works with Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and every other meeting app." The transcription help article adds that there is "no meeting bot" and that Granola "does not record or save audio or video at any point during the call." You get notes and a transcript, not a recording.

Fireflies joins the call, unless you choose otherwise. The classic setup sends a notetaker into your calendar meetings. Fireflies' joining FAQ says it "appears as Fireflies.ai Notetaker" and that "Fireflies is always visible in the participant list to ensure compliance." Anyone in the meeting can remove it from the participant list, and a rename add-on costs $5 a month.

Fireflies has two bot-free routes. Its desktop app records your computer's system audio on Windows or Mac, with no bot, and "does not save separate audio or video files." Its Chrome extension works without a bot on Google Meet only.

On the phone, both reach the room. Granola's mobile help page says its iPhone and Android apps take notes "during in-person meetings," and on iOS on outbound calls made through its own dialer. It also says "Granola can't transcribe virtual meeting calls on mobile." Fireflies' joining FAQ describes its mobile app as "ideal for in-person recordings."

The upshot: Granola is bot-free everywhere. Fireflies is bot-first, with a bot-free desktop mode for the calls where a visible notetaker isn't welcome.

Granola vs Fireflies, head to head

Sources: Granola's pricing page, homepage, transcription, mobile and language help; Fireflies' pricing page, joining FAQ, desktop app article and Multi-Language Mode article. All checked October 22, 2026.

Pricing: what a team actually pays

Both price per person. Granola shows monthly prices only. Fireflies shows both and says annual billing saves "up to 44%."

Prices from granola.ai/pricing and fireflies.ai/pricing, checked October 22, 2026.

What the free plans hold back. Granola Basic keeps 30 days of meeting history in the app, limits AI chat to its automatic model and connects to Slack only. Fireflies Free lists "Limited AI summaries," 400 minutes of storage for the whole team and 20 AI credits, which features such as AI skills and voice agents draw on.

What paying adds. Granola Business unlocks unlimited history, model selection, integrations with Notion, Zapier, HubSpot, Attio and Affinity, plus API and MCP access. Fireflies Pro adds unlimited AI summaries, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording, downloads and action items. Business adds unlimited storage, Multi-language Mode, conversation intelligence and team analytics.

Year one for a five-person team

Seat prices hide the real number. Here's what Hannah's team of five would pay over 12 months on each paid option, from the list prices above.

Calculated from list prices checked October 22, 2026. Taxes and add-ons such as extra Fireflies AI credits or the bot rename are not included.

Two things stand out. Fireflies Pro storage is capped at 8,000 minutes per seat. And Fireflies features a sales team may want, such as Multi-language Mode and conversation intelligence, start on Business, not Pro. For plan-by-plan detail, see our Granola pricing guide and Fireflies pricing guide.

Privacy: six questions to ask either tool

"Is it private?" is too vague. These are the six questions a careful client or security team will actually ask.

Sources: Granola pricing and transcription help; Fireflies pricing, joining FAQ and desktop app article. Checked October 22, 2026.

The pattern is clear. Granola keeps less: no bot, no audio. Fireflies keeps more when you use the bot, which is exactly what makes recordings, clips and team review possible. Neither is "more private" in general. It depends on whether you need a recording at all.

Back to Hannah. Her customer objected to a visible participant, and her team never rewatches calls. Granola's model fits her. Leo's managers coach from recorded demos, so a stored recording is the point, and the visible bot is a price his buyers already accept.

Note quality: who writes the notes?

This is the difference you'll feel every day. It's about how you work, not which AI is smarter.

Granola builds on what you type. Its homepage says "write down as much or as little as you like" and Granola "uses meeting context to write clear notes, personal to you." You jot the points that matter. After the call, Granola fills in the detail from the transcript around them. Your judgment decides what the note is about.

Fireflies writes the notes for you. Its bot or desktop app captures the meeting, and the summary, action items and transcript arrive without you typing anything. AskFred, its AI assistant, answers questions about your meetings, and paid plans add AI skills that draw on monthly credits.

A quick test tells you which suits you. Think of your last important meeting and ask:

1. Did you type notes during it, or did you want your eyes on the people?
2. Were the important moments obvious to you in the room, or only clear afterwards?
3. Does anyone other than you need the notes in the same format every time?

If you answered "typed," "obvious" and "no," Granola's approach will feel natural. If you answered "eyes on people," "afterwards" and "yes," Fireflies' automatic summaries will save you more time.

Languages and integrations

Languages. Granola's multi-language help page lists 31 transcription languages on desktop and 17 on mobile. On desktop you can switch language mid-meeting; on mobile Granola picks one language per meeting, and old transcripts can't be translated.

Fireflies' pricing page lists "transcription in 100+ languages." Calls that switch languages need Multi-Language Mode, which its help article puts on "Business and Enterprise plans only," in beta, covering 60+ languages. It does not describe translation.

Integrations. Granola's are listed in the pricing section above, with Salesforce on Enterprise. Fireflies lists "unlimited integrations" from Pro up, built to push meeting data into a team's CRM and project tools. Our Fireflies review goes through them in detail.

Five questions that pick one for you

1. Does a visible bot bother you or your clients? Yes: Granola, or Fireflies' desktop app. No: Fireflies' notetaker is the most automatic route.
2. Do you need a recording to replay or share? Yes: Fireflies with the bot. No: Granola keeps nothing but text.
3. Do you like to type during meetings? Yes: Granola. No: Fireflies.
4. Does a manager want call analytics, team dashboards or CRM fields filled in? Fireflies Business is built for that.
5. How many of your important conversations happen in a room, or in two languages? If the answer is "most," read the next section before you choose either.

A third option for meetings in a room

Granola and Fireflies were both built around the laptop and the video call. If your most important conversations happen across a table, on a site walk or in a client's office, a phone-first app fits that day better.

ParrotNotes was built for it. You open the app on the phone you already carry, put it on the table and talk. No bot joins anything, and recording carries on with the screen locked. Once you're connected, you get a transcript and an AI summary, plus action items and a follow-up email draft on AI-powered recordings.

Granola and Fireflies facts from the sources above; ParrotNotes facts from parrotnotes.app/pricing. Checked October 22, 2026.

Rosa sells commercial cleaning contracts and meets facility managers on site, half of them in Spanish. She puts ParrotNotes on the clipboard during the walk-through, talks in whichever language the manager prefers, and reads the transcript in English in the van afterwards. (Rosa is a composite, not a real person.)

What it costs. ParrotNotes Free includes 100 minutes of recording a month, an automatic summary on every recording, and 5 AI-powered recordings a month where insights, action items, sales frameworks and chat all work. Pro is $19.99 a month, or $14.99 a month billed annually, with 3,000 minutes a month, recordings up to 3 hours, all AI features on every recording, speaker identification, 99+ languages with translation and AI search across your notes.

On privacy, ParrotNotes encrypts data in transit and at rest, and your data is not used to train AI models, as our security page explains. It runs on iOS, Android and macOS, and recording works offline, with the transcript arriving once you're connected.

If your meetings happen in a room, download ParrotNotes free and record your next one. For the one-to-one comparisons, see ParrotNotes vs Granola and ParrotNotes vs Fireflies, and our guide to AI meeting notes without a bot.

Ask before you record, with any of them

A visible bot announces itself. Device audio and a phone on the table don't, so the responsibility moves to you. Tell people you're taking notes with an AI tool and get their agreement before you start.

Consent rules differ by place: in the US some states require everyone's consent, and our guide to one-party consent states explains the split. This is general information, not legal advice.

The verdict

Granola and Fireflies solve the same problem from opposite ends.

• Granola is the bot-free notepad for people who like to write their own notes, on Mac or Windows, in any meeting app. It keeps no audio, and it suits Hannah.
• Fireflies is the automatic recorder for teams that want every calendar call captured, replayable and pushed into their other tools. Its desktop app covers the calls where a bot isn't welcome, and it suits Leo.

If the deciding meetings in your week are video calls, use the five questions above and pick one. For most field and in-person teams, though, ParrotNotes is the better pick: it records the room on the phone you already carry with no bot, gives every recording an AI summary on the free plan, and on Pro transcribes and translates 99+ languages, even when a conversation switches between them. Try ParrotNotes free on your next in-person meeting. Still comparing bot-free tools? Our Fathom vs Granola comparison covers the other popular pairing.