Fathom vs Fireflies: Which AI Meeting Assistant Is Worth Your Money in 2026

You leave a meeting and someone asks, "so what did we decide?" Fathom and Fireflies both answer that question. They join your Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams calls, record everything, transcribe it, and hand you a summary with action items. But their free plans are near-mirror images of each other, and their paid plans solve different problems. Here is the honest breakdown.

The free plans are mirror images

Fathom's free plan is the most generous in the category: unlimited recordings, transcriptions and storage, plus instant AI summaries — all for $0. The catch is on the AI side. Advanced summaries, action items and Ask Fathom are limited to about five calls a month; after that you get a basic summary instead.

Fireflies flips it. Its free plan gives you unlimited transcription and AI summaries on every call, but only 400 minutes of storage for your whole team, and no video recording. Fathom gives you unlimited memory with capped intelligence; Fireflies gives you unlimited intelligence with capped memory. We have already compared Fireflies with the third big notetaker in our Otter vs Fireflies comparison.

What the paid plans actually cost

Fireflies Pro is $10 per seat a month on annual billing ($18 month-to-month), with 8,000 minutes of storage per seat, video recording and unlimited summaries. Business is $19 a seat a month annual ($29 monthly) with unlimited storage, conversation intelligence and team analytics. Fathom Premium is $16 a month on annual billing ($20 monthly) for one user, with advanced summaries and AI action items. Team is $15 a user a month annual ($19 monthly, two-user minimum) and adds a shared workspace plus CRM sync. Business is $25 a user a month annual ($34 monthly) with CRM field sync, Deal View and coaching scorecards. Fireflies is cheaper to start; Fathom costs more at the top.

Where each one actually wins

Fathom wins for solo users and English-first teams — it supports around 38 languages. It is also the better pick for shareable video clips, or for a sales team that wants AI scorecards to coach its reps. Superhuman, the company behind Grammarly, acquired Fathom in September 2026 — it still sells its standalone plans.

Fireflies wins for multilingual teams — it transcribes in 100+ languages — and for sales teams that live inside their CRM. It syncs notes into Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho and Pipedrive from the $10 Pro plan, while Fathom only unlocks CRM sync at its $15 Team tier. It is also the cheaper way to get conversation intelligence, from $19 a seat versus $25 for Fathom Business.

The verdict

Solo, English-only, lots of meetings? Start with Fathom free — you may never need to pay. If you run a team that sells through its CRM, Fireflies Pro at $10 a seat is the best value here. If you need coaching and deal tracking, pay for Fathom Business. And if your calls happen in many languages, Fireflies wins with no real contest.

Whichever you pick, tell people the call is being recorded — both tools join as a visible bot. And if meeting notes are only one part of your workflow, our AI tools for consultants guide and our AI tools for podcasters guide show where they fit.