Fireflies.ai vs Read AI: Pricing, Features and Which to Pick
The budget team note taker against the meeting, email and chat assistant, compared on published plans, limits and ratings.
By , research by the BestBots team · Updated Oct 19, 2026
Fact checked against each company's published pricing, documentation and verified user ratings. How we score
Fireflies is the better pick for teams that want meeting notes: Pro is $10 a seat on annual billing with video recording, 100+ languages and CRM integrations, against Read AI's $15 without video. Read AI wins for people who want meetings, email and chat summarized in one assistant, and for small practices that need HIPAA at a published price.
Side by side
| Spec | Fireflies.ai | Read AI |
|---|---|---|
| BestBots Score | 4.6 | 4.1 |
| Starting price | $18 per seat per month | $19.75 per user per month |
| Pricing model | per seat | per seat |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Free plan limit | Unlimited transcription with auto join, 400 minutes of storage per team, limited AI summaries | 5 meeting transcripts per month |
| Paid from | $18 per seat per month, or $10 billed annually | $19.75 per user per month, or $15 billed annually |
| Platforms | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, desktop app, mobile app, Chrome extension | Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Chrome |
| Languages | 100+ languages | 20+ languages |
| CRM sync | Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive; app and CRM integrations from Pro | Salesforce and HubSpot from Pro |
| Storage | 400 minutes per team free, 8,000 minutes per seat on Pro, unlimited on Business | Unlimited on Pro |
The short answer
Choose Fireflies for team meeting notes, sales calls, multilingual meetings and the lowest price per seat.
Choose Read AI if you want email and messages summarized alongside meetings, care about speaker coaching, or need HIPAA for a team of 5 to 20 without enterprise negotiations.
Pricing
| Plan | Fireflies.ai | Read AI |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Unlimited transcription with auto join, limited summaries, 400 minutes storage per team | 5 meeting transcripts a month, meetings up to 1 hour |
| Pro | $18 monthly, $10 annual | $19.75 monthly, $15 annual |
| Middle tier | Business $29 monthly, $19 annual | Enterprise $29.75 monthly, $22.50 annual |
| HIPAA tier | Enterprise $39 annual only | Enterprise+ $39.75 monthly, $29.75 annual, 5 seats minimum |
Prices from fireflies.ai/pricing and read.ai/plans-pricing in October 2026.
Team of 10, first paid tier, annual. Fireflies $1,200 a year; Read AI $1,800.
Team of 10 that wants video playback. Fireflies Pro $1,200; Read AI Enterprise $2,700.
Practice of 5 that needs HIPAA. Read AI Enterprise+ $1,785 a year; Fireflies Enterprise $2,340.
Models and features
| Feature | Fireflies.ai | Read AI |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Zoom, Meet, Teams and 10+; desktop, mobile, Chrome | Zoom, Meet, Teams; Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome |
| Email and chat | Email assistant on Pro | Email and message summaries on every plan |
| Video | Recording from Pro | Playback on Enterprise |
| Languages | 100+ | 16+ to 20+ |
| AI search | AskFred, AI credits (20 to 50 a month) | Ask Read, Claude and GPT models |
| Analytics | Conversation intelligence on Business | Engagement, sentiment, meeting coach on every plan |
| CRM | Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive from Pro | Salesforce, HubSpot from Pro |
| Max recording | 2 hours Free and Pro, 3 Business, 4 Enterprise | 1 hour Free, 4 hours Pro and Enterprise, 8 hours Enterprise+ |
| Uploads | Audio and video files on every plan | 100 to 300 minutes a month on paid plans |
Head to head scenarios
Budget team note taker
Winner: Fireflies. $10 a seat annual with unlimited transcription, video and integrations.
Executive who wants inbox and meetings in one place
Winner: Read AI. Email and message summaries on every plan, searchable with meetings in Ask Read.
Sales team with CRM
Winner: Fireflies. Pipedrive in addition to Salesforce and HubSpot, and conversation intelligence on Business at $19 a seat.
Small healthcare practice
Winner: Read AI. HIPAA on Enterprise+ at $29.75 a user annual from 5 seats, against Fireflies Enterprise at $39.
Multilingual meetings
Winner: Fireflies. 100+ languages against 16+ to 20+.
Long all hands and board meetings
Winner: Read AI. Pro allows 4 hours per meeting against Fireflies Pro's 2 hours; Enterprise+ allows 8.
Privacy
Fireflies. SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA (Enterprise); states zero data retention and no AI training on customer data; private storage and custom retention on Enterprise.
Read AI. SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR and HIPAA listed; HIPAA, SAML, SCIM, domain capture and retention policies on Enterprise+. Its Trustpilot reviews (1.3 from 109) focus on the assistant joining meetings without clear consent and being hard to remove.
Edge: Fireflies on day to day trust signals; Read AI on HIPAA price.
Ratings
Fireflies: 4.7 on G2 from 755 reviews, 4.5 on Trustpilot from 860 and 4.8 on the App Store from 5,310. Read AI: 4.9 on the App Store from 1,013 and 1.3 on Trustpilot from 109; we could not open its G2 listing this month.
Setup and rollout
Both connect to your Google or Microsoft calendar and send an assistant into scheduled meetings by default, so the first job for either is deciding which meetings it should join.
Fireflies. Choose auto join for all meetings, only meetings you own, or invite only. Remember that unlimited free transcription depends on auto join; invite only mode on the free plan limits you to a few transcriptions. The Chrome extension records Google Meet without a bot when you would rather not have one in the participant list.
Read AI. Control which meetings Read joins in your settings, and on paid plans set Workspace rules for the whole team. Grant only the permissions you need: email and message summaries require access to those accounts, which is the most common worry in its public reviews.
For either tool, tell external guests before the first recorded call, and check whether your company allows note taker bots on customer meetings. Teams that cannot have a bot at all should look at Granola or Krisp instead.
Verdict
Fireflies wins three of six scenarios, including the two that matter most to teams (price and sales), and is our pick for most buyers. Read AI wins for people who want their inbox handled too, for small HIPAA practices, and for long meetings. See the Fireflies review, Read AI review and Otter vs Read AI.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fireflies better than Read AI?
For most teams that want meeting notes, yes. Fireflies Pro is $10 a seat on annual billing with video recording, 100+ languages and CRM integrations. Read AI is better if you also want email and chat summarized, or speaker coaching metrics.
Which is cheaper, Fireflies or Read AI?
Fireflies at every comparable tier: Pro is $10 vs $15 a seat annual, and video recording comes with Fireflies Pro but needs Read AI Enterprise at $22.50. The exception is HIPAA, where Read AI Enterprise+ ($29.75 annual) undercuts Fireflies Enterprise ($39).
Which free plan is better?
Fireflies'. Unlimited transcription with calendar auto join beats 5 meetings a month, although Fireflies keeps only 400 minutes of storage per team.
Which supports more languages?
Fireflies lists 100+ transcription languages on every plan. Read AI lists 20+ on its pricing card and 16+ in its plan table.
Do Fireflies and Read AI join meetings as bots?
Both send an assistant into Zoom, Meet and Teams calls by default. Fireflies can also record through its Chrome extension without the bot. Read AI's desktop and mobile apps record directly. Both auto join from your calendar unless you change the settings.
Is Read AI or Fireflies better for sales?
Fireflies. Business at $19 a seat annual adds conversation intelligence (sentiment, talk time, topic trackers) on top of Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive integrations from Pro. Read AI has Salesforce and HubSpot on Pro but focuses its analytics on meeting effectiveness and personal coaching.