Transcrib Si vs Fireflies
Fireflies is a meeting assistant: its bot joins a call, records it, and the Pro seat costs $10 a month billed yearly, with 20 AI credits on the free tier. Transcrib Si is a file-to-text service with no bot and no seat, and our Pro plan is $10 a month for 1,500 minutes of audio.
What the two services are
Both turn speech into text, and both put a transcript next to a meeting. The difference is where the speech comes from. Fireflies is built around a live meeting: you invite fred@fireflies.ai to a call or let it join your calendar, and it writes the notes while the meeting runs. Transcrib Si starts with a file that already exists — a recording, a voice memo, a lecture — and returns the text with the timecodes and the speaker labels. If your audio was never in a meeting, Fireflies has nothing to record; if you cannot have a bot in your call, that is the other half of the same problem.
Every figure in the right-hand column was read from a public page on 25 October 2026 and carries the page it came from. Nothing was taken from an advertisement, a review or a memory. Where a page could not be read, the cell says so.
| What we compared | Transcrib Si | Fireflies |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | a transcription service with a REST API, an MCP server and plugins for Claude and ChatGPT | an AI meeting assistant, a note taker bot and a meeting search engine |
| Free plan | $0 with no card, 3 files a day and up to 30 minutes per file (pricing, checked ) | $0 forever with 20 AI credits, 400 minutes of storage per team and limited AI summaries (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| Paid plan | Pro is $10 a month paid yearly ($120 a year) or $20 a month paid monthly (pricing, checked ) | Pro is $10 per seat a month billed yearly, or $18 a month month to month (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| Next tier up | Team is priced on request; the API is priced on volume | Business is $19 per seat a month billed yearly, or $29 a month month to month (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| Largest published price | $20 a month for the Pro plan, with 1,500 minutes of fair use (pricing, checked ) | Enterprise is $39 per seat a month billed yearly, with 50 AI credits (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| What the paid plan gives | 1,500 minutes of audio a month, no per-seat counting (pricing, checked ) | unlimited transcription and unlimited AI summaries on Pro, 8,000 minutes of storage per seat (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| Records calls for you | no, and nothing runs unless you press the button | yes, an AI note taker bot joins Google Meet calls and can autojoin calendar meetings (fireflies.ai, checked ) |
| Takes a file you already have | yes, 10 containers: mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, webm, ogg, flac, aac, wma, mov (pricing, checked ) | yes, upload of audio and video files in mp3, mp4, wav and m4a (fireflies.ai, checked ) |
| Transcription languages | 2 — Russian and English, with automatic detection | 100+, with automatic language detection (fireflies.ai, checked ) |
| Speaker labels | on every plan, including the free one | yes, speaker recognition names different speakers in meetings and audio files (fireflies.ai, checked ) |
| Export formats | TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, CSV on every plan, DOCX on Pro (pricing, checked ) | download of transcripts, summaries and recordings on Pro and above (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| For your own tools | REST API v1, MCP server with 4 tools, plugins for Claude and ChatGPT | API access and an MCP server that brings meeting insights into AI tools (fireflies.ai, checked ) |
| Security certifications | the privacy policy names the processors, the countries and the retention periods | SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and data ownership, stated on its own site (fireflies.ai, checked ) |
| Training on your data | no: the audio is not sold and is not used to train models for other customers (privacy, checked ) | not stated on the pages we read on 25 October 2026 |
The free plans, line by line
Both services let you try them without a card, and the free tiers are shaped differently. Ours counts files and minutes. Fireflies counts AI credits and storage. A free plan that runs out of one thing can leave the other untouched, so the units matter more than the zero.
| Limit on the free plan | Transcrib Si | Fireflies |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0, no card needed | $0, free forever (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| How many files | 3 files a day | transcription is listed as unlimited on the free tier, with the asterisk and terms on the pricing page (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| How long a file | up to 30 minutes per file | not stated as a per-file minute limit on the pricing page (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| How much is stored | transcripts are kept for 7 days on the free plan | 400 minutes of storage per team (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
| The second resource | none, the day and the file length are the two limits | 20 AI credits a month, with limited AI summaries on the free tier (fireflies.ai/pricing, checked ) |
Where Fireflies is the better choice
- The meeting happens live and you want the notes without lifting a finger. The bot joins Google Meet, records, transcribes and writes the summary while the call runs.
- You live in 100 languages. Fireflies publishes 100+ transcription languages with automatic detection; we publish 2.
- You want the compliance paper. Fireflies states SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance. We publish a privacy policy, not a certificate.
- You need the whole meeting suite. AskFred, meeting search, live assist, talk-time per participant, and a desktop and mobile app.
- Your team is large. Business at $19 per seat a month and Enterprise at $39 come with team analytics, SAML SSO and admin controls.
Where Transcrib Si is the better choice
- The Russian-English mix is your work. Our engine is built for it, and a mixed Russian office recording is the normal case, not the exception.
- No bot may enter the call. Nothing is recorded until you press the button, and there is no invite to accept.
- You want a flat price for one person. $10 a month for 1,500 minutes, not $10 per seat multiplied by the team.
- You want the transcript in your pipeline. REST API v1, an MCP server with 4 tools, and plugins for Claude and ChatGPT, all documented.
- You want to know where the file was processed. Our own infrastructure outside the United States, a named US cloud provider for pure English, no training on your audio. The privacy policy names all of it.
Who should pick which
- Pick Fireflies when the meeting is the event and you want a note taker in it, or when your team needs the compliance and the language list more than a flat price.
- Pick Transcrib Si when the audio is a file you already hold, when the work is in Russian, or when nothing may be recorded without your own action.
- Pick either when a free plan decides it: both are $0 and both give a transcript with speaker labels.
Put a file on the page and read the first lines.
The widget below is the same one as on the home page: file → transcript with timecodes and speakers → export. The transcript is saved to your account.
Drop an audio or video file
or — mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, up to 64 MB and two hours
Transcription runs under your account: sign in or create a free account.
No account yet? The free plan needs no card. Create a free account or sign in.
Questions this page answers.
Is Fireflies cheaper than Transcrib Si?
Per seat at the yearly rate the two Pro plans cost the same: $10 a month for Fireflies and $10 a month for Transcrib Si. Fireflies charges per seat, so five people cost five times as much there, while our Pro plan is one price for the account and covers 1,500 minutes of audio a month.
Does Fireflies record my meetings on its own?
Yes. Its AI note taker bot can join a Google Meet call and can autojoin meetings taken from your calendar. We have no bot and nothing runs until you upload a file yourself.
Which service handles more languages?
Fireflies publishes 100+ transcription languages with automatic detection. Transcrib Si recognizes 2, Russian and English, and that narrow claim is the honest one for an engine built around Russian speech and the Russian-English mix.
Do both give speaker labels on the free plan?
Both name the speakers. Fireflies states that speaker recognition identifies different speakers in meetings and audio files, and our own diarization is available on every plan including the free one, where 3 files a day of up to 30 minutes are included.
What can I do with a transcript from Transcrib Si?
Export it as TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT or CSV on any plan, and as DOCX on Pro, or send it straight into your own tools through the REST API, the MCP server or the Claude and ChatGPT plugins.
Related pages.
Another meeting bot, a different free tier.
A workspace for media teams.
Plans that count minutes instead of seats.
Another assistant, another set of trade-offs.
Two file-based services, side by side.
How seven services split the voices.
The general guide to the whole service.
For the case where you already have the recording.
The most common file, uploaded as it is.
Mark Burmistrov, Founder.
Every number on this page comes from a public pricing page we opened ourselves, from the service contract or from our own measurements. The author of the page and the publisher of the site are the same person. Questions and corrections: support@transcrib.si.