Listenr vs Fireflies.ai
Pick Fireflies if you need a bot in meetings you skip, a GraphQL API on the free plan, or languages beyond what a Mac model covers. Pick Listenr if you want the audio transcribed on your own Mac, the model that writes the notes to be your choice, and the library kept as files on your own disk. Fireflies covers more ground; Listenr keeps it closer.
| Feature | Listenr | Fireflies.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Does a bot join the call | No, capture is from the Mac | Your choice, a bot or bot-free desktop recording |
| Meetings you are not in | Cannot capture them | The bot joins without you |
| Where your audio is transcribed | On the Mac by default; four of five backends are offline | At third-party vendors under a 0-day retention contract |
| Who writes the notes | A local model, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud | Fireflies picks; no model choice, no API key |
| Devices you can use it on | macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon | Mac and Windows desktop, web, mobile, Chrome extension |
| Price | Pro $19/month, or $15/month billed yearly | Pro $10/user/month annual, or $18 monthly |
| What the free plan gives you | Recording, transcription and notes from a local model or your own key; personal use only | Unlimited auto-join transcription, 400 minutes of storage per seat |
| Getting a transcript out | Exports to Markdown on every plan | Transcript downloads require a paid plan |
| Is your content used for training | Local models send nothing; Listenr Cloud stores no transcript | Never used to train AI models, internally or externally |
| Where the recording ends up | Deleted after transcription unless you keep it; kept files stay on the Mac | Fireflies’ cloud, or your own S3 or Google Cloud bucket on Enterprise |
| Getting at meetings from a terminal or an assistant | CLI and local MCP server on every plan, read-only by default | A GraphQL API for all users including free, plus MCP connectors |
Fireflies transcribes in the cloud, with a bot or without one, and can sit in meetings you never joined. Listenr transcribes on a Mac, lets you choose the model that writes the notes, and keeps the library as files you own. Having an API is not the difference: Fireflies gives every user one.
What happens to the audio after it is captured
Fireflies records either way. A bot joins the call, or the desktop app records “using your computer’s system audio, with no Fireflies.ai Notetaker joining the call”, which also covers phone calls, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Discord and in-person conversations. In every mode the audio goes to third-party transcription and LLM vendors, which Fireflies binds with a 0-day data retention contract, and it says customer data is never used to train AI models.
Listenr has no vendor in that position by default. Its default backend is Apple’s on-device engine, in one language you set; Parakeet, a download, covers 25 European languages with detection. The only cloud backend, OpenAI, sends nothing until you pick it.
Cloud speech recognition generally covers more languages. Fireflies lists over 100, most of them in beta, with English as the primary language. There is no benchmark worth quoting, so try both on a call of your own.
What you get to choose
Fireflies does not let you choose the model or bring your own API key. On Enterprise it lets you choose the storage: Managed Private Storage, or a Google Cloud Storage or Amazon S3 bucket you already own and audit.
Listenr’s library is on your disk to begin with, so the choice is the model. Notes can come from a model on the Mac, Apple Intelligence, your own Anthropic or OpenAI key, or Listenr Cloud on Pro. The first two work with the network off.
The meeting you were not in
Fireflies can send a bot to a call you are not on. Device capture cannot: if the meeting is not playing on your Mac, there is nothing to record. If you need calls your team ran without you, that settles it.
Getting your meetings back out
For pulling transcripts into other systems over HTTP, Fireflies is better. The GraphQL API is on every plan (50 requests a day on Free, 500 on Pro), and there are MCP connectors for ChatGPT and Claude.
Listenr’s tooling is local. The listenr command line tool and MCP server run
on your Mac against the SQLite database on your disk, so a script can walk the
library without an account or a network:
listenr list --since 7d --platform googleMeet --has-notes
Claude Desktop and Claude Code read the same library through the local MCP server. Both tools are read-only by default, on every plan, and work signed out and offline. There is also a terminal interface.
What Fireflies is better at
Coverage: more languages, more integrations, a bot for missed meetings, mobile apps and a Chrome extension. Listenr is one app for Apple Silicon Macs.
Price: Fireflies Pro is $10 per user per month billed annually, or $18 monthly, and Business is $19 annually or $29 monthly. Listenr’s prices are on the pricing page.
Free plan volume: Fireflies Free gives unlimited auto-join transcription, 400 minutes of storage per seat and 20 AI credits a month, though downloading a transcript needs a paid plan. Listenr’s free plan is personal use only, and records, transcribes, writes notes and exports to Markdown with no subscription.
An organisation’s own bucket brings the retention rules, access logging and lifecycle policy it already runs. A file on one laptop comes with none of that.
Pick Listenr when
You want the audio transcribed on your own Mac and the library kept as files on your own disk, and you want to choose the model that writes the notes, including a local one or your own API key.
Pick Fireflies.ai when
Take Fireflies if you need calls you did not attend, which takes a bot, a GraphQL API on the free plan, or many languages. On Enterprise it can also write recordings into an S3 or Google Cloud Storage bucket you control.
Common questions
What is a Fireflies.ai alternative without a bot?
Fireflies itself has a bot-free desktop mode, but it still sends the audio to cloud transcription vendors. Listenr records from your Mac with no bot and transcribes on the Mac by default, using Apple’s on-device engine, so the audio does not leave the machine. It runs only on Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 15 or later.
Does Fireflies have an API on the free plan?
Yes. Fireflies makes its GraphQL API available to all users, including free ones, with a limit of 50 requests a day on the free plan. Listenr’s equivalent is local rather than hosted: a command line tool and an MCP server that run on your Mac against the meeting database on your own disk, on every plan, read-only by default.
Does Fireflies transcribe on my device?
No. Fireflies records either with a bot or, on the desktop app, from your computer’s system audio, and in both cases the audio goes to third-party transcription vendors. Fireflies says those vendors are bound by a 0-day data retention contract and that customer data is never used to train AI models.
Can Fireflies record a meeting I am not in?
Yes, using its bot, which joins the call as a participant. Listenr records from your own Mac, so it can only capture meetings you are on. That is a limit of device capture rather than a missing feature.
Can I keep Fireflies recordings in my own storage?
On the Enterprise plan. Fireflies offers Managed Private Storage and Bring Your Own Storage there, so recordings can land in your own Google Cloud Storage or Amazon S3 bucket. Listenr keeps meeting data on your Mac, deletes the audio after transcription unless you keep it, and never includes audio in a shared copy.
Which free plan is better, Fireflies or Listenr?
They are shaped differently. Fireflies Free gives unlimited auto-join transcription with 400 minutes of storage per seat and 20 AI credits a month, but downloading a transcript requires a paid plan. Listenr’s free plan records, transcribes on the Mac, writes notes with a local model or your own API key and exports to Markdown, and it is licensed for personal use only.
Try it against your own meetings.
The free plan records, transcribes and writes notes with a model on your Mac. No account needed to find out whether the transcript is good enough.