Head to head / AI Transcription

Fireflies.ai vs OpenAI Whisper API

The verdict
  • Fireflies.ai has a free tier to start; OpenAI Whisper API does not.
ComparedFireflies.aiOpenAI Whisper API
Starting price$18/mo
Free tierYes
Visit Fireflies.aiVisit OpenAI Whisper API

Feature by feature

FeatureFireflies.aiOpenAI Whisper API
Languages100+90+
APIYesYes
Real-timeNoNo
Speaker labelsYesNo
Export formatsTXT, SRT, DOCX, PDF, JSONJSON, TXT, SRT, VTT
Human optionNoNo

Fireflies.ai

Teams that want an AI notetaker to auto-join meetings and generate searchable summaries.

  • +Auto-joins Zoom, Meet, and Teams
  • +AI summaries, action items, topic tracking
  • +Searchable archive across all meetings
  • +GraphQL API and CRM integrations

OpenAI Whisper API

Developers who want cheap, accurate multilingual batch transcription with a dead-simple API.

  • +Strong multilingual accuracy across 90+ languages
  • +Very low price per minute
  • +Built-in translation to English
  • +Newer gpt-4o-transcribe models available

Compared on the metrics we track for this category. Prices are the cheapest paid tier. Some links are affiliate links.