Fireflies.ai vs Sonix Comparison 2026
Fireflies is a subscription that sits in your meetings and writes them up, free for unlimited transcription with storage as the cap. Sonix is transcription bought by the hour, at $10 with no monthly commitment, or in blocks from $25 a month. If your transcription comes in bursts, the unit matters more than the feature list.
At a glance
- Sonix starts cheaper, at $10.
- Only Fireflies.ai has a free tier.
Side by side
Fireflies.ai | Sonix | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $18 | From $10 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free plan, paid tiers | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier (they differ) | Yes | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Monthly or annual | Usage-based |
| Free trial | None | Not stated |
| API |
Fireflies.ai
Meeting notes that write themselves
Fireflies joins a call, records it, and hands back a transcript and a summary with the action items pulled out, which turns a sponsor call into a record you can search later. The free plan gives unlimited transcription and an API, which is unusually generous. Storage is what it rations, and the free tier's 400 minutes covers a few weeks at most.
Only on this side
- Covers ai content tools
Sonix
Transcription you can pay for by the hour
Sonix will bill by the hour rather than by the month, which is the right shape for somebody who transcribes a batch of interviews twice a year and nothing in between. Accuracy across its 54 languages is good and the editor lines the text up against the audio. Subscribers get storage and an AI workspace that the hourly rate does not include.
Only on this side
- Covers captions & subtitles
- Works with Podcast
Why people weigh these two
- Sonix instead of Fireflies.ai
- Sonix sells transcription by the hour from $10, for people who would rather pay per recording than per seat.
- Fireflies.ai instead of Sonix
- Fireflies.ai is built around meeting notes rather than long-form audio, with a free tier and an $18 plan, for calls more than interviews.
Which one should you pick
Sonix is the honest answer for an interview series or a research project that ends. Paying $10 an hour beats twelve monthly payments for two months of work, its editor stays aligned to the audio, and the trial is 30 minutes rather than a number of days, which is the right way to trial a metered service. Fifty-four languages and several export formats come with it.
Fireflies wins when the recordings are meetings and they never stop. It joins the call, extracts action items and lets you search across everything ever recorded, with unlimited transcription and summaries on the free tier. Pro at $18 a seat, or $10 billed annually, adds video recording and downloads. Transcribing weekly puts you here rather than on hourly billing.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper for occasional work?
- Sonix, at $10 an hour with no commitment. Its subscription tiers start at $25 a month for five hours, so light and irregular use is exactly where hourly billing wins.
- Can I try Sonix before paying?
- Yes, 30 free minutes rather than a countdown of days, which suits a metered service better than a time-limited trial.
- Does Fireflies charge per minute?
- No. Transcription and AI summaries are unlimited even on the free plan; what it rations is storage, at 400 minutes per team.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.