Fathom vs Fireflies (2026): What ChatGPT, Claude & Gemini Say

Fathom is named slightly more often. Across 50 recorded answers from 10 AI models, Fathom was named in 48 and Fireflies in 47. Fathom was named first in 8 of 50 answers and Fireflies in 4 of 50. Its average position is 3.04 against 4.09 for Fireflies. Both products appear in almost every answer, so the useful difference is which one an answer puts first, and on which question.

Scope: the 2026-09 edition of the AI meeting notetakers panel.

TL;DR

• Fathom is ahead on every measured line: named 48 of 50 against 47, first 8 of 50 against 4, average position 3.04 against 4.09.
• The models split on the sales-CRM question. Gemini and Gemini 3.5 Flash open it with Fathom. Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity and Sonar Reasoning Pro open it with Fireflies.
• A solo buyer who wants a free plan gets the stronger case for Fathom from both captured guides.
• A sales team with more than three people syncing to a CRM should read Fathom’s recorded cap of 3 CRM users per domain before choosing.
• Neither product opens most answers. Granola is named first in 19 of 50, more than either.

How often do AI models recommend Fathom and Fireflies?

Fathom and Fireflies are the two most-named products in the category. Fathom was named in 48 of 50 answers and Fireflies in 47 of 50. The wider gap is in first place: Fathom opened 8 answers and Fireflies opened 4.

Fathom is the category leader on mentions, so the reference row is Granola, the product the models most often put first. Answer share is the share of the 50 answers that named the product. Named first counts the answers where it appeared before any other tracked product. Average position is its average place in the order of tracked products an answer names, so lower is earlier.

The two leaders share a pattern. The models name them in nearly every answer and rarely open with them. Fireflies carries the widest named-versus-first gap in the category, 86 points (Fireflies 94% named, 8% first). Fathom is second, at 80 points (Fathom 96% named, 16% first). A buyer who asks an AI model for a meeting notetaker will almost always see both names. The first name they see is more often Granola.

Which models prefer Fathom, and which prefer Fireflies?

All ten models name both products in at least 4 of their 5 answers. The sharpest split is on the sales-CRM question: Gemini and Gemini 3.5 Flash open that answer with Fathom. Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity and Sonar Reasoning Pro open it with Fireflies. The OpenAI models open it with Avoma, and Claude opens it with Gong.

In the recorded run, ChatGPT is GPT-5.6 Terra, Claude is Claude Sonnet 5, Gemini is Gemini 3.6 Flash and Perplexity is Sonar Pro.

Gemini is the only model that names the two products a different number of times. Its answer to the 2026 founder question lists Granola, Fathom, Fellow and a hardware recorder, and leaves Fireflies out. That single reply is where the two named counts part. Every other model treats them the same way on presence.

Order is where the models lean. Google’s two models put Fathom first when the question is about sales calls and CRM sync. The same question sends Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5 and both Perplexity models to Fireflies first. GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-5.6 Luna name both products in that answer, below Avoma. ChatGPT’s sales-CRM answer names neither product. Sonar Reasoning Pro’s sales-CRM answer names Fireflies and leaves Fathom out.

Fathom’s first places also come from other questions. ChatGPT opened its first founder answer with Fathom. Claude, Claude Fable 5, GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna and Gemini opened the broad comparison question with it. Each of Fireflies’ first places comes on the sales-CRM question.

What do the answers say about each?

The answers frame Fathom around its free tier and Fireflies around CRM sync. The quotes below show the pattern, two for each product.

Claude Opus 5, answering a founder question, on Fathom: “The best value play. Generous free tier, fast summaries, solid CRM sync, and works across Zoom/Meet/Teams.”

Gemini 3.5 Flash, answering the sales-CRM question: “Fathom is widely considered the best overall AI meeting notetaker for small-to-medium sales teams.”

Claude Opus 5, answering the sales-CRM question, on Fireflies.ai: “the most consistent recommendation for CRM sync specifically”

ChatGPT, answering the broad comparison question: “Best for automation-heavy teams: Fireflies.ai”

That ChatGPT answer opened with Otter.ai and placed Fathom last in its shortlist, as a trial option for individuals. A model can name both products and still send the reader elsewhere first.

How do Fathom and Fireflies differ?

Convo’s guide calls Fathom the best free option and Fireflies the best fit for teams that live in a CRM. The panel’s vendor records hold no pricing for either product, so every price here comes from a captured guide.

On pricing, Fathom’s free tier is unlimited for individuals. Its Team plan is listed at $15 per user per month billed annually, or $19 monthly, with a 2-user minimum. Fireflies Pro is listed at $10 per user per month billed annually. Fireflies Business is listed at $19 per user per month billed annually, or $29 monthly. Read AI’s guide says Fireflies is cheaper than Fathom per seat at the paid tier.

The two guides disagree on the Fireflies free plan. Read AI’s guide records a storage cap of 800 minutes. Convo’s guide records 400 minutes of transcription and storage. Check the current plan page before relying on either number.

On audience, Read AI’s guide says solo users and freelancers often gravitate to Fathom. The same guide says sales teams often turn to Fireflies for conversation intelligence, CRM syncing and call-focused features. The recorded answers draw the same line. Fathom is named as the free or value pick, and Fireflies is named for CRM sync and automation.

When should you pick Fathom?

Pick Fathom if you record your own calls on a free plan, or if the AI models your buyers use are Google’s. Both captured guides single out its individual free plan.

• It is named in 48 of 50 answers and first in 8 of 50, the higher count on both lines.
• Both Gemini models open their sales-CRM answer with it, and Gemini names it in all 5 answers.
• A small team fits if no more than 3 people per domain need CRM sync, because Read AI’s guide records that cap on every Fathom plan, including Business.
• Its Team plan carries a 2-user minimum.

When should you pick Fireflies?

Pick Fireflies if a sales team needs CRM sync for more than three people, or if calls run in many languages. Read AI’s guide records its native CRM connections with no user cap.

• Claude Opus 5, Claude Fable 5, Perplexity and Sonar Reasoning Pro open the sales-CRM answer with it.
• Read AI’s guide records 100-plus languages for Fireflies and 38 for Fathom.
• In-person meetings are covered through the Fireflies mobile app, which the same guide says Fathom does not support.
• Its first-place count is 4 of 50, so expect it lower in a general answer than in a sales-CRM answer.

How this sits against the Fathom vs Fireflies guides

The captured guides compare features and prices, and both come from companies that sell a third product. This page counts what AI answers name.

Convo’s guide compares Otter, Fireflies and Fathom. It was written by Markus Kellermann, the founder and CEO of Convo. He says he used all three tools for two months alongside Convo, the tool he builds. The page closes by recommending Convo for help during calls. No affiliate disclosure appears in the captured text.

Read AI’s guide compares Fathom and Fireflies directly. It adds Read AI as a third option throughout and ends with a link to try Read AI free. Read AI is itself a tracked product in this panel, named in 8 of 50 answers. The models cited read.ai 34 times across this category’s answers, which makes it one of the vendor-owned hosts the answers lean on.

Fathom and Fireflies each publish their own comparison page in the same search results. Neither page’s text was captured for this edition, so neither is described here.

Those guides answer which product has which feature. This page answers a different buyer question: when you ask an AI model, which of the two it names, how often, where in the answer, and which model leans which way.

How the sample was built

The sample is 10 models x 5 fixed prompts = 50 recorded answers, recorded on 2 September 2026. The five questions, verbatim:

• What is the best AI meeting notetaker for a founder? Name specific products.
• Which AI meeting notetaker would you recommend to a founder in 2026?
• Compare the top AI meeting notetaker options right now.
• I’m a founder and I need an AI meeting notetaker. What should I use and why?
• Best AI meeting notetaker for sales calls with CRM sync?

The OpenAI family (GPT-5.6 Sol, ChatGPT, GPT-5.6 Luna) gave 15 answers. The Anthropic family (Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5) gave 15. Google (Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash) and Perplexity (Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro) gave 10 each. An answer counts Fireflies when it says “Fireflies” or “Fireflies.ai”, and counts Fathom when it says “Fathom”. The full method is on the method page, and the whole category table is in the AI meeting notetakers index. Each product’s full record is on its vendor page: Fathom and Fireflies.

What these counts cannot tell you

The counts measure presence in AI answers. They say nothing about transcription accuracy, support, uptime or fit with your stack. Being named also differs from being recommended, because an answer can name a product only to set it aside. Each model answered each question once, so one reply can move a count, as Gemini’s founder answer did here. The run is one dated snapshot from API answers, which can differ from what a consumer chat app shows. The prompts are in English, and every prompt except the sales-CRM question is framed for a founder. Name matching is string-based. No position in these counts is sold or sponsored.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI meeting minutes taker is the best?

No measured answer exists for “best”, because the panel counts names and does not test quality. On names, Fathom is mentioned most often, in 48 of 50 answers. Granola is named first most often, in 19 of 50. The category index lists all 19 products the models named.

Is Fireflies.ai completely free?

No. Fireflies has a free plan with a storage cap and paid plans above it. Read AI’s guide lists Pro at $10 per user per month billed annually. The captured guides disagree on the free storage cap, at 800 minutes and 400 minutes.

How accurate is Fathom AI?

No official figure is available. Read AI’s guide says neither vendor publishes official accuracy benchmarks and no named independent study exists for either tool. Convo’s guide rates transcription for both Fathom and Fireflies as “Very Good” from its founder’s own testing. That is one tester’s rating, from a company that sells a rival product.

Do Fathom and Fireflies work with Microsoft Teams?

Yes. Read AI’s guide says both support Teams. Fathom joins meetings from Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. Fireflies also covers Webex.

Why do AI models name Granola first more often than either?

Granola was named first in 19 of 50 answers. The answers that open with it describe it as bot-free, capturing audio on the device with no participant joining the call, and tie that to investor and candidate calls. Fathom and Fireflies are named in more answers overall, but further down the list.