MinuteHaul / Guides / Fireflies API key and rate limits
Fireflies API key and rate limits: how many transcripts can you export?
Short answer: your Fireflies API key is under Integrations, then Fireflies API in the Fireflies web app (Fireflies docs). Every plan gets API access. Free allows 30 requests a minute and 500 a day, Pro 60 a minute and 5,000 a day, and Business and Enterprise pool 60 a minute per paid seat with no daily cap (Fireflies API limits). A bulk export uses about one request per meeting, so in one UTC day you can export roughly 490 meetings on Free and about 4,900 on Pro.
Step 1: get your Fireflies API key
- Log in at app.fireflies.ai.
- Open the Integrations section.
- Click Fireflies API, then copy the key and store it somewhere safe.
That's the path in Fireflies' own docs (Fireflies authorization). The key goes in an Authorization: Bearer header, and anyone with it can read your meetings, so don't paste it into tools you don't trust. MinuteHaul keeps it in browser memory only and never stores or sends it to us.
Step 2: know your plan's limits
| Plan | Per minute | Per day |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 30 requests | 500 requests |
| Pro | 60 requests | 5,000 requests |
| Business | 60 per paid seat, pooled across the team (up to 1,200) | No daily cap |
| Enterprise | 60 per paid seat, pooled across the team (up to 2,400) | No daily cap |
Source: Fireflies API limits, checked Oct 18, 2026. Details from the same page that matter for exports:
- Free API trial: a Free user's first API request starts a 14-day trial at Pro limits (60 a minute, 5,000 a day). The trial is tied to your account, not the key, so creating a new key doesn't restart it.
- Daily reset: the daily quota is a calendar day in UTC. It resets at midnight UTC, not 24 hours after your first request.
- Per-minute window: it starts with your first request and resets 60 seconds later, not on the clock minute.
- Team pooling: on Business and Enterprise, free seats don't add to the budget, and one user can spend at most half the team's budget (never less than 60 a minute).
- MCP shares the budget: a Fireflies MCP tool call and a GraphQL request from the same user draw on the same limits.
Step 3: what the limits mean for a bulk export
MinuteHaul lists your meetings 50 at a time (the transcripts query returns at most 50 per call, per Fireflies docs), then fetches one transcript per request. So exporting N meetings costs about N plus N/50 requests. Our arithmetic from Fireflies' published limits:
| Plan | Meetings per UTC day (approx.) | Time for a full day's quota |
|---|---|---|
| Free (after the 14-day trial) | About 490 | At least 17 minutes at 30 requests a minute |
| Free during the trial, or Pro | About 4,900 | About 90 minutes (MinuteHaul sends roughly 55 requests a minute) |
| Business or Enterprise | No daily cap | About 3,000 meetings an hour at MinuteHaul's pace |
Got more meetings than your daily quota? Export by date range, for example one year per run, and start the next range after midnight UTC. Use the meeting dates in index.csv to see where a run ended.
Handling 429 "too many requests" errors
When you go over a limit, Fireflies returns HTTP 429 with the error code too_many_requests and a Retry-After header in seconds (Fireflies error codes). Every checked response also carries X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset. Two gotchas from the limits page:
- The error body's
retryAfteris an epoch timestamp in milliseconds, not a number of seconds. - Requests sent during a block are rejected and still count toward the next window, so a script that retries in a tight loop can stay blocked indefinitely. Wait out
Retry-After.
If you write your own script, pace requests (one every 1 to 2 seconds stays under 60 a minute) and back off on 429. MinuteHaul paces at about 55 requests a minute; after a per-minute 429 it waits out the short limit and drops to about 28 requests a minute, under Free's 30. If you hit the daily limit mid-export, MinuteHaul stops cleanly and gives you a ZIP of the transcripts finished so far; run it again after the reset (midnight UTC) and it resumes where it left off.
Need higher limits?
- Fireflies' Developer Program gives three months of Business-tier access to developers building integrations, by application (Fireflies Developer Program).
- For a one-off archive with no API at all, Fireflies' account data export emails a ZIP of all meetings within 24 to 48 hours (Fireflies guide).
Got your key? Export every Fireflies transcript in one ZIP. Pick Fireflies in the MinuteHaul web exporter (beta). It uses Fireflies' official API from your browser, paces itself at about 55 requests a minute (under Pro's 60), backs off automatically when Fireflies returns a 429, and works on the Free plan. Your 10 most recent meetings are free. Buy unlimited: $29 one-time with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Sources
- Fireflies API: limits
- Fireflies API: authorization
- Fireflies API: error codes
- Fireflies API: transcripts query
- Fireflies: Developer Program
- Fireflies: export your account data
FAQ
Where do I find my Fireflies API key? Log in at app.fireflies.ai, open Integrations, click Fireflies API and copy the key, per Fireflies' authorization docs.
What are the Fireflies API rate limits? Free: 30 requests per minute and 500 per day. Pro: 60 per minute and 5,000 per day. Business and Enterprise: 60 per minute per paid seat, pooled across the team (up to 1,200 and 2,400), with no daily cap. Checked Oct 2026.
Does the Fireflies Free plan include API access? Yes. Fireflies documents Free-plan limits of 30 requests per minute and 500 per day, and a Free user's first API request starts a 14-day trial at Pro limits.
Does creating a new API key reset the Fireflies trial? No. Fireflies says the 14-day Free API trial is tied to your account, not to an API key.
When does the Fireflies daily API limit reset? At midnight UTC. The X-RateLimit-Reset header tells you how many seconds remain.
How many Fireflies transcripts can I export per day? About 490 on Free and about 4,900 on Pro, because an export uses roughly one request per meeting plus one per 50 meetings listed. Business and Enterprise have no daily cap.
Does the Fireflies MCP server have separate limits? No. Fireflies says the MCP server shares the API limits: a tool call and a GraphQL request from the same user spend the same budget.
Related guides
- Before you delete Fireflies: save every transcript
- Switching from Fireflies to Granola without losing your transcripts
- How to bulk export Fireflies transcripts
- How to download Fireflies transcripts on the Free plan
- Export your Fireflies meetings before you cancel
- How to use all your Fireflies transcripts in ChatGPT, Claude or NotebookLM
- How to export Fireflies transcripts as Markdown (and into Obsidian)
Last checked: Oct 18, 2026. Fireflies changes plans and limits; verify against its docs before relying on details here. MinuteHaul is independent and not affiliated with Fireflies.