tl;dv Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying
tl;dv's free plan gives unlimited recordings and transcripts in 100+ languages, but AI notes stop after 10 meetings. Every limit, and when Pro is worth it.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-10T13:22:23+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-10T13:22:23+00:00
tl;dv's free plan costs $0 and never expires. It records and transcribes an unlimited number of meetings in more than 100 languages. It works with Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. No credit card is needed to start.
That sounds generous, and for capture it is. The limits sit elsewhere. Full meeting notes cover only your first 10 meetings, for the life of the account. After that, notes cover only the first 10 minutes of each call. Recordings are also deleted after three months. This guide covers every free-plan limit, the paid plans, and when an upgrade is worth paying for.
What the tl;dv Free Plan Includes
tl;dv is a meeting recorder and notetaker. A bot joins your scheduled calls, or you can record without a visible bot through the desktop app. The tool then returns a timestamped transcript and meeting notes in a searchable library.
The free plan includes:
- Unlimited video recordings, with no monthly minute cap.
- Unlimited transcription in more than 100 languages.
- Email and calendar integrations, so the notetaker joins scheduled calls on its own.
- A mobile app for iOS and Android, for recording in-person meetings.
- A searchable library of every recording and transcript.
- Clips for sharing short highlights from a meeting.
Every plan caps a single recording at three hours. That limit applies to free and paid accounts alike. The free plan also carries GDPR and SOC 2 compliance, with data hosted in the EU. tl;dv says more than 2 million users rely on the tool.
The tl;dv Free Plan Limits That Matter Most
The free plan is built around one idea: capture is free, understanding is metered. The limits below come from tl;dv's own pricing page and its help centre.
Meeting notes run out after 10 meetings. Your first 10 meetings get full notes. From meeting 11 onward, automatic notes cover only the first 10 minutes of each call. The help centre states these limits are for the lifetime of the account. They do not renew monthly.
Ask AI is also capped for life. The free plan includes 10 Ask AI queries in total: up to five about a single meeting and up to five across several meetings. Paid plans remove the cap.
Recordings are deleted after three months. A free recording moves to archived storage three days after the meeting. It is scheduled for deletion after three months, in batches on the first of each month. Downloads are restricted too. You can only download a recording inside a four-week window before deletion. Outside that window, free-plan recordings cannot be downloaded at all.
Volume is capped weekly. Free accounts can record up to 40 meetings a week from the web app. Mobile recordings are unlimited. You also cannot record two meetings at the same time on the free plan.
Uploads and clips are small. Free accounts get five manual file uploads and four clips, for the life of the account. Trimming is also capped at five uses. The free plan includes 10 scheduled reports and 20 integration credits, again as lifetime totals.
One caution is worth noting. In August 2026, a security researcher disclosed that meeting metadata had been exposed through a Firebase database. tl;dv said only metadata was exposed, not recordings or transcripts, and that the issue was fixed and Firebase removed. If you record sensitive calls, weigh that history before you commit.
tl;dv Free vs Pro vs Business
tl;dv sells four plans. The table below uses the prices on the official pricing page, checked on 10 November 2026. Pro and Business prices are per seat, billed annually.
| Free | Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $18 per seat a month ($29 monthly) | $29 per seat a month ($39 monthly) |
| Recordings and transcripts | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Full meeting notes | First 10 meetings, then first 10 minutes | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Ask AI | 10 queries, lifetime | Unlimited, single meeting | Unlimited, including multi-meeting |
| Data retention | Up to 3 months | Custom | Custom |
| Web recordings per week | 40 | 80 | 120 |
| Simultaneous meetings | No | 2 | 3 |
| Downloads and uploads | Restricted | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Pro is the upgrade for most people. It removes every AI limit and adds custom note templates, premium transcription, global transcript search, and API and webhook access. It also adds 5,000+ integrations through Zapier and CRM connections.
Business adds team features: multi-meeting insights, scheduled reports, custom vocabulary, playbook monitoring, AI coaching, and team-wide automations. Enterprise is custom priced, with SSO, SCIM provisioning, and privately hosted AI.
How to Make the tl;dv Free Plan Last Longer
Start by spending your 10 full-note meetings on the calls that matter most. Use the transcript and your own short notes for routine calls instead. The transcript is unlimited, so the raw record is always there.
Save anything important before the three-month deletion date. Download key recordings inside the four-week window, or move the transcript text into your own notes. Do not treat the free plan as an archive.
Use clips sparingly. You get four for the life of the account, and they do not renew. The same applies to the five uploads and the 10 Ask AI queries. Save them for meetings where a shared clip or a question about the record is genuinely useful.
If you record more than 40 meetings a week, spread web recordings across weeks or record from the mobile app, which has no weekly cap. If you need two meetings at once, that alone forces an upgrade to Pro.
Who the tl;dv Free Plan Suits Best
The free plan fits people who record a few meetings a week and mainly want a searchable record. It suits students, freelancers, and small teams who need transcripts more than summaries. It also suits anyone testing the tool before paying.
It fits less well when notes matter on every call. A recruiter running daily interviews will burn through 10 full-note meetings in a week. A sales team that needs notes, action items, and CRM updates on every call will hit the same wall. The three-month deletion rule also rules it out as an archive.
If your need is transcripts only, free may last forever. If your need is notes on every meeting, budget for Pro from the start.
Bottom line
The tl;dv free plan is one of the most generous capture offers in this category. Unlimited recordings and transcripts for $0 is real, and it does not expire. But the notes are the product, and they run out after 10 meetings. If you record a few calls a month, free is enough. If you need full notes on every meeting, Pro at $18 per seat a month billed annually is the honest price of the tool.