tl;dv Review 2026: Pricing, Pros, Cons and Alternatives

tl;dv sells two different products under one name. The free plan is a meeting recorder with no cap on recordings, viewers or transcription in 30+ languages, which is more than most rivals give away. The paid plans are an AI analyst for meetings, and that is where tl;dv charges more than Fireflies or Fathom for a comparable seat.

Toolradar data: Toolradar's transcription category, in the software directory we run, tracks 181 tools as of November 2026, and 69% of them are free, freemium or open source. Across the 77 that publish a paid price, the median cheapest plan is $12 a month, so tl;dv Pro sits above the middle of the market even on annual billing.

This review covers what each plan includes, the free limits that push people to upgrade, and the yearly bill for a solo user and a five-person team against Fireflies, Fathom, Otter and Granola. Prices were read on each vendor's pricing page on November 4, 2026.

tl;dv ("too long; didn't view") is an AI meeting recorder that joins your video calls as a bot, records video, transcribes the conversation and writes AI notes with action items. It also connects to CRMs and, through Zapier, to thousands of other apps, and it exposes an MCP server, API and webhooks so tools like Claude or ChatGPT can query your meetings.

Its pitch leans toward sales and customer-facing teams: Business adds playbook monitoring, objection handling and scheduled AI reports across many calls. For a wider look at the category, our AI meeting assistants ranking compares the main notetakers side by side.

You sign up free with no credit card, connect your calendar, and tl;dv sends its bot to the meetings you choose. After the call you get the recording, a searchable transcript and, on the free plan, AI notes for your first 10 meetings. Recordings stay unlimited, so the free plan keeps working as an archive after the AI notes run out.

Upgrading is per seat. Pro lifts the AI limits for one person or a small team, and Business adds team-wide automations, integrations and coaching features. Enterprise is quoted on request and adds SSO, SCIM, privately hosted AI and an optional usage-based pricing model, so only an IT-led rollout needs to talk to sales.

tl;dv lists four plans: Free at $0, Pro at $18 per seat a month billed annually, Business at $29 per seat a month billed annually, and Enterprise at a custom price. The page advertises up to 40% off for annual billing; check tl;dv's site for the month-to-month rates. Prices were checked on November 4, 2026 on the tl;dv pricing page.

Scenario one, a solo user who wants AI notes on every call. tl;dv Pro costs $216 a year (12 months at the annual rate, our arithmetic). Fireflies Pro costs $120 a year at $10 a month billed annually, and Otter Pro lists $8.33 a month on annual billing. Fathom's free plan already gives unlimited recordings and instant summaries, so a solo user should rule it out before paying anyone.

Scenario two, a five-person team on annual billing. tl;dv costs $1,080 a year on Pro and $1,740 on Business. Fireflies costs $600 on Pro and $1,140 on Business, Fathom $900 on Team and $1,500 on Business (both with a two-user minimum), and Granola $840 on Business at $14 per user a month. All totals are our arithmetic on list prices. tl;dv is the most expensive entry tier of the group, so the extra cost has to buy something specific: the MCP server and API on Pro, or the coaching features on Business.

Watch two things before paying. Free AI notes stop after 10 meetings, and free data is kept for up to 3 months, so older recordings need a paid plan to stay available. And the annual discount is large, so a team that pays monthly pays noticeably more for the same seats. Rival prices come from the Fireflies, Fathom, Otter and Granola pricing pages, read the same day; Otter's temporary sale prices are left out.

tl;dv fits two buyers well. The first is anyone who mainly needs recordings and transcripts of calls: the free plan has no cap on either, and it stays useful after the 10 AI-note meetings run out. The second is a sales team that wants call coaching, where Business adds playbook monitoring and objection handling; our AI meeting assistants for sales teams list puts it next to the alternatives.

Skip the paid plans if you only want AI summaries at the lowest price. Fireflies Pro and Fathom Team cost less per seat, and Fathom's free plan already writes summaries for every call; our Fathom vs Fireflies comparison and the free AI note takers ranking cover that choice. If you would rather write your own notes and let AI enhance them, look at Granola instead.