# tl;dv vs Read AI: pricing, features, and which is better > tl;dv and Read AI compared across pricing, capture, speaker labels, recordings, notes, sharing, automations, integrations, AI-agent access, and administration. - Canonical HTML: https://circleback.ai/compare/tldv-vs-read-ai - Structured JSON: https://circleback.ai/compare/tldv-vs-read-ai.json - Comparison directory: https://circleback.ai/compare - Language: en-US - Editorial perspective: Neutral competitor comparison. Circleback appears only as a clearly labeled third option. ## Short answer tl;dv centers recordings, clips, reports, and playbooks. Read AI centers live engagement and sentiment analytics, coaching metrics, and search across connected work sources. The useful buying test is to run both products on the same external call, internal planning session, and noisy in-person meeting. Compare the result, the sharing defaults, and the work that still has to happen by hand. ## tl;dv at a glance tl;dv combines unlimited meeting recording on its free tier with clips, reels, recurring reports, playbooks, and sales coaching. Its newer bot-free desktop mode broadens capture, but that mode is audio-only and drops video, screen share, and chat. **Best for:** Individuals and customer-facing teams that want a generous free recorder, easy clips, recurring multi-meeting reports, and optional sales playbooks. **Less ideal for:** Teams that need a mature mobile rollout, video in bot-free mode, stable API contracts, durable free-plan retention, or one cross-functional company context layer. **Price:** Free; Pro from $18/user/month annually; Business from $29 annually Free includes unlimited recordings and transcripts, but recordings are retained for three months, older recordings are archived shortly after processing, advanced AI credits are lifetime-limited, and after the first ten meetings generated notes cover only the first ten minutes. Paid prices are per user/month: Pro is $18 with annual billing or $29 month-to-month; Business is $29 or $39. Enterprise is quoted separately. **Free option:** Yes: unlimited recordings and transcripts, with retention, archive, AI-note, credit, duration, and concurrency limits. ### tl;dv strengths - One of the broadest free recording and transcription allowances, despite meaningful retention and AI-output limits. - Strong clips, reels, highlights, multi-meeting reports, playbooks, and sales coaching workflows. - Bot and bot-free macOS/Windows capture now sit beside an early mobile recorder for in-person conversations. - Recurring AI reports and conditional Slack workflows are particularly good at turning many calls into a compact digest with decisions and owner/deadline action lists. ### tl;dv tradeoffs - Bot-free capture is audio-only: no video, screen sharing, or meeting chat is preserved. - The newly documented mobile recorder is still described as an early-stage testing experience rather than a mature production path. - Free recordings are retained for three months and quickly archived; after the first ten meetings, generated notes cover only the first ten minutes. - The public API is labeled v1alpha1, and MCP searches typically return at most 50 meetings per query. - There is no bulk meeting export in the product. Individual recording downloads require both owner and downloader to be on a paid plan, plus editor or admin access. - The domain-level Organization is automatic rather than a governed tenant: any same-domain user can join it and the Organization itself cannot be deleted. Paid Teams provide the actual admin hierarchy. - Several advanced AI, sales, and multilingual capabilities are reserved for higher plans. - tl;dv can extract assigned action lists and send them elsewhere, but it does not document a native workspace-wide task system with assignee queues, status, due dates, and completion tracking. ### Choose tl;dv when - Unlimited free recording matters more than unlimited AI notes. - Your workflow revolves around clips, playlists, sales playbooks, and recurring topic reports. - You are comfortable using a bot when video, screen share, and chat need to be retained. ## Read AI at a glance Read AI goes beyond notes with live engagement, sentiment, speaker metrics, Search Copilot, and access across meetings and other work sources. Its pricing looks approachable until recording playback and governance requirements push a team into Enterprise tiers. **Best for:** Teams that value live engagement/sentiment signals, speaker analytics, coaching, and a search assistant spanning multiple workplace content sources. **Less ideal for:** Teams that want recordings on ordinary plans, dislike behavioral scoring in meetings, need free viewer economics, or want simple transparent governance below Enterprise+. **Price:** Free for 5 meetings/month; Pro from $15/user/month annually Prices are per user/month: Pro is $15 with annual billing or $19.75 month-to-month; Enterprise is $22.50 or $29.75 and adds playback; Enterprise+ is $29.75 or $39.75 and adds advanced retention, domain, SAML, and HIPAA-related options, with a five-license minimum. **Free option:** Yes: five meetings per month. ### Read AI strengths - Distinctive live engagement, sentiment, speaker, and meeting-quality analytics. - Search Copilot reaches beyond meetings into connected email, messaging, and document sources. - Automatic recaps and recurring-meeting pre-reads can carry action items and open questions into email, Slack, or Teams. - Current macOS/Windows desktop plus iOS and Android in-person capture broaden the product beyond a meeting bot. - Its open-beta REST API and MCP expose full speaker-labeled transcripts, summaries, actions, metrics, and recording download URLs for meetings the user can access. ### Read AI tradeoffs - Audio/video playback requires Enterprise or Enterprise+, while lower-tier source media is deleted after the documented grace period. - Advanced retention, SAML, domain controls, and HIPAA support require Enterprise+ and its license minimum. - Engagement and sentiment scoring can be useful for coaching but uncomfortable or noisy for some company cultures. - Workspace licensing does not offer the same free-viewer model as some competitors. - The API and MCP are open beta: OAuth tokens are short-lived, static keys/client credentials are not supported, and several app features and file upload are not exposed. - Read says meeting data is not used for AI training without explicit opt-in, but its Customer Experience Improvement Program is enabled on an opt-out basis for product evaluation. - Simply removing a person from a workspace does not revoke their account access or transfer their reports. Admins must deactivate the account and transfer workspace-owned reports as separate offboarding steps. ### Choose Read AI when - Live engagement and speaker analytics are genuinely useful to your managers or facilitators. - You want AI search across meetings plus connected workplace sources. - You are comfortable with Enterprise pricing for playback and Enterprise+ for stronger governance. ## Feature comparison | What matters | tl;dv | Read AI | | --- | --- | --- | | Capture options | Broad support — Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. macOS and Windows can capture system audio from any meeting platform without a bot. The bot remains the richer mode for supported conferencing platforms. | Broad support — Meeting bot, macOS/Windows desktop, and mobile. The assistant can join scheduled calls, while desktop records device audio without relying solely on a bot. Disclosure and opt-out flows remain part of the participant experience. | | Desktop and mobile | Available with limits — Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, and an early mobile app. Desktop capture is broad. tl;dv now documents a mobile app for in-person meetings, but describes it as recently launched, early-stage, and available for testing. | Broad support — Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Desktop captures device audio for online meetings. The iPhone and Android apps record in-person conversations and put their reports beside Zoom, Meet, and Teams meetings; neither mobile app can record another app or phone call using the same microphone. | | In-person capture and speaker labels | Available with limits — Desktop microphone or early-stage mobile recording. A laptop can capture room audio and the newer mobile app can record in-person meetings. tl;dv documents speaker identification generally but does not explain whether the early mobile path preserves the same naming behavior, so test it before a broad rollout. There is no documented Watch capture. | Broad support — iOS and Android real-time transcript and summary. Both mobile apps record room conversations with a live transcript and summary. They do not capture phone calls, FaceTime, or a virtual-meeting app on the same device. In shared-room audio, distinct voices may begin as Conference Room — Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and so on; owners and editors can rename or reassign them afterward. | | Recordings, playback, and clips | Broad support — Rich playback, clips, and reels—with a botless video caveat. Bot recordings support video, transcript, clips, reels, and shareable moments. Bot-free recordings are audio-only and omit video, screen sharing, and chat. | Narrow or indirect — Playback only on Enterprise and Enterprise+. Pro and free users can receive notes and transcripts, but source media is not a durable playback library. Read documents a 30-day grace period before lower-tier media deletion. | | Notes, action items, and search | Broad support — AI notes, action digests, multi-meeting reports, and topic tracking. The product is particularly good at synthesizing multiple meetings and turning recurring prompts into reports, including action lists grouped by person and date. Those are report or checklist outputs rather than a native task lifecycle with workspace queues and completion state. Free accounts get a limited number of AI notes. | Broad support — Summaries, action items, Search Copilot, and coaching analytics. Read’s differentiated layer is live and post-meeting intelligence: engagement, sentiment, speaker stats, action items, and search across connected content. Recommendations can resurface recent work assigned to the user, but Read does not document a full workspace-wide task board with assignee and completion management comparable to dedicated action trackers. | | People, companies, and context | Available with limits — Meeting library and multi-meeting synthesis. tl;dv can query and report across accessible meetings, but it does not present a broader email/calendar/person/company relationship memory as its core model. | Broad support — Cross-source Search Copilot. Search can span meetings, email, messages, and documents, which is broader than a transcript library. The experience is a search layer rather than explicit relationship timelines and upcoming-event pages. | | Automatic sharing and workspace defaults | Broad support — Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing. Teams can automatically share with participants, publish to a team or organization library, and apply admin privacy rules using meeting context such as title, internal or external type, and team role. Sensitive categories can remain private by rule. | Broad support — Workspace-wide participant and team report access. Workspace admins can set automatic report access for internal or external participants and give teams role-based access to matching reports, including retroactive access. Owners can send recaps and recurring-meeting pre-reads through email, Slack, or Teams. Participant rules use calendar invitees, including no-shows, and the owner’s settings govern each report, so teams should configure workspace controls deliberately. | | Automations | Broad support — Recurring AI reports and sales workflows. Automated multi-meeting reports, playbooks, CRM updates, and conditional Slack posts are useful, especially for customer-facing teams. Slack workflows can format decisions and action items with owners and deadlines, but team workflow scope excludes team admins and billing-group admins, and the overall system is less open-ended than a general meeting condition/action builder. | Available with limits — Recaps, pre-reads, scheduled updates, and agent actions. Read can send post-meeting recaps, recurring-meeting pre-reads, and scheduled topic updates, while Ask Read actions can draft and send email, create calendar events, and update HubSpot after user approval. It is more opinionated around its own agents and intelligence outputs than a general meeting trigger/condition/action canvas. | | Integrations | Available with limits — CRM and collaboration integrations on paid plans. tl;dv connects to common CRMs and work tools; exact access varies by plan. The catalog is oriented around GTM and collaboration workflows. | Broad support — Calendar, conferencing, email, messaging, documents, and premium connectors. Search Copilot’s cross-source coverage is a strength, although connector eligibility varies by paid plan. | | API, MCP, CLI, and data portability | Available with limits — MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. MCP can search meetings and participants, with typical result sets capped at 50. A subtle access rule matters: viewing a shared meeting is not enough if its organizer is on Free—the organizer must have Pro or higher before that meeting is available through MCP or the API. The API is documented as v1alpha1 and includes recording downloads, so integration teams should expect contract evolution. | Available with limits — Open-beta REST API and MCP with full meeting reports. Read’s API and remote MCP can return meeting metadata, participants, summaries, chapters, action items, topics, metrics, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and recording-download URLs. They are open beta, use browser OAuth with short-lived rotating tokens, lack service credentials and file upload, and only reach reports the user can access unless an admin enables global report access. | | Security, privacy, and admin | Available with limits — Paid Team controls, with a looser domain Organization layer. Paid Teams add roles, billing administration, and forward-looking defaults; team settings do not override Team Admins. The separate domain-based Organization has no organization-wide admin defaults, any same-domain user can join it, and it cannot be deleted. Multi-team management is Business-only. | Broad support — Core admin on Enterprise; advanced governance on Enterprise+. Retention, domain controls, SAML, and HIPAA-related capabilities are concentrated in Enterprise+. That plan currently carries a five-license minimum. | | Languages | Available with limits — Multilingual transcription; advanced multilingual mode is plan-gated. Language selection behavior varies by capture mode, and the multilingual Whisper option is documented for Business and Enterprise. | Available with limits — Read’s pricing page says 20+; its detail table says 16+. Read’s current pricing page uses “20+ languages” in the Free plan card but “16+ languages” in the detailed comparison table. The coverage is useful but materially narrower on paper than competitors advertising 75 or 100+; verify the language you need rather than relying on the headline count. | Ratings describe documented breadth rather than overall product quality: - **Broad support:** Broad native support across the product or relevant paid plans. - **Available with limits:** Documented support with meaningful scope, mode, or plan limits. - **Narrow or indirect:** Narrow, indirect, beta, or substantially plan-gated support. - **Not documented:** No current first-party documentation for a native option. ## Detailed analysis ### Capture options **Both products document broad support for capture options, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. macOS and Windows can capture system audio from any meeting platform without a bot. The bot remains the richer mode for supported conferencing platforms. Evidence: [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot). **Read AI:** Meeting bot, macOS/Windows desktop, and mobile. The assistant can join scheduled calls, while desktop records device audio without relying solely on a bot. Disclosure and opt-out flows remain part of the participant experience. Evidence: [Read AI desktop app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/45911611006995-How-to-Use-Read-s-Desktop-App-for-Windows-and-Mac). ### Desktop and mobile **Read AI has broader documented support for desktop and mobile.** **tl;dv:** Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, and an early mobile app. Desktop capture is broad. tl;dv now documents a mobile app for in-person meetings, but describes it as recently launched, early-stage, and available for testing. Evidence: [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot), [tl;dv mobile app](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490450-mobile-app). **Read AI:** Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Desktop captures device audio for online meetings. The iPhone and Android apps record in-person conversations and put their reports beside Zoom, Meet, and Teams meetings; neither mobile app can record another app or phone call using the same microphone. Evidence: [Read AI desktop app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/45911611006995-How-to-Use-Read-s-Desktop-App-for-Windows-and-Mac), [Read AI iPhone app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/34467337929107-Read-AI-App-for-iPhone), [Read AI Android app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863250182291-Read-AI-App-for-Android). ### In-person capture and speaker labels **Read AI has broader documented support for in-person capture and speaker labels.** **tl;dv:** Desktop microphone or early-stage mobile recording. A laptop can capture room audio and the newer mobile app can record in-person meetings. tl;dv documents speaker identification generally but does not explain whether the early mobile path preserves the same naming behavior, so test it before a broad rollout. There is no documented Watch capture. Evidence: [tl;dv mobile app](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490450-mobile-app), [tl;dv speaker identification](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6171907-speaker-identification-in-transcript). **Read AI:** iOS and Android real-time transcript and summary. Both mobile apps record room conversations with a live transcript and summary. They do not capture phone calls, FaceTime, or a virtual-meeting app on the same device. In shared-room audio, distinct voices may begin as Conference Room — Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and so on; owners and editors can rename or reassign them afterward. Evidence: [Read AI iPhone app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/34467337929107-Read-AI-App-for-iPhone), [Read AI Android app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863250182291-Read-AI-App-for-Android), [Read AI mobile capture limits](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863422605203-Can-I-use-Read-s-mobile-app-to-record-calls-from-my-phone), [Read AI speaker editing](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/36169538719379-Can-I-edit-text-and-speaker-names-in-my-meeting-report). ### Recordings, playback, and clips **tl;dv has broader documented support for recordings, playback, and clips.** **tl;dv:** Rich playback, clips, and reels—with a botless video caveat. Bot recordings support video, transcript, clips, reels, and shareable moments. Bot-free recordings are audio-only and omit video, screen sharing, and chat. Evidence: [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot), [tl;dv free-plan limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8919450-what-are-the-limits-of-the-free-plan). **Read AI:** Playback only on Enterprise and Enterprise+. Pro and free users can receive notes and transcripts, but source media is not a durable playback library. Read documents a 30-day grace period before lower-tier media deletion. Evidence: [Read AI recording availability](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/15107171454739-Why-can-t-I-see-recordings-in-my-report-when-I-received-a-recording-notification-in-my-meeting), [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ### Notes, action items, and search **Both products document broad support for notes, action items, and search, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** AI notes, action digests, multi-meeting reports, and topic tracking. The product is particularly good at synthesizing multiple meetings and turning recurring prompts into reports, including action lists grouped by person and date. Those are report or checklist outputs rather than a native task lifecycle with workspace queues and completion state. Free accounts get a limited number of AI notes. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv free-plan limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8919450-what-are-the-limits-of-the-free-plan), [tl;dv AI prompts](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/9235713-ai-prompts-inspiration). **Read AI:** Summaries, action items, Search Copilot, and coaching analytics. Read’s differentiated layer is live and post-meeting intelligence: engagement, sentiment, speaker stats, action items, and search across connected content. Recommendations can resurface recent work assigned to the user, but Read does not document a full workspace-wide task board with assignee and completion management comparable to dedicated action trackers. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing), [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution). ### People, companies, and context **Read AI has broader documented support for people, companies, and context.** **tl;dv:** Meeting library and multi-meeting synthesis. tl;dv can query and report across accessible meetings, but it does not present a broader email/calendar/person/company relationship memory as its core model. Evidence: [tl;dv MCP](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15322415-mcp). **Read AI:** Cross-source Search Copilot. Search can span meetings, email, messages, and documents, which is broader than a transcript library. The experience is a search layer rather than explicit relationship timelines and upcoming-event pages. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ### Automatic sharing and workspace defaults **Both products document broad support for automatic sharing and workspace defaults, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing. Teams can automatically share with participants, publish to a team or organization library, and apply admin privacy rules using meeting context such as title, internal or external type, and team role. Sensitive categories can remain private by rule. Evidence: [tl;dv team privacy defaults](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15033798-team-privacy-defaults). **Read AI:** Workspace-wide participant and team report access. Workspace admins can set automatic report access for internal or external participants and give teams role-based access to matching reports, including retroactive access. Owners can send recaps and recurring-meeting pre-reads through email, Slack, or Teams. Participant rules use calendar invitees, including no-shows, and the owner’s settings govern each report, so teams should configure workspace controls deliberately. Evidence: [Read AI workspace sharing settings](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/7962819152659-What-are-all-of-the-settings-and-permissions-available-with-Workspaces), [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution). ### Automations **tl;dv has broader documented support for automations.** **tl;dv:** Recurring AI reports and sales workflows. Automated multi-meeting reports, playbooks, CRM updates, and conditional Slack posts are useful, especially for customer-facing teams. Slack workflows can format decisions and action items with owners and deadlines, but team workflow scope excludes team admins and billing-group admins, and the overall system is less open-ended than a general meeting condition/action builder. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv Slack workflows](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946410-set-up-the-slack-integration). **Read AI:** Recaps, pre-reads, scheduled updates, and agent actions. Read can send post-meeting recaps, recurring-meeting pre-reads, and scheduled topic updates, while Ask Read actions can draft and send email, create calendar events, and update HubSpot after user approval. It is more opinionated around its own agents and intelligence outputs than a general meeting trigger/condition/action canvas. Evidence: [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution), [Read AI actions](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48863788829971-Using-Ask-Read-actions). ### Integrations **Read AI has broader documented support for integrations.** **tl;dv:** CRM and collaboration integrations on paid plans. tl;dv connects to common CRMs and work tools; exact access varies by plan. The catalog is oriented around GTM and collaboration workflows. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing). **Read AI:** Calendar, conferencing, email, messaging, documents, and premium connectors. Search Copilot’s cross-source coverage is a strength, although connector eligibility varies by paid plan. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ### API, MCP, CLI, and data portability **Both products support API, MCP, CLI, and data portability, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. MCP can search meetings and participants, with typical result sets capped at 50. A subtle access rule matters: viewing a shared meeting is not enough if its organizer is on Free—the organizer must have Pro or higher before that meeting is available through MCP or the API. The API is documented as v1alpha1 and includes recording downloads, so integration teams should expect contract evolution. Evidence: [tl;dv MCP](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15322415-mcp), [tl;dv API](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/11583137-api), [tl;dv download limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946213-how-to-download-your-recording). **Read AI:** Open-beta REST API and MCP with full meeting reports. Read’s API and remote MCP can return meeting metadata, participants, summaries, chapters, action items, topics, metrics, full speaker-labeled transcripts, and recording-download URLs. They are open beta, use browser OAuth with short-lived rotating tokens, lack service credentials and file upload, and only reach reports the user can access unless an admin enables global report access. Evidence: [Read AI API and MCP overview](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49379985941523-Read-AI-API-and-MCP-Overview), [Read AI MCP tools](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49381158409491-MCP-Server). ### Security, privacy, and admin **Read AI has broader documented support for security, privacy, and admin.** **tl;dv:** Paid Team controls, with a looser domain Organization layer. Paid Teams add roles, billing administration, and forward-looking defaults; team settings do not override Team Admins. The separate domain-based Organization has no organization-wide admin defaults, any same-domain user can join it, and it cannot be deleted. Multi-team management is Business-only. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv team privacy defaults](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15033798-team-privacy-defaults), [tl;dv organization and team model](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8975481-organization-vs-team-what-s-the-difference), [tl;dv permission levels](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/10131073-understanding-permission-levels). **Read AI:** Core admin on Enterprise; advanced governance on Enterprise+. Retention, domain controls, SAML, and HIPAA-related capabilities are concentrated in Enterprise+. That plan currently carries a five-license minimum. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing), [Read AI workspace sharing settings](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/7962819152659-What-are-all-of-the-settings-and-permissions-available-with-Workspaces), [Read AI workspace offboarding](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/27433066427283-How-do-I-offboard-someone-from-my-Read-workspace), [Read AI data handling](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/52055801266579-What-Does-Read-AI-Do-With-My-Data-Read-AI). ### Languages **Both products support languages, with different scope and plan limits.** **tl;dv:** Multilingual transcription; advanced multilingual mode is plan-gated. Language selection behavior varies by capture mode, and the multilingual Whisper option is documented for Business and Enterprise. Evidence: [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing), [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot). **Read AI:** Read’s pricing page says 20+; its detail table says 16+. Read’s current pricing page uses “20+ languages” in the Free plan card but “16+ languages” in the detailed comparison table. The coverage is useful but materially narrower on paper than competitors advertising 75 or 100+; verify the language you need rather than relying on the headline count. Evidence: [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing). ## A third option to consider: Circleback Circleback turns online meetings, in-person conversations, and imported calls into one shared company memory. Record with a bot, with the botless desktop app, from an iPhone or Android phone, or on Apple Watch. Every route produces the same speaker-labeled record, detailed notes designed to stand alone, and automatically assigned action items. Sharing rules and automations carry the useful parts into the teams and tools that need them. Circleback is built for people and AI agents: the complete meeting record available to a person is also available programmatically through its API, MCP, and CLI. Circleback can also search connected apps and take action in them. It is built for people and AI agents: the same complete meeting data available to a person is available programmatically to ChatGPT, Claude, other agents, and internal tools through the API, MCP, and CLI. Free; Pro from $15/user/month annually; Business from $25/user/month annually; Enterprise $35/user/month, billed annually. ## Frequently asked questions ### Which is better: tl;dv or Read AI? tl;dv centers recordings, clips, reports, and playbooks. Read AI centers live engagement and sentiment analytics, coaching metrics, and search across connected work sources. ### Which is less expensive, tl;dv or Read AI? tl;dv: Free; Pro from $18/user/month annually; Business from $29 annually. Read AI: Free for 5 meetings/month; Pro from $15/user/month annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need. ### Can tl;dv and Read AI record without a bot? tl;dv: Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. Read AI: Meeting bot, macOS/Windows desktop, and mobile. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names. ### Which is better for a whole company? First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. tl;dv: Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing. Read AI: Workspace-wide participant and team report access. ### Can I access and move the full meeting data? tl;dv: MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. Read AI: Open-beta REST API and MCP with full meeting reports. Check the selected plan, authentication model, transcript scope, export format, and retention window for the workflow you need. ### How was this comparison researched? We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below. ## Methodology Circleback reviews first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes. Prices and capabilities move, so check the linked sources when a detail is important to your decision. Every feature dimension links to the exact first-party documents used for that claim. Ratings describe documented breadth, not an overall score or winner. This page is a neutral competitor-to-competitor comparison. There are no paid placements or affiliate rankings. ## First-party sources ### tl;dv sources - [tl;dv pricing](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6082483-what-is-tl-dv-s-pricing): Official Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise pricing and plan scope. - [tl;dv free-plan limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8919450-what-are-the-limits-of-the-free-plan): Recording retention, archive behavior, AI-note coverage, lifetime credits, meeting duration, and concurrency. - [tl;dv mobile app](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8490450-mobile-app): Recently launched early-stage mobile recording for in-person meetings. - [tl;dv speaker identification](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/6171907-speaker-identification-in-transcript): General automatic speaker identification; the article does not document mobile-mode parity. - [tl;dv bot-free recording](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/14433337-recording-without-a-bot): Desktop capture and the audio-only limitation. - [tl;dv MCP](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15322415-mcp): Plan eligibility, tools, access model, and result behavior. - [tl;dv API](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/11583137-api): Pro/Business eligibility and v1alpha1 status. - [tl;dv team privacy defaults](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/15033798-team-privacy-defaults): Admin-controlled automatic sharing, workspace-library publishing, and privacy rules for sensitive meetings. - [tl;dv download limits](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946213-how-to-download-your-recording): No bulk export plus paid-plan, ownership, and permission requirements for individual recording downloads. - [tl;dv organization and team model](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/8975481-organization-vs-team-what-s-the-difference): Automatic same-domain Organization membership, absence of Organization-wide admin defaults, and the paid Team hierarchy. - [tl;dv permission levels](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/10131073-understanding-permission-levels): Team roles, admin behavior, and the non-deletable domain Organization. - [tl;dv AI prompts](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/9235713-ai-prompts-inspiration): Cross-meeting action-item reports grouped by participant and date plus common analysis workflows. - [tl;dv Slack workflows](https://intercom.help/tldv/en/articles/5946410-set-up-the-slack-integration): Conditional automatic summaries, decisions, and owner/deadline action lists plus the team-admin scope exception. ### Read AI sources - [Read AI pricing](https://www.read.ai/plans-pricing): Current meeting limits, prices, languages, playback gate, governance, and Enterprise+ minimum. - [Read AI desktop app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/45911611006995-How-to-Use-Read-s-Desktop-App-for-Windows-and-Mac): Device-audio recording and participant disclosure behavior. - [Read AI iPhone app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/34467337929107-Read-AI-App-for-iPhone): In-person real-time transcript and summary. - [Read AI Android app](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863250182291-Read-AI-App-for-Android): Android in-person capture, live transcript and summary, and report access. - [Read AI mobile capture limits](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/51863422605203-Can-I-use-Read-s-mobile-app-to-record-calls-from-my-phone): Phone-call and same-device virtual-meeting limitations across iOS and Android. - [Read AI speaker editing](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/36169538719379-Can-I-edit-text-and-speaker-names-in-my-meeting-report): Generic same-room labels plus transcript-wide speaker renaming and turn reassignment. - [Read AI recording availability](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/15107171454739-Why-can-t-I-see-recordings-in-my-report-when-I-received-a-recording-notification-in-my-meeting): Enterprise playback requirement and lower-plan source-media deletion. - [Read AI workspace sharing settings](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/7962819152659-What-are-all-of-the-settings-and-permissions-available-with-Workspaces): Participant auto-sharing, team report access, and workspace distribution controls. - [Read AI report distribution](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/23219401248019-How-do-I-control-meeting-report-sharing-and-distribution): Owner-level participant sharing, invitee behavior, email/Slack/Teams recaps, recurring-meeting pre-reads, and workspace controls. - [Read AI actions](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/48863788829971-Using-Ask-Read-actions): Agent actions for HubSpot updates, approved email sending, calendar creation, and scheduled reports. - [Read AI API and MCP overview](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49379985941523-Read-AI-API-and-MCP-Overview): Open-beta scope, prerequisites, OAuth and rate-limit constraints, permissions, and current feature gaps. - [Read AI MCP tools](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/49381158409491-MCP-Server): Full transcript, summary, action, metric, recording-download, agent-dispatch, and sharing tools. - [Read AI data handling](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/52055801266579-What-Does-Read-AI-Do-With-My-Data-Read-AI): Storage, access, AI-training consent, and the opt-out Customer Experience Improvement Program. - [Read AI workspace offboarding](https://support.read.ai/hc/en-us/articles/27433066427283-How-do-I-offboard-someone-from-my-Read-workspace): Account deactivation, report transfer, and the limits of simply removing a workspace member.