How to Use tl;dv to Record and Summarize Zoom Meetings

tl;dv is a free AI meeting recorder that joins your Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams calls, transcribes them, and produces timestamped notes. You install it once, connect your calendar, and every call gets recorded automatically without you pressing anything.

The reason people pick it over a generic screen recorder: the output is a searchable, timestamped transcript, not a raw video file you have to scrub through later.

What you need before you start

There is no desktop app for the recorder itself. tl;dv runs as a Chrome extension plus a cloud bot. Chrome 110 or newer, or an Edge build from the same era, is enough. You also need a Google or Microsoft account to log in.

• A Chrome or Edge browser on desktop
• Host or co-host access to the meeting (needed for auto-recording)
• Calendar connected if you want it to join calls by itself

How do you install tl;dv and connect it to your meetings?

Install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, sign in, then open the tl;dv dashboard and go to Settings. Under Calendars, connect Google Calendar or Outlook. From that moment the bot checks your upcoming events for meeting links.

Turn on Auto-record per calendar. If you skip this, nothing is captured unless you click Record inside the meeting. That single toggle is the step most people miss.

How do you record a call and get notes?

Join the call as you normally would. The tl;dv bot appears in the participant list within about 30 seconds. When the call ends, the recording lands in your dashboard, usually with a transcript ready in two to five minutes for a 30-minute call.

Open the recording and you get four things:

• Full transcript with speaker names
• AI summary with chapters
• Timestamped highlights you can clip
• An export button for PDF, Markdown, or Notion

To share just one moment, click the scissors icon on a transcript line and copy the clip link. The recipient lands at that exact second, which is far less annoying than a 45-minute video.

Is tl;dv free?

Yes, and the free tier is unusually generous. You get unlimited recordings and unlimited transcripts, but AI summaries are capped at 10 per month. Recordings are stored for three months on free, then deleted. Pro costs around $18 per user per month on the annual plan and lifts the summary cap, extends storage, and adds custom vocabulary for names and jargon.

For a solo consultant running six calls a month, free is genuinely enough. For a sales team logging 40 calls, the summary cap is the real ceiling.

What does it get wrong?

Heavy accents and overlapping speech still produce garbled lines, and the transcript editor only fixes text, not audio sync. Very long calls over two hours sometimes split chapters oddly. And because the bot joins visibly, you cannot use it covertly in a client call without consent notices in most jurisdictions.

It suits freelancers, product teams, and researchers who live in video calls. It is a poor fit if you mostly record in-person meetings or use a platform tl;dv does not support, like Webex.

Key Takeaways

• tl;dv records Zoom, Meet, and Teams calls and returns a transcript plus AI notes.
• Free plan: unlimited recordings, but only 10 AI summaries per month and 3-month storage.
• The critical setting is Auto-record per calendar; without it you must click Record manually.
• Clip links jump to a single timestamp, useful for sharing one decision instead of a whole call.
• Skip it if your meetings are in person or on unsupported platforms like Webex.