Callbox vs Read AI

Yes. Callbox records the call from your own Chrome tab, so nobody new joins and the other people see no extra participant. It works on Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams in the browser, and on any other call in a Chrome tab. Each recording labels "You" and the other side, with each speaker's name in Meet and Teams calls.

Read AI's main way to record is a bot. It joins Zoom, Teams and Google Meet as a participant, named "read.ai meeting notes" unless you pick another name, and when the chat allows it, posts a message that says who invited it. Others in the call can opt out with the link in that message, or, when there is no link, by typing "Read Stop" or "Opt Out". The bot cannot join Webex, GoTo Meeting or RingCentral.^[2][3][4][7]

Read AI has two ways to record a call without the bot, and each has a limit. Google Meet native recording works on Meet only, and someone in the meeting must first approve a consent dialog. The Mac and Windows app records your microphone and the sound of any app, but in Read AI's words, "Read AI does not know who is speaking."^[5][6][7]

Read AI's Chrome extension does not record. It spots your meetings and prompts you to add the bot. Callbox's Chrome extension records the call itself, with one click or Alt+Shift+R.^[8]

Read AI joins from your connected calendar, and by default it joins every event on it. At signup the preselected choice is "All calendar events (Recommended)", ahead of "Calendar events I host" and "Calendar events that Read is invited to". Read AI says the default is there "so you can make the most of your 7-day free trial." The bot arrives 3 to 5 minutes before each meeting, and a setting called "Auto-Join Unscheduled Meetings" also sends it to Meet and Zoom meetings you start that are not on your calendar.^[9][8][10]

Turning it off for yourself may not stop it. If another invitee uses Read AI, the bot can still come, and Read AI's help center notes that "they don't need to attend the meeting to add Read". On Teams and Meet the bot can record a meeting with no Read AI user present, though the host may have to admit it. On Zoom, a Read AI user must be in the meeting, signed in to the Zoom account they connected.^[11][13][12]

Read AI also emails a recap after the meeting, by default to "People with access", and people without an account get an invitation to sign up to view it. Read AI's help center says that if you have an account you don't remember creating, "you most likely signed up to receive a meeting report from someone else who uses Read AI."^[9][14]

Callbox has no bot to invite or admit. You start each recording yourself, with one click in your own Chrome tab, and Callbox sends the other people in the call nothing: no chat message, no email, no recap.

No. Read AI keeps the audio and video in its own cloud, on AWS in Northern Virginia. What reaches your Drive is one Google Doc per meeting, in a "Read AI Meeting Notes" folder, with the summary, action items and full transcript as text. No audio or video goes to Drive.^[4][17]

Whether you can hear a recording depends on your plan. Audio and video playback is only on Enterprise and Enterprise+, and so are MP4 downloads; the recap and transcript download as .txt files. If you downgrade, you lose playback of past reports. On Free, Read AI deletes meeting recordings 180 days after the meeting.^[19][20]

Callbox saves the audio file and a Google Doc transcript of each call to your own Google Drive, in a folder per project, on every plan. A downgrade, a cancellation or deleting your Callbox account removes nothing from Drive. Callbox uses the drive.file permission, so it sees only the files it creates.

Read AI's own Google Drive connection reads your files for Ask Read rather than storing recordings. Its help center says "Read will have access to any files you have access to within Google Drive", with no way to pick which files sync.^[18]

Yes. The Read Score combines sentiment and engagement by "analyzing facial and verbal elements of all meeting attendees". With video on, it also tracks each person's gaze and head position. Read AI does not use video or faces in the EU and UK, and users can turn these "affective metrics" off.^[24][25]

Read AI also rates how people speak. Its coaching report covers talking speed, filler words, bias and charisma, though reports from its desktop app leave coaching out for now. The live meeting dashboard shows each participant's talk time, engagement and punctuality.^[1][26][6]

Callbox scores nobody. It records and transcribes, with no engagement, sentiment or face scoring of anyone in the call.

No. Read AI writes a report after each meeting, with a summary, chapters, action items and key questions, plus coaching except on desktop-app recordings. Callbox writes no summaries itself. Your own AI agent, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Grok or Cursor, reads the transcript through Callbox's MCP server and saves the summary as a note, with the model you choose.^[23][6]

Read AI also works on your email and chat. Ask Read is an AI chat over your meetings, Gmail or Outlook, calendars, and Slack or Teams, and paid plans connect Salesforce, HubSpot, Notion, Jira and Zapier. If you want all of that in one product, Read AI has it and Callbox does not.^[27][1]

Both put an MCP server on the free plan. Read AI's is an open beta whose tools list and search meetings, manage folders, share reports and send the bot to a call, and none of them edits a report or writes a note. Read AI's MCP server and REST API sign in with OAuth rather than static API keys, and its documented REST endpoints are read-only.^{[28][29][30][31]}

Callbox's MCP server has every tool of the web app, so your agent can also move, rename and add notes to calls and manage projects. It signs in with Callbox's own OAuth, with a switch per permission on the consent page, or with an API key on paid plans.

Read AI charges per seat, and in a paid Workspace every member needs one. Ten people on Pro billed yearly pay 10 × $180 = $1,800 a year, and 10 × $270 = $2,700 on Enterprise, the first plan that plays recordings back. Every seat in a Workspace must be on the same plan, and Free users cannot be part of a Workspace. One paid user can share reports with free accounts instead, but each free account gets 5 reports a month.^{[1][33][34][19]}

On Callbox, the owner's Pro or Business plan covers a team with no member limit, and members pay nothing. The team shares the owner's transcription hours, 100 a month on Pro and 500 on Business. With the owner's own speech-to-text key, the team has no hour limit.

Read AI also has the controls large companies ask for. It holds SOC 2 Type 2, and Enterprise+, at 5 licenses minimum, adds SAML, SCIM, custom retention and a HIPAA agreement on yearly billing. Callbox has no SOC 2 report or HIPAA agreement, so if your company requires one, pick Read AI.^[4][1][35]