Callbox vs tl;dv

Yes. Callbox records the call from your own Chrome tab, so no bot joins and nobody in the call sees a new participant. It works with Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams in the browser, and with any other call in a tab. It records the tab's audio and your microphone, labels who spoke as "You" or the other side, and names the speakers in Meet and Teams.

tl;dv records with a bot by default. The bot joins your scheduled Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls as a visible participant named after you, such as "Grace's AI Notetaker", and if the host does not admit it, nothing is recorded. On Google Meet, tl;dv says its bot may appear highlighted in red and labeled as a potential security risk. Its Chrome extension works only in Google Meet, and clicking it invites the same bot.^[4][5][6]

To record with no bot, tl;dv has a desktop app for Mac and Windows. It captures your computer's audio only, so it keeps no video, screen sharing or chat, and it also records any other sound your computer plays. tl;dv's own blog describes speaker identification in this mode as partial, and audio-only recordings show speakers as numbers unless they match a calendar event.^{[7][8][9][10][4]}

Callbox does not record the Zoom or Teams desktop apps, and tl;dv's desktop app does. Callbox shows the other side no banner, so you tell people you are recording, as tl;dv also asks of its bot-free mode. With its bot, tl;dv can ask guests for consent on a page linked from the calendar invite, and stops recording if one declines.^[8][7][11]

It can. tl;dv connects to your Google or Outlook calendar and can auto-record all your meetings, or only internal or only external ones. Its blog says recording all meetings is pre-selected when you sign up. The bot joins from the calendar, so it records a meeting even when you skip it. When several invitees use tl;dv, it sends the organizer's bot, or else the bot of the invitee on the highest plan, and if everyone is on Free, a random one.^[12][4][13]

Removing the Chrome extension or the desktop app does not stop the bot. tl;dv's help center says they "do not control if tl;dv is automatically invited to your meetings", so you turn off auto-recording in tl;dv itself.^[14]

Callbox has no bot to send. It records only a call you start in your own Chrome tab, with one click or Alt+Shift+R, so it never records a meeting you skipped. If you want a recorder that covers the meetings you miss, that is a reason to pick tl;dv.

Callbox saves every call to your own Google Drive, as an audio file and a Google Doc transcript in a folder per project. Callbox sees only the files it creates there. If you downgrade, cancel or delete your Callbox account, the files stay in your Drive.

tl;dv keeps recordings in its own cloud, in data centers in Europe, and its security page lists a SOC 2 Type II report. Under its privacy policy, tl;dv keeps Free recordings for 3 months and paid ones until you delete the account.^[16][17][3]

Getting files out of tl;dv takes a paid plan. To download a recording, both its owner and the person downloading need Pro or Enterprise. Recordings made on Free cannot be downloaded, even by a Pro user, except in the four weeks before they are deleted. There are no bulk downloads or exports, and a transcript "download" copies the text to your clipboard.^[18][3][19]

tl;dv's integrations page says it can save recordings, transcripts and summaries to Google Drive, and its Zapier integration can copy each new recording there, which on Free draws on 20 integration credits for the life of the account. Either way, Drive gets a copy and the recording stays in tl;dv's cloud.^[20][21][3]

No. Callbox writes no summaries itself. Your own AI agent, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Grok or Cursor, reads your transcripts through Callbox's MCP server, writes the summary and action items with the model you choose, and saves them as notes on the call.

tl;dv builds the notes in. It writes topic summaries with timestamps from templates, and Pro adds custom templates, action items, follow-up email drafts and search across every transcript. Ask tl;dv AI answers questions about one meeting or many, and Business adds playbooks, AI coaching, scheduled reports and CRM field mapping. If you want notes with nothing to set up, tl;dv does more.^[25][4][26]

Both have an MCP server, and they differ in what your agent can do. tl;dv's official server is read-only. It searches meetings and reads their details, transcripts and notes, and it "cannot create, edit, delete, or share meetings". It needs tl;dv Pro, it reaches a meeting only if the organizer is on Pro or above, and tl;dv's help center asks for a paid Claude or ChatGPT plan.^[29][30]

Callbox's MCP server is on every plan, Free included, and its tools also move and rename calls, write notes and manage projects. Both keep their API and webhooks for paid plans.^[31][32]

tl;dv markets its free plan as unlimited recordings and transcripts, with the desktop app's bot-free mode, but its terms cap Free at 40 recordings a week, 3 hours each. Full AI notes cover only your first 10 meetings, then the first 10 minutes of each meeting. You get 10 AI prompts and 10 AI reports, and tl;dv's pages disagree on whether 5 or 10 of those prompts can search across meetings. tl;dv's help center says these AI limits are for the lifetime of the account and do not renew monthly.^{[3][9][2][4][26]}

Callbox Free saves as many recordings as you make to your Google Drive. It transcribes 5 hours a month, subject to availability, or with no limit on your own speech-to-text key or OpenAI-compatible server. The MCP server is included, so your agent can summarize every call. tl;dv Free transcribes more hours with no setup.

tl;dv covers more languages with no setup. Its help center lists over 30, and Business adds multi-language calls and custom vocabulary. Callbox's engine covers 25 European languages, English and Spanish included, and 99 with your own key on a Whisper large-v3 service such as OpenAI or Groq.^[22][4]

Callbox Pro and Business transcribe live, so the transcript is ready when the call ends. tl;dv's own blog says there is no live transcript while a call is in progress, and bot-free recordings appear within a few minutes after the call.^[23][7]

tl;dv stops every recording and upload at 3 hours, on all plans. Callbox records up to 6 hours per call and imports files of up to 6 hours and 500 MB, on every plan. On hours of transcription tl;dv is ahead. It lists no monthly hour cap, though its terms allow 80 recordings a week on Pro and 120 on Business. Callbox Pro includes 100 hours a month and Business 500, with no limit on the number of recordings.^[3][24][2]

For meetings in the room, Callbox's Record page runs in any phone or computer browser, iOS Safari included, with no app to install. tl;dv's iOS and Android apps record audio only, and you cannot yet open transcripts or summaries in them.^[15]