tl;dv has a generous free plan on paper: unlimited recordings. But the AI notes run out. Its help center says only your first 10 meetings get full AI notes, and the limits "do not renew monthly". Free recordings are kept for 3 months.
Off Grid AI Desktop (OGAD) Pro writes notes for every meeting, on your own computer. No meeting cap, no expiry date, one payment. Your transcripts stay on your disk until you delete them.
Get Pro for $79.99 once · Download Off Grid AI
Off Grid AI and tl;dv side by side
| Off Grid AI Pro | tl;dv | |
|---|---|---|
| How it joins calls | Records your computer's audio; no bot | A bot, or the desktop app without one |
| Where meetings are kept | Your disk | tl;dv's servers, "hosted and stored in the EU" |
| AI notes | Every meeting | Free: full notes for the first 10 meetings, lifetime |
| How long recordings stay | Until you delete them | Free: 3 months |
| Longest recording | No cap | 3 hours, on all plans |
| Your data trains their models | No | No, per tl;dv |
| Price | $79.99 once, or $7.99 a month | Pro €18 a seat a month billed yearly, or €29 monthly |
| Computers | Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux | Mac and Windows desktop app |
Checked 30 October 2026 against tl;dv's home page, pricing page, desktop app page and free plan limits. tl;dv's pricing page showed prices in euros when we checked. Off Grid AI's price is a limited-time lifetime offer, down from $119.
What it costs over three years
| 1 year | 3 years | |
|---|---|---|
| tl;dv Pro, billed yearly | €216 | €648 |
| tl;dv Business, billed yearly | €348 | €1,044 |
| Off Grid AI Pro, lifetime | $79.99 | $79.99 |
tl;dv's prices are per seat. OGAD Pro is per person, and one key covers up to 5 of your devices.
Where tl;dv is strong
tl;dv takes privacy seriously. Its home page says it will "never, ever use them to train AI", and it stores data in the EU. Its desktop app for Mac and Windows records system audio, and the page says "no bot joins the call".
So the real difference is not the bot. It is where the work happens and what the free plan holds back. tl;dv's recordings and notes live on its servers, and tl;dv's home page says it partners with Anthropic for its generative AI. The help center also says that under heavy load, "your meeting may not be recorded if you have the free plan".
What OGAD does instead
OGAD sees that a Zoom, Teams or Google Meet call has started and records two tracks on your computer: the call's audio and your microphone. For a meeting in a room, press Record meeting.
When you stop, a local Whisper model writes the transcript. A local text model then writes the summary, the decisions and the follow-ups, with who owes what. Every meeting gets the full notes. There is no 10-meeting allowance and no 10-minute cut-off, because the models run on your hardware.
Meetings are one part of Pro
tl;dv is a meeting recorder. Off Grid AI Pro covers your working day on your own hardware:
- Memory. Screens, meetings, mail and documents in one local memory you can search and ask.
- Actions you approve. Replies and issues through Gmail, Linear, Jira and Notion. Nothing runs without your yes.
- God, your chief of staff. A morning brief, meeting prep with last time's notes, and what people owe you.
- Reflect. Time by project, app and person, without timers.
- Vault, Clipboard and Sync. Encrypted secrets, a searchable clipboard, and your devices in sync without a server.
When tl;dv is the better pick
tl;dv is made for teams. It has team collaboration, clips and CRM integrations such as HubSpot and Salesforce, and it works on any laptop because its servers do the heavy work. If your team needs shared meeting notes stored in the EU, tl;dv is a good choice. OGAD needs a computer that can run a speech model; most Apple silicon Macs and recent PCs can, and the app shows which models fit.
If you want full notes for every meeting, kept on your own machine and paid for once, use OGAD. Also see how OGAD compares with Otter, Fathom and Granola.
Switch in ten minutes
- Download OGAD for Mac, Windows or Linux.
- Get Pro and enter your key in the app.
- In Models, download a transcription model and a text model.
- Allow microphone and screen-audio access, then join a short test call.
- Open Meetings and read the follow-ups.
Before tl;dv deletes old free recordings, download the ones you want to keep. Tell the people in the call that you're recording, as you would with any notetaker.
FAQ
What is a tl;dv alternative with no meeting limits?
Off Grid AI Desktop Pro records, transcribes and summarizes every meeting on your own computer, with no meeting cap. On 30 October 2026 it costs $79.99 once for lifetime access, a limited-time price, or $7.99 a month.
How many meetings get AI notes on the tl;dv free plan?
tl;dv's help center says only the first 10 meetings get full AI notes. After that, only the first 10 minutes of each meeting get automatic AI notes. The limits are for the lifetime of the account and do not renew monthly.
How long does tl;dv keep free recordings?
tl;dv's help center says recordings on the free plan are stored for 3 months. Off Grid AI keeps meetings on your own disk until you delete them.
Does tl;dv train AI on my meetings?
tl;dv's home page says it will never use your recordings and transcripts to train AI. Off Grid AI does not train on your meetings either; with local models they never leave your computer.
Does Off Grid AI need a bot in the call?
No. Off Grid AI Desktop detects Zoom, Teams and Google Meet calls and records the call audio and your microphone as two tracks. For an in-person meeting, press Record meeting.
Get Off Grid AI Pro and keep notes for every meeting.
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