tl;dv vs Granola: Clips the Team Can Watch or Notes for You

The short answer: if you run customer calls and need to show colleagues the moment a customer said something, tl;dv fits: its bot records video in Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, clips go to the team, data is hosted in the EU, and Pro costs $18 a seat a month billed annually or $29 monthly (tl;dv pricing). If the notes are for you and a recording would only be a liability, Granola fits: Business runs $14 per member a month, billed month by month, no audio is kept, and its data sits on AWS in the US (Granola billing article). Prices checked on 26 October 2026.

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What tl;dv changes is that there is something to point at. A product manager can watch the 40 seconds where a customer struggled, instead of reading your summary of it. Its bot records the video; where a bot is unwelcome, the desktop app records your microphone and system audio instead, though not video, screen sharing or chat, and saves it to the same library (bot-free article). The job tl;dv wins: customer success and product marketing teams who share evidence, not paraphrase.

Granola wins the private version of the same meeting. It writes up your notes from what you type plus a running transcript of the sound on your machine, keeps no audio or video, and shares nothing until you choose to (transcription guide). Nobody else can watch the call later, because there is no call to watch.

Settle these three first:

1. The seat sum for the people who record. For example, five customer success managers on tl;dv Pro cost 5 x $18 = $90 a month billed annually, or 5 x $29 = $145 billed monthly (tl;dv pricing); on Granola Business the same five cost 5 x $14 = $70 (billing article), with no recording at all.
2. Your processor list. If your data processing agreements or customers ask for EU hosting, tl;dv's pricing page states that its data is hosted and stored in the EU (tl;dv pricing), while Granola stores all data on AWS in the US and offers no EU residency today, under a DPA with EU and UK Standard Contractual Clauses (Granola security FAQ). Check the register before the trial, not after.
3. What you will count at month end. Clips shared with someone outside the call, for tl;dv. Notes forwarded without rewriting, for Granola. If neither number moves, the tool was not the bottleneck.

Plan by plan

Checked on 26 October 2026: dollar prices for one seat for one month.

Three things that decide it

Evidence the team can watch

Clips and shareable recordings are the point of tl;dv, and they need a recording to exist (tl;dv pricing). Granola's answer to "what did the customer say" is a transcript line you copy into a message (transcription guide). For a roadmap debate, the clip wins. For your own follow-up list, the line is enough.

Where the data sits

For an EU business this can end the comparison before features do. tl;dv states EU hosting and storage on its pricing page; Granola states US hosting and no regional residency, with a standard DPA only (Granola security FAQ). If a customer contract names EU processing, read it before either trial.

What the free plan promises

tl;dv's free plan lists unlimited recordings, but its own help centre says that when many recordings run at once and its servers are under heavy load, Pro customers are prioritised and a free meeting may not be recorded (free plan article). Unlimited recording on Free is a trial of the habit; the guarantee that the important call gets captured is what Pro sells. Granola Basic carries no such clause and no recording to lose.

One agent step: calls against the CRM

tl;dv's MCP connector, on Pro or above and a paid Claude or ChatGPT plan, documents a prompt that fits account reviews: "Give me a summary of all meetings with ACME Corp and compare it to the Contact notes in HubSpot" (tl;dv MCP article), with HubSpot connected to the same assistant. The assistant lists where the calls and the CRM disagree. A person opens the recording at each point of disagreement before a single HubSpot field changes.

Granola's MCP server answers the same kind of question from your notes, and its raw transcript tool is for paid plans (Granola MCP article). Without a recording, the check is your notes against the CRM, not the customer's voice.

Recording customers brings the notice question with it; tl;dv's Consent Collection lets invitees refuse before the bot joins (consent article), and the customer calls use case covers the rest.

Which job each wins

Choose tl;dv if your job is putting customer moments in front of colleagues, you want the record hosted in the EU, and several people need the same calls.

Choose Granola if your job is your own notes from a full calendar, with nothing recorded and nothing to manage afterwards.

When the answer is both, and nobody owns it

Start on the free plans; a month of real calls on tl;dv Free and Granola Basic answers the tool question at no cost. If it turns out sales recorded every call in one tool, marketing kept private notes in another, and nobody decides what customer knowledge is for, the gap is a role rather than a tool. An interim CMO, work I sell, can own that for a set period and hand it over.

FAQ

Can a team share Granola notes?

Yes. Notes are private until you share them, shared folders are on every plan, and a Team space makes notes visible to the whole workspace (consent page, pricing, Granola MCP article).

Where does Granola store meeting data?

On Amazon Web Services servers in the United States, encrypted at rest and in transit, with notes also cached on your device (Granola security FAQ).

How long is one tl;dv recording allowed to run?

Three hours, on every plan, per the plan table on the tl;dv pricing page.