MinuteHaul / Guides / tl;dv downgrade to Free
tl;dv downgrade to Free: what you keep, what gets deleted, what to export first
Short answer: You move to Free by cancelling: Settings, Plan & Billing, Manage subscription, then Cancel or pause plan on the Stripe page (tl;dv help). On Free, recordings are kept for 3 months and then deleted in monthly batches, you can only download them in the 4 weeks before deletion (tl;dv help), and the API stops working because it needs Pro or Business (tl;dv API). So export transcripts and recordings before you downgrade.
Sources: tl;dv: how to stop tl;dv, tl;dv: limits of the Free plan, tl;dv: how long do you keep my recordings and tl;dv: API, checked Oct 27, 2026.
How to downgrade
- Export first (checklist below).
- In tl;dv go to Settings, then Plan & Billing, and click Manage subscription.
- You're sent to Stripe, tl;dv's payment provider. Click Cancel or pause plan and confirm (tl;dv help). Note the date Stripe shows for when your plan ends; that's your export deadline.
Full steps and the cancel-vs-delete difference: how to cancel tl;dv.
What changes when you're on Free
| Pro / Business | Free | |
|---|---|---|
| Recording storage | Kept for as long as you stay a customer (tl;dv) | 3 months, then scheduled for deletion; batches run on the 1st of each month, email 4 weeks before (tl;dv) |
| Downloading recordings | Yes, per meeting | Only in the 4-week window before deletion; outside it Free-plan recordings can't be downloaded, even by a Pro user (tl;dv) |
| Watching older recordings | Instant | After 3 days recordings move to archived storage; transcript and notes stay readable, video must be unarchived (up to about 90 minutes) (tl;dv) |
| API (bulk transcript export) | Yes | No: API access is Pro or Business only, and depends on the meeting organizer's plan (tl;dv) |
| AI notes | Unlimited single-meeting summaries | Full AI notes on your first 10 meetings, then only the first 10 minutes of each meeting; limits are for the account's lifetime, not monthly (tl;dv) |
| Clips | Clips can't be downloaded on any plan (tl;dv) | |
tl;dv's help center doesn't spell out exactly how recordings you made while on Pro are treated after you downgrade. With deletion only announced 4 weeks ahead and no download outside that window, the safe move is to treat everything as subject to Free retention and export before the switch.
Export checklist before the plan ends
- Every transcript, as files. tl;dv has no bulk transcript download in the app; the API is the only bulk route and it only works on a paid plan. See bulk export tl;dv transcripts or the API walkthrough in tl;dv API transcripts.
- Recordings you'll rewatch. Download them one at a time as MP4: download a tl;dv recording.
- Notes you rely on. If you feed meetings to an assistant, export now and see tl;dv transcripts to ChatGPT.
- Team meetings. API access follows the meeting organizer's plan, so each paid organizer should export their own meetings before the team downgrades (tl;dv API).
Get every tl;dv transcript as files before you downgrade. Paste your tl;dv API key into the MinuteHaul web exporter. It uses tl;dv's official API from your browser and builds one ZIP: a Markdown file per meeting, an index.csv and an optional all-transcripts.txt. It needs Pro or Business API access, so run it before the plan ends. Your 10 most recent meetings are free; every meeting is $19 one-time with a 14-day refund. Export all my tl;dv meetings: $19
FAQ
How do I downgrade tl;dv to the Free plan? Go to Settings, Plan & Billing, click Manage subscription, and on the Stripe page click Cancel or pause plan. tl;dv's help center describes this as cancelling; the account then continues on Free.
Does tl;dv delete my recordings if I downgrade to Free? tl;dv says Free-plan recordings are stored for 3 months and then scheduled for deletion, in batches on the 1st of each month, with an email 4 weeks before. Download is only possible in that 4-week window. tl;dv's help center doesn't spell out how older recordings made on Pro are handled after a downgrade, so export anything you need before you downgrade.
Can I use the tl;dv API after downgrading? No. tl;dv says API access is available on Pro or Business only, and API access to a meeting depends on the meeting organizer's plan. Export through the API while you are still on a paid plan.
I got a tl;dv email that my recordings will be deleted. What now? Download the affected recordings during the 4-week window tl;dv opens before the deletion date; outside that window Free-plan recordings can't be downloaded, even by a Pro user. If you still have Pro or Business, export transcripts through the API first.
Related guides
- How to cancel your tl;dv subscription without losing your meetings
- Export your tl;dv meetings before you cancel
- How to bulk export tl;dv transcripts
- How to download a tl;dv recording
- How to delete your tl;dv account without losing your transcripts
- tl;dv alternatives: which keep your meeting history
- How to migrate off tl;dv without losing your meeting history
Last checked: Oct 27, 2026. Plans and help-center steps change; verify against the vendor's own help center before relying on details here. MinuteHaul is independent and not affiliated with Fireflies or tl;dv.