I spent years in software sales, so when Pipedrive launched Nova, a free AI notetaker built right into the CRM, I only cared about one thing: would it actually save a rep the admin? I ran it on scripted sales calls in October 2026 and checked every summary, every CRM suggestion, and every settings screen.
The result? The notes are good. But I wouldn’t let Nova near my CRM without checking every single update first.
TL;DR: Pipedrive Nova is worth switching on for free call summaries, but check every CRM update by hand. I turned Nova on partway through, so it summarized 2 of our 4 scripted Google Meet calls in a Pipedrive Premium trial (tl;dv Pipedrive Nova test, October 21 to 23, 2026).
- Pipedrive Nova is free with any paid Pipedrive plan, from Lite at $14 per seat.
- Nova’s summary got all 10 key facts, but 0 of its 6 CRM suggestions were clearly right (1 was debatable).
- Pipedrive Nova writes nothing until you approve it, and logs each edit as “(nova)”.
- Nova’s guest-notice setting defaults to “No automatic alerts”, so UK and EU teams need to change it first.
Full disclosure: I write for tl;dv, which also records calls and syncs them to Pipedrive, and Pipedrive is a tl;dv partner. Every criticism below comes from my own testing or Pipedrive’s own wording, and where our test setup caused a problem rather than Nova, I’ve said so.
How We Tested Pipedrive Nova
I tested Pipedrive Nova in a Premium trial on October 21 and 22, 2026. To keep real customer data out of it, I set up a made-up company, Orrimsby, which sells warehouse shift-scheduling software, and filled its Pipedrive account with fictional deals and contacts. My colleague Matt played the customers (he’s now been more fictional people than he’d like).
The main deal was Bramblecote Freight, already sitting at £18,000 with Imogen Fairlie as the contact. On the call, “Imogen” confirmed 60 seats and a Sage payroll requirement, and we agreed a pilot date.
Nova summarized 2 of the 4 calls. I switched it on partway through the session, so it missed the first call and gave the second, already in progress, an empty card. I checked Nova’s summary against an answer key written before the call, and every CRM suggestion against what was actually said. Nova ran at its defaults the whole time, with auto-join on and every AI instruction left exactly as Pipedrive ships it. On October 23, I ran the same calls through tl;dv’s Pipedrive sync.
There were a few things I couldn’t test. Matt was away the next day, so I only saw Nova from the host side, and anything I say about the guest’s view comes from Pipedrive’s own docs. I didn’t try the pre-meeting brief or the Nova Companion desktop app either.
And our setup tripped Nova up in a way a real account wouldn’t. The calendar events weren’t linked to deals, and Matt joined from his own Google account, so every call landed as “No linked item” and “Imogen” showed up under his name. Pipedrive’s Nova meetings article says to check the attendee’s email is saved as a contact, so a real account should match better than ours did. If your calls run on Google Meet, our guide to sending Google Meet notes to Pipedrive covers the calendar side.
Is Pipedrive Nova Worth Using? Our Verdict
Pipedrive Nova is worth switching on if you already pay for Pipedrive, because the summaries are accurate and it costs nothing extra. Treat its CRM suggestions as drafts, though. On my test call it suggested a duplicate deal, then tried to rename the real one after a test label.
The approval step is the best thing about it. Nothing touches your CRM until you tick it, and every approved edit lands in the change log with “(nova)” next to the rep’s name. Any manager who’s ever asked “who changed this deal?” will like that. But you can’t attach a call to an existing deal from inside Nova, and changes arrive pre-ticked.
Best for: small Pipedrive teams who want free call notes on the meeting card, and managers who need an audit trail.
Not yet for: teams who want the CRM to update itself, or UK and EU teams who can’t risk a missed notice, because guest notices start switched off. I didn’t test the pre-call brief or the bot-free Companion app, so this verdict covers Nova during and after calls only.
Pipedrive Nova Test Results at a Glance
Pipedrive Nova’s notes were strong and its CRM suggestions were weak in the tl;dv Pipedrive Nova test (October 2026). Here’s every result and where it came from.
| What we tested | Result | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Capture | Caught both calls after it was switched on mid-session; the call in progress gave an empty card | Pending actions |
| Summary accuracy | All 10 key facts, with “Reese” for Rhys | Summary vs answer key |
| Speaker labels | The customer shown under the guest’s Google account name | Transcript |
| CRM suggestions before linking | 3 suggestions, 0 matched the call | CRM update tab |
| CRM suggestions after linking | 3 suggestions: 0 clearly right, 1 debatable | CRM update tab |
| Approval | Only ticked changes were written; no confirmation step | Deal page |
| Audit trail | “Dani Jones (nova)” in the change log | Change log |
| Guest notice default | “No automatic alerts” | Settings |
| Price | Included on all plans | Pipedrive help center |
tl;dv Pipedrive Nova test (October 2026). Pipedrive Premium trial, Google Meet, Nova AI settings at Pipedrive’s defaults.
What We Found That Nobody Else Mentions
These surprised me in my October 2026 test of Pipedrive Nova, and I couldn’t find any of them in Pipedrive’s docs or other reviews.
- Nova’s default rule for deal titles is “Almost never update”, but it still suggested renaming our deal “Ormsby test call 4”.
- An unticked change doesn’t go away. It sits on the deal as “1 CRM update is ready for review”, ready for someone to approve by mistake.
- The in-call message says the notetaker “has started transcribing this call”, but the settings say the bot “starts recording once admitted”.
- Auto-join “waits to be admitted 2 minutes before the meeting starts, even if you haven’t joined yet”, so a guest could be the one letting the bot in.
- Pipedrive’s help pages disagree on the default notice. The Nova Companion article calls it “Allow opt-out”, the Nova meetings article says notices are disabled by default, and my account matched the second one.
How Accurate Are Pipedrive Nova’s Meeting Summaries?
Pipedrive Nova’s summary of the Bramblecote demo follow-up got all 10 key facts in my answer key. Honestly, it was better than I expected.
It picked up the 60 seats across three sites, the Sage requirement, single sign-on on the annual plan, the £20,000 budget and the £18,000 price. It caught the competitor’s £15,000 quote, the November 7 deadline for the security questionnaire, the November 16 pilot and Rhys joining the next call. And it correctly said I’d send a Sage-ready sample file for the payroll team to test.
The slips were all in names. Rhys, who approved the budget, became “Reese” in one bullet and stayed “Rhys” in another. The competitor ShiftHarbour became “Shift Harbour”, and Orrimsby, the company I was calling from, became “Ormsby”. It also didn’t say who was sending the security questionnaire.
It didn’t quite follow its own instructions either. Nova’s default summary prompt asks for “2–5 action items: what needs to happen, who’s responsible, and when”. The summary folded them into a “Decision steps and commitments” section instead of a separate action-item list, and not every item had an owner.
The customer showed up under Matt’s Google account name, “Matt Leppington”, because that’s who joined the call, so this is partly down to our setup, not just Nova.
Can Pipedrive Nova Update Your CRM Accurately?
Not in my test. Pipedrive Nova made 6 CRM suggestions on the Bramblecote call across two rounds. None was clearly right, and only one was defensible. The approval step around them works well, though.
Before the call was linked to a deal, Nova suggested creating three new records: a deal called “Bramblecote Freight: demo follow-up” (the real one already existed), a person called “Matt” (the customer was Imogen, already the deal’s contact) and an organization called “Tldv”, from Matt’s email domain. Canceling a suggestion removes it at once, with no confirmation and no undo.
Linking the call to the deal wasn’t possible from inside Nova. The “No linked item” label isn’t clickable, the card menu only offers Select, Mark as done or Discard, and the deal suggestion’s only button is “Create new deal”. I linked the calendar activity to the deal in Pipedrive instead, and Nova picked it up on the next reload.
After linking, Nova flagged 2 CRM updates for review (title and stage) and suggested adding “Matt” as a person again. It wanted to change the title from “Bramblecote Freight: scheduling rollout” to “Ormsby test call 4”, its version of the test label I said at the start of the call. It also wanted to move the stage from Qualified to Negotiations started. That one’s a judgment call, because Nova’s default instructions tell it to move a deal forward on buying signals like a confirmed budget, and we did discuss pricing.
Both changes came pre-ticked, with a note under the button: “Updating these fields may trigger automations in Pipedrive.” Nothing was suggested from the Sage requirement or the November dates.
Then I played the sales rep. I canceled “Matt”, unticked the title and approved the stage change only. Only the stage was written, and Pipedrive showed a small “CRM fields updated” message with no confirmation step before it. The heading still said “2 CRM updates are ready for review”, and the unticked title change stayed waiting on the deal.
The change log got it right: “Stage: Qualified → Negotiations started”, credited to “Dani Jones (nova)”. You can always see who approved what, and that it came through Nova.
I’m not the only one seeing this. A Pipedrive user of nine years put it bluntly on r/pipedrive in October 2026: “The field updates Nova does offer to make usually are wrong.” To be fair, he admitted his field names might mislead an AI. He also said Nova doesn’t save call notes to a note field automatically. Pipedrive’s help center says notes are only created for linked meetings: “If nothing is linked, no note is created.”
Does Pipedrive Nova Ask for Consent Before Recording?
Pipedrive Nova doesn’t ask for consent by default. Pipedrive says “Participant notices are disabled by default”, so guests only see a chat message when the bot joins, and its Supplemental Terms make you responsible for getting “informed, prior consent” from everyone on the call.
My account showed three settings, and Pipedrive’s Nova meetings article lists a fourth, “Notify participants”.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| No automatic alerts (the default) | “You’re responsible for informing your guests and getting their okay to be transcribed.” |
| Alert with an opt-out | Pipedrive emails guests before the meeting and gives them “an easy way to opt out” of transcription. |
| Require consent | Consent emails go out 24 hours before by default, or you share a consent link. It’s the only option in my account whose description mentions recording. |
On the default setting, the only notice is a chat message: “Dani Jones’s AI notetaker has started transcribing this call.” Pipedrive says guests are notified in the meeting chat “when available”, and the emails only reach guests whose address is saved in Pipedrive.
Recording without consent counts as “a material breach”, and Pipedrive “does not monitor, verify, or enforce” consent. If you’re in the UK or EU, switch on “Require consent” before your first call. Our roundup of AI meeting recorder lawsuits shows what happens when notice goes wrong.
Does Pipedrive Nova Live Up to Its Marketing?
Mostly, yes. Pipedrive Nova delivered on transcripts, pricing and approvals in my test. The claim that didn’t hold up is the one a sales team cares about most: CRM updates you can trust.
| What Pipedrive says | What we found |
|---|---|
| “a transcript of every call and ready-to-approve CRM updates afterward” (pricing page) | Transcripts, yes. Updates ready to approve, yes. Correct updates, no. |
| “included in all plans, at no additional cost for every user” (help center) | True. Billing shows no Nova price; it’s a user permission. |
| “Get a brief before every meeting” (pricing page) | Not tested. |
How Much Does Pipedrive Nova Cost?
Pipedrive Nova costs nothing extra on any Pipedrive plan. Pipedrive’s public prices (USD, per seat per month, billed annually) are Lite $14, Growth $39, Premium $59 and Ultimate $79. My trial account showed Premium at £79 per seat per month, billed monthly.
Nova is a user permission, not a paid seat. Pipedrive doesn’t publish usage limits or supported languages for it, and I didn’t hit any limits in my account.
Should Pipedrive Teams Use Nova or tl;dv?
Pipedrive Nova is the better pick if you want free notes inside Pipedrive. tl;dv put a usable note on the right deal once the contact matched, and keeps the recording, but it’s a paid plan. I connected tl;dv to the same trial on October 23.
| Test (October 2026) | Pipedrive Nova | tl;dv |
|---|---|---|
| Capture, 4 calls | Switched on mid-session; caught both calls after that | All 4 recorded in the workspace. My own bot missed 2, likely because we moved the calls 15 minutes at the last minute and ran them back to back; a colleague’s tl;dv bot in the same workspace caught them |
| Bramblecote summary, 10 key facts | 10 of 10 | 9 of 10, from my colleague’s recording; gave two of my actions to the customer |
| Links to the moment | No player | Every AI-note bullet links to the moment |
| How CRM updates work | Suggests changes; you approve each one | A workflow you build writes on demand, or automatically; no per-field approval |
| Calder Vale, first attempt (guest email not saved) | 3 suggestions (“Calder Vale Hauliers: renewal check-in”, “Matt”, “Tldv”), 0 correct | No match, nothing written (“Test passed!”) |
| Calder Vale, after adding the guest’s email to the contact | Still “No linked item”, same 3 suggestions | One note on the right deal, two names misspelled |
| Bramblecote, after linking the calendar activity to the deal | 3 suggestions: 0 clearly right, 1 debatable | Not tested |
| Price | Free on every Pipedrive plan | Pro: $18 / €18 per seat per month billed annually, $29 / €29 monthly |
tl;dv’s Pipedrive sync connects with one OAuth approval. Nothing syncs until you build a workflow from one of four templates, such as Update Deal, and you choose what goes in each field, from AI notes to a link back to the recording. It matches on attendee email and can create a missing contact (off by default), but never a deal. On my Pro trial, team workflows were locked, and the first test run sent nothing.
When I added the guest’s email to the Calder Vale contact, tl;dv reran on the past call and posted one note to the right deal, with every bullet linked to the recording, though it misspelled two names. Nova kept its original suggestions, and I found no way to rerun it. I didn’t link the calendar activity on Calder Vale the way I did on Bramblecote, so this rematch tested contact matching only.
So where does that leave you? Nova is free, built in and wrote nothing without my click, and its summary beat tl;dv’s by one fact. tl;dv goes further once the contact matches, with reruns on old calls, the recording itself and Claude searching across your calls through its MCP server. If you’d rather have Claude update deals from your notes, see our Pipedrive MCP guide.
To try it on your own deals, follow our guide to connecting meetings to Pipedrive. Start with one “Update Deal” workflow run on demand, so you can check the first few notes before switching on automatic sync.
FAQ
Is Pipedrive Nova free?
Yes, with any paid Pipedrive plan. Pipedrive says Nova is “included in all plans, at no additional cost for every user”, from Lite at $14 per seat up to Ultimate. In my Premium trial it showed up as a user permission rather than a paid seat, and the billing page had no separate Nova line.
Which video platforms does Pipedrive Nova work with?
Nova’s notetaker bot joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls. The Nova Companion desktop app records from your laptop without a bot, and Pipedrive says it covers in-person meetings and audio-only calls too. I tested the bot on Google Meet only and didn’t try the Companion app.
Does Pipedrive Nova update my CRM automatically?
No. Nova suggests changes in its CRM update tab, and nothing is written until you approve it. In my test, none of its six suggestions was clearly right (one was debatable), and changes arrived pre-ticked with no confirmation step, so check every one before you click. Each approved change is logged with “(nova)”.
Is Pipedrive Nova GDPR compliant?
It depends on how you set it up. Guest notices are off by default, and Pipedrive’s terms make you responsible for getting “informed, prior consent” from everyone on the call. UK and EU teams should switch on “Require consent”, which emails guests 24 hours before the meeting.
Can I delete a Pipedrive Nova transcript?
Pipedrive doesn’t document a way to delete a single Nova transcript, and I found no setting for it in my trial. Its data processing addendum (section 5.11) says closed accounts are typically deleted within 180 days, or 60 days for free trials, and backups are kept for about 90 days (Nova FAQ).
