- Best free: Natively (personal use, your own API keys)
- Best for Mac, Windows and Linux: Pluely
- Best value on Windows: AuraCloak, $49 once with screen share hiding
- Best interview prep suite: Final Round AI
Cluely itself is still the pick if you want polished automatic meeting notes and don't mind $149.99 a month for its hidden mode.
Disclosure: we make AuraCloak, which is #3 on this list. We ranked the others by how well they solve the reasons people leave Cluely, and we've listed where each one, ours included, is worse than Cluely.
Top picks at a glance
"Hidden plan" is the cheapest plan that includes hiding from screen share. Prices from each vendor's site, checked October 10-11, 2026, unless marked.
| # | Product | Best for | Hidden plan | Lifetime | Platforms | BYOK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natively | Free, with transcription | $0 personal use | Pro Lifetime, price not listed | macOS 12+, Windows 10/11 | Yes |
| 2 | Pluely | Mac, Windows and Linux | $0 with own keys | $120 | macOS, Windows, Linux | Yes |
| 3 | AuraCloak | Windows on a budget | $9/mo | $49 | Windows 10 (2004+), 11 | Yes + browser mode |
| 4 | GhostDesk | Windows, AI included | $25/mo or $10/24h | No | Windows 10 (19041+), 11 | No |
| 5 | Final Round AI | Interview prep suite | $25+/mo | No | macOS 14.4+, Windows | No |
| 6 | LockedIn AI | Career toolkit | Not shown; reviews report $54.99/mo | Reported, unverified | Desktop, mobile, web | No |
| 7 | Interview Coder | Technical interviews | $299/mo | $799 | Windows, Mac | No |
| 8 | Glass by Pickle | Tinkerers who build from source | $0 | n/a | macOS; Windows from source | Yes |
| Cluely (for reference) | Auto meeting notes | $149.99/mo | No | macOS 10.15+, Windows 11, iOS | No |
Why people leave Cluely
Four reasons come up again and again, and they shaped this ranking:
- The hidden mode costs $149.99 a month. Cluely's Starter (free) and Pro ($19.99) plans don't hide from screen share. Details in Cluely pricing 2026.
- Windows 10 isn't listed. Cluely's Windows installer lists Windows 11 on x64. See Cluely for Windows.
- No bring-your-own-key. If you already pay for an AI, you pay twice.
- No lifetime plan.
How we compared
On October 10 and 11, 2026, we read each product's pricing page, download page and, for the open projects, GitHub repository (stars, last release, license). We recorded the cheapest plan with screen share hiding, the platforms each vendor states, and whether you can use your own AI. We didn't pay for every competitor's top plan, so we don't rate answer quality or speed; any list that claims to have measured latency across eight tools should show its method. We've used AuraCloak daily because we build it, which is a bias, not a test.
1. Natively: best free Cluely alternative
Natively is the most complete free option. It copies Cluely's layout closely, then adds things Cluely doesn't have: bring-your-own-key for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models, on-device speech-to-text (Whisper and Parakeet models, among others), local document search, and Ollama for fully offline use.
Price: free for personal, educational and non-commercial use. Managed plans for people who don't want to handle keys are $8, $15, $25 and $35 a month. A Pro license comes as yearly or lifetime, but the price isn't on the site.
Platforms: macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows 10/11. No Linux yet, by its own README.
Better than Cluely at: price, model choice, local processing, Windows 10 support.
Worse than Cluely at: the license isn't open source in the usual sense; it's a personal-use source license, so using it for client work is a grey area you should read up on. With about 80 open GitHub issues on October 11 and frequent releases (v2.9.2 shipped October 5), expect some rough edges. Setup takes longer than Cluely's download-and-go.
More detail: AuraCloak vs Natively.
2. Pluely: best for Mac, Windows and Linux
Pluely is a small Tauri app (its site says 9 to 16 MB) with an Ask mode and a Listen mode. It's the only option here with a Linux build, and its free plan includes the full overlay and hidden mode if you bring your own keys.
Price: Free with your own keys. Limited Pro is $15 a month (300 AI requests, 5 hours of transcription). Unlimited Pro is $35 a month (2,000 requests, 30 hours). Dev Pro is $120 once for bring-your-own-key users.
Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux.
Better than Cluely at: price, Linux, app size, a one-time option.
Worse than Cluely at: the built-in AI plans meter requests and hours, so heavy users hit limits that Cluely Pro doesn't have. The licensing story is mixed: the GitHub repo (about 2,700 stars) is labeled GPL-3.0, while the README says version 1 and later are proprietary.
More detail: AuraCloak vs Pluely.
3. AuraCloak: best value on Windows
Our product, so here's the plain version. AuraCloak is a native Windows overlay that asks Windows to exclude it from screen capture (WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE), so Zoom, Teams, Meet in a browser, OBS, Loom and the Snipping Tool leave it out. You pick the AI: OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Azure OpenAI or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Or skip keys entirely with browser mode, which loads ChatGPT, Claude.ai or Gemini inside the hidden window with your normal login.
Price: $9 a month or $49 once. Screen share hiding is in both.
Platforms: Windows 10 version 2004 or later, Windows 11, x64.
Better than Cluely at: price of the hidden mode, Windows 10 support, model choice, using an existing ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription, no account, never captures call audio.
Worse than Cluely at: no Mac or iPhone app, no free plan, no transcription or meeting notes. It only knows what you type, screenshot (Alt+S) or say with push-to-talk (Alt+V). A phone camera pointed at your screen still sees it, as with every tool here.
More detail: Cluely alternative for Windows and AuraCloak vs Cluely.
Windows overlay, hidden from screen share, your choice of AI. $49 once.
See AuraCloak pricing4. GhostDesk: Windows-only with AI included
GhostDesk is the closest Windows-only competitor to AuraCloak. It uses the same Windows capture-exclusion approach, and it bundles its own AI, so there's nothing to configure. It also transcribes speech and has screen OCR.
Price (ghost-desk.app, October 2026): $10 for 24 hours, $25 a month, $50 for 3 months, $75 for 6 months. A 3-day trial allows 10 questions a day. Older listings on toolradar and Product Hunt show $9.99 a month; the vendor's own site is higher now.
Platforms: Windows 10 (build 19041 or later) and Windows 11.
Better than Cluely at: price, Windows 10, short passes if you only need it for a day.
Worse than Cluely at: no Mac, no model choice (the AI engine isn't named), and its marketing is aimed squarely at interviews rather than general meetings.
More detail: AuraCloak vs GhostDesk.
5. Final Round AI: best interview prep suite
Final Round AI isn't trying to be a general overlay. It's a career prep platform: mock interviews, job description parsing, prep checklists and debriefs, plus a live Interview Copilot with a Stealth Mode.
Price: a free plan for prep tools (no live copilot); Pro from $25 a month, with "save up to 40%" on longer plans. The pricing page says there's no free trial.
Platforms: macOS 14.4+ and Windows.
Better than Cluely at: structured interview practice and feedback.
Worse than Cluely at: anything that isn't an interview. No meeting notes for regular work calls, no bring-your-own-key.
More detail: AuraCloak vs Final Round AI.
6. LockedIn AI: career toolkit with credits
LockedIn AI sells an interview and meeting copilot alongside a long list of career tools: resume checker, cover letter generator, salary calculator, job tracker.
Price: the pricing page lists Unlimited, Credits and Lifetime plans but didn't show figures when we loaded it. Third-party reviews from September 2026 report $54.99 a month on promotion for the cheapest unlimited plan, and lifetime prices between $999.50 and $1,499.25. We couldn't verify those.
Platforms: desktop, mobile app and web.
Better than Cluely at: breadth of career tools, a lifetime option.
Worse than Cluely at: pricing transparency, and it's more expensive than Cluely Pro for most plans reported.
More detail: AuraCloak vs LockedIn AI.
7. Interview Coder: technical interviews
Interview Coder targets software engineering interviews specifically, with audio support and a long list of what it calls undetectability features.
Price: free download with no AI; Monthly Pro $299 (1,000 credits); Lifetime Pro $799.
Platforms: Windows and Mac.
Better than Cluely at: focus on coding questions, a lifetime option.
Worse than Cluely at: price (twice Cluely's top plan per month) and anything outside technical interviews.
More detail: AuraCloak vs Interview Coder.
Several products here market live help during interviews and assessments. Many employers and testing platforms prohibit that, and breaking those rules can cost you the offer. Use these tools to prepare, practice and keep your own notes, and follow whatever rules the interviewer sets.
8. Glass by Pickle: open source, if it's still around
Glass was one of the most-starred open-source Cluely alternatives: a GPL-3.0 desktop assistant that read the screen and listened to audio, with bring-your-own-key for OpenAI, Gemini, Claude and Ollama. It's a fork of an earlier project called CheatingDaddy.
Price: free.
Platforms: a macOS app; Windows meant building from source with Node 20 and Visual Studio Build Tools.
The problem: on October 11, 2026, its main GitHub repository (pickle-com/glass) returned a 404. Forks and an Arch Linux package still exist. Until there's a maintained home again, we'd only recommend it if you're comfortable reading and building the code yourself.
Honorable mentions
- free-cluely projects on GitHub: independent open-source overlays using Gemini, Ollama or OpenRouter. Check the last commit date before installing. We explain what to look for in Is Cluely free?
- Parakeet AI and Verve AI: real-time interview copilots for Windows and macOS. Narrower than Cluely, so we left them off the main list.
How to choose
Answer these in order and you'll usually land on one product:
- What OS? Linux: Pluely. Windows 10: Natively, AuraCloak or GhostDesk (Cluely lists Windows 11 only). Mac: Cluely, Natively, Pluely or Final Round AI.
- Should it hear the call? If you want automatic transcripts and notes, choose Cluely, Natively or Pluely. If you'd rather nothing capture call audio, AuraCloak.
- Do you already pay for an AI? If yes, pick a tool with bring-your-own-key or browser mode so you don't pay twice.
- How long will you use it? Over six months, a lifetime license (AuraCloak $49, Pluely Dev Pro $120) beats any monthly plan here.
- Is it for interviews? Then the prep suites (Final Round AI, LockedIn AI) give you practice tools the overlays don't.
For a broader view beyond Cluely, see all invisible AI assistants compared.
FAQ
What is the best Cluely alternative?
For free use, Natively. For Mac, Windows and Linux with your own API keys, Pluely. For Windows with a one-time price, AuraCloak at $49. For a full interview prep suite, Final Round AI. The right pick depends mostly on your platform and whether you want the tool to listen to calls.
What is the best free Cluely alternative?
Natively is free for personal, non-commercial use with your own API keys and includes live transcription. Pluely's free plan also runs on your own keys and adds Linux support. Both include screen share hiding, which Cluely's free plan does not.
Is there an open source Cluely alternative?
Partly. Natively is source-available under a personal-use license, not a standard open-source license. Pluely's repository is labeled GPL-3.0, though its README says newer versions are proprietary. Glass by Pickle was GPL-3.0, but its main repository returned a 404 in October 2026.
Which Cluely alternative is cheapest on Windows?
Free: Natively or Pluely with your own API keys. Paid with screen share hiding included: AuraCloak at $9 a month or $49 once, then Pluely Dev Pro at $120 once. GhostDesk is $25 a month, and Cluely's hidden plan is $149.99 a month (checked October 2026).
Which Cluely alternatives work without listening to the call?
AuraCloak never captures call audio; voice input is push-to-talk from your own microphone. Most others, including Cluely, Natively, Pluely and GhostDesk, offer live transcription of the conversation.