Cluely works well as a bot-free meeting assistant: it listens, takes notes and suggests replies in a private overlay. But screen share hiding costs $149.99 a month, Trustpilot reviews (1.7/5) center on billing and cancellation problems, and answers can be generic. Good for Mac-based sales and founder calls; poor value if you mainly need a hidden window.
Is Cluely worth it in 2026?
For some people, yes. If you're on a Mac, you take a lot of external calls, and you want the AI to hear the conversation so you never have to type a question, Cluely Pro at $19.99 a month is a reasonable buy. If the reason you looked at Cluely is a private AI window that stays out of your screen share, the answer changes. That's the $149.99 tier, and at that price you're mostly paying for a Windows or macOS flag that cheaper tools include for free.
| Criterion | Score (out of 5) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Live suggestions during calls | 4 | Fast when it works; can be generic |
| Notes and recaps | 4 | Shareable notes after each meeting |
| Setup | 4.5 | No bot, no per-platform integration |
| Platforms | 3.5 | macOS 10.15+, Windows 11 x64, iPhone |
| Price of screen share hiding | 1.5 | $149.99 a month, no lifetime option |
| Billing and support | 1.5 | Repeated complaints on Trustpilot |
| Overall | 3 | Solid core, costly and bumpy around it |
How we reviewed Cluely
We make AuraCloak, a Windows overlay that competes with Cluely, so read this as an informed competitor's view. Our sources, all checked in October 2026: cluely.com (home, pricing, download and privacy policy pages), the Windows installer's public metadata, Cluely's Trustpilot profile, third-party reviews from efficient.app, LinkJob and eesel.ai, and public reporting summarized on Wikipedia. We didn't buy the $149.99 tier, so we don't report our own hands-on results for it. Where a claim comes from Cluely itself, we say so.
What does Cluely do well?
No bot in the meeting. This is Cluely's best argument against Otter, Fireflies and similar notetakers. Nothing joins the call, so there's no awkward "who invited the recorder?" moment, and it works across Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack and Webex without separate integrations.
It hears the call for you. You don't have to retype what the other person said. Press Cmd+Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows) and Cluely answers with the recent conversation already loaded. Reviewers who liked it mostly liked this: quick answers and transcripts that kept up.
Low effort to start. The Starter plan is free, the installer handles everything, and there are no API keys to manage.
Cross-device. Mac, Windows 11 and an iPhone notetaker app is a wider spread than most tools in this category.
Where does Cluely fall short?
The price jump. Pro is $19.99 a month. Pro + Undetectability is $149.99. The only listed difference is hiding the window from screen share. That's $1,560 a year extra for one feature.
Answer quality varies. LinkJob's tester found the answers fast but often short and generic. Efficient.app's take was that the product felt less polished than the marketing around it. Cluely lets you upload files and custom instructions (3 files on Starter, unlimited on Pro), which helps, but it doesn't let you pick or bring your own model.
Windows 10 is left out. The download page lists Windows 11 on x64 only. Plenty of work laptops still run Windows 10.
It records by design. Audio, transcripts and screenshots go to Cluely's servers. That's fine for many calls, but some companies and some jurisdictions require every participant's consent before a call is recorded.
Trust. CEO Roy Lee admitted in March 2026 that a $7 million revenue figure he'd given TechCrunch was false. It doesn't change how the app works, but buyers do bring it up.
What do Reddit and Trustpilot users say about Cluely?
Trustpilot is the clearest public record. When we checked in October 2026, Cluely's profile showed 1.7 out of 5 from 22 reviews, 95% of them one-star. The profile is unclaimed and Cluely doesn't invite reviews, so this is a small sample of people who went looking for somewhere to complain. The themes are consistent, though:
- Being charged for a year when they expected a month, or after they thought they'd cancelled.
- Refund requests stalling, and support that's mostly an AI bot.
- Transcripts that mix up speakers, and wrong answers on screenshot-based questions.
- An app that's hard to uninstall or reopens on its own.
Reddit is noisier, and we couldn't review threads directly for this piece. The Reddit comment that eesel.ai quotes in its Cluely pricing article is about ethics rather than features, which fits the reaction to Cluely's launch campaign. Third-party reviewers who tested the product land close to Trustpilot: speed and convenience get credit, answer depth and billing get criticism. Our honest summary: people who use it as a notetaker with live hints are mostly fine; people who paid for the top tier expecting magic are the angry ones.
On the free plan, start a meeting with yourself in Zoom or Teams, share your whole screen and record it. Play the recording back. On Starter and Pro the overlay will be in it, which tells you exactly what the $149.99 tier is selling.
How much does Cluely cost?
From cluely.com/pricing, checked October 2026:
| Plan | Monthly | 12 months | Screen share hiding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0 | $0 | No |
| Pro | $19.99 (from $11.99 billed yearly) | $239.88 monthly, $143.88 yearly | No |
| Pro + Undetectability | $149.99 | $1,799.88 | Yes |
| AuraCloak (for comparison) | $9 | $108, or $49 once for lifetime | Yes, both plans |
More detail, including how the yearly discount works, is in our Cluely pricing breakdown. AuraCloak's price covers the software only: AI usage goes to your provider, or costs nothing extra if you use your existing ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro login in browser mode.
What we'd do in your position: use Starter for a week of real calls first. If the notes are what you keep coming back to, Pro billed yearly at $143.88 is the value pick. Only look at the top tier after the recording test above, and if you share single windows rather than your full screen, you may not need it at all.
Is Cluely safe and legit?
Cluely is a legitimate, venture-funded company (a $15 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2025), and the app does what it says. Its privacy policy says it doesn't sell your data or train on it, and that it collects audio, transcripts and screenshots, stored with service providers in any country where it has them.
Two practical cautions. Treat checkout carefully, because the most common complaint is an unexpected annual charge. And if your calls involve client or patient data, check with whoever owns compliance before installing any tool that records meetings.
Who should use Cluely, and who should look elsewhere?
Good fit: Mac users who want automatic notes plus live hints, take many external calls, and are happy on Pro without screen share hiding (for example, they share a single window instead of the whole screen).
Poor fit: Windows 10 users, anyone whose main need is a private window during screen shares, and teams that can't send call recordings to a third party.
For that second group, AuraCloak is the option we know best because we build it. It's a Windows 10 and 11 overlay, excluded from screen capture on both plans. It doesn't listen to the call; you type, use Alt+V push-to-talk on your own microphone, or press Alt+S to screenshot. You choose the model, and API keys stay encrypted on your PC. The trade-off is real: no automatic notes, no Mac. Our Cluely alternative page spells it out, and the alternatives hub covers Pluely, Natively, GhostDesk and others.
Screen share hiding on Windows for $49 once, not $149.99 a month.
Get AuraCloakStill deciding? AuraCloak vs Cluely goes row by row.
FAQ
Is Cluely worth it?
Cluely Pro ($19.99 a month) is worth it if you want a bot-free AI that hears your meetings and writes notes, especially on a Mac. The $149.99 a month tier is hard to justify if your main need is hiding an AI window from screen share, since cheaper tools include that.
Is Cluely safe?
Cluely is a legitimate, venture-funded US company. Its privacy policy says it collects audio, transcripts and screenshots and does not sell or train on your data. The main practical risk users report is billing: unexpected annual charges and hard cancellations.
Does Cluely actually work?
Yes, the core features work: it listens to a call, keeps notes and suggests replies when you press Cmd or Ctrl+Enter. Reviewers credit its speed and bot-free design, and criticize generic answers, billing surprises and the cost of the plan that hides it from screen share.
Can people see Cluely when I share my screen?
On the free Starter plan and on Pro, assume yes if you share the screen the overlay sits on. Cluely's pricing page lists hiding from screen share only in Pro + Undetectability at $149.99 a month. A phone camera aimed at your monitor sees it on any plan.
Does Cluely work on Windows 10?
Cluely's download page lists Windows 11 on x64 as the Windows requirement, so Windows 10 isn't officially supported (checked October 2026). AuraCloak runs on Windows 10 version 2004 or later and Windows 11.