A Cluely alternative for Windows that includes screen share hiding

Why people look for a Cluely alternative

Most people who search "cluely alternative" have already installed Cluely, opened the pricing page and stopped at one line. On cluely.com/pricing (checked October 11, 2026), "Undetectability to Screen Share" is ticked only in the top plan. Starter is free and Pro is $19.99 a month, but the plan that keeps the overlay out of your screen share is $149.99 a month.

That's $1,799.88 a year for the one feature many people downloaded Cluely to get.

Price isn't the only reason. Here are the four we hear most often from Windows users:

• Windows 10. Cluely's download page lists Windows 11 on x64 as the Windows requirement. Plenty of work laptops are still on Windows 10. AuraCloak runs on Windows 10 version 2004 or later and on Windows 11.
• No bring-your-own-key option. Cluely's plans bundle the AI models. If you already pay for OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI or GitHub Copilot, you pay twice.
• A recorder you didn't ask for. Cluely is now sold as an AI notetaker that listens to the conversation and records meeting audio. Some people only want a quiet window to ask an AI something, without a transcript of the call being created.
• Subscription only. Cluely has no lifetime plan. Neither do most tools in this category.

AuraCloak vs Cluely at a glance

Prices and platforms come from each vendor's own site, checked October 2026. Cluely's undetectability price is the monthly figure on its pricing page.

For a deeper split by feature, see the full AuraCloak vs Cluely comparison.

What you give up if you switch

Be clear-eyed about this part, because it decides whether AuraCloak is the right Cluely alternative for you or a frustrating one.

Cluely hears the meeting. It picks up what's being said, keeps notes and can answer with that context already loaded. AuraCloak doesn't do any of that. It never captures call audio, it doesn't join the meeting, and it won't write a summary afterwards. You decide what goes into the prompt: you type it, say it with Alt+V into your own microphone, or grab the screen with Alt+S.

You also lose Mac and iPhone. AuraCloak is a native .NET 8 app for Windows only.

And there's a setup step Cluely doesn't have: you either paste an API key or log into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini inside browser mode. It takes about two minutes, but it's a step.

What a call looks like with AuraCloak

You're sharing your screen in Teams, walking a client through a spreadsheet. They ask how your pricing compares with a competitor's annual plan. You press Ctrl+Alt+Space, type "competitor X annual vs our 3-year deal, 2 lines", and the answer streams into a semi-transparent window over the corner of your sheet. The client sees the spreadsheet. The overlay isn't in their view because Windows left it out of the capture Teams receives.

A few details that matter in practice:

• Click-through mode (Alt+C) lets your mouse pass through the overlay to the app underneath, so it never blocks the cell you need to click.
• Opacity slider so the text is readable to you without covering your slides.
• Screenshots per monitor with Alt+Shift+1 to 9, attached to the chat for any vision model.
• Provider quick-switch, so you can ask GPT one question and Claude the next.

Cheap Cluely alternatives: what you pay over a year

"Cheap" depends on how long you'll use it. Here's the 12-month cost of the plan in each product that includes hiding from screen share. Vendor prices checked October 2026; AI usage costs (API fees) are not included.

The lifetime plan pays for itself in month six compared with paying monthly. Against Cluely's undetectability tier, it's less than a third of one month.

Free Cluely alternatives, and when they make more sense

If your budget is exactly zero, AuraCloak isn't your answer. Two real options are:

• Natively: free for personal and non-commercial use under its own source-available license, BYOK, macOS 12+ and Windows 10/11, with live transcription. The free license doesn't cover commercial use.
• Pluely: a free plan if you bring your own API keys, and it's the only one of these with a Linux build.

Cluely's own Starter plan is also free, but it doesn't hide from screen share. We break that down in Is Cluely free?, and the wider field is in our best Cluely alternatives roundup.

Is AuraCloak really invisible on screen share?

AuraCloak calls SetWindowDisplayAffinity with WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE, a Windows flag introduced in Windows 10 version 2004. Every capture path that goes through Windows (Windows.Graphics.Capture, DXGI Desktop Duplication, GDI BitBlt) skips the window. So Zoom, Teams, Google Meet in a browser, Slack, Discord, OBS, Loom, Xbox Game Bar, the Snipping Tool and PrintScreen all leave it out. File pickers opened from the overlay are hidden too.

The limits are physical and simple:

• A phone or camera pointed at your monitor sees it.
• Hardware capture cards and remote-desktop setups sit outside Windows capture APIs.
• On Windows builds older than 2004, Windows falls back to showing a black box instead of hiding the window.

We explain the mechanism and how to test it in WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE explained.

Switching from Cluely in about ten minutes

1. Check your Windows version: press Win+R, type winver. You need version 2004 or later (any Windows 11 build qualifies).
2. Buy a plan on the pricing page and download the installer (about 50 MB, no extra runtimes).
3. Paste the license key from your purchase email on first launch.
4. Pick an AI: paste an API key, or open browser mode and log into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini.
5. Start a test Zoom or Teams meeting with yourself, share your full screen, and look at the preview. The overlay shouldn't be in it.
6. Cancel Cluely's renewal if you're on a paid plan.

FAQ

What is the best Cluely alternative for Windows?

If you want a private AI overlay that stays out of Windows screen shares without paying for Cluely's $149.99 a month undetectability tier, AuraCloak is built for that: $9 a month or $49 once, Windows 10 (2004+) and 11. If you need automatic call transcription and meeting notes, look at Natively or Pluely instead, or stay on Cluely.

Is there a free Cluely alternative?

Yes. Natively is free for personal, non-commercial use with your own API keys, and Pluely has a free plan if you bring your own keys. AuraCloak is not free: it costs $9 a month or $49 once, and AI usage is billed by your provider or covered by an existing ChatGPT or Claude subscription in browser mode.

Does AuraCloak listen to my meeting like Cluely?

No. AuraCloak does not record or transcribe call audio and never joins the meeting. Voice input is push-to-talk from your own microphone (Alt+V). You type, speak or screenshot what you want to ask, and the answer appears in the overlay.

Is AuraCloak undetectable?

We don't use that word. AuraCloak asks Windows to exclude its window from screen capture, so Zoom, Teams, Google Meet in a browser, OBS, Loom and the Snipping Tool leave it out. A phone camera pointed at your monitor still sees it, and hardware capture cards are outside Windows capture APIs.

Can I use my ChatGPT Plus subscription instead of an API key?

Yes. Browser mode loads ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Gemini, Copilot or Perplexity inside the overlay with your normal login, so a ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription works with no API key and no extra AI cost.