The best Cluely alternatives in 2026: six tools compared and priced against Cluely

The best Cluely alternative is Littlebird if you want help during the call and a memory of your work after it: Plus is $17 a month billed annually or $20 monthly, against Cluely Pro at $19.99 a month on cluely.com/pricing, read October 6, 2026. Granola is the pick for bot-free notes, Fathom for a free plan with CRM sync, Otter or Fireflies for team transcripts, and Pluely or Natively if you want Cluely's live overlay free and open source. Below, all six sit beside Cluely in one table, each with its price from its own pricing page.

Who is ranking whom: this site is published by Littlebird, and Littlebird appears in this ranking. We put it first where we believe the fit is real, we explain why in plain terms, and every entry ends with an honest reason to choose it instead. Competitor descriptions are verified against public materials and dated in the text.

You watched the Cluely demo, you have a sales call Thursday, and now three pricing tabs are open. This guide puts Cluely in the table as the baseline and prices every alternative from its own pricing page.

What does Cluely do, and what does it cost?

You're 20 minutes into a sales call and the prospect asks for a number you don't have in front of you. That moment is what Cluely is built for. It's a desktop app that listens to the audio and watches the screen during a virtual meeting, then shows suggested answers in an overlay designed to be invisible while you share your screen; a companion mobile app works as a meeting notetaker (Wikipedia, verified September 23, 2026).

Three tiers are on its pricing page, shown as monthly prices with no team or enterprise tier listed (cluely.com/pricing, read October 6, 2026); we didn't verify an annual rate.

• Starter. Price: Free. What the page lists: Limited AI responses, limited meeting notetaking, customize instructions and upload files, ask AI about all your past meetings. Verified: cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026.
• Pro. Price: $19.99 a month. What the page lists: Unlimited AI responses, unlimited meeting notetaking, unlimited access to the latest AI models, priority support. Verified: cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026.
• Pro + Undetectability. Price: $149.99 a month. What the page lists: Everything in Pro, plus completely hidden to meeting screen-sharing software. Verified: cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026.

How does Cluely compare with the alternatives?

Seven tools on six axes, with Cluely as the first row so every other row reads against it. Every price was read on the vendor's own pricing page on the date shown.

• Cluely. During the call: Suggested answers in an overlay (Wikipedia, 2026). After the call: Meeting notes, and ask AI about past meetings (cluely.com/pricing, 2026). Bot in the call? No. Free tier: Starter, $0, limited responses and notes. Paid from: Pro, $19.99 a month; Pro + Undetectability, $149.99 a month (cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026). Platforms: Desktop app plus a mobile notetaker app (Wikipedia, 2026).
• Littlebird. During the call: Transcribes with no bot; Hover answers on demand (Mac, double-tap Option). After the call: Structured summary and full transcript in a memory of your whole workday. Bot in the call? No. Free tier: Basic, $0, limited meeting notes, full context from day one. Paid from: Plus, $17 per month billed annually, $20 monthly. Platforms: Mac and Windows; iOS and Android companions.
• Granola. During the call: Notes take shape from what you jot (granola.ai, 2026). After the call: Templated notes; Basic keeps 30 days of history (granola.ai/pricing, 2026). Bot in the call? No. Free tier: Basic, $0, 30 days of history. Paid from: Business, $14 per user per month (granola.ai/pricing, September 23, 2026). Platforms: macOS, Windows, iOS, Android (granola.ai, 2026).
• Fathom. During the call: A bot records by default; bot-free capture is a Mac beta (fathom.ai/pricing, 2026). After the call: Summaries; CRM sync and shared call libraries on paid tiers. Bot in the call? By default. Free tier: Free forever, unlimited recordings and transcription. Paid from: Premium, $16 per user per month billed annually, $20 monthly (fathom.ai/pricing, September 23, 2026). Platforms: Bot-free beta on Mac; other platforms not verified here.
• Otter. During the call: Its Notetaker joins the call, or the desktop app records bot-free (otter.ai, 2026). After the call: Transcripts, summaries, and action items in a team workspace. Bot in the call? By default. Free tier: Basic, $0, 300 transcription minutes a month. Paid from: Pro, $8.33 per user per month billed annually, $16.99 monthly (otter.ai/pricing, September 23, 2026). Platforms: Web, iOS, Android, and a Mac or Windows desktop app (otter.ai/pricing, 2026).
• Fireflies. During the call: A bot records Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and more (fireflies.ai/pricing, 2026). After the call: Transcript, summary, and action items; 400 minutes of storage per team on Free. Bot in the call? Yes. Free tier: Free forever, limited AI summaries. Paid from: Pro, $10 per seat per month billed annually, $18 monthly (fireflies.ai/pricing, October 6, 2026). Platforms: Desktop and mobile apps listed (fireflies.ai/pricing, 2026).
• Pluely and Natively. During the call: An overlay or live transcription you run yourself (GitHub, 2026). After the call: Whatever you set up; Natively keeps notes with retrieval over them. Bot in the call? No. Free tier: Free, open source. Paid from: No subscription; you supply model keys where needed. Platforms: Desktop; install from each repo (GitHub, September 13, 2026).

Read down the paid column. On annual billing, every paid alternative here costs less per month than Cluely Pro's $19.99 (each pricing page, 2026), the two open-source overlays cost nothing, and only Cluely sells a tier whose single feature is being hidden from screen sharing.

Is Cluely worth it?

Yes, for one job: live prompts on screen while you talk, at $19.99 a month for Pro (cluely.com/pricing, read October 6, 2026). If the call itself is where you win or lose, a tool built for in-meeting performance is a legitimate thing to pay for, and Pro is priced like an ordinary subscription.

The value ends where the meeting ends. Both public pages describe a product scoped to the conversation: it monitors screen and audio during virtual meetings, and the plans are measured in AI responses and meeting notes (Wikipedia, September 23, 2026; cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026). You keep a record of the call, since the page lists notetaking and past-meeting questions. What you don't get is a memory of the work around it: the proposal you were editing before the call, the email thread that set it up, the thing you agreed to last week.

The top tier is a separate decision. It adds one line, being hidden from screen-sharing software, and costs $149.99 a month against $19.99 for Pro, 7.5 times the price (cluely.com/pricing, read October 6, 2026). Pay it only if you need the overlay hidden from the people you're talking to.

Two company facts belong in a purchase decision, stated plainly. Chungin "Roy" Lee, Neel Shanmugam, and Alex Chen founded Cluely after Columbia University suspended them in March 2025 over Interview Coder, launched it on April 20, 2025 under the tagline "Cheat on Everything," and raised $20.3 million across a seed round and a Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2025 (Wikipedia, verified September 23, 2026). Lee said in 2025 that annual recurring revenue was $7 million and admitted in 2026 that the real figure, per his own screenshots, was $5.2 million (Wikipedia, verified September 23, 2026).

Why do people look for a Cluely alternative?

Three reasons. After-call value: the transcript is there, but the follow-up and the recall three weeks later are somebody else's job, which is what the five note takers below are built for. Optics: some people don't want an undetectability tier on their machine in a client call. Price: Starter caps responses and notes, and the hidden-overlay tier is $149.99 a month (cluely.com/pricing, read October 6, 2026), hence the open-source overlays.

What are the best Cluely alternatives in 2026?

Ranked on what you keep after the call, with each tool's price next to Cluely's, and every entry ends with an honest reason to pick something else.

1. Littlebird: help during the call, and a memory after it

Littlebird is the best Cluely alternative if you want help during the call and a memory of your work after it, and Plus costs $17 a month billed annually or $20 monthly, against Cluely Pro at $19.99 a month (cluely.com/pricing, read October 6, 2026). It's a personal AI assistant that already understands your work. During a meeting, Meeting Notes transcribes and summarizes with no bot joining, and Hover (double-tap Option on Mac) opens Littlebird over the call so you can ask a question mid-conversation: what did they say about budget last time, what's the number in the proposal I sent. The answer comes from your own history, because Littlebird pays attention to the active window and captured the earlier call and the proposal on screen.

Then the call ends and the real difference starts. The summary separates decisions, your action items from everyone else's, and open questions, with the full transcript beside it. You chat from the summary to draft the follow-up, and a Meeting Prep button on the next event card produces a briefing from your context (see the meeting prep guide). In a Littlebird user survey (2026), 89% of heavy Meeting Notes users say Littlebird reduced their anxiety about dropping the ball.

Two tradeoffs, stated plainly. Littlebird isn't a live answer feed: it helps when you ask, not on every sentence, and Hover is Mac-only. And the app runs on your computer while the memory it builds is encrypted and stored in the AWS cloud, SOC 2 Type II compliant, and never sold; the details are in our safety guide.

Choose Cluely instead if you want continuous on-screen prompts while you speak, and the call itself is where you need the help.

2. Granola: the focused, bot-free notepad

Granola is the Cluely alternative for clean notes and nothing on screen during the call: Business is $14 per user per month and Basic is free with 30 days of meeting history (granola.ai/pricing, verified September 23, 2026), so a seat costs less than Cluely Pro's $19.99 (cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026). It's a focused, bot-free meeting notetaker with customizable templates that uses your computer's audio, so it never invites a bot, and its notes take shape from what you jot during the call, on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android (granola.ai, verified September 23, 2026). It raised a $125M Series C at a $1.5B valuation in March 2026. The limit is scope: Granola knows the call and your jottings, not the doc you were editing before it. See the Granola alternatives guide for what sits around it.

Choose Granola when you want great notes from every meeting, a calm app, and no live help at all.

3. Fathom: free recording, CRM sync on paid tiers

Fathom is the Cluely alternative for a sales team that needs every call in the CRM, and its free plan is the most generous here: free forever, with unlimited recordings and transcription (fathom.ai/pricing, verified September 23, 2026). Premium is $16 per user per month billed annually or $20 monthly, with CRM syncs and coaching metrics on its feature list (fathom.ai/pricing, verified September 23, 2026). The tradeoff is the bot: Fathom records through a meeting bot by default, and its bot-free capture is marked as a Mac beta (fathom.ai/pricing, verified September 23, 2026).

Choose Fathom when you want unlimited recording for free, or when the notes have to land in a CRM and your team reviews calls together.

4. Otter: the team transcript library

Otter is the Cluely alternative when the transcript is the product and several people need to search it, and it's the lowest paid entry on this list: Pro is $8.33 per user per month billed annually or $16.99 monthly, and Basic is free with 300 transcription minutes a month (otter.ai/pricing, verified September 23, 2026). Its AI Notetaker joins the meeting as a visible participant, and a desktop app for Mac or Windows records bot-free (otter.ai, verified September 23, 2026). One limit from its own pricing page: Basic caps conversations at 30 minutes each and keeps only your 25 most recent (otter.ai/pricing, read October 5, 2026). Switching? See the Otter alternatives guide.

Choose Otter when a shared, searchable library of transcripts matters more than what any one person does with them, and a visible bot bothers nobody.

5. Fireflies: the bot-based recorder for many systems

Fireflies is the Cluely alternative for a bot-based recorder that pushes summaries into many other tools: Pro is $10 per seat per month billed annually or $18 monthly, and the free plan is free forever with limited AI summaries and 400 minutes of storage per team (fireflies.ai/pricing, read October 6, 2026). Its bot records Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and more, and the page lists desktop and mobile apps alongside it (fireflies.ai/pricing, read October 6, 2026). Its free plan's unlimited transcription carries an asterisk, so read the footnote. There's no bot-free mode, which is the whole tradeoff.

Choose Fireflies when you want a bot in every call and the summaries sent on to the rest of your stack.

6. Pluely and Natively: the open-source overlays

Pluely and Natively are the Cluely alternatives if your reason for leaving is the price: both are free and open source, with no subscription at all, and GitHub's cluely-alternative topic lists more than a dozen such projects (GitHub, verified September 13, 2026). Pluely, at about 2,600 stars, is a small desktop overlay built with Tauri that describes itself as a privacy-first assistant for meetings and conversations and is designed not to show up in video calls. Natively, at about 2,500 stars, is a free meeting assistant with real-time transcription, AI meeting notes, lecture recording, and retrieval over your own notes. Further down the list, OpenCluely, at about 940 stars, is built specifically for technical interviews (GitHub, verified September 13, 2026).

The tradeoff is the same as with any open-source tool: you install it, supply your own model keys where needed, and keep it running. There's no support desk and no memory of your workday unless you build one.

Choose Pluely or Natively when you want live help during calls without paying for it, and you're comfortable running open-source software yourself.

When is Cluely the right pick?

When the help has to happen while you're talking and you want it polished and supported: a sales pitch where you want product data on screen, a demo where you need the number now. None of the first five tools above is built for that moment. Just know what you don't get: the memory, the follow-up, and the recall a month later are on you.

What should you check before switching?

Four things. The bot question: Littlebird, Granola, Cluely, and the open-source overlays put nothing in the participant list; Fathom and Otter send a bot by default and Fireflies always does (their pricing pages, 2026). The scope question: is it the call, or the workday? The price question: the table above has every figure and its date. And the storage question: Littlebird's answer is that the app runs on your computer and the memory it builds is encrypted and stored in the AWS cloud, SOC 2 Type II compliant, never sold, and deletable at any time. Leaving with notes you want to keep? Littlebird imports existing transcripts and summaries from other apps (Settings > Import) as searchable Meeting Notes. The bot-free tools are side by side in the bot-free note takers guide, and the wider field is ranked in the best AI meeting note takers.

Common questions

What is the best Cluely alternative?

Littlebird if you want help during the call and a memory of your work after it; Plus is $17 a month billed annually or $20 monthly. Granola for a focused bot-free notepad, Fathom for a free plan with CRM sync, Otter or Fireflies for team transcripts with a bot, and Pluely or Natively if you want what Cluely does live, free and open source.

Is Cluely worth it?

Yes, if what you want is live prompts on screen during a call. Pro is $19.99 a month and Pro + Undetectability is $149.99 a month on cluely.com/pricing as of October 6, 2026. The value drops when the call ends, and the top tier buys only invisibility to screen-sharing software. If after-call notes and recall matter to you, one of the alternatives above is the better buy.

How much does Cluely cost?

Three tiers on cluely.com/pricing as of October 6, 2026: Starter is free with limited AI responses and meeting notes, Pro is $19.99 a month with those limits removed, and Pro + Undetectability is $149.99 a month and adds being hidden from screen-sharing software. No team or enterprise tier is listed.

Which Cluely alternative is cheapest?

Free and open source: Pluely or Natively, with no subscription (GitHub, September 13, 2026). Among paid tools, Otter Pro at $8.33 per user per month billed annually (otter.ai/pricing, September 23, 2026) and Fireflies Pro at $10 per seat per month billed annually (fireflies.ai/pricing, October 6, 2026) are the lowest entries. Littlebird Plus is $17 a month billed annually.

Is there a free Cluely alternative?

Several. Cluely's own Starter tier is free with capped responses and notes (cluely.com/pricing, October 6, 2026). Littlebird Basic is $0 with limited meeting notes and full context from day one. Fathom's free plan has unlimited recordings, Otter Basic has 300 minutes a month, and Fireflies Free has limited AI summaries (their pricing pages, 2026). Pluely and Natively are free to run and yours to maintain.

Does Littlebird show answers during a meeting like Cluely?

Not automatically. Hover (double-tap Option on Mac) lets you ask Littlebird a question over the live call, and the answer comes from your own past calls and documents. It's on demand rather than a continuous feed, and it's Mac-only.

Which of these put no bot in my call?

Littlebird, Granola, Cluely, Pluely, and Natively don't. Fathom and Otter send a bot by default, with bot-free desktop modes beside it, and Fireflies always works through its bot (their sites, 2026).

Help during the call. Memory after it.

Transcribed with no bot, answered from your own work. Free Basic plan, no setup.

Get Littlebird

Cluely pricing read October 6, 2026 on cluely.com/pricing; tiers change often, so check the vendor's site. Cluely origin, launch, funding, and the revenue statement verified September 23, 2026 against Wikipedia. Fireflies tiers, limits, and platforms read October 6, 2026 on fireflies.ai/pricing. Granola, Fathom, and Otter prices and capture methods verified September 23, 2026 on granola.ai/pricing, fathom.ai/pricing, otter.ai/pricing, and the vendors' own sites; Otter's plan limits and platforms read on otter.ai/pricing October 5, 2026. Open-source project descriptions and star counts verified September 13, 2026 against GitHub's cluely-alternative topic. Littlebird facts come from our maintained internal fact base and littlebird.ai/pricing; the survey figure is from a Littlebird user survey, 2026.