Cluely vs Witifier: an honest comparison (2026)

Cluely and Witifier both sit next to you during a live conversation and suggest what to say. That is roughly where the similarity ends. They hear the call differently, they suggest different kinds of things, and they are built for different people. We make Witifier, so read this with that in mind; we have tried to be fair, and to say plainly where Cluely is the better tool.

The short version

Pick Cluely if you need help in any desktop app (Webex, Slack huddles, native Zoom on a Mac), want the AI to read what is on your screen, or mostly want "the right answer" fast.
Pick Witifier if your calls happen in Meet, Teams, Zoom or YouTube in the browser, and you want more than answers: real facts, witty lines, good questions and callbacks to earlier moments, tuned to what the conversation is (a podcast, a sales call, a date).

How each one hears the conversation

Cluely is a desktop app for Windows and Mac. It listens to your system audio, runs its own transcription and can also look at your screen (its interface shows a "Viewed screen" step). That is powerful: it works with almost any app that plays sound, and it can answer a question about the slide or code in front of you.

Witifier takes a lighter route. A Chrome extension reads the live captions that Google Meet, Microsoft Teams (teams.live.com and teams.microsoft.com), Zoom in the browser (app.zoom.us) and YouTube already show. It does not record audio. The trade-off: captions must be on, and set to the language being spoken. For the desktop Zoom and Teams apps there is Witifier App on Windows, whose "Whole PC" mode reads Windows Live Captions.

What they actually suggest

Cluely is built around a hotkey: press Cmd/Ctrl+Enter for "Assist" or ask "What should I say?" and it drafts a response from what it has heard and seen. It also writes real-time notes.

Witifier shows "cards" in a small box, color-coded by type, while the conversation flows:

Knowledge: real facts relevant to what was just said, never invented.
Wit, Humor and Irony: lines with some spark, for when "correct" is not enough.
Running gag: callbacks to an earlier funny moment, which work even an hour later because Witifier keeps a summary of everything said more than two minutes ago.
Question and Proverb.
In work modes, also Answer, Argument, Close and Heads-up; in Dating mode, Flirt.

First words of an idea appear in roughly 1 to 1.5 seconds, and a HELP ME button (or Alt+Shift+W) asks for one right now.

Side by side

	Cluely	Witifier
Form	Desktop app (Windows, Mac)	Chrome extension (Web) or free Windows app (Mac/Linux beta)
How it hears	System audio, own transcription; can read your screen	The platform's live captions in your browser; no audio recording
Where it works	Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex, Slack and other desktop apps	Meet, Teams and Zoom in the browser, YouTube; desktop Zoom/Teams via App "Whole PC" on Windows
Style of help	On-demand answers ("Assist", "What should I say?")	Continuous color-coded cards: facts, wit, humor, questions, callbacks
Modes	General purpose	8: Podcast/panel, Work meeting, Sales, Interview, Negotiation, Networking, Class/talk, Dating
Notes	Real-time notes	After the call: summary, decisions, tasks, best moments, follow-up email; meeting library
Joins the meeting?	No	No
Price*	Limited free tier (about 5 responses/day); Pro about $19.99/month; separate "undetectability" tier reported at $75–150/month	Web: 5 free minutes, then €19/month for 6 hours. App: free, with your own Claude Pro or Max

*At the time of writing (October 2026), from public pricing pages and press reports. Sources disagree on Cluely's top tier.

Where Cluely is stronger

Any app, not just the browser. Because it listens to system audio, it does not care which program the call runs in.
It sees your screen. Useful when the question is about a document, a chart or a piece of code.
No captions needed. Its own transcription means you do not depend on the platform's caption quality.
Funding and scale. Cluely raised a $15M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2025 (about $20M in total, with a valuation reported around $120M). That buys a lot of engineering.

Where Witifier is different

Wit, not just answers. Most assistants optimise for the correct reply. Witifier also aims for the memorable one: the sharp fact, the light joke, the callback the room remembers.
Modes for different conversations. Interview, Sales and Negotiation come with no humor by default; Podcast leans into facts and running gags; Dating is about tasteful, respectful flirting. You can still flip the Knowledge and Wit switches yourself.
Nothing to install but an extension. Witifier Web runs in the cloud; you sign in with Google.
A free option. Witifier App uses your own Claude subscription through Claude Code, so there is no Witifier bill at all.

A word on "undetectable"

Cluely markets itself as the "#1 Undetectable AI for Meetings" and says it is invisible to screen sharing and recordings. Its early "cheat on everything" campaign drew a lot of criticism. Witifier makes narrower claims: no bot joins the call, nobody is added to the guest list, the box is only on your screen, and it hides itself while you share your screen in Meet, Teams or Zoom. We do not promise invisibility to every recording tool. We wrote a whole post on what "undetectable" really means and where the ethical line is.

Verdict

If your work lives in desktop apps and you want a screen-aware answer machine, Cluely is a solid choice. If you talk in the browser and want to be the person with the right fact and the best line, try Witifier: the first five minutes are free, and you will know within one call whether it suits you.