Last updated: February 2026
What Is Cluely?
Cluely is a desktop application that provides real-time AI coaching during live video calls. It runs as an invisible overlay on your screen during Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and similar platforms, listening to the conversation and displaying suggested responses, talking points, and relevant information that only you can see.
The technology uses speech-to-text transcription and optical character recognition (OCR) to understand what's being said and what's on screen. That data feeds into a large language model (like GPT-4) which generates contextual suggestions in real time. You can also upload your own documents (sales scripts, product specs, study guides) to create a personalized knowledge base that the AI draws from.
Cluely has one of the most controversial backstories in recent tech. Co-founder Chungin "Roy" Lee originally built it as "Interview Coder," a tool he used to cheat his way through Amazon technical interviews while at Columbia University. Columbia expelled him. Rather than retreating, Lee rebranded the product, raised $5.3 million in venture funding, and marketed it as a "cheating tool for everything." By late 2025, after significant backlash, the company pivoted to positioning itself as a standard AI meeting assistant. The ethical baggage hasn't gone away.
Try CluelyHow Cluely Works
Once installed, Cluely runs as a desktop app that overlays on top of your video call window. When someone asks you a question, Cluely transcribes it in real time and generates a suggested response. The suggestion appears on your screen in an overlay that's invisible to other call participants (it doesn't show up in screen shares or recordings on the other end).
You can configure "playbooks," which are custom knowledge bases. Upload a PDF of your company's pricing guide, and Cluely will pull pricing details when a prospect asks about costs. Upload a technical specification document, and it'll surface relevant specs during engineering discussions. This customization is where Cluely adds the most legitimate value, giving sales reps and customer success managers instant access to information they'd otherwise have to look up mid-call.
The app also generates meeting transcripts, summaries, and action items after each call, similar to tools like Otter.ai or Fireflies.
Key Features
Real-Time AI Coaching
The core feature. As the conversation unfolds, Cluely suggests responses, counter-arguments, data points, and talking points. The AI adapts to the context of the discussion, pulling from both its general knowledge and any custom playbooks you've uploaded.
Custom Playbooks
Upload PDFs, documents, or text files to create a knowledge base. Cluely references this material when generating suggestions. Useful for sales teams who need instant access to pricing, competitive battlecards, or product feature lists during prospect calls.
Meeting Transcription and Summaries
Cluely automatically transcribes calls and generates post-meeting summaries with key takeaways and action items. This is table-stakes functionality that most AI meeting assistants offer, but it's included here.
Multi-Platform Support
Works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and other major video conferencing platforms. The desktop app runs on both Mac and Windows.
Pricing
- Free: 30 minutes of coaching per week. Access to 2 playbooks. Basic transcription.
- Starter: $19/month. 5 hours of coached calls monthly. More playbook slots.
- Pro: $49/month ($19/month billed annually). Unlimited coaching time, unlimited prompts, priority access to newest AI models.
- Team: $99/seat/year. Shared playbooks, admin dashboards, SSO integration.
There's a 7-day free trial for the Pro tier. The free plan is extremely limited at 30 minutes per week, which is barely enough to test during a single meeting.
The Elephant in the Room: Ethics and Trust
Let's address this directly, because it's impossible to review Cluely without talking about it.
Cluely was originally built and marketed as a cheating tool. The founder was expelled from Columbia for using it to fake technical interviews. The company's early marketing explicitly advertised it for cheating on exams and job interviews. While the messaging has been cleaned up since late 2025, the underlying technology hasn't fundamentally changed. It's still an invisible overlay designed so the other party doesn't know you're getting AI assistance.
Whether using AI coaching during a sales call is "cheating" depends on your perspective. Sales teams have always used battlecards, cheat sheets, and CRM notes during calls. Cluely just automates that with AI. The difference is transparency: if you're using a tool the other person doesn't know about, and that tool is generating the words coming out of your mouth, there's a trust issue.
In mid-2025, Cluely suffered a data breach that exposed personal information, interview transcripts, and screenshots of over 83,000 users. Cluely's own privacy policy states that you must inform all call participants that recording is happening and get their consent. This directly contradicts the "undetectable" marketing angle.
What We Like
- Custom playbooks are genuinely useful: For sales teams, having instant access to competitive intel, pricing details, and product specs during live calls is valuable. The AI surfaces relevant information faster than you could look it up manually.
- Real-time transcription works well: The live transcript and post-call summaries are accurate and save time on meeting notes.
- Concept has legitimate applications: Used transparently (with participants aware), real-time AI coaching could help junior sales reps ramp up faster, help non-native speakers in meetings, and assist people with cognitive disabilities.
What Could Be Better
- Response delay undermines usefulness: Independent testing found 5 to 10 second delays between a question being asked and a suggestion appearing. In fast-paced conversations, that lag makes the suggestions arrive too late. Some testers reported delays of up to 90 seconds for complex questions.
- Suggestion quality is inconsistent: Multiple reviewers report that suggestions are often generic, out of context, or completely off-topic. Instead of boosting confidence, the irrelevant suggestions can actually add confusion and break your focus.
- Splits your attention: Reading AI suggestions while trying to maintain eye contact and actively listen to someone creates cognitive overload. You end up being less present in the conversation, which defeats the purpose.
- Data breach history: The 2025 breach exposing 83,000+ users' data (including interview transcripts and screenshots) raises serious security concerns. For a tool that records sensitive business conversations, this is a significant red flag.
- Ethical positioning remains problematic: Despite the rebrand, using an "undetectable" overlay during calls without the other party's knowledge is inherently deceptive. This creates legal and professional risks that the company doesn't adequately address.
Cluely vs. Alternatives
Otter.ai focuses on transcription and meeting summaries without the real-time coaching overlay. It's transparent (participants know it's there), cheaper, and more mature. For most meeting productivity needs, Otter is the better choice.
Fireflies.ai offers similar transcription and summary features with CRM integrations. Like Otter, it operates transparently and is designed for team collaboration rather than covert assistance.
Fathom provides free AI meeting notes with excellent accuracy. No coaching overlay, but excellent post-meeting summaries and action items.
Who Should Use Cluely
Potentially useful for: Sales teams that want AI-assisted call preparation (with transparency to prospects), customer success managers who need quick access to account details during calls, training scenarios where the coaching element is disclosed.
Stay away if: You're considering using it to secretly get AI help during job interviews (this is dishonest and increasingly detectable), you handle sensitive data and can't afford security risks given the breach history, you value authentic human connection in your meetings, or you operate in a jurisdiction with strict consent laws around recording.
Final Verdict
Cluely sits in an uncomfortable space. The underlying technology (real-time AI coaching during calls) has legitimate applications, particularly for sales enablement. But the company's history, the data breach, the "undetectable" marketing angle, and the inconsistent suggestion quality make it hard to recommend. The 5 to 90 second response delays mean the core feature often doesn't work well in practice. And the ethical questions around covert AI assistance during calls are significant. There are better, more transparent AI meeting tools available. Unless Cluely dramatically improves its suggestion quality, response speed, and security posture, most teams are better served by tools like Otter.ai or Fathom that focus on transcription and summaries without the baggage.
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