Verve AI vs Cluely: a meeting assistant you activate versus an interview copilot that answers by itself. Stealth, quality and price compared.
People compare Verve AI vs Cluely because both put AI answers on your screen during a live conversation. What they usually want to know is what anyone wants to know before using a tool like this in an interview: whether the interviewer will see it, whether the answers will come in time and sound like them, and whether it will still be working forty minutes in.
We wrote this for job seekers who have seen Cluely's name come up and are deciding between it and a dedicated interview copilot. It starts with what each product is built for, summarizes what Cluely's customers complain about, and then takes the common concerns about interview copilots one at a time and shows how each product handles them, with price near the end. We make Verve AI, and what we say about Cluely comes from its own website, help center and public reviews as they stood in October 2026.
What is each product built for?
Verve AI is an interview copilot. It is designed for job interviews specifically, so it works from your resume and the job description, recognizes interview questions as they are asked, and includes tools that only matter in hiring, such as a coding copilot and mock interviews.
Cluely describes itself as an AI notetaker and meeting assistant. Its help center says it is for meeting assistance across sales, project briefs and support, and it points people with interview use cases to a separate product. It records and transcribes meetings, writes notes, and answers questions about what is being said or shown on your screen.
That is the core difference between the two. Cluely is designed for everyday meetings, where little is lost if a prompt arrives late or misses the point. You activate it when you want help, and what it gives you tends to be general knowledge about whatever is being discussed. An interview copilot is built and tuned for one high-stakes conversation, so it answers without being asked, works from your own background, and knows the formats interviewers use, from behavioral questions to system design.
Both run as desktop apps on Mac and Windows and work with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Webex. The differences show up in the situations interviews create.
What do people complain about with Cluely?
Cluely's public reviews are few and mostly negative, with a Trustpilot score of 1.7 from 22 reviews. Most of them are about billing: being charged for an annual plan when a monthly one was expected, charges that continued after cancelling, and refunds that were refused. The next most common theme is support, with reviewers saying they could not reach a person, followed by the product itself, including transcription that stopped during a conversation and answers that were not useful.
A profile that small is not a full picture of a widely used product. It does line up with what Cluely's own policies say about refunds and support, which we come to below.
Will the interviewer see it when you share your screen?
This is the concern candidates raise most, and the two products treat it very differently.
Cluely is visible to screen sharing by default. Its undetectability feature is part of its top plan and has to be switched on, and its help center lists where it still shows: Zoom requires a particular setting or an older version, sharing your entire screen in Microsoft Teams reveals it, and it states that it cannot ensure undetectability with proctoring software. Cluely also says the product is not designed for interview use.
The Verve AI desktop app runs outside the screen-share layer at the operating-system level, so the interviewer does not see it. Our documentation states where that is guaranteed, which is window and tab sharing on any platform and full-screen sharing in the Zoom and Microsoft Teams desktop apps, and Stealth Mode comes with every plan, including the free one. Our guide to testing interview copilot stealth mode shows how to confirm it on your own computer.
Will it catch the question and answer in time?
In an interview you cannot predict when you will need help, and you rarely have a free hand or a spare second to ask for it.
Cluely's documentation describes answers that you request. You click Assist, or press Cmd + Enter on a Mac or Ctrl + Enter on Windows, when you want a response, and there is a "What should I say" button for suggested lines. It transcribes the conversation continuously in the background.
Verve AI answers without being asked. It detects the interviewer's question and puts a suggestion on your screen, and you can choose how it behaves: Auto answers every line, Manual waits for you, and Smart Listening holds off until the interviewer has finished speaking and skips small talk. Its transcription was upgraded this year for better accuracy with technical terms and accents, and you can shorten or lengthen answers with a shortcut so that they stay readable while you talk. There are also three ways to get help during a session, so you are never relying on one of them alone: the copilot answers automatically from the audio in real time, you can type a question into the built-in chatbot, and you can capture any part of your screen with a hotkey to get an answer about what is on it.
Will it keep up with follow-up questions?
A real interview is not a list of separate questions. An interviewer picks up on something you said, asks you to go deeper, or returns twenty minutes later to a decision you described earlier, and a copilot that treats each question as if it were the first will give answers that do not fit the conversation.
This is where Verve AI is strongest. It keeps the context of the whole conversation, so a follow-up is answered in light of what has already been asked and what you have already said, and a later question about an earlier topic picks up where that topic left off. The three ways of getting help also share that context with one another, so what the copilot heard, what you typed into the chatbot and what you captured from your screen all inform the next answer.
A coding round shows why this matters. You capture the problem from your screen and get a solution, and then the interviewer asks aloud why you chose that approach, what its time complexity is, or how you would handle a larger input. Because the copilot already has the problem and the code in context, it answers those spoken follow-ups about the solution on your screen, without you having to capture or explain anything again.
Cluely uses what is on your screen and what has been said as context when you ask it for help, and it lets you query your past meetings afterwards. Because each answer is something you request, following a chain of follow-up questions means asking again each time.
Will the answers sound like you?
An answer that could have come from anyone is easy for an interviewer to notice, which is why this worry comes up about every tool in the category.
Cluely lets you customize its instructions and upload files for context, and its Pro plan gives access to current models from OpenAI and Anthropic. Because it is a general assistant, its answers tend toward general knowledge of the topic, and it does not describe features built around a candidate's resume or a specific job posting.
Verve AI is tuned for interviews specifically. It starts from your resume and the job description and can also use documents you upload and your own stories in STAR format, which it draws on in full when a behavioral question calls for one. Pro adds knowledge banks for 20 interview domains, such as finance, consulting and product management, and a coding copilot that reads the problem from your screen and can debug code you have already written.
Will it hold up for the whole interview?
Reliability complaints appear in Cluely's reviews, including transcription that stopped partway through a conversation. Its help center also lists fairly specific system requirements: it supports Windows 11 but not Windows 10, and it says it does not support laptops with external webcams or international VPNs.
Verve AI has worked on the failure cases directly. Transcription reconnects by itself after a brief network drop and tells you when it has, and answers stay in place while you are reading them. Since the free plan includes live sessions, you can run a complete rehearsal on your own computer and network before the interview that counts.
What if something goes wrong?
Cluely's refund policy applies for 24 hours and only when the software does not work on your computer. Its help center lists forgetting to cancel, changing plans and interview-related detection as reasons that are not eligible, and it does not give partial refunds. Support is handled by an AI assistant, and the help center says the team is small and does not yet have a dedicated support agent.
Verve AI's paid plans include email support and an in-app chat that goes directly to our support team. Our refund policy covers a technical problem on our side that stopped you using the product, or a subscription that was never used, and the free sessions let you settle most questions before you pay at all.
How do the prices compare?
The comparison depends on whether you need the tool hidden during screen sharing. Prices are from Cluely's pricing page and our pricing page.
With that feature, Cluely's Pro + Undetectability plan is $149.99 a month, or $44.99 a month on annual billing, and Verve AI Pro is $84.99 a month, or $34.99 a month billed annually, with Stealth Mode included. Without it, Cluely Pro is $19.99 a month, which is less than any paid Verve AI plan and good value for someone who wants a notetaker and assistant for everyday work meetings.
Cluely's free plan has a limited number of AI responses per day and no undetectability. Verve AI's free plan has three live sessions of 15 minutes, five mock interviews and Stealth Mode, with no card required.
Verve AI vs Cluely: which one should you choose?
The Verve AI vs Cluely decision follows from what you are preparing for. For sales calls, client meetings and internal discussions, where the stakes of any single answer are low, Cluely Pro is built for the job and costs less.
For a job interview, the concerns in this article point the other way. Verve AI answers without being asked, follows the conversation through its follow-up questions, builds its answers from your own background, includes Stealth Mode on every plan, and gives you a way to reach a person if something breaks.
Our Cluely alternative page sets the two side by side, and Is Cluely legit? looks more closely at its reviews and policies. To see how an interview copilot behaves in practice, you can start on Verve AI's free plan without entering a card.
FAQ
Is Cluely good for job interviews?
Cluely is designed as a meeting assistant and notetaker. Its help center describes it as being for meeting assistance across sales, project briefs and support, and its refund policy excludes interview-related use. It can answer questions during a call when you ask it to, but it is not built around interviews.
Can the interviewer see Cluely or Verve AI during screen sharing?
Cluely is visible by default and hides only on its Pro + Undetectability plan, with exceptions that include full-screen sharing in Microsoft Teams. Verve AI's desktop app is not visible to interviewers when Stealth Mode is active, and Stealth Mode is included on every plan.
Does Cluely answer questions automatically?
Cluely's help center describes answers that you trigger by clicking Assist or pressing Cmd + Enter or Ctrl + Enter. Verve AI detects interview questions and answers them without any input, and it can wait until the interviewer has finished speaking.
Is Verve AI cheaper than Cluely?
It depends on the plan. Cluely Pro at $19.99 a month costs less than any paid Verve AI plan but does not include undetectability. With that feature, Cluely is $149.99 a month, while Verve AI Pro is $84.99 a month with Stealth Mode included.
Verve AI Team
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