Alternatives

LockedIn AI alternatives (2026)

A shortlist for people leaving LockedIn AI over what its hidden mode costs, ranked by how well each tool fits a job search that comes in bursts.

Updated October 28, 2026. Rival prices verified October 2026.

This page is for people who like what LockedIn AI does but not what it costs to use it in a screen-shared interview. LockedIn AI has a desktop app for Windows and macOS, but its unlimited plan with screen share hiding is one of the dearer plans in the category, the cheaper unlimited plan leaves that hiding out, the free plan runs in 5-minute sessions, and the web version does not hide at all.

So this list is ranked by one question: how well does each tool fit a job search that comes in bursts, a few rounds over a few weeks and then nothing for months? Tools you can pay for per interview come first, then subscriptions, ordered by how little they ask of you. For the feature-by-feature head-to-head, see our PiriPiri AI vs LockedIn AI page.

Full disclosure: PiriPiri AI is our product. It is ranked first and we make the case for it plainly, but every other tool’s price on this page is its own published price, linked to the page we read it from, so you can check each one yourself.

Tool	Cost for one interview	Pricing	No subscription	Free to try
PiriPiri AIYoumacOS & Windows	$2.50 (1 hr)	$2.50 / hour · one price per session	No subscription	3 sessions free · no card
CluelyInvisibility costs $149.99/mo extra	$149.99/mo (stealth tier)	$19.99/mo · $149.99/mo for stealth	Monthly subscription	Free plan (limited)
Final Round AISubscription; usage-tiered	From $25/mo	From $25/mo · free plan	Monthly subscription	Free plan · live copilot needs Pro
Sensei AIMonthly subscription	$89/mo (or $24/mo annual)	$89/mo · $24/mo billed annually	Monthly subscription	15-min sessions
ParakeetAICredits, or weekly to yearly plans	$38 (1 credit) · $11.80 in bulk	$38 per 1-hr credit · $149.90/mo · $599.90/yr	No subscription	10 free sessions of 10 min
Ophy AIPasses, or credits shared across 7 products	$9.99 (1 pass, up to 2 hr)	$9.99 one-time pass · $29/mo Pro · $59/mo Premium	No subscription	First session free (15 min)

Prices change often, so confirm on each vendor’s site. See the full comparison of every interview AI copilot.

Why people leave LockedIn AI

The first reason is what the hidden mode costs. LockedIn AI’s pricing reads $119.99/mo Pro · $79.99/mo quarterly, and Pro is the unlimited plan that includes Stealth Mode. Its FAQ says the cheaper Unlimited General plan does the same everyday copilot work but leaves out Stealth Mode and LockedIn Duo, so the plan you would pick to save money is the one that cannot stay off a shared screen. Its credit plans do include Stealth Mode, but they are monthly, quarterly or yearly plans as well.

The free plan makes all this hard to judge before paying. The vendor lists unlimited 5-minute sessions, up to 60 free minutes a day, with a one-minute pause between them, and says Stealth Mode needs a paid plan. Five minutes is enough to see how answers read, not to sit through a practice round, and with the hiding off you cannot check whether the window stays off your shared screen.

The web version is the other catch. LockedIn AI’s FAQ says its web app hides nothing at all, so with it you should share only the interview tab and never your full screen. It also says that Teams running in a browser is a known gap where even the desktop app can be visible, and that joining a meeting in a browser tab instead of the meeting app is untested. Plenty of interviews happen in a browser tab, so that is worth knowing before the day.

Then renewals. Its subscriptions all renew automatically, with no one-month plan that stops by itself; you cancel in the web app, not the desktop app; and monthly and quarterly plans are non-refundable once started. Credits never expire, but after a plan ends Stealth Mode needs an active one again.

What a burst job search actually costs

Job searches do not follow the billing calendar. Four or five hour-long interviews spread over five or six weeks will usually cross a renewal date, so a monthly plan bills you twice for about five hours of calls. The gap between searches is the bigger cost. On a plan like LockedIn AI’s you either keep paying through months with no interviews, or cancel and lose Stealth Mode, then pay again the week the next recruiter calls, before you have had a chance to test anything.

Paying per interview turns this around. On PiriPiri AI the same search is four or five sessions at about $2.50 each, or $1.45 each on the largest pack, and any you do not use stay in your account because packs never expire. Ophy AI’s one-time Interview Pass and ParakeetAI’s credits, which also never expire, let you pay for an interview rather than a month too, which is why those three lead the ranking below.

The ranking

1. PiriPiri AI: pay per interview, hidden on screen share from the free trial on

Pricing: $2.50 / hour · one price per session
Free to try: 3 sessions free · no card
Hidden on screen share: Included on every plan
Runs on: Desktop app for macOS (Apple Silicon) and Windows 10 or 11

PiriPiri AI is a desktop copilot for macOS and Windows built for one job: it sits beside a live interview, listens to both sides of the call, and drafts your answer while the question is still being asked. It hears your microphone and the interviewer’s voice from your computer’s own sound output, so no bot joins the meeting, and it works the same in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex or a call running in your browser. You get a live transcript of both speakers and an automatic answer as each question lands. For the moments when that first answer is not enough, there are hotkeys: Answer now, Deep dive (which re-asks the current question for a longer, more detailed answer), and previous and next to step back through earlier answers.

Before the call you can upload your CV, paste the job description, pick your role and choose an answer style, so the drafts lean on your own projects instead of stock examples. The role playbooks cover many professions, not only software engineering. For a coding problem or a case chart, the Analyze screen hotkey reads what is on your screen and answers it. Every action has a global hotkey, and the floating bar can be dragged and snapped to the edges of your screen.

Billing is the reason it ranks first here. You buy one-time session packs that never expire, with no subscription required: about $2.50 per interview on the entry pack and $1.45 per session on the largest. A paid session runs 60 minutes. There is no renewal date to track and nothing to cancel when the offer comes in, and sessions left from one search are waiting for the next. To try it you get 3 free sessions of 10 minutes each, no card needed. In India, prices are in rupees and you can pay by UPI.

The overlay window is excluded from screen capture by the operating system itself: window sharing is set to none on macOS, and display affinity is set to exclude from capture on Windows. That holds on every plan, the free trial included, so the trial tests the real thing and there is no separate tier to buy for it. On macOS the interviewer’s audio comes through a Core Audio process tap rather than a screen recording session. Even so, before a real interview, run a test share in your own meeting app, share your full screen, and look at what the other side actually receives.

Best for: People who interview in bursts and want to pay for the interviews they have, not the months in between.

Worth knowing: It is newer and deliberately narrow, with no mock-interview platform, resume builder or job board, and its speech recognition is English only. It needs an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or newer) on macOS 14.2 or later to hear the interviewer (on macOS 13 only your microphone works), or Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit); there is no browser or phone version.

2. Ophy AI: a one-time pass for a single interview

Pricing: $9.99 one-time pass · $29/mo Pro · $59/mo Premium (source)
Free to try: First session free (15 min)
Hidden on screen share: Desktop app hidden by the OS
Runs on: macOS and Windows desktop app, plus web and phone apps

Ophy AI is the most literal answer to “I only need help with one interview.” Its Interview Pass is a one-time purchase: $9.99 covers one standard Interview Copilot session of up to two hours, with no subscription behind it, and three passes cost $19.99. Its full price line reads $9.99 one-time pass · $29/mo Pro · $59/mo Premium, so the monthly plans are there if you want them, but you never have to start one.

The copilot transcribes the interviewer and suggests answers and talking points drawn from your resume and the job description. It now ships desktop apps for macOS and Windows whose window the operating system keeps out of screen capture, with a picture-in-picture overlay in the browser as the web fallback. It works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet and supports 35 languages. The first copilot session is free, capped at 15 minutes with no card, so you can watch it work once before you pay.

Ophy AI is also a wider job-search suite, with a resume builder, practice interviews, an application assistant and job search on its monthly plans. Passes cover Interview Copilot only, not practice or the separate Coding Interview product, which sits on Premium, so check that a pass covers the help a coding round needs.

Best for: Someone with one or two interviews booked who wants to pay for exactly those and nothing else.

Worth knowing: Passes are non-refundable, so use the free session first. The browser overlay is only the fallback; for an interview where you share your screen, use the desktop app and run a test share before the real call.

3. ParakeetAI: credits that never expire, in more languages

Pricing: $38 per 1-hr credit · $149.90/mo · $599.90/yr (source)
Free to try: 10 free sessions of 10 min
Hidden on screen share: Desktop app hidden by the OS
Runs on: macOS and Windows desktop app, plus a web app

ParakeetAI sells credits and you spend them only when a call happens. Its prices read $38 per 1-hr credit · $149.90/mo · $599.90/yr. One credit covers an hour of call time, so a single credit is $38 bought alone and $11.80 each on its largest pack. Its FAQ says credits are spent in 30-minute steps of half a credit, a running session extends itself every 30 minutes unless you switch auto extend off, and credits never expire. End a credit session within five minutes of its latest charge and that charge comes back, once per session.

It also covers more than English: the vendor says it supports more than 50 languages, one per session (PiriPiri AI is English only). There is a desktop app for Windows and macOS, and a browser version that needs desktop Chrome. Its FAQ says the desktop app hides from screen sharing while its Private setting is on, that in Zoom you should also turn on Advanced capture with window filtering or it can show, and that the web version is a browser tab that cannot hide itself.

For a free look, its FAQ lists 10 free sessions of up to 10 minutes each, with a new one available every 12 minutes, and the count resets to 10 each time you buy credits. For unlimited use it also sells weekly, monthly and yearly plans.

Best for: People who want pay-as-you-go credits, or whose interviews are not all in English.

Worth knowing: A single credit costs $38; the $11.80 rate needs its largest pack, bought up front. If you interview on Zoom, change that Zoom setting and test a share before the real call.

4. Final Round AI: screen share hiding from $25 a month

Pricing: From $25/mo · free plan (source)
Free to try: Free plan · live copilot needs Pro
Hidden on screen share: In the $25+/mo Pro plan
Runs on: macOS and Windows desktop app

If what bothered you about LockedIn AI was the size of the bill rather than the fact of one, Final Round AI is the subscription to look at. Its Pro plan starts at $25 a month, and its homepage says Pro includes unlimited live Interview CoPilot sessions, Stealth Mode, practice interviews, automatic debriefs and screen help. The screen share hiding comes with that plan, not with a pricier tier above it.

Be clear about what the free plan is for. Final Round AI’s homepage says there is no free trial and that live sessions need an active Pro subscription. The free plan covers setting up goals, parsing job descriptions and preparing materials. You cannot test the live copilot or its hiding for free, so your first month is a paid experiment, and it is worth booking a practice call early in that month, on the meeting app your interviews use, to run it properly.

The vendor lists general, behavioral, coding, system design, phone and HireVue-style interviews, all handled by the same copilot, with a desktop app for macOS 14.4 or later and Windows. Before you subscribe, read how its renewal and cancellation work, and put the renewal date in your calendar the day you sign up.

Best for: People happy to subscribe who want the hidden mode included at the entry price.

Worth knowing: It is still a recurring plan, so the burst-search problem at the top of this page applies, only at a lower entry price.

5. Sensei AI: free 15-minute sessions, and a low rate if you commit for a year

Pricing: $89/mo · $24/mo billed annually (source)
Free to try: 15-min sessions
Hidden on screen share: Browser tab · no hiding method described
Runs on: Browser (Chrome) plus a Chrome extension

Sensei AI is a live interview copilot whose free tier runs in longer pieces than LockedIn AI’s. Its FAQ says the free trial gives 15-minute Copilot sessions, as many as you want, each ending on its own after 15 minutes. That is three times the length of a LockedIn AI free session, long enough to judge the answers on a real practice call.

Paid use is a subscription: $89/mo · $24/mo billed annually. The $24 rate needs a full year billed at once, so it beats paying month to month only if you would keep the plan for several months anyway, say during a long career switch. Month to month it is one of the dearer plans here. It runs in Chrome, with a Chrome extension, rather than as a desktop app, and the vendor lists 30+ languages. Every plan, the free one included, also lists a coding copilot, an AI resume builder and a story editor for shaping your examples.

On refunds, Sensei AI’s FAQ is blunt: it does not offer them. You can cancel at any time and keep access until the billing period ends, but the current period is not refunded. Put that next to annual billing and the free sessions become the place to make up your mind, not the first paid month.

Best for: People who interview steadily through the year and are comfortable paying for that year up front.

Worth knowing: A year paid up front is a bigger version of the commitment you may be leaving LockedIn AI to avoid. Its site does not describe how it stays off a screen share, and it runs in a browser tab, so test a share before relying on it.

6. Cluely: a broad meeting assistant, with screen share hiding on its top tier

Pricing: $19.99/mo · $149.99/mo for stealth (source)
Free to try: Free plan (limited)
Hidden on screen share: Only on the $149.99/mo tier
Runs on: macOS and Windows desktop app

Cluely is broader than an interview copilot. Its pricing page pitches it for meetings, sales calls and homework as well, with meeting notetaking and the option to ask AI about your past meetings. There is a free Starter plan with limited AI responses and limited notetaking, desktop downloads for Mac and Windows, a mobile version, and a choice of monthly or annual billing on the paid plans.

The catch for anyone leaving LockedIn AI is where the hiding sits. Cluely’s prices read $19.99/mo · $149.99/mo for stealth, and its pricing page says Pro drops to $11.99 a month billed annually. The entry Pro plan gives unlimited responses and notetaking, but staying hidden from meeting screen sharing is a separate, higher tier, and that is the $149.99 one.

If your interviews involve sharing your screen, that top tier is the plan you would need, which puts its hidden mode among the most expensive monthly plans on this page. If you never share your screen, or you mainly want help in work meetings with an interview now and then, the entry plan may be all you need, and the free Starter plan is a fine way to find out whether you like how it answers.

Best for: People who want a general meeting assistant for work calls as well as interviews.

Worth knowing: The free Starter plan cannot show you the screen share hiding, since that is a paid upgrade.

Renewals and refunds: what to check with any tool

Whichever tool you pick, check four things before you pay: when it renews, where the cancel button lives, what happens to unused time, and the refund rule once you start. If you subscribe, set a reminder for a few days before the renewal date.

Refund rules on this list vary a lot. Sensei AI says it does not offer refunds. Ophy AI’s passes are non-refundable. ParakeetAI hands back a credit charge on its own if you end the session within five minutes of it, once per session, which helps when a call falls through. PiriPiri AI packs and ParakeetAI credits never expire, and neither needs a running plan before you can use them.

What to test in a free trial

Start by checking what the trial includes. PiriPiri AI’s trial (3 free sessions of 10 minutes each) has the screen share hiding on, exactly as on a paid plan. LockedIn AI’s free plan leaves Stealth Mode out, and Final Round AI’s free plan has no live sessions at all. Session caps differ too: 5 minutes per LockedIn AI free session, 10 minutes on ParakeetAI, and 15 minutes on Sensei AI and on Ophy AI’s free first session.

Then run the test that matters. Get on a call with a friend, or your own second device, in the meeting app your interviewer uses, and share the way they might ask: full screen, then a single window, then a browser tab. Judge what arrives on the other side, not your own preview. If the interview will run in a browser, test it in the browser. Check too that the tool hears the other person and not only your microphone, how fast a first answer appears, and whether it uses the CV you uploaded.

If a coding round is coming, try the screen reading feature on a real problem. If any interview is in a language other than English, test that language on its own: PiriPiri AI is English only, while ParakeetAI, Ophy AI and Sensei AI each list many languages.

Common questions

What is the best LockedIn AI alternative?

For people leaving LockedIn AI over the cost of its Stealth Mode plan, PiriPiri AI is the best alternative. It costs about $2.50 per interview in one-time packs that never expire, and its overlay is excluded from screen capture on every plan, the free trial included. (We make PiriPiri AI.) With only one interview booked, Ophy AI sells a one-time $9.99 pass. For other languages, ParakeetAI sells credits that never expire and lists more than 50 languages.

Which LockedIn AI plans include Stealth Mode?

According to LockedIn AI’s FAQ, Stealth Mode comes with every paid plan except Unlimited General: that means Unlimited Pro, the credit plans and the lifetime plan. Its pricing reads $119.99/mo Pro · $79.99/mo quarterly. Stealth Mode works only in the desktop app; the FAQ says the web version hides nothing. PiriPiri AI has no separate stealth tier: its overlay is excluded from screen capture on every plan, the free trial included.

Is there a LockedIn AI alternative without a subscription?

Yes, several. PiriPiri AI sells one-time session packs that never expire, about $2.50 per interview, with no subscription required. Ophy AI sells a one-time $9.99 Interview Pass for one session of up to two hours. ParakeetAI sells credits that never expire, $38 for a one-hour credit or $11.80 each in bulk. LockedIn AI also sells credits and a lifetime plan, but its FAQ lists its credit plans as monthly, quarterly or yearly.

What happens to LockedIn AI credits if I cancel?

LockedIn AI’s FAQ says credits never expire, but once a cancelled subscription runs out they work only with the general AI models. Stealth Mode, LockedIn Duo and the professional models need an active subscription, so leftover credits cannot be used with the hidden mode until you subscribe again.

Does LockedIn AI’s free plan hide the app on screen share?

No. LockedIn AI’s FAQ says the free plan gives unlimited 5-minute sessions, up to 60 free minutes a day, and that Stealth Mode, which hides the app during screen sharing, needs a paid plan. PiriPiri AI’s free trial, 3 free sessions of 10 minutes each, keeps its overlay excluded from screen capture, so you can test a real share in your meeting app before paying.

Which LockedIn AI alternative works for interviews not held in English?

ParakeetAI is a good fit: it lists more than 50 languages and sells credits that never expire. Ophy AI lists 35 languages and sells a one-time pass; Sensei AI lists 30+ on a subscription. PiriPiri AI’s speech recognition is English only, so it suits interviews held in English.

Is it allowed to use an AI assistant in a job interview?

Policies differ by employer and by school, and some interview processes ban outside help entirely. Whichever tool you use, follow your employer’s or school’s rules and the recording and consent laws where you live.

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