Cluely Review (2026): The 'Invisible' Meeting AI, Tested for Australia

Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).

The verdict: Cluely does something real. It listens to your live meeting or sales call, reads what is on your screen, and feeds you suggested answers, notes and next steps in a private overlay only you can see. As a sales copilot or a memory aid in a fast call, that is genuinely useful. But Cluely was built and marketed to "cheat on everything," its founder has admitted to lying about the company's revenue, and its headline feature — an overlay that hides from screen-sharing software — is designed to keep the other people on the call from knowing it is there. That last part is the problem for Australians. In New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, recording a private conversation without everyone's consent can be a criminal offence, and Cluely captures audio to work. Used openly and with consent, it is a capable tool. Used the way it is marketed — secretly — it can put you on the wrong side of the law. Score: 12/25 — Good, with a heavy caution. This is general information, not legal advice.

Earlier editions of this review: 25 Jun 2026 — 12/25. This is edition 2, dated 9 Oct 2026. We keep every edition so you can see how the tool and our verdict have moved — how and why.

What it is

Cluely is a real-time AI meeting assistant that runs as a desktop app (Mac and Windows, with mobile apps for iOS and Android). During a live call it listens to the conversation through your microphone, reads what is on your screen, and uses an AI model to generate suggested responses, answers and notes in an overlay visible only to you. It does not join the meeting as a bot or a guest — there is no extra name on the participant list — so the help appears on your side of the glass while the call carries on normally.

The backstory matters, because it shapes the product. Cluely grew out of Interview Coder, a tool built by Columbia University students Roy Lee and Neel Shanmugam to help candidates get through technical coding interviews undetected. Lee posted about using it in an Amazon interview, the offer was rescinded, and Columbia suspended him over academic integrity. He dropped out, rebranded the tool as Cluely in April 2025, and launched it with the tagline that it could help you "cheat on everything." The marketing was the strategy: viral, deliberately provocative, built for attention.

It worked. Cluely raised a US$5.3 million seed round, then a US$15 million round led by Andreessen Horowitz in June 2025, at a reported post-money valuation of around US$120 million. By mid-2025 the company had quietly scrubbed the interview-cheating language from its website and repositioned around sales calls and meetings. The "cheat" framing still hangs over the brand, and not only because of the past: in March 2026, Lee publicly admitted on X that the US$7 million annual revenue figure he had given TechCrunch in 2025 was not true. We will come back to what that means for trust.

What it costs in Australia

Cluely is priced in US dollars, on a simple three-tier structure shown on its pricing page (monthly rates):

A few Australian-specific notes. Pricing is USD only — Cluely publishes no AUD price and no GST line of its own, so expect the exchange rate to add about 40% over the sticker at 1.4045 (Frankfurter/ECB, 18 September 2026), with GST likely added at checkout through its payment processor. The AUD figures above are our conversions, not quoted prices. Confirm the final charge at checkout rather than assuming.

One discrepancy worth flagging: several third-party review sites still list an "Enterprise" plan at around US$200/month and an older Pro price near US$20. Cluely's own live pricing page, read again on 9 October 2026, shows the three desktop tiers above — Free, Pro at US$19.99 and Pro + Undetectability at US$149.99 a month — now with an annual toggle that drops them to US$11.99 and US$44.99 a month, badged "-40%" and "-70%", plus a separate Mobile plan at US$144 a year. The Enterprise card has gone from the page; it is a Contact Us link now. Trust the vendor page, not the aggregators, and check it again before you buy, because Cluely changes its plans often.

How it works / features

You install the desktop app, give it microphone and screen-recording permission, and it works alongside whatever video tool you are using — Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams.

• Live AI answers. As the conversation unfolds, Cluely suggests responses and surfaces relevant facts in real time, in an overlay only you can see. This is the core experience.
• Real-time notes and summaries. It transcribes and takes notes during the call, then produces a summary after, so you are not typing while trying to listen.
• Ask about past meetings. You can query your earlier meetings — useful for "what did we agree on the last call."
• Custom playbooks. Upload documents — a sales script, product sheet, objection-handling guide — and Cluely tailors its mid-call prompts to your material. For a structured sales process, this is the most defensible use of the tool.
• No bot in the room. Cluely does not appear as a participant, so there is no notetaker bot on the guest list announcing its presence.
• Undetectability (top tier only). On Pro + Undetectability, the overlay is rendered at a low level (GPU hooks on Mac and Windows) so it sits beneath the layer that screen-sharing software captures. The result: if you share your screen on Zoom, Meet or Teams, the other side does not see the overlay. This is the feature Cluely is most known for, and the one that creates the legal and ethical risk below.

On data, Cluely's own materials say it processes audio and screen captures in real time and deletes transcripts and audio recordings after processing, that it does not sell or train on your data, and that end-to-end encryption can be enabled on request. Speech-to-text is handled by third-party processors (Deepgram and AssemblyAI). That is a reasonable posture on paper — but it is paper, and the data still leaves your machine to be processed offshore.

What it does well

It actually helps during the call, not after. Most meeting tools give you a tidy summary once everyone has hung up. Cluely's value is live: a prompt, a figure, a suggested answer while the conversation is still happening. For a salesperson handling objections or anyone fielding fast questions, that is a real edge.

Playbook-driven sales assist is the legitimate core. Feed it your own approved material and let it surface the right point at the right moment, in a call where everyone knows AI assistance is in use, and Cluely is a sharp productivity tool with a clear, defensible purpose.

Low friction. No bot to admit to the meeting, no separate window to juggle, and a free tier to test the experience before paying. The setup is genuinely easy.

Note-taking and recall are solid. The transcription, summaries and "ask my past meetings" features are competent, and on their own they overlap with mainstream, openly-disclosed notetakers.

Where it falls short

The whole pitch is built on hiding it. The marquee feature — undetectability — exists so the other people on the call do not know Cluely is listening and prompting you. That is not a productivity feature; it is a concealment feature. Strip it away and you have a decent, more honest notetaker. Pay for it and you are paying specifically to keep others in the dark, which is exactly where the legal exposure sits.

A trust problem at the top. Cluely's founder admitted in March 2026 that he had lied about the company's revenue to the press. A company can recover from that, but for a tool you are inviting to listen to your confidential conversations, the credibility of the people running it is not a side issue. Honesty about plans, data handling and security claims matters more here than almost anywhere.

No Australian anything. No AUD pricing, no GST line of its own, no Australian entity, no local support, and no data residency. Audio and screen content are processed offshore by US-based services. For a tool handling potentially sensitive call content, that is a meaningful gap for any Australian business with privacy obligations.

It can be wrong, confidently, mid-call. Live AI suggestions are generated under time pressure from imperfect transcription. If you read out a fabricated figure or a wrong "fact" because the overlay served it up, that is on you, in front of a client. Treat its prompts as a nudge, never as gospel.

Detection and policy risk. Interview platforms and some employers are actively building ways to detect tools like Cluely, and many organisations forbid undisclosed AI assistance in interviews and meetings outright. Beyond the law, using it covertly can breach platform terms and workplace policy, with consequences from a rescinded offer to dismissal.

The Australian recording-law problem (read this)

This is the part that separates Cluely from an ordinary notetaker, and it deserves its own section.

Cluely works by capturing the audio of your conversation. In Australia, recording a private conversation is governed by state and territory surveillance-devices and listening-devices laws, and the rules differ sharply by jurisdiction:

• All-party-consent states and territories — NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT. You generally need the consent of every participant before recording a private conversation. Recording without that consent can be a criminal offence, even when you are a party to the conversation yourself. Penalties are serious and can include imprisonment.
• One-party-consent jurisdictions — Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory. It is generally lawful to record a private conversation you are taking part in without the others' consent — but separate rules can still restrict using or publishing that recording.

Two more layers sit on top. Phone calls and other communications carried over a telecommunications network are separately protected by the federal Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. And a business that records customers or staff has Privacy Act obligations on how that personal information is collected, used and stored.

The uncomfortable fit is obvious: Cluely's headline feature is built to hide its presence, while much of Australia's law is built around disclosed consent. If you are in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart or Canberra and you run Cluely in a private meeting without telling the other participants, you may be committing an offence. The "undetectable" mode does not make that safer — it makes it worse, because it is designed to defeat the very disclosure the law expects.

The safe way to use it is the boring way: only in calls where you have told everyone AI assistance is in use and obtained their consent, ideally on the record at the start of the call, and never relying on undetectability to avoid that conversation. This is general information, not legal advice — if recording or AI-assisted calls are part of how you work, get advice specific to your state and situation before you switch it on.

Australian fit

Pricing: USD only, no AUD, no GST line of its own — expect ~55% exchange uplift and GST at checkout. Data residency: none; audio and screen content processed offshore by US services, with deletion-after-processing claimed but no Australian region. Support: no Australian entity or local-time support. Availability: Australians can download and use it freely, and the core notetaking works fine — but the flagship undetectability feature runs straight into all-party-consent recording laws across five of eight Australian jurisdictions. There is nothing Australia-aware in the product, and its central feature is actively risky here. Australian Fit: 1/5.

Score

⭐⭐⭐ Good (11–15).

Australian Fit is 1/5, far below the 4/5 threshold in our methodology, so Cluely cannot be named a category Top Pick regardless of its score — and given the recording-law exposure, we would not recommend it as one even if it cleared the gate.

Bottom line

If you want a live sales copilot and you use it openly, Cluely is a capable tool. Load your own playbook, tell everyone on the call that AI assistance is in use, get their consent, and it can sharpen how you handle objections and recall detail in the moment. That is the version of Cluely worth paying for.

If the appeal is the "undetectable" overlay, stop and read the law section again. In most of Australia, secretly capturing a private conversation can be a criminal offence, and a feature engineered to hide from the other participants is the opposite of what the law expects. The downside is not a refund — it is a prosecution, a rescinded offer, or a sacking.

If your calls carry confidential or regulated information, weigh the trust and residency gaps hard. The data is processed offshore, the deletion claims are the company's own, and the company's leadership has admitted to lying about its numbers. That is a lot to take on faith for a tool you let listen to your business.

If you just want meeting notes, an openly-disclosed, consent-based notetaker built for transparency is a better fit for Australian conditions than a tool whose defining feature is staying hidden.

Frequently asked questions

What does Cluely actually do?

Cluely is a desktop AI meeting assistant. During a live call it listens through your microphone, reads your screen, and shows you suggested answers, notes and summaries in an overlay only you can see — in real time, while the call is happening. It does not join the meeting as a bot or guest.

How much does Cluely cost in Australia?

Pricing is in US dollars: a free Starter tier, Pro at US$19.99/month or US$11.99/month billed annually (around A$28 or A$17 ex-GST and exchange), and Pro + Undetectability at US$149.99/month or US$44.99/month billed annually (around A$210 or A$63). A Mobile plan is US$144 a year through the app stores. Enterprise is quoted on request. There is no AUD pricing on the web — expect the exchange rate and GST to apply at checkout.

Is it legal to use Cluely in Australia?

It depends on your state and how you use it. Cluely captures conversation audio, and in NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania and the ACT, recording a private conversation without every participant's consent can be a criminal offence — even if you are part of the conversation. Queensland, Victoria and the NT are one-party-consent but still restrict using or publishing recordings. Used openly with everyone's consent it is far safer; used covertly via the undetectable mode it is risky. This is general information, not legal advice — get advice for your situation.

Is Cluely really undetectable on Zoom or Teams?

On the Pro + Undetectability tier, the overlay is rendered at a low level so it does not appear in screen-sharing software, meaning others on the call do not see it on a shared screen. That is the design intent. Interview platforms and some employers are actively building detection methods, and undisclosed AI assistance breaches many organisations' policies regardless.

Does Cluely store my meeting recordings?

Cluely's own materials say audio and transcripts are processed in real time and deleted after processing, that it does not sell or train on your data, and that end-to-end encryption is available on request. Speech-to-text is handled by third-party US processors. The data is processed offshore, and there is no Australian data residency option.

Can I trust Cluely with confidential calls?

That is the central question. The deletion and no-training claims are reasonable on paper, but Cluely was built and marketed to "cheat on everything," and its founder admitted in March 2026 to lying about the company's revenue. For a tool you let listen to confidential conversations, the credibility of the people running it matters — weigh it carefully.

Read next

• Otter.ai review: the meeting transcriber, tested for Australia
• Granola review: the AI notepad for meetings, tested for Australia
• How we score AI tools — our review methodology

Sources

• https://cluely.com/ (primary)
• https://cluely.com/pricing (primary; Free / Pro US$19.99, US$11.99 annual / Pro + Undetectability US$149.99, US$44.99 annual / Mobile US$144 a year — read 9 Oct 2026 by browser from Australia; Wayback save queued 9 Oct 2026; capture Dossiers/captures/cluely-pricing-2026-10-09.txt)
• https://cluely.com/privacy-policy (primary; data handling)
• https://docs.cluely.com/feature/undectability (primary; undetectability mechanism)
• https://a16z.com/announcement/investing-in-cluely/ (primary; a16z investment)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lee_(entrepreneur) (secondary; founder, Interview Coder, Columbia)
• https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/20/cluely-a-startup-that-helps-cheat-on-everything-raises-15m-from-a16z/ (secondary; US$15M raise, ~US$120M valuation)
• https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/21/columbia-student-suspended-over-interview-cheating-tool-raises-5-3m-to-cheat-on-everything/ (secondary; seed, "cheat on everything")
• https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/05/cluely-ceo-roy-lee-admits-to-publicly-lying-about-revenue-numbers-last-year/ (secondary; revenue admission)
• https://hamiltonlocke.com.au/recording-private-conversations-the-law-in-australia/ (secondary; AU recording law by state)
• https://recordinglaw.com/australia-recording-laws/ (secondary; AU recording law overview)

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