Dusky vs Cluely (2026): Invisibility Included vs a $149.99/Month Add-On

If you are comparing Dusky and Cluely, the honest headline is that these two tools have quietly stopped competing for the same job. Cluely now markets itself as “#1 Undetectable AI for Meetings” — sales calls, notetaking, live meeting insights. Dusky does one thing: it is an invisible interview copilot, and it stays that way in every plan.

The second difference is where the money is. On Cluely, being invisible during a screen share is not part of the product you already pay for — it is a separate, more expensive tier. On Dusky, invisibility is the point, so it ships on the free trial.

This page lays out both differences plainly, with every competitor number linked to its source and dated, because pricing and positioning both move.

The one-line summary

• Cluely charges for undetectability as an add-on. As of July 2026, stealth (“Completely hidden to meeting screen sharing software”) lives on the Pro + Undetectability plan at $149.99/month, on top of a $19.99/month Pro plan that does not include it. (Cluely pricing, accessed 2026-07-12.)
• Dusky includes screen-share invisibility in every plan, including the $0 trial and the $19 Weekly Pass. There is no stealth tier to upgrade to, and no toggle to forget — it is always on.
• Cluely is now a meetings assistant. Dusky is interview-only by design.

Side-by-side comparison

All Cluely figures are first-party, read from cluely.com on 2026-07-12, and may change. Dusky figures are from our own pricing page.

	Dusky	Cluely
Category focus	Invisible interview copilot, interview-only by design	”#1 Undetectable AI for Meetings” — meetings/notetaking (accessed 2026-07-12)
Is invisibility included?	Yes — in every plan, including the $0 trial and $19 Weekly Pass. Always on, no toggle	No — stealth is a separate tier. Base Pro does not include it (Cluely pricing, 2026-07-12)
Entry paid price	$19 one-time (Weekly Pass, 7 days)	$19.99/month (Pro — without undetectability) as of July 2026
Price to get stealth	$0 (it is in the free trial)	$149.99/month (Pro + Undetectability) as of July 2026
Free tier	15 minutes of free AI-assistance time, all features, no credit card	Free “Starter” tier, $0 (Cluely pricing, 2026-07-12)
Platforms	macOS 12+ (Monterey or later), Windows 10/11 (64-bit)	macOS 10.15+, Windows 11, iOS (Cluely download, 2026-07-12)
Stealth mechanism	OS-level screen-share exclusion: macOS content protection API + Windows display affinity API. Not a browser extension or Zoom plugin	”Cluely never shows up in shared screens, recordings, or external meeting tools” (Cluely, 2026-07-12); mechanism not published
Does the vendor state its own limits?	Yes — “test before every real interview,” MDM/corporate machines may restrict it, macOS Screen Recording permission required	Not stated on the pages we reviewed (2026-07-12)
Data & privacy	Pass-through — transcripts, screenshots, and conversations are not stored on our servers; Interview Context (CV + job description) stays local, AES-256-GCM encrypted, wiped on sign-out	Collects audio, transcriptions, and screenshots; says it does not sell or train on your data, but end-to-end encryption is opt-in, not default (Cluely privacy policy, 2026-07-12)
Refunds	All sales are final; a free trial exists so you can test first	Not published on the pricing page (2026-07-12) — treat as unknown

We do not list Cluely’s annual prices or refund policy because Cluely did not render them server-side on 2026-07-12; we will not print a number we could not verify.

Why the “$149.99 add-on” matters

Read the Cluely pricing page carefully and the structure is deliberate: the $19.99/month Pro plan gives you unlimited AI responses and notetaking, but the line that makes you invisible on a screen share — “Completely hidden to meeting screen sharing software” — only appears on the Pro + Undetectability plan at $149.99/month (Cluely pricing, accessed 2026-07-12). That is 7.5x the base price for the one feature most interview users actually came for.

Dusky’s whole reason to exist is that feature, so it would be strange to charge extra for it. Every Dusky plan — the free 15-minute trial, the $19 Weekly Pass, the $69 Job Hunt Pass, and Pro — includes screen-share invisibility. You can confirm it works on your own machine before you ever pay, using the built-in Invisibility Test during onboarding.

Meetings vs interviews: they are not the same tool anymore

This is easy to miss. Cluely’s homepage headline as of July 2026 is “#1 Undetectable AI for Meetings,” and its compatible-app list is Zoom, Slack, Webex, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet — a meetings and sales lineup, with no coding-interview platforms named (Cluely, accessed 2026-07-12).

Dusky is built around the interview: live transcription with sub-second latency, structured answers that open with a one-line TL;DR, a Think Deeper Mode that spends up to 60 seconds reasoning through system-design and architecture questions, and an Interview Context feature that grounds answers in your own CV and the job description instead of generic filler. Its tested platform list explicitly includes Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Slack Huddles, and CoderPad. If you are prepping for interviews specifically, that focus is the point.

Neither approach is “better” in the abstract — they are aimed at different rooms. But if you are choosing based on interview use, you are comparing a general meetings assistant against a purpose-built interview copilot.

A word on “undetectable” — from both sides

Cluely, like most tools in this space, uses the word “undetectable.” We want to be straight about what that word can and cannot promise, because we hold ourselves to the same standard.

On a plain Zoom, Meet, or Teams call, the video app captures pixels, not processes — it does not enumerate the apps you have open. A window that is correctly excluded at the OS level is genuinely invisible to that screen share. That is the mechanism Dusky uses, and it is the mechanism the “invisible to screen share” claim rests on generally (how stealth works, technical explainer, 2025-08-20; see also /blog/is-cluely-detectable).

Where the word breaks down is outside a plain video call. Locked-down coding assessments run a companion app that reads your process list — HackerRank’s own Desktop App documentation states verbatim that it “detects and closes… invisible cheating tools such as Cluely and Ultracode” (HackerRank KB). Proctoring vendors like Proctorio (2025-05-28) and Honorlock (2026-04-28) describe blocking Cluely the same way — by preventing apps from launching, not by spotting them in the screen share.

That is why Dusky’s site says, in plain language, to test before every real interview, and why corporate-managed machines and locked-down proctoring apps are called out as limits — not hidden. No competitor page we reviewed states its own failure modes. We think that honesty is worth more than a “100%” you cannot stand behind. Our own is-dusky-detectable page answers the same hard question about our own product.

Where your interview data goes

The two tools take different paths with what you say and show during an interview. Cluely’s privacy policy says it collects audio, transcriptions, and screenshots; to be fair, it also states that it does not sell or train on your data — a genuine point in its favor. The wrinkle is that end-to-end encryption is opt-in — you have to email support to enable it — rather than on by default, and content still routes through third-party transcription and advertising providers (Cluely privacy policy, accessed 2026-07-12).

Dusky is pass-through: your transcripts, screenshots, and conversations are not stored on our servers, and your Interview Context (CV and job description) never leaves your machine — it is stored locally, AES-256-GCM encrypted, and wiped when you sign out. If data footprint is part of your decision, that is the difference.

If track record matters too, two things are on the public record. Cluely’s CEO publicly retracted a fabricated ~$7M revenue figure in March 2026, calling it his “formal retraction” (TechCrunch); and a security researcher reported the client shipped with no sandbox, system prompts in plaintext, and a screenshot-leaking flaw — then received a DMCA takedown for disclosing it (Critical Thinking podcast). The fuller writeup is in /blog/cluely-alternative.

Watch it, don’t take our word for it

A short screen recording shows the Dusky overlay while you use it, then the same moment from the shared-screen side, where it does not appear. It is the most honest form of proof we can offer, and you can reproduce it yourself in the onboarding Invisibility Test.

Which should you pick?

• Pick Dusky if you are interviewing and want invisibility included, with the vendor’s own caveats on the table, on a one-time pass you can start for $19 (or test for free first).
• Consider Cluely if your real need is a meetings and notetaking assistant, and you are comfortable that full stealth sits on the $149.99/month tier (Cluely pricing, 2026-07-12).

If you are weighing Cluely specifically, the deeper writeup is /blog/cluely-alternative. If your shortlist also includes coding-focused tools, /blog/interview-coder-alternative and /blog/best-ai-interview-assistant go wider.

Try Dusky free — no credit card

You get 15 minutes of free AI-assistance time with every feature unlocked, including screen-share invisibility, so you can run the Invisibility Test on your own setup before deciding anything. No card required.

Download at getdusky.app. On Windows, note that the current build is unsigned, so SmartScreen may warn you on first run — choose More info → Run anyway.

FAQ

Is invisibility really included in Dusky’s free trial?

Yes. Screen-share invisibility ships in every Dusky plan, including the $0 trial (15 minutes of AI-assistance time, no credit card) and the $19 Weekly Pass. There is no separate stealth tier and no on/off toggle — it is always on. See /pricing.

How much does Cluely charge for undetectability?

As of July 2026, Cluely’s stealth feature (“Completely hidden to meeting screen sharing software”) is on its Pro + Undetectability plan at $149.99/month, above the $19.99/month Pro plan that does not include it (Cluely pricing, accessed 2026-07-12). Prices may change — check their page directly.

Is Cluely still an interview tool?

Cluely’s homepage now leads with “#1 Undetectable AI for Meetings” and lists meeting apps like Zoom, Teams, Slack, Webex, and Google Meet, not coding-interview platforms (accessed 2026-07-12). Dusky remains interview-only by design.

Is Dusky actually undetectable?

On a plain Zoom, Meet, or Teams call, a correctly-excluded native window is genuinely invisible to the screen share, because those apps capture pixels, not your process list. It is a different story in locked-down proctored assessments, which run companion apps that inspect running programs — HackerRank’s docs, for example, name and close tools like Cluely and Ultracode. That is why we say test before every real interview. Full detail: /blog/is-cluely-detectable and /blog/is-dusky-detectable.

What platforms does each run on?

Dusky runs on macOS 12+ (Monterey or later) and Windows 10/11 (64-bit). Cluely lists macOS 10.15+, Windows 11, and an iOS app (Cluely download, accessed 2026-07-12).

Does Dusky offer refunds?

No — all sales are final. That is precisely why there is a free 15-minute trial with every feature unlocked, so you can confirm invisibility works on your machine before buying. See /pricing.