Velin AI vs Cluely: Which Undetectable AI Actually Stays Hidden in 2026?
If you're picking between Velin AI and Cluely, you're probably comparing two prices you saw on two homepages. Those prices are not comparing the same thing, and the gap is bigger than it looks.
Here's the short version: Cluely starts at $19.99/month, which is cheaper than Velin AI. But the feature most people are shopping for — staying invisible on a screen share — is not in that plan. It's in a separate tier at $149.99/month.
Velin AI is $34/month, and undetectability is not a tier. It's the architecture.
What Cluely is actually built for
This is the part most comparison posts skip, so let's do it first.
Cluely is a meeting assistant. Its headline is "#1 Undetectable AI for Meetings," and the product leads with note-taking: it takes meeting notes, transcribes in 12+ languages, tracks participants, and produces recaps. Real-time answers are there, triggered with Cmd/Ctrl + Enter.
That framing is genuinely useful, and it's a real advantage in one respect: a note-taking tool is a normal thing to have open in a work meeting. Cluely also ships an iOS app, which Velin doesn't, and its free Starter tier needs no signup.
If what you want is better meeting notes and occasional AI help in calls where nobody is trying to catch you, Cluely at $19.99/month is a reasonable buy and cheaper than Velin. That's a real answer, and if it's your situation you can stop reading.
The comparison gets interesting when the stakes change — a live interview, a proctored test, an assessment platform actively looking for helper software. That's where "undetectable" stops being a feature word and starts being an architecture question.
The pricing split nobody mentions
Cluely's pricing has three tiers:
| Tier | Price | What you get | |---|---|---| | Starter | $0 | Limited AI responses, limited notes, up to 3 file uploads, capped daily messages | | Pro | $19.99/mo | Unlimited AI responses, unlimited notes, unrestricted uploads, latest models | | Pro + Undetectability | $149.99/mo | Everything in Pro, plus "completely hidden to meeting screen sharing software" |
Read that last row again. Being hidden from screen sharing is a $130/month upgrade over the plan most people quote when they say Cluely is cheap.
Velin AI's plans are $34/month, $228/year, or $324 once for lifetime access. Every one of them is fully undetectable, because there is no version of Velin that isn't. There was never a product decision about whether to charge extra for the thing the product is for.
Against Cluely's undetectable tier, Velin's lifetime purchase costs less than two and a half months of Cluely.
| Feature | Cluely | Velin AI |
|---|---|---|
| Stealth Level | App Overlay (Detectable) | OS-Level (Robust & Invisible) |
| Hands-Free Operation | No (Requires Keyboard) | Yes (Ambient AI) |
| Post-Interview Notes | No | Yes (Notes Mode) |
| Parrallel AI Jobs | No (One at a time) | Yes (Run multiple jobs) |
| General Productivity | Limited to Interviews | Designed for Daily Workflow |
| Multi-Modal Input | Limited (Screen/Voice) | Yes Realtime (Text, Voice, Screen) |
| Solution Speed | Slow (~20 seconds) | Fast (~5 seconds) |
| Controls | Limited (Keyboard Only) | Everything (Keyboard and Smart Touch) |
Why "keyboard shortcut" matters more than it sounds
Cluely's answers are summoned with Cmd/Ctrl + Enter. That's a completely normal way to build a product, and in a meeting it's invisible in the way that matters — nobody sees your screen.
In a monitored assessment, it's a different question. Some proctoring and assessment platforms watch keyboard input. A keystroke is an event, and an event can be logged.
Feature Spotlight: Mouse gestures
Velin AI can be driven entirely with custom mouse gestures — no keystroke, no click event a platform can attribute to a helper app. You can also use keyboard commands or undetectable clicks if you prefer. Three input methods, and the gesture path leaves nothing for a keyboard-monitoring platform to see. None of the tools in this comparison offer this.
The second difference is that Velin doesn't wait to be asked. In live mode it follows the conversation and puts answers on screen as questions are asked — no prompt, no shortcut, no moment where you visibly do something. Cluely's model is you deciding to ask.
Where each one is genuinely better
Cluely is better if:
- You want meeting notes and recaps as the primary output
- You need it on your phone
- You're in normal work calls where nothing is checking for helper software, and $19.99/month is the budget
- You want to try something free with no signup
Velin AI is better if:
- You're in live interviews, proctored tests or assessments where being seen is the whole risk
- You want undetectability without paying $149.99/month for it
- You want answers without touching the keyboard
- You need answers in a language outside a narrow set — Velin supports 57+
- You'd rather buy once at $324 than rent forever
How Velin stays hidden
Velin is hidden at the operating system level rather than by drawing a clever overlay. It doesn't appear in screen shares or recordings, and it doesn't appear in the dock, menu bar or Activity Monitor. In your process list it shows up as V Module, which reads like a system utility rather than an AI tool — the full story of that rename is here.
It's also click-through and never becomes the active window, so there's no tab-switch or focus change to notice. The complete invisibility breakdown goes through each layer.
Live sessions have no duration cap, and usage is unlimited on every plan — no credits to buy, no counter running while you're mid-interview.
The honest summary
Cluely is a good meeting assistant with a cheap entry price and a genuinely useful notes product. If meetings are your use case, buy it.
If you need to not be seen, compare the right numbers: $149.99/month against $34/month, or $324 once. And check how each one is controlled, because in a monitored environment the input method is part of the threat model, not a convenience preference.
Still deciding between more than two? The three-way comparison with InterviewCoder covers the wider field, and the pricing breakdown explains what each Velin plan includes.
Cluely's pricing and features were taken from cluely.com and cluely.com/pricing on 12 August 2026. Pricing pages change — check theirs before you buy.