LockedIn AI Alternative: True macOS Stealth for $15/mo

LockedIn AI is one of the more interesting products in the AI interview category because it ships a hybrid most competitors don't: a browser extension and a native desktop app, on both Mac and Windows. The extension is the lowest-friction onboarding in the space — install, pin, done. But the same architecture that makes it frictionless also caps how stealthy it can be. A browser extension is, by definition, pixels inside the browser window. If you're shopping for a LockedIn AI alternative because you've noticed the overlay showing up in a screen-share preview, or because the $20-$40/mo pricing feels heavy, this is the honest map. I built one of the alternatives.

Quick comparison

Disclosure: I built Meeting Copilot. I've tried to write this so it holds up if you go install LockedIn AI yourself.

What "stealth" actually means here

The unusual thing about LockedIn AI is the hybrid shape: a browser extension for low-friction users plus a native app for users who want the heavier features. Both halves are real products. They have very different stealth profiles, and the marketing tends to blur them together.

A browser extension renders its UI inside the browser window — that's the only place Chrome and Edge let extensions draw pixels. When you share your screen, your tab, or your browser window in Zoom, Google Meet, or Teams, the captured frame includes everything the browser is rendering, extensions included. There is no extension API to opt a content script out of screen recording. That's not a LockedIn AI limitation — it's a structural property of how browsers expose extensions. So if you're using the extension and sharing your screen, the overlay is in the share. You can hide it by toggling visibility, but that's "hidden" the way a minimized window is hidden, not "invisible to the capture pipeline."

A native desktop app, by contrast, can call setContentProtection on macOS or SetWindowDisplayAffinity(WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE) on Windows. These APIs tell the OS: when something captures the screen, exclude this window from the frame buffer. Zoom, Meet, Teams, OBS, QuickTime, and macOS native screen recording all read from that buffer. A window with content protection enabled simply isn't in the captured frame. There's no obfuscation step to defeat — the pixels were never there to begin with. LockedIn AI's native app side can use this; their browser extension can't.

Meeting Copilot is macOS-native only. That's a deliberate scope choice — it means every user gets the OS-level invisibility path, on every plan, including free. There's no "lower-stealth tier" because there's no browser surface to support.

Pricing: $15 flat vs $20-$40 tiers

LockedIn AI's pricing sits roughly in the $20-$40/mo band depending on which tier you pick and what's bundled — model selection, coding-platform integration, longer sessions, premium overlays. The lifetime/annual paths drop the effective monthly cost. The structure is normal for the category: free trial, mid tier around $20, premium around $35-$40.

Meeting Copilot is flat: $15/mo Pro for unlimited listening, $25/mo Prime if you want user context and the interviewer mode, free 15 minutes per month if you just want to test it on one real round. There's no upsell for invisibility — it's a default on every tier — and no credit math.

The honest comparison: if you mostly use the extension and you don't need the heavier native features, LockedIn's lower tier and Meeting Copilot's Pro tier are in similar zip codes. If you'd otherwise be at LockedIn's $40 tier for the full feature bundle, Meeting Copilot Prime at $25 is meaningfully cheaper for the macOS scope.

Where each product wins

Who should pick what

Pick LockedIn AI if

• You're on Windows or you switch between Mac and Windows.
• You hate desktop installs and want a browser-extension-first experience.
• You're prepping for LeetCode, HackerRank, or other coding platforms.
• You want the maximum feature bundle and can absorb the higher tier.
• You like the hybrid model — extension for quick sessions, native app for the heavier rounds.

Pick Meeting Copilot if

• You're on macOS and you'll be on screen-shared video calls.
• You want the strongest stealth available — OS-level, on every plan.
• You'd rather pay $15/mo flat than navigate $20-$40 tiers.
• You want to test before paying. Free 15 minutes covers a real round.
• You like indie tools with direct dev access and a tight scope.

The structural argument for native-only on macOS

The reason native-only macOS tools end up with cleaner stealth is that there's no compromise to make. Cross-platform products have to support a lowest-common-denominator capture model, and browser extensions are the worst case — there is literally no API to make them invisible to screen capture. So any product that markets stealth across browser, web, Mac, and Windows is implicitly saying "stealth varies by surface, and we'll explain that in the docs." That's fine, but it's worth reading the docs.

Native-only macOS tools collapse the matrix. Every user is on the same surface, every surface uses the same API, and the API is the one that's hardest for video-call platforms to fight without bypassing macOS itself. That's not a value judgment about LockedIn AI — their hybrid is genuinely valuable for the cross-platform use case. It's just the trade-off you're making implicitly when you pick a cross-platform tool for what is fundamentally a per-platform stealth problem.

FAQ

Is LockedIn AI invisible on screen share?

Partially. The native desktop app side can use OS-level capture exclusion (macOS setContentProtection, Windows SetWindowDisplayAffinity). The browser extension side cannot — extensions render inside the browser window, and there's no extension API to opt out of screen capture. Meeting Copilot is macOS-native only and uses OS-level invisibility on every plan.

How much does LockedIn AI cost?

Roughly $20-$40/mo depending on tier. Meeting Copilot is $15/mo Pro (unlimited listening) or $25/mo Prime (adds user context and interviewer mode), with a free tier of 15 minutes per month.

Does LockedIn AI work on Windows?

Yes — Mac and Windows are both supported. Meeting Copilot is macOS only. If you need Windows, LockedIn AI or Cluely are the realistic options.

What's the cheapest LockedIn AI alternative for macOS?

Meeting Copilot at $15/mo Pro, or free up to 15 minutes per month. OS-level screen-share invisibility is included on every plan.

How does LockedIn AI compare to Cluely?

Both are cross-platform. Cluely is more general-purpose (a16z funded, $149.99/mo invisibility tier); LockedIn AI is more interview-focused with the browser-extension hybrid. See the Cluely comparison for the full breakdown.