ChatGPT vs Cluely

What really is there to say? ChatGPT was the fastest-growing consumer app in history when it launched. It reached 1 million users in about 5 days after launch and 100 million users in about 2 months after launch.

OpenAI is general artificial intelligence. You can ask it questions, and it'll answer them, like a human. You can ask it to write code for you, and it'll build it, all while explaining the why and how.

Engineering friends of mine are worried that it'll replace their job, and yet they are using it to become a better engineer (using it to teach them different coding languages).

The craziest thing of it all, anyone can use it, and you don't even need to be technical to use it. Just visit ChatGPT here and start asking it questions. You'll be amazed by what it can do. If you're more technical, then be sure to check out the actual API and see where you can fit it into what you're building (I mean everyone else is).

Everyone is trying to build a OpenAI (ChatGPT) into their product right now. It's the closest thing we've seen to magic in an incredibly long time.

Cluely is just another AI chat wrapper as many others. The main differentiation is its ability to persist across calls and actively listen, while supplying recommended questions as the meeting goes on.

To explain this in a more tangible way, in comparing Cluely vs Granola (one of the best meeting recorder tools on the market), Granola ultimately sits in the background recording the call and only presents itself when a meeting is active. It then summarizes the transcript afterward and enriches any notes taken, allowing for perfect recollection of what was said in the conversation. Cluely on the other hand makes itself an active participant in the call.

For example, say you're on a call and the topic of another software product comes up, Cluely will begin recommending information to search that will give you more context without leaving the call:

The context of Windsurf came up, so it recommends relevant questions to search

The reality here is that it's no different than using the ChatGPT desktop app, pressing "CMD + Spacebar" and just writing a question. It's just that it's more preemptive taking the entire context of the call into consideration, and most specifically what was said in that moment to suggest showing information that might be relevant.

What they really do best is marketing via viral and rage-bait tactics. Trying to make their "hidden UI" and proactive prompting come off as being able to "cheat on everything". It's really just a feature decision, and creative messaging more than anything.

• Starter Tier: Free (with limited access to lower-end AI models - GPT 4.1, GPT o4-mini)
• Pro Tier: $20/mo (with unlimited access to paid AI models - e.g. GPT 5, Claude 4)
• Enterprise Tier: $200/mo (everything in Pro + custom integrations, RBAC, post-call analytics, SSO, centralized billing, and usage analytics & reporting dashboard)