Cluely vs Otter

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)

Otter was one of the original note takers. It would transcribe your calls and meetings live, and we used it for years before the whole AI notetaker boom.

We mostly found it more useful for personal use than business use. It was great for things like recording doctor's appointments or casual conversations, since you could just hit record and drop your phone in your pocket.

Now there are a lot more competitors on the market, and Otter has adapted by adding more AI-powered note-taking features. But we still view it as a simple tool for transcribing conversations, not quite a tool we'd bring into the business.