Screenpipe

Screenpipe

Screenpipe is local-first screen and audio recording that gives any AI agent searchable memory of your work.

83/100Safe BetFree · from $21/moFreemium

Pick Screenpipe if the thing you refuse to hand over is the recording itself. Continuous local capture plus an open REST API and MCP server means your agent can actually act on your history rather than summarize a transcript. Just budget setup time, about 30 GB a month, and know that syncing your own context across devices starts at Business ($42/seat/mo) — shared context across teammates isn't included at all yet.

Verified 18h ago · liveness 83/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/screenpipe

Best for
  • Developers wiring desktop context into agents via MCP or the local REST API
  • Knowledge workers who want meetings and app activity searchable on their own machine
  • Consultants and sales teams turning captured calls into summaries and CRM updates
  • Privacy-conscious users wanting a local-first alternative to cloud recorders
Not ideal for
  • Users who want a zero-configuration tool with no capture settings to tune
  • Laptops on tight storage budgets — history runs about 30 GB per month
  • Teams expecting a shared central archive of everyone's raw screen and audio
Visit Website

IntermediateDevelopers: minutes to install, longer to tighten exclusions and hook an agent up to the MCP server. Knowledge workers: an afternoon to tune capture, retention, and your first pipe; value typically shows up after a few days of history. IT teams: plan a real pilot — MDM, SSO, retention, and device backfill policies take longer than the install itself.Desktop · CLI · API · PluginAPI availableVerified 18h ago
Pricing
Free · from $21/mo
FreemiumFree tier4 plans6 hidden costs
Learning curve
Intermediate
Developers: minutes to install, longer to tighten exclusions and hook an agent up to the MCP server. Knowledge workers: an afternoon to tune capture, retention, and your first pipe; value typically shows up after a few days of history. IT teams: plan a real pilot — MDM, SSO, retention, and device backfill policies take longer than the install itself.
Runs on
DesktopCLIAPIPlugin
API available · 12 integrations
Who it's for
Developer wiring agents into desktop contextConsultant or sales lead running client callsIT lead rolling out managed desktop memory
Live sentiment
Is Screenpipe actually worth it?

We scan live Reddit threads, YouTube comments, X posts, G2 reviews and other communities — and hand you an honest verdict in under a minute.

  • Honest verdict, not marketing
  • Real pros & cons from real users
  • Attributed quotes with receipts
Run a free scan

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Skip it if

Skip Screenpipe if you want computer memory that stays in the vendor's cloud and works across teammates the moment you sign up — here sync, team workspaces, and mobile access start at Business ($42/seat/mo) and mobile is still in private beta.

The 30-second take
Biggest gripe

AI credits reset monthly and do not roll over, so a heavy month on Pipes and chat does not carry into a lighter one — Free gets 10, Basic 150, Business 400.

Price reality

The Free tier is a real entry point on one device, and Basic at $21/mo (or $250/yr) is competitive with personal AI note and meeting tools for a single user. Business at $42/seat/mo puts you in the same bracket as enterprise knowledge tools, but it is where sync and team seats actually begin, so compare against cloud screen recorders before assuming it is the cheaper path. Screenpipe's cost is really storage plus AI credits plus seats.

In short

Screenpipe — Screenpipe is local-first screen and audio recording that gives any AI agent searchable memory of your work. Best for Developers wiring desktop context into agents via MCP or the local REST API, Knowledge workers who want meetings and app activity searchable on their own machine, Consultants and sales teams turning captured calls into summaries and CRM updates. Free to start; paid plans from $21/mo.

What's new in Screenpipe

Checked 9 days ago

Across the latest 9 updates: 5 feature updates and 4 changelog entries.

ChangelogChangelog·12 days agoNewest

Screenpipe v2.7.76: Workflows gain inline editing, SOPs, live voice review

Workflows now support editable SOP web pages, live voice narration review, inline step editing, teammate invites from chat, and installable MCP plugins for Claude and OpenAI.

FeatureBlog·24 days ago

Screenpipe #32: Workflows turn your working steps into agent skills

Screenpipe Workflows let users inspect the steps behind their work, check the evidence, and convert a reviewed workflow into a skill for their agent.

ChangelogChangelog·Sep 9

Screenpipe v2.7.28: audio capture and database stability fixes

Critical fixes for audio capture and database reliability. Screenpipe skill auto-installs in Grok Bot; chat context pruning on by default; safer macOS/Windows updates.

ChangelogChangelog·Sep 8

Screenpipe v2.7.27: enterprise device history backfill, agent fixes

Enterprise users can backfill retained history for selected devices. Agent action buttons reworked, deeplinks preserved in packaged configs, AI gateway input limits classified better.

ChangelogChangelog·Sep 7

Screenpipe v2.7.26: enterprise history backfill and agent integration

Enterprise users can backfill retained history for selected devices; agent deeplinks preserved in packaged configurations and agent actions made easier to find in the home interface.

FeatureBlog·Aug 26

Screenpipe #30: multi-device context, connected AI chats, meeting chat

Opt-in multi-device context reaches mobile AI clients, AI chats can find and continue each other, meetings gain chat and replay, and scheduled tasks can run on coding agents.

FeatureBlog·Aug 19

Screenpipe #29: Activity timeline, multi-harness support, native UI

Activity turns computer history into a task timeline; Screenpipe works across Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Codex and Grok; v2.6.56 adds native macOS Timeline and Windows shortcut overlay.

FeatureBlog·Aug 12

Screenpipe #28: Infinite Context adds opt-in cloud sync

Infinite Context brings opt-in cloud sync to Screenpipe history across devices and AI clients, alongside search, Live Views, meeting audio, and chat reliability improvements.

FeatureBlog·Aug 5

Screenpipe #27: Live Views become canvas-only with source-backed Blocks

Live Views are canvas-only: move, connect, and annotate source-backed Blocks, ask AI to change the view, and apply templates like How I worked today and Process Map.

What people actually say about Screenpipe — is it worth it?

We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.

23 mentions across 4 sources (Hacker News, Product Hunt, GitHub, Lemmy) · researched Jul 3, 2026.

75% positive25% critical

Average across the 4 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.

Recurring strengths
  • +Fully local storage ensures no cloud privacy risks.
  • +Open-source engine with source-available license.
  • +Captures screen, mic, and system audio continuously.
  • +Redacts PII like credit cards and SSNs automatically.
  • +Natural language search across entire work history.
Recurring frustrations
  • −High RAM usage (600MB-2GB) with multi-monitor capture.
  • −OCR can't distinguish user input from received messages.
  • −143 open issues suggest stability concerns.
  • −Setup requires CLI and npx — not beginner-friendly.
  • −Updates sometimes break existing workflows.
Patterns worth knowing
Local-first privacy is a major draw, especially as an alternative to cloud recorders like Rewind.ai and Microsoft Recall.
Seen on Hacker News, Lemmy, GitHub
High resource consumption (RAM) is a recurring pain point for multi-monitor users.
Seen on Hacker News
Setup and daily use require technical proficiency — CLI/terminal comfort is expected.
Seen on Hacker News, Product Hunt
Learning curve
intermediateProductive in ~A few hours
Hidden costs people mention
  • • Pro pricing isn't publicly detailed yet — potential future cost if you want premium features.
  • • Requires good local hardware; no official cloud option for compute offload.

Viability Score

83/100
Safe Bet

How well maintained and how widely used is Screenpipe? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this

Recent activity
90
Traction
100
Site health
95
User sentiment
75
What the vendor publishes
60

Last calculated: October 2026

How we score →

Key Features

  • Continuous screen capture via accessibility APIs with OCR fallback
  • Local transcription of microphone and system audio
  • Per-process audio capture for meetings on macOS and Windows
  • Local REST API for search and retrieval over your history
  • MCP server exposing work history to Claude, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, and Grok
  • Installable MCP plugins for Claude and OpenAI (v2.7.76)
  • Workflows that turn reviewed working steps into SOPs and agent skills
  • Inline workflow step editing and teammate invites from chat (v2.7.76)
  • Live voice narration review of workflows (v2.7.76)
  • Scheduled workflows triggered by events like a meeting ending
  • Natural language chat search over captured work history
  • Activity view that turns computer history into a task timeline
  • Find that moment by scrubbing back through your day
  • On-device redaction of cards and API keys; password managers excluded
  • App, window, and URL exclusion applied before storage

About Screenpipe

FreemiumIntermediateAPI availableDesktop · CLI · API · Plugin

Screenpipe records what happens on your computer — screen frames, accessibility context, and transcripts of your microphone plus system audio — and keeps that history on your own machine so AI can use it as context. It runs on macOS 13+, Windows 10+, and Linux, and writes to an inspectable local database (db.sqlite) you can query through a local REST API or an MCP server. The practical payoff is grounding. Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, and Grok can search your actual meetings, apps, and documents instead of guessing, and Screenpipe Workflows turn repeated patterns you can see in your own history — invoice reconciliation, customer handoffs, weekly reports — into reviewable SOPs and agent skills. Recent v2.7.x releases added inline workflow editing, live voice narration review, teammate invites from chat, installable MCP plugins for Claude and OpenAI, enterprise device history backfill, and multi-device context that now reaches mobile AI clients. Privacy controls act before storage: exclude apps, windows, and URLs, redact cards and API keys on device, and leave cloud upload off. Storage is configurable with retention settings, but plan for roughly 30 GB per month and 600 MB–4 GB of RAM depending on capture settings. It fits developers wiring desktop context into agents, individuals who want meetings and app activity searchable locally, and teams deploying managed memory with MDM, SSO, and audit logs. Compared to cloud meeting recorders like Scribe or enterprise process-mining suites like Celonis, Screenpipe trades polish and centralization for portability and model independence.

Behind the Verdict

Screenpipe's bet is that your work history is more useful when it never leaves your machine. That bet is now mature enough to rely on: the local database, REST API, and MCP server mean you are not locked to one model, and the v2.7.x line has been steadily hardening capture rather than adding surface area. The September audio-capture and database-stability fixes in v2.7.28 are the kind of unglamorous work that decides whether a recorder is tolerable after week three. Where it earns its keep is workflow conversion. The newer Workflows features — inline step editing, editable SOP pages, live voice narration review, and installable MCP plugins for Claude and OpenAI — let you inspect the steps behind your own work, check the evidence, and hand the reviewed version to an agent. If you have ever tried to explain a manual process to a new hire, that is the feature you will actually use. We'd reach for Screenpipe when you want agent context grounded in desktop reality and you are comfortable tuning capture settings. Developers connecting Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, or Grok get the cleanest path; the multi-harness support added in August makes swapping clients cheap. Where it bites: this is not a zero-config product. You choose what to capture, what to redact, and how long to retain, and you pay for that in setup time. Storage runs about 30 GB a month, so tight-disk laptops need retention rules from day one. The team story is narrower than the marketing implies. Business gives you personal device sync and managed seats, and the pricing page is explicit that shared context across teammates is not currently included. If what you want is one central archive of everyone's raw screen and audio, this is the wrong shape of tool. Closest alternative depends on your

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Real-world workflow fit

Concrete scenarios for the personas Screenpipe actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.

Developer wiring agents into desktop context

Install Screenpipe, confirm capture into ~/.screenpipe, then point Claude Code or Cursor at the MCP server and ask it to summarize the last week of work on a specific repo.

Outcome: The agent answers from accessibility and audio evidence rather than assumptions, and you can inspect the same rows yourself with curl localhost:3030/search.

Consultant or sales lead running client calls

Enable per-process audio capture for your meeting app, install the meeting-notes pipe so it fires on meeting_ended, and route the summary to Notion while a HubSpot pipe logs deal discussion.

Outcome: Every call produces a three-bullet summary, action items, and a CRM update without you writing anything up afterward.

IT lead rolling out managed desktop memory

Deploy Screenpipe through MDM with SSO and audit logs, enable enterprise device history backfill for selected devices, and set exclusion policies for sensitive apps and URLs.

Outcome: Devices report into a managed workspace with stable device IDs, and raw history stays on each machine rather than being centralized by default.

Use Cases

Models Under the Hood

ClaudeChatGPTGeminiWhisperOllamaCodex

as of 2026-10-08

Limitations

  • Local-first: screen, app, browser, and audio history is stored on your device by default, with optional cloud AI models and encrypted sync.
  • Storage accumulates roughly 30 GB per month, and capture uses 600 MB–4 GB RAM depending on settings.
  • Shared context across teammates is not currently included; Infinite Context and mobile access are in private beta, and device sync/team seat management require the Business tier.

as of 2026-09-23

Verification history

We have re-verified Screenpipe 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.

  1. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  2. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  3. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  4. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  5. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
  6. — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it

Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.

Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.

12-month cost

Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.

Annual total
Free
Over 12 months
Effective monthly
—
—

Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.

Plans compared

For each published Screenpipe tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.

Free

$0

Ideal for

A single person trying Screenpipe on one machine to see whether local capture and agent search fit how they work.

What this tier adds

Starting tier: one device, recent-work search, share selected context with Claude or Codex, and 10 AI credits per month.

Basic

$21/mo

Ideal for

An individual who wants their full work history searchable and reusable by agents on one machine, without team features.

What this tier adds

Adds full searchable history across apps, meetings, and audio, MCP-based context reuse, unlimited scheduled workflows, and 150 AI credits.

Business

$42/seat/mo

Ideal for

Small teams and multi-device individuals who need context synced across machines plus a shared workspace with managed seats.

What this tier adds

Adds cross-device sync, a team workspace with managed seats, recurring workflows, and 400 AI credits at $42/seat/mo.

Enterprise

Custom

Ideal for

IT and compliance teams rolling Screenpipe out across a company with identity, device, and retention requirements.

What this tier adds

Adds SSO, MDM, retention and device controls, managed context across devices, dedicated support, and turning company work into skills and agents.

Hidden costs & gotchas

What the public pricing page doesn't put in bold. Captured from pricing-page footnotes, contract terms, and recurring complaints.

  • AI credits reset monthly and do not roll over, so a heavy month on Pipes and chat does not carry into a lighter one — Free gets 10, Basic 150, Business 400.
  • Storage grows about 30 GB per month, so long retention means buying disk or raising retention settings to prune older history.
  • Cross-device sync and team workspaces are locked to Business at $42/seat/mo, so a solo user who later wants a second machine jumps a whole tier.
  • Mobile access and Infinite Context only arrive with the Max and Ultra capacity add-ons on Business, which are priced above the base $42/seat/mo.
  • Enterprise controls — SSO, MDM, retention, device controls, and custom storage — are custom-priced, so the compliance path is a separate quote.
  • Running Pipes with cloud models instead of local ones burns AI credits quickly, and bringing your own provider key moves that cost to your model bill.

Where the pricing makes sense

The company stage and team size where Screenpipe's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.

The Free tier is a real entry point on one device, and Basic at $21/mo (or $250/yr) is competitive with personal AI note and meeting tools for a single user. Business at $42/seat/mo puts you in the same bracket as enterprise knowledge tools, but it is where sync and team seats actually begin, so compare against cloud screen recorders before assuming it is the cheaper path. Screenpipe's cost is really storage plus AI credits plus seats.

Setup time & first value

How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Screenpipe — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.

Developers: minutes to install, longer to tighten exclusions and hook an agent up to the MCP server. Knowledge workers: an afternoon to tune capture, retention, and your first pipe; value typically shows up after a few days of history. IT teams: plan a real pilot — MDM, SSO, retention, and device backfill policies take longer than the install itself.

Switching to or from Screenpipe

How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.

Migrating in
  • →From a cloud screen recorder: install Screenpipe, run both for a week, then disable the cloud recorder once local capture is verified.
  • →From manual meeting notes: install the meeting-notes pipe so summaries write to ~/notes/{date}_{app}.md automatically.
  • →From a notes-only AI tool: point its agent at Screenpipe's MCP server or localhost:3030 so answers are grounded in captured screen and audio history.
Migrating out
  • ↗To a cloud recorder: export or read ~/.screenpipe SQLite directly, since history is stored locally in an inspectable database.
  • ↗To another local AI memory tool: the REST API and MCP server mean your history can be re-pointed at a different agent without re-recording.

Integrations

Resources & Guides

Tutorials & Learning

YouTube returned 6 videos for “Screenpipe”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Screenpipe” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Screenpipe.

Tools that pair well with Screenpipe

Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Screenpipe, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.

Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons

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Frequently Asked Questions

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