Screenpipe

Screenpipe records your screen and audio all day. The idea: an AI that can later find what you typed, saw or heard. Not just your meetings, but everything that happened on your screen. The tool runs on Mac, Windows and Linux and stores the raw recordings locally by default.

A memory for your AI, not a note taker

Most AI recording tools focus on meetings. They transcribe what is said and write a summary. Screenpipe takes a broader approach. It captures screen activity and audio continuously, across all your apps.

That gives you a searchable history. You can look up what you put in a document yesterday, which website you had open or what was said in a call. You can then share that context with AI tools, so they answer based on your work instead of general knowledge.

According to the site, that is the core of it: your AI gets your work history as context. Users on review sites describe it as a searchable second brain. They pull things out of it that they would otherwise have lost.

The tool comes from Negentropy Labs, Inc., founded in 2024 by Louis Beaumont. The company is based in San Francisco and, according to outside sources, was backed by Y Combinator. Coverage repeatedly describes Screenpipe as source-available.

Local-first: what stays on your disk by default

With a tool like this, the privacy story matters. You record everything, including sensitive things. According to Screenpipe, the raw history stays on your own device by default. Data only leaves it if you turn on optional cloud features.

You also control what gets recorded. In the settings you can exclude specific apps, windows and URLs. That keeps your banking app or personal tabs out of the recordings.

Users praise the setup as smooth. The tool finds note and AI tools on your system automatically and connects them without manual work. Several reports also mention quick help from the founder himself when setting up the beta.

From recording to automation through the local API

Where it gets technically interesting is the local API and the MCP server. With those you connect Screenpipe to tools like ChatGPT and Claude. Your AI can then request your recorded context for automations.

According to the site, Screenpipe also identifies recurring workflows. Things you do the same way every week, the tool recognizes and makes repeatable in the paid plan. The Basic plan gives you unlimited scheduled workflows.

The users who value this are mostly technical people. They build their own automations on top of their recorded work. For that group, the combination of local storage, an API and MCP support is the reason to pick this tool in particular.

What Screenpipe costs per month

There are four plans. The free plan captures screen and audio on one device and lets you search recent work. For your full history you need a paid plan.

Basic costs $ 21 per month, or $ 250 per year if you pay annually. That gets you your full searchable work history across all apps and unlimited scheduled workflows. Business costs $ 42 per user per month, or $ 500 per year, and adds syncing between personal devices, team management and centralized billing. For Enterprise, with SSO, MDM and cloud API access, the site lists no price.

The pitfalls: disk space and Windows

A tool that records nonstop has downsides. The one mentioned most is storage. An independent assessment points out that constant screen and audio recording takes up a lot of disk space over time. If you have a small drive, you need to keep an eye on this.

The second sticking point is Windows. Users report that the bundled automations do not work right away on a standard Windows 11 install and need debugging. If you work on Windows and expect ready-made automations, that may disappoint you.

Independent coverage is thin too. One review site notes that no detailed independent reviews are available. G2 shows a score of 5.0 out of 5, but based on only 2 reviews. That is too few to draw firm conclusions from.

Screenpipe next to Otter, Granola and Fireflies

Comparing it with meeting tools quickly falls short, because Screenpipe does something else. Otter records meetings, transcribes them and creates summaries and action items. Useful if you only want to capture conversations, but it does not track your screen activity.

Granola AI comes closer on privacy. It runs locally on your device and transcribes meetings without a bot in the call. But it sticks to meetings, while Screenpipe captures your whole work history. If you want local processing and only need meeting notes, Granola is the more logical choice.

Fireflies is a full meeting tool with summaries and searchable transcripts. Here too: no continuous screen recording. Pick Fireflies if meeting management with integrations is your goal, and Screenpipe if you want AI context from your entire workday.

The difference is in the question you ask. If you want to know what was said in your meetings, a note taker will do. If you want an AI to know what you did and saw all day, Screenpipe is built for exactly that.