LockedIn AI alternatives (2026): six tools compared on price, billing and platforms

What LockedIn AI actually costs

LockedIn AI's pricing page has three tabs (Unlimited, Credits and Lifetime) and two tiers inside Unlimited (General and Professional). Every card shows a crossed-out price next to the real one, so the first job is reading the right number. On 13 October 2026 the page showed:

• Unlimited, General: 54.99 $ a month billed monthly, or 39.99 $ a month billed every three months. Unlimited interview sessions for coding, meetings and online assessments, plus unlimited mock interviews, up to two hours per interview.
• Unlimited, Professional: 119.99 $ a month billed monthly, or 79.99 $ a month billed every three months. Adds LockedIn Duo, a remote assist feature, and Stealth Mode, which LockedIn describes as keeping the app out of view while you share your screen. Those two are not listed on the General card.
• Credits: 69.99 $ a month for 400 copilot minutes, or 49.99 $ a month billed every three months for 20 hours per quarter. LockedIn says credits never expire.
• Lifetime Pro: 999.50 $ as a one-time payment.

The refund policy matters for anyone buying a month for one interview: monthly and quarterly plans are non-refundable once started, and annual plans are eligible for a partial refund only within seven days. The product is strong on technical rounds and offers more surrounding features than most of this list. The question is whether you need a subscription-sized commitment for the number of interviews you actually have.

1. Final Round AI: the closest like-for-like subscription

Final Round AI is the most direct substitute. It is a desktop app for macOS 14.4+ and Windows, with a live copilot during the call, and Pro starts at 25 $ a month. That is less than half of LockedIn's General monthly rate. Pro also includes practice interviews, automatic AI debriefs after a call and screen help with auto-capture.

The catch is the free plan. It covers preparation (goals, resume, job description parsing, a prep checklist) but not live sessions, and the pricing page says plainly that there is no free trial. You pay before you can hear how well it transcribes your interviewer. The page also advertises savings of up to 40% on longer plans without printing those prices, so the 25 $ figure is the only one we can confirm. The detailed breakdown is in Final Round AI alternatives.

Pick it if: you want a LockedIn-style all-in-one subscription at a lower monthly price and do not need to test live sessions first.

2. Verve AI: the most generous free tier

Verve AI is the alternative you can test most thoroughly before paying. The free plan includes three 15-minute live copilot sessions and five AI mock interviews. No other tool here gives you 45 minutes of live help for free. Paid plans come in three billing periods. Pro, with unlimited 90-minute sessions, costs 84.99 $ a month billed monthly, 59.99 $ a month billed quarterly, or 34.99 $ a month billed annually. Standard costs 44.99 $ a month billed monthly.

So Verve is cheaper than LockedIn only if you commit for a year. On a monthly basis its Pro plan sits between LockedIn's General and Professional tiers. It runs on macOS and Windows, with an iPhone app.

Pick it if: you want to run a real practice call or two on the free plan before deciding, or you are job hunting for most of the year.

3. Parakeet AI: pay per interview hour

Parakeet AI suits someone with three interviews, not thirty. Instead of a monthly plan you can buy credits: one credit costs 33 €, and half a credit covers a 30-minute call. Packs bring the price down to 17 € per credit for three, and to 10.20 € per credit for the largest pack (nine credits plus six free). An unlimited plan exists too, at 129.90 € a month, 519.90 € a year or 67 € for a single week. All prices were shown in euros for our region.

Parakeet has a desktop app for Windows and macOS and also runs live sessions in desktop Chrome, which its page says applies to Linux as well. The free tier is a single 10-minute session plus your first mock interview. There is a full comparison in Parakeet AI alternatives.

Pick it if: you have a handful of interviews spread over several months and do not want a recurring charge.

4. Interview Copilot: one month, paid once

This is ours, so read it with that in mind. Interview Copilot is a desktop app that listens to the call through system audio, so it hears the interviewer the way your speakers do rather than picking up your own voice through the microphone. When the interviewer stops speaking, the answer appears on its own, without a hotkey. For coding rounds, a screenshot of the task is solved on screen.

The price is 25 $ for 30 days, paid once, with no auto-renewal. When the month ends the app falls back to the free tier instead of charging you again. The free tier needs no card and includes 5 minutes of live recognition and 3 screenshot solutions, so you can check transcription on a recording of a real interviewer before paying. It is the only tool in this list with a native Linux desktop build (an AppImage, currently in beta), and the interface is available in 27 languages. The question can arrive in English while you read the answer in your own language.

Pick it if: you have one intense month of interviews, you work on Linux, or you want the answer in a language other than the interview's. What the free tier includes.

5. Cluely: a meeting assistant first

Cluely is a general meeting assistant with interview use as one application. Pro costs 19.99 $ a month and gives unlimited AI responses and meeting notes, and the free Starter plan allows a limited number of responses. Its top tier, Pro + Undetectability, costs 149.99 $ a month. That puts it well above LockedIn's General plan. Read Cluely alternatives before comparing them on the 19.99 $ figure alone.

Pick it if: meetings and notes are your main use and interviews are occasional.

6. Interview Coder: a specialist for coding assessments

Interview Coder is built for coding rounds and priced like it. It costs 299 $ a month with 1,000 usage credits, or 799 $ for a lifetime licence. The free download does not include any AI features. Next to LockedIn it is not a cheaper alternative. It is a different purchase, aimed at people whose interviews are mostly timed coding tasks. More in Interview Coder alternatives.

Pick it if: nearly all of your rounds are coding assessments and price is not the deciding factor.

Where Interview Copilot is weaker

A comparison written by one of the vendors should say where that vendor loses. These are the honest gaps:

• No preparation platform. LockedIn, Final Round AI, Verve AI and Parakeet AI all include mock interviews, and several add resume tools, question banks or post-call reports. We have a live prompter and an exportable interview history, and nothing for practising beforehand.
• A short free tier. 5 minutes is enough to test transcription quality, not to get through an interview. Verve's three 15-minute sessions let you test much more.
• Free answers use a lighter model. The free tier runs on Groq. Pro runs on Claude and uses your resume, and the difference in answer quality is noticeable.
• No mobile app and no human assist. LockedIn has a mobile app and a remote assist feature on its Professional plan. We have neither.
• Linux is a beta. It was tested end to end on Ubuntu in an X11 session. Wayland is not verified yet. See the Linux page for exactly what works.
• Payments are final. There are no refunds, which is why the free tier exists. Test it on a recording first.

How we compared

Every price in the table was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 13 October 2026, not from review sites or other comparison posts. Several review sites still quote LockedIn prices that no longer match its page. Where a page used toggles (LockedIn's tiers, Verve's billing periods), we switched each toggle and recorded every combination. Where a vendor did not print a figure, the table says “not published” instead of estimating it. Parakeet AI displayed prices in euros for our location, and we have left them in euros rather than convert them.

We did not rank by answer quality. That depends on your interviewer's accent, your connection and the model each tool uses that week, and it is better measured by you. Play a recorded interview through your speakers and check whether the transcript keeps up and the answer arrives in time to be useful. Our checklist for that test is in how to choose an AI interview assistant, and a longer comparison of us against the market is on the alternatives page.

How to decide in five minutes

Count your interviews and look at how they are spread. If they are scattered over several months, pay per hour (Parakeet AI) so you are not paying for empty months. If they are bunched into one month, pay once for that month (Interview Copilot) or subscribe for a month and cancel (Final Round AI). If you expect a steady stream all year, an annual plan (Verve AI) or LockedIn's quarterly billing is cheaper per month. If you want everything in one subscription, including mock interviews and debriefs, Final Round AI does that for less than LockedIn's General plan. Then use the free tiers to test transcription before you pay anyone.

Sources

• LockedIn AI: pricing page and refund policy
• Final Round AI: pricing page
• Parakeet AI: pricing section
• Verve AI: pricing page
• Cluely: pricing page
• Interview Coder: pricing section

All checked on 13 October 2026. Prices change often in this category, so check again before you pay.

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