Alternatives/Screenpipe·Screen memory

Best Screenpipe Alternatives in 2026

Screenpipe records your screen 24/7 locally and charges $400 once. Seven alternatives compared on what sits above the capture layer, what they cost, and whether your data stays on the machine.

Download LUCI, freeLUCI vs Screenpipe →
CategoryScreen memory
Tools compared7
Platforms coveredMac · Windows · Linux
01 — Context

Why people look for a Screenpipe alternative

Screenpipe does one thing well: continuous local screen capture with OCR and text search, source-available, scriptable through community "pipes", and running on Mac, Windows, and Linux. For a developer who wants raw material to build on, that is the point rather than a limitation.

The most common reason to look elsewhere is the layer above capture. OCR plus text search means you can find a string you remember; it does not mean you can ask what you were working on. There is no memory that accumulates across your work and no MCP interface, so your coding agents cannot query any of it — you are the query engine.

The second reason is assembly. Screenpipe is source-available and expects setup, and its paid tier ($21 a month as of September 2026, replacing the old $400 lifetime licence) is a real number next to free alternatives. The third is coverage: continuous capture of everything carries the battery and accidental-capture costs that made Rewind users uncomfortable, and Chinese-language support is limited.

02 — Criteria

What actually separates screen memory tools

Every tool here captures your screen. These are the four axes where they genuinely diverge.

Q1

Search, or understanding?

OCR over screenshots lets you find text you can already remember. Tools that understand the capture answer questions about it — and the good ones keep a searchable record underneath, so you can drill from a summary back to the specific moment. Ask yourself which of the two you actually needed when you last went looking.

Q2

Does the capture leave your machine?

Screenpipe processes on-device, which is why people choose it, and several tools marketed as alternatives do not: Codex Chronicle uploads screenshots to OpenAI and Remio is cloud-based. The falsifiable test is the same one Screenpipe passes — disconnect from the network and see whether capture and search still work.

Q3

Does it hear meetings too?

Screen capture alone covers half of most people's work. Microsoft Recall, by design and per its own documentation, records no audio at all. If what you keep failing to recall is what someone said on a call, a screenshots-only tool will not fix it.

Q4

Can your agents query it?

Screenpipe pipes are scripts you write and run yourself. A memory exposed over MCP is something Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor fetch on their own, without you assembling context by hand. That is the difference between a pipeline you maintain and a memory your tools use.

03 — Side by side

Screenpipe alternatives compared

Capability, licensing, and pricing details reflect each vendor's own public documentation and pricing pages as of August 2026. Vendors change tiers frequently — check before you buy.

ToolCaptureProcessingPlatformsPriceBest for
LUCIOur pickScreen + audio, bot-free100% on-device, encrypted at restMac & WindowsFree (sessions up to 4 h)Best for keeping local capture while adding understanding, memory, and agent access
Microsoft RecallScreenshots every few seconds — no audioOn-device (Copilot+ PC required)Windows 11 24H2+ onlyFree with a Copilot+ PCBest for Windows users on qualifying hardware who only want to retrace their own steps
OpenAI Codex ChronicleResearch previewScreen, scoped to coding workScreenshots sent to OpenAImacOS onlyRequires ChatGPT ProBest for Codex-only users on macOS who want the agent to stop asking the same questions
RemioScreen + browser auto-capture, audioCloudMac & WindowsFreemium + paid tiersBest for people who want automatic capture across apps and are fine with cloud processing
Rewind AIDiscontinuedScreenshots + audio, always-onOn-deviceMac (no longer sold)Not availableNot a viable option — listed because search results still send people here
MeetilyBot-free, audio onlyOn-device (local Whisper / Parakeet)Mac & Windows (Linux in development)Free (MIT); Pro $10/user/moBest if the half of Screenpipe you actually used was the meeting audio
GranolaBot-free meeting capture — no screenCloud transcription, US-hosted AWSMac & WindowsFree tier; $14–$35/user/moBest for polished meeting notes if local processing is not the reason you are here
04 — In detail

Every option, in detail

LUCI

Our pick

Best for keeping local capture while adding understanding, memory, and agent access

Capture
Screen + audio, bot-free
Processing
100% on-device, encrypted at rest
Platforms
Mac & Windows
Price
Free (sessions up to 4 h)
Maintenance
Actively developed and shipping; your memory lives on your own disk

LUCI keeps the property you chose Screenpipe for — everything processed and stored on your own machine, encrypted at rest, working with the network unplugged — and builds the layer Screenpipe deliberately leaves to you. It understands what it captures rather than only extracting text, folds screen activity and meeting audio into one memory that spans weeks, and answers plain-language questions with citations back to the moment.

Three practical differences. The Agent Bridge opens that memory to the agents you already use, so Claude, Cursor, and Codex query it directly instead of you writing pipes. It transcribes meetings without sending a bot into the call, with on-device speaker identification, which Screenpipe does not do. And it is free with a signed installer rather than $400 and a build step. The trade-offs: no Linux build, sessions run up to four hours rather than a permanent firehose, and it is closed-source, so you cannot audit it the way you can read Screenpipe.

LUCI vs ScreenpipeAI screen recorder

Microsoft Recall

Best for Windows users on qualifying hardware who only want to retrace their own steps

Capture
Screenshots every few seconds — no audio
Processing
On-device (Copilot+ PC required)
Platforms
Windows 11 24H2+ only
Price
Free with a Copilot+ PC

Recall is screen memory built into the operating system, with snapshots kept on the device and keys held in a VBS enclave. If you already own a Copilot+ PC it costs nothing extra and there is nothing to set up — the exact opposite of Screenpipe's trade.

It is also the narrowest option here: Windows-only, gated on a Copilot+ PC (40-TOPS NPU, 16 GB RAM), and per Microsoft's own documentation it records no audio, so meetings are out of scope. Its sensitive-information filter has been shown in hands-on testing to miss credit card and Social Security numbers (as tested by Tom's Hardware, and retested by The Register in August 2025), it is disabled and removed by default on managed enterprise devices, and Signal, Brave, and AdGuard block it from capturing their windows.

LUCI vs Microsoft Recall

OpenAI Codex Chronicle

Research preview

Best for Codex-only users on macOS who want the agent to stop asking the same questions

Capture
Screen, scoped to coding work
Processing
Screenshots sent to OpenAI
Platforms
macOS only
Price
Requires ChatGPT Pro

Chronicle is the most interesting design in this list: a two-stage pipeline where one model extracts candidate memories and another consolidates them in the background, deliberately keeping only durable context — preferences, recurring workflows, your stack, project conventions, known pitfalls — and storing pointers to better sources rather than copies.

It inverts Screenpipe's central promise. Screenshots are uploaded to OpenAI, so the capture leaves your machine, and it is boxed to macOS, ChatGPT Pro, and Codex. Because the extraction is deliberately lossy, detail it judges one-off is discarded with no raw record underneath to drill back into — where Screenpipe's whole value is that it kept everything.

LUCI vs Codex Chronicle

Remio

Best for people who want automatic capture across apps and are fine with cloud processing

Capture
Screen + browser auto-capture, audio
Processing
Cloud
Platforms
Mac & Windows
Price
Freemium + paid tiers

Remio covers a wider surface than Screenpipe out of the box — continuous screen capture, browser activity, and audio transcription, with agentic retrieval over what it collects — and it needs no setup on Mac or Windows.

It is cloud-based, so the capture leaves your machine. If you specifically chose Screenpipe because the archive was local and auditable, this is the wrong shape regardless of how much more it does.

LUCI vs Remio

Rewind AI

Discontinued

Not a viable option — listed because search results still send people here

Capture
Screenshots + audio, always-on
Processing
On-device
Platforms
Mac (no longer sold)
Price
Not available
Maintenance
Discontinued — the Mac app stopped capturing screen and audio on December 19, 2025, after Meta acquired parent company Limitless in December 2025 (verified 2026-08-16, source: 9to5mac)

Rewind defined this category on the Mac: continuous local screen capture, OCR, and a scrollable timeline of your own work. Its parent company rebranded to Limitless, was acquired by Meta in December 2025, and screen and audio capture in the Mac app was disabled on December 19, 2025.

It appears here only because "Screenpipe alternative" searches still surface it. There is nothing to migrate to, and its shutdown is a reasonable argument for preferring tools whose record lives on your own disk.

LUCI vs RewindRewind AI alternatives

Meetily

Best if the half of Screenpipe you actually used was the meeting audio

Capture
Bot-free, audio only
Processing
On-device (local Whisper / Parakeet)
Platforms
Mac & Windows (Linux in development)
Price
Free (MIT); Pro $10/user/mo

If you look honestly at your Screenpipe usage and it was mostly recalling what was said on calls, an audio notetaker is a better shape than a screen recorder. Meetily is MIT-licensed, bot-free, transcribes locally, and the community edition is free and uncapped — the same open ethos at a fraction of the cost.

It does not capture your screen at all, notes are per meeting rather than a memory that accumulates, and there is no MCP interface. Linux and self-hosting mean building from source, and summaries expect Ollama or your own API key.

LUCI vs MeetilyMeetily alternatives

Granola

Best for polished meeting notes if local processing is not the reason you are here

Capture
Bot-free meeting capture — no screen
Processing
Cloud transcription, US-hosted AWS
Platforms
Mac & Windows
Price
Free tier; $14–$35/user/mo

Granola is the most polished notetaker on this list — clean notes, good templates, bot-free capture — and it takes no setup at all. As a replacement for the meeting half of a screen-memory workflow, it is the commercial default.

It is the furthest from Screenpipe's premise. Per Granola's own documentation, audio is passed to a cloud transcription provider with transcripts stored on US-hosted AWS, non-Enterprise accounts train on anonymized data unless you opt out, and it cannot sign BAAs. It captures no screen at all, and its desktop app has no live speaker diarization — speech is labelled "Me" or "Them".

LUCI vs GranolaGranola alternatives
05 — Decision

Which one, given what you used Screenpipe for

You want local capture plus understanding, memory, and MCP access for agents

LUCI

You are on Windows with a Copilot+ PC and only need to retrace your own steps

Microsoft Recall

You only want your coding agent to remember your setup, on macOS

Codex Chronicle

You want the widest automatic capture and cloud processing is fine

Remio

You mostly used it to recall what was said on calls

Meetily — or LUCI if you also want the screen

You need Linux and a pipeline you control

Stay on Screenpipe

06 — FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free Screenpipe alternative?

Yes. LUCI is free and processes everything on-device on Mac and Windows, with sessions of up to four hours. Microsoft Recall is included with Windows 11 but requires a Copilot+ PC and records no audio. Meetily is free and MIT-licensed for meeting notes but does not capture the screen. Screenpipe itself has a limited free tier and paid plans from $21 a month as of September 2026.

Which Screenpipe alternatives keep everything on my machine?

LUCI and Microsoft Recall process and store on-device, as Screenpipe does. Codex Chronicle uploads screenshots to OpenAI, and Remio and Granola are cloud-based. The test that settles it for any tool: disconnect from the network and see whether capture and search still work.

What runs on Linux besides Screenpipe?

Very little in this category. Screenpipe is the strongest Linux option and Meetily lists Linux as in development, buildable from source. LUCI, Microsoft Recall, Codex Chronicle, and Granola do not ship Linux builds. If Linux is a hard requirement, staying on Screenpipe is a defensible answer.

Do any alternatives let my AI agents search my screen history?

LUCI hands its memory to the agents you already use through the Agent Bridge, so Claude, Cursor, and Codex query it directly. Codex Chronicle feeds memories to Codex specifically, but the screenshots go to OpenAI first. Screenpipe, Microsoft Recall, Remio, and Granola have no MCP interface — with Screenpipe you write pipes yourself.

Is continuous 24/7 capture worth the battery cost?

That is the real trade behind the firehose. Rewind users reported roughly 10% battery per hour on laptops from screenshotting everything every couple of seconds, and continuous-capture tools like Screenpipe make the same bargain. Tools that capture what you opt into avoid most of the cost, at the price of not having the moments you never chose to record.

Can I move my Screenpipe data to another tool?

Not directly — Screenpipe's local database is its own format, and the practical move is to keep it for historical lookups while starting a new record in the tool you switch to. Any pipes you built map to MCP queries if you move to a tool that exposes an MCP interface.

LUCI vs ScreenpipeWhat is screen memory?AI screen recorderRewind AI alternativesAll comparisons
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