6 Best Screenpipe Alternatives in 2026 (And When You Don't Need Total Capture)
Screenpipe is a genuinely capable tool: a local-first app that records your screen and audio 24/7, pulls text straight from apps via accessibility APIs (with OCR as fallback), transcribes with Whisper on-device, and makes all of it searchable. It’s a YC S26 company that has repositioned around “workflow memory for AI agents,” runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and has picked up the “Rewind successor” mantle now that Rewind’s capture was disabled on December 19, 2025 after Meta bought its parent, Limitless.
So why look for alternatives? A few reasons show up in the searches. The license shifted: Screenpipe started MIT-licensed but moved to the “Screenpipe Commercial License,” a source-available license — personal, non-commercial, educational, and research use stay free (plus a 7-day evaluation), but any commercial or production use needs a paid license, and the signed desktop app is now a subscription running up to $150/seat/month at the enterprise tier. Open-source users who felt they’d adopted a free tool are feeling the squeeze. Beyond licensing, always-on capture is a lot of overhead and privacy exposure for what many people actually want — which is usually “what did I agree to, and where did I see that,” not a searchable video of their entire life. Here are six alternatives, sorted by what you’re really trying to do.
1. Carly
Carly is an AI executive assistant that solves the problem most people run capture software for — “what did I say I’d do, and where did I see that?” — without recording your screen at all. It connects to the systems where that information already lives (email, calendar, Slack, Notion, CRM, your meeting notetaker) across 200+ integrations, and then acts on what it finds.
What makes it different from Screenpipe: Screenpipe captures everything you see and hear, then makes you search it. Carly connects the systems of record and skips the haystack: ask what you agreed to with a client and it checks the email thread and the Fathom transcript, then drafts the follow-up, schedules the call, or updates the CRM. Nothing sensitive sits in a giant 24/7 local recording, there’s no always-on capture process eating disk and battery, and there’s no license terms or desktop subscription to track — because there’s no capture app in the first place.
Best for: People whose real Screenpipe use case was recall-then-action on work commitments, not archiving their screen.
Pricing: starts at $35/month
2. Microsoft Recall
Windows 11’s built-in screen memory on Copilot+ PCs: periodic snapshots, OCR, and a searchable visual timeline, free with the hardware.
What makes it different from Screenpipe: Recall ships with the OS, so there’s no separate app, subscription, or license to reason about. The trade-offs are the opposite of Screenpipe’s flexibility — it requires Copilot+ hardware, captures no audio, and is Windows-only, where Screenpipe runs on all three platforms. After a rocky 2024 launch it now defaults to opt-in, with snapshots encrypted on-device and Windows Hello gating access.
Best for: Windows users on Copilot+ PCs who want basic visual recall without installing or paying for anything.
Pricing: Included free on Copilot+ PCs
3. Pieces
A developer-focused memory layer that captures context from your browser, IDE, and tools, then resurfaces snippets, links, and past work when you need them.
What makes it different from Screenpipe: Pieces is selective memory instead of total capture. Its Long-Term Memory rolls a nine-month window of your work activity and lets you ask time-based questions (“what was I debugging Tuesday?”), but it’s tuned for code and dev context rather than a raw video of your screen — far less storage and privacy exposure for most of the value. It runs local AI via Ollama on the free tier with no usage cap, so you can stay fully offline like Screenpipe without the commercial-license question.
Best for: Developers who mainly wanted Screenpipe for “where did I see that snippet or decision?”
Pricing: Free tier; Pro $18.99/month ($14.17/month billed annually)
4. LUCI
A 100% local AI meeting notetaker and screen recorder with searchable memory, for Mac and Windows, from Memories.ai.
What makes it different from Screenpipe: LUCI is the closest like-for-like on the “record my screen and calls, keep it all on my device” pitch — no bot joins your meetings, no cloud upload, recordings and transcripts and memory stay local. Where Screenpipe is a source-available platform aimed increasingly at teams and agents, LUCI is a consumer app focused on personal recall, and it’s a normal proprietary app rather than one you self-host. (Memories.ai also sells a separate LUCI wearable Pin for life-logging, but the desktop app is the Screenpipe substitute.)
Best for: Individuals who want Screenpipe’s local capture-and-search model in a packaged app, without touching a license or a CLI.
Pricing: Free trial; desktop app rolling out through 2026
5. MyMind
A private visual memory for the things you choose to save — screenshots, articles, images, notes — with AI tagging and search, and no folders.
What makes it different from Screenpipe: MyMind inverts the model. Instead of recording everything and searching later, you save what matters in one keystroke and its AI organizes it. Deliberate memory beats total recall for a lot of real work, and nothing you didn’t choose to keep ever exists — so there’s no 24/7 process, no local recording to secure, and no capture surface at all.
Best for: Researchers, designers, and writers who want a curated memory rather than surveillance of themselves.
Pricing: From $6.99/month
6. OBS Studio
The open-source standard for local screen and audio recording — free, no account, no license fine print, on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
What makes it different from Screenpipe: If the reason you’re leaving Screenpipe is the license shift, OBS is unambiguously free and open source (GPL) with no commercial-use catch. The trade-off is that it’s a recorder, not a memory: no continuous 24/7 capture, no OCR, no transcription, no AI search — you record deliberately and file the video yourself. It only earns a slot if what you actually wanted was reliable local recording, not searchable recall.
Best for: People who want free, open, no-strings screen recording and will handle search and organization themselves.
Pricing: Free, open source
Screenpipe Alternatives Compared
| Tool | Model | Platforms | Audio | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Connects sources + acts | Email/text, any device | Via meeting notetakers | Starts at $35/mo |
| Microsoft Recall | Snapshot timeline | Windows (Copilot+) | No | Included |
| Pieces | Selective dev memory | Mac, Windows, Linux | No (LTM activity) | Free tier |
| LUCI | Local capture + notetaker | Mac, Windows | Yes | Free trial |
| MyMind | Save-what-matters | Web, iOS, extensions | No | $6.99/mo |
| OBS Studio | Manual local recording | Mac, Windows, Linux | Yes | Free |
| Screenpipe | Continuous local capture | Mac, Windows, Linux | Yes | Free (non-commercial); desktop paid |
| Rewind / Limitless | Continuous capture | Discontinued Dec 19, 2025 | Yes | Gone |
FAQ
Is Screenpipe free? Partly. The source code is public, and personal, non-commercial, educational, and research use is free, along with a 7-day commercial evaluation. But any commercial or production use beyond that requires a paid license, and the signed desktop app is now a subscription — reported around $25/month standard, $50/seat/month pro, and $150/seat/month enterprise. New lifetime desktop licenses are no longer sold, though existing ones remain valid.
Is Screenpipe open source? Not in the OSI sense anymore. It launched under the MIT license, but it has since moved to the Screenpipe Commercial License, a source-available license. The code stays publicly viewable and auditable, but commercial use requires a paid license — so it’s “source-available,” not free-and-open the way MIT was. That shift is why a lot of the “Screenpipe alternatives” searches exist.
What’s the closest one-to-one Screenpipe replacement? LUCI, for the local capture-and-search model in a packaged app, or Microsoft Recall if you’re on a Copilot+ PC and only need visual snapshots. For open, no-license recording, OBS. None of them replicate Screenpipe’s agent-and-pipe platform ambitions — that’s now its own product direction.
Do I actually need total capture? Audit what you’d search it for. If it’s mostly commitments, decisions, and “where’s that thread,” a connected assistant like Carly answers those from the source systems directly — no 24/7 recording, no license terms, and no 100GB of screen video to secure.
More: Rewind AI alternatives · Limitless AI alternatives · Meta’s Limitless acquisition, explained · Best AI personal assistants
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