Reviews · scored on rubric v1
Krisp review: 86/100, and every point accounted for
The columnist’s summary: Krisp removes noise in both directions, on the device, in front of whatever call app you already use. It tops our table and still keeps an asterisk — the free hour runs out precisely when meetings do not.
What Krisp is, in one column inch
Krisp is a virtual microphone and speaker that sits between your hardware and your call software. Pick “Krisp Microphone” inside Zoom, Teams, Meet or anything else, and its models strip keyboards, traffic and the neighbour’s renovation from your outgoing audio — and, unusually, from the incoming side too. Processing is on-device processing; call audio is not sent to Krisp's servers for noise removal. That architecture is why it scores a 10 on Fit: it does not care which meeting app your employer standardised on, and it works identically on Windows and macOS.
Reading the row: where the 86 comes from
Silence (9/10). In vendor documentation terms — which is what we score, and we say so plainly — Krisp’s claim set is the broadest in the live category: bidirectional removal, echo handling, and processing that stays on your machine. We dock the tenth point because no vendor’s own account of itself deserves a perfect score, and because aggressive suppression on any tool can thin a voice in a bare room. Verify that on your own hardware in the free hour; that is what it is for.
Toll (8/10). No RTX card demanded, no GPU tax. It is one more resident process, and on an older laptop you will notice it exists — hence eight, not ten.
Wallet (7/10). 60 minutes per day free, which resets at midnight GMT and covers exactly one honest meeting; the paid tier is $8/user/month billed annually — or $16/user/month billed monthly if you refuse the annual commitment, and the doubling is worth noticing before checkout. Good value, not charity.
Candor (9/10). The limits are documented where you can find them, the privacy claim is specific enough to be falsifiable, and the pricing page does not hide the monthly rate. Rare enough to reward.
What it costs, verified
| Free plan | 60 minutes per day of noise removal, resets at midnight GMT, 1 device |
|---|---|
| Trial | 7-day free trial, no credit card |
| Core | $8/user/month billed annually · $16/user/month billed monthly · 10 GB storage |
| Advanced | $15/user/month billed annually · $30/user/month billed monthly |
| Platforms | Windows and macOS desktop apps; mobile apps are for meeting transcription/notes, not live noise cancellation |
The ledger, in public
Every Standard Score is the same arithmetic: five dimensions, fixed weights, rounded half-up. The methodology page holds the rubric; this table holds this tool’s entry in it.
| Dimension | Score | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Silence ×0.35 | 9/10 | 31.5 | two-way removal, processed on-device — no cloud round-trip |
| Toll ×0.20 | 8/10 | 16.0 | runs on ordinary CPU laptops; no discrete GPU required |
| Wallet ×0.20 | 7/10 | 14.0 | 60 free minutes a day, then $8 a month billed annually |
| Fit ×0.15 | 10/10 | 15.0 | Windows and macOS; sits in front of any call app |
| Candor ×0.10 | 9/10 | 9.0 | limits documented plainly; the privacy story is checkable |
| Standard Score | 86/100 | weighted sum ×10, rounded half-up (rubric v1) |
Krisp earns its 86. It does not earn a halo — the free plan’s 60 minutes expire faster than a standup runs long.
What the score refuses to hide
A recommendation is only worth printing with its costs attached:
- The free tier’s 60 minutes count down whenever cancellation is active — a long Monday burns the allowance before lunch, and the meter resets at midnight GMT, not your midnight.
- The mobile apps transcribe meetings; they do not do live noise cancellation. Krisp’s noise removal is a desktop product, whatever an app-store search implies.
- Monthly billing is double the annual rate — $16 against $8. The pricing page is honest about it, but your card statement will be too.
- It is one more always-on process. On ageing hardware the Toll is small but real.
Who should actually use it
Buy it if your calls happen in different apps on different days — the consultant’s life — or if you split time between a Mac and a Windows machine and want one behaviour on both. Skip it if you own an RTX card, work in one app, and can live inside NVIDIA Broadcast’s free noise removal instead: our arithmetic says you would be paying $96 a year mostly for portability you do not need.
Questions we actually get
- Is Krisp still free in 2026?
- Yes — the permanent free plan gives 60 minutes of noise cancellation a day on one device, verified against Krisp’s own pages on July 30, 2026. The 7-day trial (no card) is a separate, fuller preview.
- Does Krisp need a particular GPU?
- No. That is its structural advantage over NVIDIA Broadcast: the models run on an ordinary CPU, on Windows and macOS both.
- Does Krisp listen to my calls?
- The noise removal runs on your device; call audio is not shipped to Krisp’s servers for processing. That claim is specific, published, and part of why Candor scores a nine.