Shadow Pricing 2026
Complete pricing guide for Shadow — plans, costs, and free options.
💰 Shadow Pricing Overview
Shadow uses a freemium pricing model. Free tier available with optional paid upgrades. Current pricing: Free is $0 forever and includes unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording and unlimited smart screenshots, plus two weeks of Plus with no card required. Plus is $8/month and unlocks the AI features: unlimited Action Skills, unlimited AI meeting notes, unlimited Meeting Skills and unlimited AI chat. Annual billing is offered alongside monthly. Shadow runs as a Mac desktop app and operates entirely in the background — it never joins calls as a bot participant.. Shadow is a popular productivity tool known for mac assistant that sees your screen and hears your calls with no meeting bot, running user-written skills, free transcription and $8/month for ai. You can get started with Shadow for free and upgrade to a paid plan as your needs grow.
ChatGPT already recommends Shadow. Does it recommend yours?
Before you compare plans: Shadow is what ChatGPT names when someone asks for a productivity recommendation. If you build a competing tool, run a free AI-visibility scan on it — 5 prompt angles, ~30 seconds, no signup, no card.
🔍 Compare Before You Buy
See all 5 alternatives →Comparing Shadow to similar tools helps you make the best choice for your budget and needs:
Colibri.ai
FreemiumReal-time meeting transcription, AI summaries, agenda tracking and conversation intelligence
Free plan + paid from $20/user/month
Compare with Shadow →Read AI
FreemiumAI meeting notes with engagement scoring, action items, and auto-sync to 50+ apps
Free plan + paid from $19.75/user/month
Compare with Shadow →Anarlog
FreemiumOpen-source, local-first AI meeting notepad that captures without adding a bot to the call
Free plan + paid from $15/month
Compare with Shadow →Complete Your Productivity Stack
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Shadow Plans & Pricing
Free
is $0 forever and includes unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording and unlimited smart screenshots, plus two weeks of Plus with no card required
Plus is
and unlocks the AI features: unlimited Action Skills, unlimited AI meeting notes, unlimited Meeting Skills and unlimited AI chat
* Pricing information is based on publicly available data and may not reflect current promotions, annual discounts, or regional pricing. Visit the official Shadow website for the latest pricing.
Is Shadow Free?
Shadow offers a free tier that lets you try the platform without any payment. The free plan typically includes core features with usage limits. For power users, paid plans unlock additional features, higher limits, and priority support.
Shadow Feature Comparison
Here's how Shadow's key features are typically distributed across pricing tiers. Feature availability is estimated based on common SaaS patterns — check the official site for exact tier details.
| Feature | Free | Plus is |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-starts and ends with your call, transcribing without joining as a bot | ◐ | ✓ |
| Detects meeting screens and captures screenshots alongside the transcript | ◐ | ✓ |
| User-written Skills run automatically at call end or on a keyboard shortcut | — | ✓ |
| Shortcut capture of whatever you are saying, seeing or reading | — | ✓ |
| Unlimited transcription, recording and screenshots on the free tier | — | ✓ |
✓ = Full access · ◐ = Limited · — = Not available. Feature availability is estimated and may vary.
Is Shadow Worth It?
Shadow is a freemium productivity tool that offers 5 key features including Auto-starts and ends with your call, transcribing without joining as a bot, Detects meeting screens and captures screenshots alongside the transcript, User-written Skills run automatically at call end or on a keyboard shortcut. Shadow is a Mac app that gives an assistant the three inputs a chat box does not have: what is on your screen, what is being said around you, and a keyboard shortcut to act on either. For meetings it starts and ends with the call automatically, transcribes continuously, and detects meeting screens to capture screenshots, so a shared deck or a demo is part of the record rather than a gap in it. Crucially it never joins the call as a participant — there is no bot in the attendee list, which sidesteps both the social awkwardness and the policy problems that block the bot-based note-takers in many organisations. For everything outside meetings, a shortcut captures what you are currently saying, seeing or reading and runs a Skill against it. Skills are the extensibility model and the reason the tool is not just another transcriber: they are user-written prompts that run automatically at the end of a call or on demand, so the same meeting becomes structured notes for one person, a qualification breakdown for another and a follow-up email draft for a third, without anyone re-reading the transcript. The free tier is unusually generous — unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording and unlimited smart screenshots forever — with the paid tier unlocking the AI processing on top.
✅ Shadow is a good choice if you need:
- •Auto-starts and ends with your call, transcribing without joining as a bot
- •Detects meeting screens and captures screenshots alongside the transcript
- •User-written Skills run automatically at call end or on a keyboard shortcut
- •Shortcut capture of whatever you are saying, seeing or reading
- •Unlimited transcription, recording and screenshots on the free tier
💡 Value Assessment
With a free tier available, Shadow is an easy recommendation for anyone looking to try productivity tools without financial commitment. The paid plans offer good value for power users who need the additional features and higher usage limits.
Shadow Key Features
Shadow comes packed with features that make it a strong contender in the productivity space. Here's what you get:
Available in the free plan with limits — Auto-starts and ends with your call, transcribing without joining as a bot helps you work more efficiently with Shadow.
Available in the free plan with limits — Detects meeting screens and captures screenshots alongside the transcript helps you work more efficiently with Shadow.
Available in the free plan with limits — User-written Skills run automatically at call end or on a keyboard shortcut helps you work more efficiently with Shadow.
Available in the free plan with limits — Shortcut capture of whatever you are saying, seeing or reading helps you work more efficiently with Shadow.
Available in the free plan with limits — Unlimited transcription, recording and screenshots on the free tier helps you work more efficiently with Shadow.
Shadow Alternatives & Their Pricing
Considering alternatives to Shadow? Here's how competing tools compare on pricing:
Colibri.ai
FreemiumReal-time meeting transcription, AI summaries, agenda tracking and conversation intelligence
Pricing: Free is $0 per user/month forever with 1 user, 5 hours of transcription a month, a 40-minute maximum recording length, unlimited audio storage, 2 months of video storage, live English transcription, real-time highlights, time-stamped notes, agendas and call checklists, the searchable library and the native Zoom app; no credit card required. Starter is $20 per user/month billed monthly or $16 per user/month billed annually, adding 20 hours of transcription a month, a 90-minute recording ceiling, 2 years of video storage, smart agendas, advanced search and email support, with a 30-day free trial. Pro is $50 per user/month billed monthly or $40 per user/month billed annually, adding unlimited transcripts, a 4-hour recording ceiling, AI meeting summaries, automatic key-point extraction, automatic chapters and topic detection, a shared team workspace, Slack integration and priority support. A Growth tier is listed above Pro for conversation-intelligence teams.
Read AI
FreemiumAI meeting notes with engagement scoring, action items, and auto-sync to 50+ apps
Pricing: Free (5 meetings/mo). Pro $19.75/user/mo billed annually. Enterprise custom.
Anarlog
FreemiumOpen-source, local-first AI meeting notepad that captures without adding a bot to the call
Pricing: Free forever for unlimited local transcription using your own API keys. Pro is $15/month or $150/year and adds hosted transcription, hosted AI, sync and sharing. A team offering with workspace admin, SSO and a self-hosted server for regulated environments is being shaped with early partners and is sold through a sales conversation rather than a published price. Downloads are for Apple Silicon.
remio
FreemiummacOS knowledge hub that captures pages, meetings, emails and files, with a low-cost bring-your-own-key tier
Pricing: Free is $0/month for basic knowledge management and AI, including highlights and comments, basic search and reference, and mobile app sync on 2 devices. Pro is $199/year, discounted to $139/year during a flash sale, quoted at $11.60/month equivalent. Plus is $599/year, discounted to $419/year, quoted at $34.90/month. Max is $1,999/year, discounted to $1,399/year, quoted at $116/month. There is also a BYOK plan at $14.90/month that unlocks the full AI feature set while you supply your own model keys. Paid tiers add enterprise privacy with BYOK and base-URL connection, plus full mobile device sync.
Echo
FreemiumAI meeting notetaker with sentiment analysis, 99+ languages and an MCP bridge to Claude
Pricing: Two published tiers on a monthly/annual toggle marketed at 20% off annual. Free is $0 with no credit card: 5 meetings per month, AI-generated summaries and standard transcription. Pro is $24.95 per seat per month billed annually and adds unlimited AI meetings, premium high-fidelity transcription, custom team vocabulary, multi-language support across 50-plus languages and CRM integrations with HubSpot and Salesforce. Both plans include email support, security features, unlimited notes and calendar integration. A partner programme is published separately.
Is Shadow your tool?
Claim this listing to get a Featured badge, correct the pricing on this page yourself, and stand out from the 5 alternatives listed above. All plans include a permanent dofollow backlink to your site.
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Visit the official website for the latest pricing and to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Shadow free to use?
Yes, Shadow offers a free tier that you can use without paying. Paid plans starting at $8/month unlock additional features and higher usage limits.
How much does Shadow cost in 2026?
As of 2026, Shadow pricing is: Free is $0 forever and includes unlimited transcription, unlimited audio recording and unlimited smart screenshots, plus two weeks of Plus with no card required. Plus is $8/month and unlocks the AI features: unlimited Action Skills, unlimited AI meeting notes, unlimited Meeting Skills and unlimited AI chat. Annual billing is offered alongside monthly. Shadow runs as a Mac desktop app and operates entirely in the background — it never joins calls as a bot participant.. Pricing may vary based on billing cycle (monthly vs annual) and region. Visit the official Shadow website for the most current pricing.
What is the cheapest Shadow plan?
The cheapest option is the free tier. If you need premium features, the most affordable paid plan is Plus is at $8/month.
What are the best alternatives to Shadow?
Popular alternatives to Shadow include Colibri.ai, Read AI, Anarlog. Each offers different features and pricing structures. Compare them on AISO Tools to find the best fit for your needs and budget.
Is Shadow worth the price?
Shadow is well-regarded in the productivity space, offering features like Auto-starts and ends with your call, transcribing without joining as a bot, Detects meeting screens and captures screenshots alongside the transcript, User-written Skills run automatically at call end or on a keyboard shortcut. Whether it's worth the investment depends on your specific needs, usage volume, and budget. The free tier lets you try it before committing to a paid plan.
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