Screenpipe review 2026: what it records, costs, and the alternative
Screenpipe records screen frames and audio, 5 to 10 GB a month by its own README. Sharpy keeps the words in one local file. What each stores, costs and does with it.
People search for a Screenpipe alternative for one of four reasons: the 5 to 10 GB it writes every month, the fact that a picture of the screen exists on disk, the license, or a price that starts at $21 a month for the full history. Sharpy answers the first two by design and the last two by being a different kind of product. This is where the two overlap and where they do not, from Screenpipe’s site and README on 18 September 2026 and from Sharpy’s own repository.
What Screenpipe records
Screenpipe calls itself “your computer history, open to any AI”. Its README says it captures the full accessibility tree with OCR as the fallback, microphone and system audio transcribed by Whisper Large-V3-Turbo on the machine or by Deepgram in the cloud, speaker identification, keyboard inputs and app switches. Capture is event-driven rather than a fixed frame rate. Everything lands in a local SQLite database with full-text search; screenshots are saved as JPEGs on disk.
The cost of that completeness is in the same README: 5 to 10 GB of disk per month, 8 GB of RAM recommended, 0.5 to 3 GB of RAM while running, 5 to 10 percent of CPU. It runs on macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel, on Windows 10 and 11, and on Linux if you build it. The code is on GitHub under the Screenpipe Commercial License, which allows personal, non-commercial use; it is source-available, not open source, and the company is backed by Y Combinator.
Pricing on 18 September 2026: Free at $0 (capture, search of recent work, sharing selected context with Claude and Codex, 10 AI credits a month), Basic at $21 a month or $250 a year (full searchable history, reusable context over MCP, unlimited scheduled workflows, 150 credits), Business at $42 a seat a month (sync across devices, team workspace, 400 credits), Enterprise on request. Students get 50 percent off the first month.
Pixels or words
That is the whole difference, and every other row in the table follows from it.
Screenpipe keeps pictures of your screen and the sound in the room, then extracts text from them. You get the closest thing to a recording of your day, and you pay for it in disk, memory and the knowledge that the frames exist.
Sharpy keeps the words. It reads the text of the front window through macOS Accessibility several times a minute, runs it through a privacy gate, and writes it to one SQLite file. No video, no screenshots, no keystrokes, no audio file. Card numbers, IBANs and tokens are masked before anything is stored; banks, password fields, login pages and incognito windows are never captured. Ask what you saw and the answer comes with a chip that opens the exact snapshot.
On one founder’s Mac the September 2026 history is 24,000 snapshots in a 192 MB database. Screenpipe’s own estimate for the same month is 5 to 10 GB.
Side by side
| Sharpy | Screenpipe | |
|---|---|---|
| What it records | Text of the front window via Accessibility, several times a minute. Calls transcribed on the Mac, transcript kept as text. | Accessibility tree, screen frames with OCR fallback, microphone and system audio transcribed, speaker identification, keyboard inputs, app switches. |
| What sits on disk | One SQLite file of text. 24,000 snapshots in 192 MB on one Mac. | SQLite with full-text search plus JPEG screenshots. 5 to 10 GB a month per the README. |
| Resources | Menu-bar app; text capture only, no video or audio pipeline. | 8 GB RAM recommended, 0.5 to 3 GB used, 5 to 10 percent CPU per the README. |
| Where the data lives | On your Mac. No cloud copy. AI features send the relevant context to cloud models per request. | Local by default. Deepgram transcription and the Business tier’s cross-device sync go through the cloud. |
| What you do with it | Ask with a citation; tap Option to rewrite any text field in your tone; hold Option, say a task, and it runs in the background; Chronicle, wiki pages, open promises, time ledger. | Search; “pipes” such as meeting notes, CRM update, time tracker, SOP generator, contact dossier; scheduled workflows. |
| AI tools | MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and any MCP client: search_memory, get_chronicle, get_working_memory, get_wiki_page, get_time_report and more. | MCP server for Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code with Cline or Continue; local REST API. |
| Platforms | macOS 14 or later. Windows on the waitlist. | macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows 10 and 11, Linux from source. |
| Source | Not open source. The MCP server and the privacy gate are documented. | Source-available on GitHub, Screenpipe Commercial License, personal non-commercial use. 21.6k stars. |
| Price | Early access by invite; the allowance is explained before you activate. | Free $0; Basic $21 a month or $250 a year; Business $42 a seat a month; Enterprise on request. |
The Screenpipe column is from screenpipe.com, its pricing page and the GitHub README on 18 September 2026. The Sharpy column is from the app’s repository. Check both before you decide; these products change monthly.
When Screenpipe is the right choice
You want the recording. If you need to see what a window looked like, not just what it said, Screenpipe keeps the frame and Sharpy does not. If you need transcripts of every meeting with speakers separated, Screenpipe records the room; Sharpy transcribes a call it detects on screen and keeps the text, nothing more.
You are on Windows or Linux today. Sharpy is Mac first, and Windows is a waitlist, not a download.
You want to read the code. Screenpipe’s is on GitHub. It is not open source in the OSI sense, but you can inspect what runs.
When Sharpy is
You liked the idea and not the 5 to 10 GB. Text of what you saw is a few hundred megabytes a month, and it is searchable the same way.
You do not want a picture of your screen on disk. Sharpy never takes one. The privacy gate masks card numbers, IBANs and tokens before the write and skips banks, password fields, login pages and incognito windows entirely, so the memory is safe to keep and safe to hand to an AI tool.
You want the memory to do something. Sharpy is the Option key: tap it in any text field and the draft is rewritten in your tone with the thread’s history behind it; hold it, say “tell Dana the call moves to Thursday and put it in the calendar”, and the task runs across supported apps while you keep working. It pauses before anything that deletes, pays, posts publicly or sends in bulk. Screenpipe’s pipes run on a schedule; Sharpy’s agent runs on your voice.
You use Claude Code or Cursor. Both products speak MCP, but Sharpy’s server answers with citations to the snapshot, so the agent can show you where a fact came from. See Give Claude Code a memory of your screen for the one-command setup.
The limits, stated plainly: Sharpy needs an account, every model call goes through the Sharpy gateway, and providers may keep prompts for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring. Your history stays on the Mac; the context for a question does travel to a model.
Moving from Screenpipe
Sharpy does not import a Screenpipe database today. Its SQLite is yours to keep. Sharpy does import browser history, files, an Apple Notes export and your calendar, so the new memory starts with something. If you run both for a week, they do not conflict: Sharpy reads the accessibility text of the front window, Screenpipe records the screen, and each keeps its own file.
If you are coming from Screenpipe, join the waitlist and say so in the reply to the welcome email. Invites go out weekly. For the wider field, including Goldfish and HeyClicky, read Rewind AI alternatives for Mac in 2026.
Questions
Is Screenpipe open source?
Source-available, not open source. The GitHub repository (21.6k stars on 18 September 2026) is published under the Screenpipe Commercial License, which permits personal, non-commercial use. Sharpy's app is not open source either; its MCP server and the privacy gate are documented, and the captured history is a plain SQLite file you can open yourself.
How much disk does Screenpipe use?
Screenpipe's README states 5 to 10 GB per month, 8 GB of RAM recommended, 0.5 to 3 GB of RAM in use and 5 to 10 percent CPU. Screenshots are saved as JPEGs next to a SQLite database. Sharpy stores text only: on one founder's Mac the database holds 24,000 snapshots from September 2026 in 192 MB.
Does Sharpy record audio or meetings?
Sharpy does not record audio. During a call it transcribes on the Mac and keeps the transcript as text next to everything else it captured; the audio is read once and dropped, no audio file is written. Screenpipe transcribes microphone and system audio with Whisper locally or Deepgram in the cloud and keeps the result.
Can Claude Code or Cursor use Sharpy the way they use Screenpipe?
Yes. Both ship an MCP server. Screenpipe's works with Claude Desktop, Cursor and VS Code through Cline or Continue. Sharpy's exposes search_memory, get_chronicle, get_working_memory, get_wiki_page, get_time_report and the rest to Claude Code, Cursor and any MCP client, with every answer citing the snapshot it came from.
Is there a free Screenpipe alternative for Mac?
Screenpipe itself has a free tier: capture, search of recent work, 10 AI credits a month; full history and MCP context are on Basic at $21 a month. Sharpy is in early access by invite on macOS 14 or later; the allowance is explained before you activate. Windows has a waitlist.