Krisp: AI Noise Cancellation for Calls

What Is Krisp?

Krisp is an AI-powered noise-cancellation application that filters out background sounds — keyboard clicks, barking dogs, traffic, crying children, air conditioning hum — before they reach the other person on your call. It works at the system level, sitting between your microphone and any calling app you use: Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Discord, Skype, or even your phone calls through a softphone.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco with an engineering team in Yerevan, Armenia, Krisp has grown to serve millions of users across more than 800 enterprise customers. The technology is built on deep learning models trained on thousands of hours of audio data, and it runs entirely on your local device — no audio ever gets sent to the cloud for processing. That privacy-first approach has been a major selling point for enterprise teams handling sensitive conversations.

If you’ve ever taken a call from a coffee shop, a home office with thin walls, or a co-working space full of chatter, you already understand the problem Krisp solves. The question is whether it solves it well enough to justify adding yet another piece of software to your workflow — and whether the free tier covers your needs or whether you’ll need to upgrade.

How Krisp Works: The Technology Explained

Krisp installs a virtual microphone and virtual speaker on your computer. When you open a call, instead of selecting your physical microphone, you select the Krisp microphone as your input. Krisp then listens to everything coming from your real microphone, runs it through its neural network in real time, strips out any sounds that aren’t your voice, and sends the cleaned-up audio to your call app.

The same process works in reverse for incoming audio. When someone else on your call is in a noisy environment, Krisp can filter their background noise before it reaches your ears, so you’re not distracted by their environment either. This two-way filtering is called the “noise cancellation for both directions” feature and it’s one of the things that sets Krisp apart from built-in noise cancellation in apps like Zoom or Teams, which typically only filter your own audio outbound.

The AI model itself is designed to distinguish between human voice patterns and environmental noise. It’s surprisingly accurate — not just at obvious things like lawnmowers or barking dogs, but also at trickier challenges like a second person talking in the background (it can suppress background voices while preserving the primary speaker), echo from a large room, and the hiss of a poorly shielded microphone.

Krisp also has an echo-cancellation feature separate from noise cancellation. Echo happens when your speaker audio loops back into your microphone, creating a reverb effect that other callers hear. While most modern conferencing apps try to handle echo, Krisp’s AI-based approach tends to be more effective for people in acoustically challenging spaces. If you ever get feedback that your audio echoes during meetings, Krisp’s echo removal feature is worth trying specifically for this.

Key Features of Krisp

• Two-way noise cancellation — removes background noise from your mic AND from incoming audio
• Echo removal — eliminates room echo and speaker feedback
• AI meeting notes — automatically transcribes calls and generates summaries with action items
• Call recordings — record meetings locally in high quality
• Works with any app — universal virtual device works across all calling platforms
• Local processing — all audio filtered on-device, never sent to cloud
• Background voice suppression — distinguishes between your voice and nearby people talking

Krisp Pricing: Free vs. Pro

Krisp offers a free plan with a limit of 60 minutes of noise-free audio per week. For occasional calls, this might be enough — but for anyone who works remotely or takes regular calls as part of their job, 60 minutes will disappear very quickly. The free plan also includes AI meeting notes, but again with usage limits.

Krisp Pro runs at $8 per month (billed annually) or $16 per month on a monthly basis. Pro removes all usage limits, giving you unlimited noise cancellation, unlimited meeting transcription, unlimited recording, and priority support. For remote workers and anyone who calls more than a few times a week, the value proposition is strong. At $8/month, it’s the cost of two coffees for a tool that can meaningfully improve the quality of every call you take.

Krisp for Teams and Enterprise plans are available with additional features like admin dashboards, usage analytics, SSO, and centralized billing. Enterprise pricing is custom. If you’re evaluating Krisp for your organization, you can start a free team trial to test it across your workflows before committing.

Ready to try it? Start your free Krisp trial here and hear the difference for yourself.

Krisp vs. Built-In Noise Cancellation

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet all have some form of built-in noise suppression, so a fair question is: why pay for Krisp when your call app already handles it?

The honest answer is that built-in noise cancellation in these apps is inconsistent. Zoom’s noise suppression works reasonably well for mild background noise but struggles with louder environments or sustained noise like fans and air conditioning. Microsoft Teams’ AI-based suppression has improved dramatically in recent years and is genuinely competitive with Krisp for many use cases. Google Meet’s noise cancellation is solid for users on Chrome and Android but more limited on other configurations.

Where Krisp consistently outperforms built-in solutions are: two-way filtering (most apps only filter your outgoing audio), background voice suppression, and the fact that it works across all apps from a single toggle. If you use multiple calling platforms — say, Teams for work, Zoom for clients, Discord for community — Krisp handles all of them without you needing to configure noise settings in each one separately.

If you’re primarily a Teams user and only ever use Teams, the built-in noise suppression may be sufficient. But if your calls span platforms or you deal with particularly challenging acoustic environments, Krisp’s performance advantage is noticeable. You can read more about maximizing your call setup in our guide on using Wispr Flow Review alongside tools like Krisp.

Who Should Use Krisp?

Krisp is particularly valuable for a few distinct types of users. Remote workers who don’t have a dedicated quiet office will find the biggest quality-of-life improvement — the ability to take a call from anywhere without apologizing for background noise is genuinely liberating. If you’ve ever whispered “hang on, I need to find a quiet spot” mid-conversation, Krisp can change that experience entirely.

Freelancers and consultants who meet with clients regularly will appreciate how much more professional their calls sound. First impressions matter, and calling from what sounds like a busy café doesn’t project the polished image that high-value clients expect. Check out our guide to AI for Freelancers for more on how noise tools fit into a professional workflow.

Sales professionals spend hours on calls every day, and any distraction — theirs or the prospect’s — can derail a conversation. If you’re in a sales role, Krisp’s two-way filtering means you can focus entirely on the conversation without being thrown off by environment. Our overview of AI for Sales covers more tools in this vein.

Project managers and team leads who run stand-ups, retrospectives, and stakeholder calls will find Krisp’s AI meeting notes feature nearly as valuable as the noise cancellation itself — automatic transcription with action items extracted means you can focus on facilitating the meeting instead of furiously typing notes. Our article on AI for Project Managers goes deeper on AI tools for this role.

For a broader look at tools in the same category, visit our roundup of Best AI Tools for Beginners.

AI Meeting Notes: Krisp’s Bonus Feature

Beyond noise cancellation, Krisp has expanded into AI meeting intelligence. The meeting notes feature transcribes your calls in real time and then uses an AI model to produce a structured summary: key discussion points, decisions made, and action items with assignees (where identifiable). After the call, you get a written summary you can copy, share, or paste into your project management system.

The transcription quality is solid — on par with tools like Otter.ai for English-language calls — though it does struggle with heavy accents or technical jargon in niche domains. Action item extraction is impressively good; when a meeting participant says “Sarah will send the proposal by Friday,” Krisp reliably surfaces that as an action item attributed to Sarah with a Friday deadline.

The recording feature is a useful complement to transcription. Krisp records directly from its virtual devices, which means the recording captures the post-noise-cancellation audio — so your recordings sound clean rather than full of background noise. Recordings are stored locally, which again plays into Krisp’s privacy positioning.

Pros and Cons of Krisp

How Krisp Compares to Other Noise Cancellation Options

Krisp isn’t the only noise cancellation solution available, so understanding how it compares to alternatives helps you make the right choice for your specific situation.

Krisp vs built-in platform noise cancellation (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet): All major video conferencing platforms now include some level of AI noise cancellation. Zoom’s noise suppression, Teams’ noise cancellation, and Google Meet’s noise reduction are decent for mild background noise — they’ll handle keyboard clicking, moderate traffic, and quiet conversations in the next room. Where they fall short is aggressive noise environments: barking dogs, construction, crying children, loud coffee shops, or open-plan offices with multiple simultaneous conversations. Krisp handles these situations significantly better because noise cancellation is its entire focus, not an add-on feature. The difference is most noticeable on the receiving end — your colleagues will hear dramatically cleaner audio with Krisp active.

Krisp vs hardware noise-cancelling headphones: Premium headphones from Sony, Bose, and Apple are excellent at blocking noise from reaching YOUR ears, but they don’t filter the noise from your MICROPHONE. You might not hear the construction outside your window, but everyone on the call does. Krisp solves the microphone side of the equation. The ideal setup for noisy environments is actually both: noise-cancelling headphones so you can hear clearly, plus Krisp so others can hear you clearly. That said, if you’re choosing between spending $350 on headphones versus $8/month on Krisp, Krisp addresses the more important problem — what your colleagues hear.

Krisp vs NVIDIA RTX Voice / NVIDIA Broadcast: If you have an NVIDIA RTX graphics card, NVIDIA Broadcast offers free noise cancellation that’s competitive with Krisp. It uses your GPU for processing, which means it doesn’t impact CPU performance but requires NVIDIA hardware. For gamers and content creators who already have RTX cards, it’s an excellent free alternative. For business users on laptops (especially MacBooks), Krisp is the better choice since it’s hardware-agnostic and works on both Mac and Windows without requiring a specific graphics card.

Pricing and plans: Krisp’s free tier gives you limited minutes of noise cancellation per day — enough for 1-2 short calls. The Pro plan ($8/month billed annually, $12/month billed monthly) provides unlimited noise cancellation, virtual backgrounds, and meeting transcription. The Teams plan adds centralized administration, usage analytics, and priority support for organizations. For anyone who takes more than 2-3 calls per week in anything other than a perfectly quiet environment, the Pro plan is a straightforward productivity investment that most users report pays for itself immediately in improved meeting quality and reduced call repetition (“Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn’t catch what you said over the noise”).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Krisp free to use?

Yes, Krisp has a free plan that includes 60 minutes of noise-free audio per week. For light use this may be sufficient, but most professionals will need the Pro plan ($8/month billed annually) to use Krisp across their full call load without interruption.

Does Krisp work with Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet?

Yes. Because Krisp creates a virtual microphone at the system level, it works with any application that uses your microphone — including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Slack, Discord, Webex, and even phone call apps. You simply select “Krisp Microphone” as your input device in any app’s audio settings.

Does Krisp send my audio to the cloud?

No. All noise cancellation processing happens locally on your device using Krisp’s on-device AI models. Your audio is never transmitted to Krisp’s servers. This is an important distinction for users handling confidential or sensitive conversations — your calls stay private. The AI meeting notes feature does use server-side processing for transcription, which is opt-in.

How much CPU does Krisp use?

On modern computers (Apple Silicon Macs, Intel i7/i9 from 2019 onwards, AMD Ryzen 5 2020+), Krisp’s CPU overhead is minimal — typically 1–3% during active noise cancellation. On older hardware, particularly Intel Macs from 2016–2018, you may notice higher CPU usage (5–15%) which can affect battery life during long calls. Krisp has optimized heavily for Apple Silicon chips specifically.

Can Krisp remove background voices, not just noise?

Yes, and this is one of Krisp’s most impressive capabilities. If you’re working in a shared space and someone nearby is having a conversation, Krisp can suppress their voice while preserving yours — a trick that most background-noise-only tools can’t pull off. It isn’t perfect (very close talkers at high volume may still bleed through), but the effectiveness is noticeably better than any competitor at this specific task.

Advanced Use Cases and Setup Guide

Krisp is more than a noise cancellation button — it has evolved into a full AI meeting intelligence platform. Here is how to get the most out of it.

Use Cases Beyond Noise Cancellation

• Meeting transcription and notes: Krisp’s AI transcribes your meetings in real time and generates a structured summary with key decisions, action items, and follow-up tasks automatically highlighted. These summaries are exportable to Notion, Slack, or email with one click.
• Accent localization: A newer Krisp feature processes incoming audio to neutralize strong accents, making speakers easier to understand for international teams. This is particularly useful for outsourced support centers and globally distributed engineering teams.
• Call center quality assurance: Enterprise teams use Krisp’s API to process recorded customer calls, automatically scoring them for script compliance, customer sentiment, and issue resolution rate — replacing manual QA listening sessions.
• Podcast and content production: Creators use Krisp during remote recording sessions to eliminate room echo, fan noise, and keyboard clicks. The output can go directly into a podcast editing workflow without requiring a dedicated audio interface.
• Language learning practice: Some users run language exchange sessions through Krisp to reduce their own background noise so the conversation partner can hear them clearly regardless of environment.

Krisp vs. Competing Noise Cancellation Tools

• NVIDIA RTX Voice / RTX Broadcast: Free for NVIDIA RTX GPU owners. Comparable noise cancellation quality, but requires an NVIDIA GPU and lacks meeting transcription features. No mobile support.
• SpeechEnhance (Apple): Built into macOS/iOS for free. Works well for basic noise reduction in system audio, but only processes incoming audio — cannot clean up your microphone output for other participants.
• Zoom AI (built-in): Free with Zoom subscriptions. Handles noise suppression within Zoom calls only, not other apps. Limited to Zoom’s own platform.
• DXOMARK Perso Audio: High-quality but subscription-based and narrowly focused on consumer audio enhancement, not business meeting workflows.
• Krisp ($8–$24/month): Works across every application on your computer simultaneously (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Discord, phone calls, recordings), includes meeting notes, and runs locally without sending audio to the cloud.

Step-by-Step: Getting Krisp Set Up Correctly

1. Download and install: Get Krisp from krisp.ai. Available for macOS and Windows. No Linux support as of early 2025.
2. Set up virtual microphone: After installation, go to your video conferencing app (Zoom, Teams, etc.) and change the microphone input to “Krisp Microphone”. This routes your audio through Krisp’s AI before it reaches the call.
3. Set up virtual speaker: Change your speaker output to “Krisp Speaker” to enable noise cancellation on the audio you hear from other participants.
4. Enable meeting transcription: In the Krisp app, toggle on “Meeting Transcription”. Krisp will automatically detect when you join a meeting and begin transcribing. Your audio is processed locally and transcription data is sent to Krisp’s servers for note generation.
5. Review and export notes: After each meeting, Krisp sends you an email with the meeting summary. You can also find all meeting notes in the Krisp dashboard at app.krisp.ai, where you can edit, copy, or export them.
6. Noise cancellation strength: In settings, you can adjust noise cancellation intensity. “Balanced” works for most environments. “Maximum” is recommended for coffee shops or busy offices but adds approximately 20–30ms of latency.

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