MeetAssist
We asked LockedIn AI to tell us about a time our candidate missed a deadline. For four seconds, nothing happened on the screen. Then a confident answer appeared: a React feature at Helio Systems, a tricky bug, a missed deadline, a lesson learned.
Helio Systems is our test candidate's real employer, and the bug comes from his notes. The missed deadline never happened.
That moment shows both sides of LockedIn. It reads your documents closely and has a lot of features. But it makes you wait without telling you it is working, and when your documents run out, it fills the gap with a story that sounds real.
Disclosure: MeetAssist, which makes a competing interview assistant, wrote this review. We tested LockedIn AI 1.9.6 on the free plan and looked inside version 1.9.5 of the Mac app. We say clearly what we tested ourselves and what comes from LockedIn's documents or code, and we publish the method, the test files and the recordings.
The quick verdict
LockedIn AI is worth a try if you want a big interview toolkit and don't mind learning it. It answered every spoken question on its own, used our uploaded stories, kept up with follow-ups and wrote correct code.
The trouble is everything around the answers. You wait about four seconds with no sign of progress. The panel jumps while you read. And the answers need checking, because the app can mix your real details with events that never happened.
| What we checked | Our result | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Interface and setup | Slow and unpolished: no feedback while you wait, the feed jumps, quitting is hidden in a menu | Weak |
| Live transcript | Clear in English; it kept your voice and the interviewer's apart, even on laptop speakers | Good |
| Wait for the first words of an answer | About 4.1 seconds (median of 13 questions), with nothing on the screen in between | Slow |
| Answers when your CV has the story | Used the right story, but sometimes left out the result and the numbers | Good |
| Follow-up questions | Kept the context in 8 of 8 | Good |
| Personal questions your CV doesn't cover | Made up a story as yours, with no label (3 of 3) | Careful |
| Coding task from a screenshot | Correct, efficient code and the right explanation of why it works | Good |
| Question in Spanish (app set to English) | Heard “To PayPal.” and answered in English (not scored) | – |
| Price | $43.99 for the first month, then $109.98 a month (Unlimited General) | Expensive |
Who it suits
| A good fit if you… | Think twice if you… |
|---|---|
| have coding interviews: its code and explanations were strong | want quick answers: about 4 seconds of silence feels long in a live call |
| have a CV and real stories for the questions you expect | expect questions your documents don't cover: it invents a story that can look real |
| want extras such as a human helper (Duo), mock interviews and reports | want a simple, calm tool you don't have to learn |
| want it on many devices: Mac, Windows, web, iPhone and Android | are on a tight budget: the plan renews at more than twice the first price |
Our benchmark score: 7.6 / 10
| Category | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Answers | 9.1 / 10 | 14 answers in our two runs: 128 of 140 points |
| Speed | 3.7 / 10 | First words 4.1 s after the question ends (median) |
| Coding | 10 / 10 | Correct, efficient code; both follow-up explanations right |
| Overall | 7.6 / 10 | Average of the three |
This score measures answer quality, speed and coding in our recorded test. It is not an honesty score: under our rules a made-up personal story with no label costs only one point (LockedIn lost four this way), so read the made-up stories as a separate warning. We did not score the Spanish question, because the app was set to English. Every product gets the same scoring rules.
What is LockedIn AI?
LockedIn AI is an interview and meeting assistant from Cyber Gravity LLC, a US company. It listens to your call, shows a live transcript and suggests what to say. It can also read a screenshot, for example a coding task.
Around that sits a lot more: mock interviews, reports after a session, resume tools, apps for iPhone and Android, and extensions for the VS Code and Cursor code editors. Duo lets another person, such as a friend or a coach, help you live. We tested only the live assistant in the Mac app.
So the first question is which part you actually need. More tools also mean more settings and plans to understand.
Setting up a session
You choose a role, a company and your documents, then a session type, a language, an AI model and an answer length. We used Software Engineer at Amazon, English and Concise answers, with our test CV and stories. The first time, the app also asks you to confirm that you have consent to record the call.
A nice touch: your uploaded documents and the documents used in this session are separate. For our second run we unticked both files. They stayed in the account, and the app clearly said none would be used.
That helps if you apply for different roles. But check it before a call: an uploaded CV does not mean the session is using it.
With answer length set to Concise, the spoken answers fitted the panel and read like speech, not essays. Still, one answer was 138 words long, which is a lot to take in at a glance. The session was ready about nine seconds after pressing Start, and from then on every question got an answer automatically.
The interface needs more polish
An interview assistant should make the call easier, not take your attention. LockedIn has many controls (see-through panel, position, text size, a teleprompter mode, code-scrolling keys), but in our test the basics got in the way:
- The panel jumped while we read. During the coding task, a new line of transcript pulled the view away from the code, and a “1 new message” label covered the top of the answer.
- The see-through panel was hard to read. Text from the page behind showed through. While answers appeared, raw formatting symbols (
**) flashed for a moment. - Quitting is hidden. The power icon only ends the session. To close the app, you open the gear menu and pick the last item. There is no Dock icon either, so our tester had to search for it.
None of this stopped the test. But it explains why our tester found the app slow and clumsy: it asked for attention exactly when you have none to spare.
The 4-second wait
From the end of each spoken question to the first words of the answer, we measured a median of 4.13 seconds (13 questions, free plan). The full answer was on screen at 4.98 seconds.
The wait itself is not the worst part. It is that nothing shows LockedIn is working. You see the question in the transcript, then nothing, then a finished answer card appears with its first words already in it.
Once an answer starts, it appears fast; almost all the delay comes before it. LockedIn's homepage shows a “116 ms” speed figure without saying what it measures; it is not the wait you feel in a call. LockedIn's support suggests a faster model and a faster “Process Time” setting (more on that below). We used the free plan's defaults, so other settings may be quicker.
Our advice: play an interviewer's question in the free session and watch the pause at normal speed. For what a usable wait looks like, see what “real time” means for an interview assistant.
Your stories, and the ones it makes up
LockedIn did use our uploaded stories. Asked about a disagreement with a product manager, it picked the right one, a billing release, and kept using it in the follow-ups, with the real safety steps from our notes.
But it left out the result that made the story strong: failed payments falling from 2.0% to 1.3%, with no outage. It told the right story without the proof.
Then we asked about a missed deadline, a classic “tell me about a time” question that our documents did not cover. LockedIn wrote a story set at Helio Systems, about a real React bug from our notes. The employer and the bug were real. The missed deadline was not.
Seeing your real employer in an answer does not mean the whole answer is true. Here, the real names made a made-up event sound believable. A good assistant would say it has no example, ask for one, or mark it as a template. LockedIn wrote it as your own experience. Its own blog admits this can happen: “Made-up details can happen when resume data is missing, so the model fills in blanks.”
With no documents selected, it made up stories from scratch. One started with “I had a pretty real disagreement with a PM”; another included “it just didn't make any freaking sense”, not a line for an interview.
The fix is on your side: give the app a real story for every common question. See how to build a story bank and answer behavioral questions with stories. Made-up and generic answers are also what interviewers notice most (can interviewers tell if you use AI?).
Follow-ups and coding
LockedIn kept the context in all eight follow-up questions. We could ask “why that approach?” or refer to “the same problem” without repeating anything.
It wasn't perfect. Once, a question about what to do if the plan failed got an answer about solving a disagreement instead. Another time, the transcript split “What exactly is React reusing?” into two questions, so the answer started by explaining what React is. A small hearing mistake can quietly change the answer.
Coding was its best part. From a screenshot of a hard LeetCode problem, Trapping Rain Water, it wrote correct, efficient code, and both follow-up answers were right, including why the algorithm works. Every valid input we tried gave the right result. It is one well-known problem, so don't read too much into it.
The practical details matter more: the full answer took 8.7 seconds after the screenshot, the code needed scrolling in a panel that could jump, and the screenshot included LockedIn's own panel over the task.
Duo, mock interviews and reports
Duo is the clearest reason to look beyond the basic assistant. Another person can join your session, see it and guide you; with your permission, they can also control it. That suits practice with a coach. We did not test Duo.
LockedIn also offers mock interviews and reports after a session. Reports need a minimum session length, and ours were too short to judge them. A fast live helper and a good interview coach are different things, so test the one you need.
Features also differ between desktop, web and phone. Pick the version that fits how you will use it.
What we found inside the app
We opened version 1.9.5 of the Mac app to see how it works. A few findings explain what we saw in the test:
- Your voice and the interviewer's are kept apart. The app records your microphone and the computer's sound separately and filters out the interviewer's voice when it leaks into your microphone. In our test, played through laptop speakers, it never mixed them up.
- Two speech engines. Speechmatics handles single languages and AssemblyAI the “Multilingual” option. Your audio goes straight to them; the text goes to LockedIn's servers in the US. The language is set per session, which explains the Spanish result. We did not test Multilingual.
- Models can change without an update. The list of AI models comes from LockedIn's servers. The model name in our test was cut off on screen, so we can't say exactly which one answered.
- A heavy download. The installer was about 329 MB and the app about 971 MB, much of it build tools it doesn't need. That wastes space, but it doesn't explain the wait.
| What we found | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| A “Process Time” setting (Fast, Default, Quality) decides how long the app waits in silence before it treats a question as finished: about 0.5, 0.7 or 1.0 seconds | Part of the 4-second wait is this setting. Fast can make answers start sooner, but it may also cut off a slow speaker. We used the default. |
| The server can decide that a line needs no reply and skip it | Not every sentence gets an answer. If a real question is skipped, you can ask for an answer yourself. |
| A hotkey pauses automatic answers, and another switches the AI model during a call | You can stop answers during small talk and change the model without a new session. |
| Your words are matched against names and terms from your documents, but not in Multilingual mode, which also shows text about a second later (LockedIn's own docs) | Pick a single language when you can: faster text and better spelling of your company and project names. |
| Website analytics inside the desktop app: Microsoft Clarity (linked to your user ID), Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and LinkedIn | How you use the app may be recorded for analytics, as on a website. |
| Sessions are saved to LockedIn's cloud database under your account; screenshots go to storage in the US; crash reports stay on your computer | Your interview history lives online. Delete sessions you don't want kept. |
| After a subscription ends, leftover credits work only with the basic models (LockedIn's docs) | Use up credits for the better models while the subscription is active. |
Privacy and Stealth Mode
LockedIn works in the cloud: your audio, transcript, documents and screenshots leave your computer. Its privacy policy covers speech-to-text, AI processing and your documents, and lets you delete your content. Speechmatics, which receives your audio, is not named in the policy's list of providers.
Some findings are good news: speech-to-text uses short-lived keys, we found no secret keys in the app, and the app has modern protection against tampering. This was not a full security audit.
We did not test Stealth Mode, a feature of the paid plans. In Activity Monitor, the app showed up as “Helper” processes and one row without a name. That tells you nothing about whether it shows up when you share your screen. Many employers do not allow AI help in interviews, so check the rules first.
Pricing and refunds
Prices on lockedinai.com on October 19, 2026, in US dollars. The page says “60% off”, but the discount is for the first payment only. After that you pay the regular price.
| Monthly web plan | First payment | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited General | $43.99 | $109.98 a month |
| Unlimited Professional | $95.99 | $239.98 a month |
| Credits: 400 minutes a month | $55.99 | $139.98 a month |
Lifetime Pro was $799.60 once. Plans bought in the iPhone or Android app cost more, for example $139.99 for an unlimited month. We did not go through checkout, so check the pricing page before you buy.
- Plans: for normal use, General and Professional are the same; Professional adds Duo and Stealth Mode.
- Session limit: even “unlimited” plans end a session after 120 minutes (60 for mock interviews).
- Refunds: monthly and 3-month plans are “non-refundable once started”. Lifetime can be refunded within 7 days only if you have not started a session. Despite the “Money-back guarantee” badge on the pricing page, that is all the policy offers.
- Cancelling works only in the web app, not in the desktop app.
- Free plan: LockedIn's pages describe it in different ways (10 minutes, or 5-minute sessions up to 60 minutes a day). Our free account started with 15 minutes.
What Reddit and Trustpilot users say
On October 19, Trustpilot showed 121 reviews for LockedIn but no rating: it had removed fake reviews and withheld the score for “a breach of our guidelines”. LockedIn's homepage still showed “4.1 Rated on Trustpilot”.
User opinions are mixed. A few match what we saw:
| What users say | Where | How it compares with our test |
|---|---|---|
| “right now it takes like 3~5 seconds to answer which is a little too much in a conversational interview” | r/LockedInAI_Official | Matches our test. LockedIn support replied with settings for faster answers. |
| “lockedin ai gives very poor answers in case of scenario based questions but for technical it was good” | r/jobsearchhacks | Technical answers and coding were strong for us; scenario answers were good when our stories were uploaded. |
| “It has everything. Modes. Auto mode. Duo. Copilot.” … “I found myself fighting the app more than using it.” | r/CTRLpotato | Close to our tester's view of the interface. The author builds a rival app. |
| “the company offered first a 10% refund and then a 20% refund, while continuing to refuse a full refund.” | Trustpilot | Matches the refund policy for started monthly plans. |
Good reviews mention useful answers and helpful support; bad ones are mostly about billing, cancelling and bugs. On Reddit, many “I tested them all” posts end by recommending another app, and LockedIn itself pays creators for short videos. That doesn't prove any single post is paid, but it is a reason to trust a shown test more than a confident opinion. That goes for our review too.
Alternatives
We are testing every popular interview assistant with the same recorded questions. Until each test is out, this table shows how you pay and where they run, from their own websites in October 2026. For a wider overview, see our best AI interview copilot tools and all our reviews.
| App | How you pay | Cheapest way in | Runs on | Our test |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parakeet AI | Credits per call, or a subscription | $38 for 1 credit (two calls of up to 30 min) | Mac, Windows, Chrome, phone browser | Read the review |
| Cluely | Subscription | $19.99 a month (Pro) | Mac, Windows 11 | Coming |
| Interview Coder | Subscription or one-time | $299 a month, or $799 once | Mac, Windows | Coming |
| Verve AI | Subscription | $44.99 a month (five 60-minute sessions) | Web, Mac, Windows, Chrome extension | Coming |
| MeetAssist (made by us) | One-time packs, no subscription | $9 for 180 minutes | Mac, Windows, Chrome extension, phone | – |
Is LockedIn AI worth it?
LockedIn's strength is its breadth: a flexible assistant, document choice per session, coding help and a human helper, plus careful work on audio that is easy to miss. Its weakness is how it all feels during a call: a silent wait, a panel that jumps, and personal answers you have to double-check.
Try it if you want the bigger toolkit, have coding interviews, and are happy to spend time on the settings. Be careful if you want a quick, simple helper, or expect your documents to stop it from making things up.
Before you pay, run one real practice call in the free minutes: a question your CV covers, one it doesn't, a follow-up, and a task from your own field. Watch how long you wait and what you have to do while it helps. That shows you whether it earns its place on your screen.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, it is a real product from Cyber Gravity LLC, a US company, and it gave real, useful answers in our test. Before you pay, note that Trustpilot shows no rating for it after removing fake reviews, and that most complaints there are about refunds and renewals.
On October 19, 2026, Unlimited General cost $43.99 for the first month and then $109.98 a month; Unlimited Professional $95.99, then $239.98; Credits (400 minutes) $55.99, then $139.98; Lifetime Pro $799.60 once. The discount applies to the first payment only.
Usually not. Monthly and 3-month plans are non-refundable once started. Lifetime can be refunded within 7 days only if you have not started a session. Cancel in the web app before the renewal date.
In our test the first words appeared a median 4.13 seconds after the question ended, and the full answer after 4.98 seconds, with nothing on the screen during the wait. Other models and settings may be faster.
It can. When our documents did not cover a personal question, it wrote a first-person story without a label, once built on our candidate's real employer. Read every personal story before you say it.
The power icon on the panel only ends the session. To close the app, open the gear menu on the panel and choose the last item, Quit LockedIn AI. The app has no Dock icon.
How we tested
We recorded two short sessions on October 19, 2026, with LockedIn AI 1.9.6 for Mac on the free plan: one with our test CV and stories selected, one with no documents. We kept English, Concise answers and the same role and company in both. The questions were played from our test page through the laptop speakers, and we timed every answer from a 4K, 60-frames-per-second phone recording.
In total: 13 spoken questions in English, one coding task from a screenshot and two questions in Spanish. One run each, on the free plan, with short sessions. We did not test Duo, screen sharing, Windows, the phone apps, Multilingual mode, reports or paid plans. The technical findings come from version 1.9.5 of the Mac app and our network tests on October 14. Questions, files and scoring rules are on the methodology page.
Sources
Our own recordings and notes from October 19, 2026, our look inside the 1.9.5 Mac app, and network tests from October 14. Public pages were checked on October 19, 2026.
Or add the Chrome extension