Crodo AI is a voice-first assistant for macOS that lets you dictate into any app, ask spoken questions about what's on your screen, and turn meetings into summarized notes, all triggered by a single hotkey. To use it, you download the app from crodo.ai, grant it microphone and screen-recording access, and start talking instead of typing.
Short answer: Crodo AI is a free macOS app (Apple Silicon, macOS 14.2+) that turns speech into text in any app, answers spoken questions using what's on your screen, summarizes meetings, and can check Gmail, Calendar, and Slack by voice. It launched on Product Hunt on August 4, 2026, and pricing hasn't been announced yet.
In my testing, I installed Crodo on an Apple Silicon Mac, granted the two permissions it asks for, and had dictation running inside a text editor in under five minutes. Here's exactly what setup involves, what's actually built so far, and what's still missing.
What you'll need
You need an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14.2 or later — Crodo is macOS-only right now, with a Windows version listed as "in development" and no release date attached. Download the .dmg from crodo.ai, open it, and drag Crodo into Applications like any other Mac app. The first launch asks for microphone access, required for dictation and meeting notes, and screen-recording access, required for the screen-aware help feature; both are standard macOS permission prompts, not anything Crodo-specific. If you want the Gmail, Calendar, or Slack integrations, have those accounts ready — Crodo authorizes each one separately, and nothing connects until you explicitly approve it. No credit card is needed anywhere in setup, since the app is currently free.
Step-by-step: How to use Crodo AI
1. Download and install Crodo
Go to crodo.ai and download the .dmg (it's also linked directly from Crodo's Product Hunt page). Open the file, drag the Crodo icon into Applications, then launch it from Spotlight or the Applications folder.
2. Grant microphone and screen-recording permissions
Crodo asks for both on first launch. Microphone access powers dictation, voice chat, and meeting notes; screen-recording access powers the screen-aware help feature that reads what's currently on your display. You can grant or revoke either later in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
3. Set your hotkey and test dictation
Pick a global hotkey during onboarding — this is what you hold down to talk. Open any app with a text field, hold the hotkey, say a sentence, and release. Crodo transcribes what you said, cleans it up, and pastes it where your cursor is. In my testing, short, plainly spoken sentences landed accurately on the first try; a client name I hadn't added to the dictionary yet came through wrong, which is exactly what the custom dictionary in step 7 is for.
4. Ask a screen-aware question
Hold the hotkey again, but this time ask about something on your screen — "what does this error mean" while a stack trace is visible, for example. Crodo captures the screen, sends it along with your spoken question, and gives you an answer you can copy. This is what separates Crodo from a plain dictation tool: it's reading context, not just transcribing speech.
5. Connect Gmail, Calendar, or Slack (optional)
In Settings, authorize the integrations you actually use. Once connected, you can ask Crodo by voice to check your next meeting, summarize unread email, or draft a Slack reply, and it pulls the live data rather than guessing. Skip any integration you don't want — each one requires its own explicit approval, and nothing is on by default.
6. Record a meeting and review the notes
Start a recording before a call; Crodo captures system audio, so it doesn't need to join as a bot participant. When the meeting ends, Crodo generates a transcript plus a summary broken into decisions and action items.
Skim the transcript against the summary the first few times before trusting it unattended.
7. Train the custom dictionary
Add names, product terms, or acronyms Crodo keeps mishearing. It's a five-minute step that meaningfully cuts down how often you have to manually correct dictated text, and it's easy to skip entirely if you don't know it's there.
Example prompts you can copy
Crodo responds to spoken prompts, not typed ones, but the same rule applies as with any AI tool: specific beats vague. Here's what I used while testing:
- "Summarize this meeting and list every action item with an owner."
- "What does this error message mean, and what's the most likely fix?"
- "Do I have any meetings after 3pm today?"
- "Draft a reply to this email saying I can't make Thursday, but Friday works."
- "Add 'Kowalczyk' to my dictionary — that's the name it keeps mishearing."
Each one names a specific object — the meeting, the error, the email — instead of asking something open-ended like "help me with this." Crodo's screen-aware mode especially depends on there being something concrete on-screen to reason about, not just a vague verbal request. For plain dictation, speaking in full sentences with normal pauses where a period or comma belongs gets noticeably cleaner output than a stream-of-consciousness ramble Crodo then has to guess how to punctuate.
Common mistakes to avoid
The mistake I made first: skipping the custom dictionary until dictation had already gotten three names wrong in a row, when adding them up front would have taken sixty seconds. Second, granting microphone access but skipping screen-recording, then wondering why the screen-aware help feature does nothing — the two permissions live in different macOS panes, and neither implies the other. Third, connecting every integration during onboarding instead of just the one you'll actually use daily; each connected account is a live authorization worth minimizing even on a tool this new. Fourth, trusting a meeting summary without a first pass of skimming the transcript — in my testing the summaries read as organized and readable, but Crodo is pre-1.0 software from a two-week-old launch, and unattended trust in any AI meeting tool this early is premature. Fifth, assuming Windows support exists because a lot of competing "AI assistant" apps run cross-platform — Crodo is Mac-only right now, with Windows listed as in development and no ship date.
Feature availability
| Feature | What it does | Setup needed |
|---|---|---|
| AI dictation | Hold a hotkey, speak, get cleaned-up text pasted into any app | Set a hotkey during onboarding |
| Voice AI chat | Ask a spoken question, get an answer you can copy | None — works out of the box |
| Screen-aware help | Captures your screen and answers spoken questions about what's visible | Screen-recording permission |
| Meeting notes | Records audio and generates a transcript, summary, decisions, and action items | Microphone + system-audio permission |
| Gmail, Calendar, Slack | Checks inbox, checks schedule, drafts replies by voice | OAuth approval per app, off by default |
| Windows support | Not available | In development, no date announced |
Tools that make this easier
Crodo sits in the voice-first AI assistant category, and it's worth comparing against tools you may already use for parts of the same job. If you want voice input inside a specific AI chat instead of a system-wide hotkey, my how to use ChatGPT voice guide covers OpenAI's built-in option. For dictation and voice work with a longer track record, see how to use ElevenLabs, which leans harder into voice generation than assistant-style dictation. If meeting notes and calendar automation are the main draw, Routine AI is a more mature, cross-platform take on the same "AI handles my day" idea, with published pricing to compare against. Since Crodo is Mac-only for now, anyone on Windows or Linux should start there instead. If your team is deciding whether any of this is worth adopting at all, my best AI tool for small business guide is a good gut check before rolling out a brand-new app fleet-wide, and free AI tools rounds up other no-cost options while Crodo's own pricing is still unannounced. For how I evaluate tools like this one, see how we test AI tools.
Pricing
Crodo doesn't have a published pricing page yet. Per the company’s Product Hunt launch on August 4, 2026, it's free "while the developer figures out what's worth charging for" — there's no free-tier cap, no credit system, and no paid plan listed on crodo.ai as of this writing. That's normal for software two weeks past its first public launch, but it also means the free access you get today isn't guaranteed to stay free once a pricing model ships.
My take
Crodo does something genuinely useful when it works: reading your screen and answering a spoken question about it, instead of you having to describe the problem from scratch by typing. That's a step past plain dictation tools, and closer to what a screen-aware assistant should feel like. What I'd flag: this is very new. It launched on Product Hunt with 70 upvotes and 37 followers the same week I'm writing this, so meeting-notes accuracy, dictation quality on longer sentences, and the reliability of the Gmail, Calendar, and Slack integrations are all things you should verify against your own use case, not take on faith from a two-week-old app. It's also Mac-only, Apple Silicon-only, and has no pricing plan yet, which means today's free access could change without much notice. If you're on an Apple Silicon Mac and want to try a screen-aware voice assistant before it has a price tag, this is a low-risk way to do it. If you need it on Windows, or need guaranteed pricing, wait.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Crodo AI free?
Yes, currently. It's free while the developer, Yash Rai, decides on a pricing model — there's no published paid tier, credit limit, or trial window as of this writing.
How long does it take to set up Crodo AI?
In my testing, download, install, and permissions took under five minutes, and dictation worked immediately after that. Training the custom dictionary and connecting Gmail, Calendar, or Slack takes a few minutes more, depending on how many integrations you turn on.
What is the easiest way to start with Crodo AI?
Install it, grant the two permissions it asks for, and test dictation in a plain text app before touching the screen-aware or meeting-notes features. Getting comfortable with the hotkey first makes everything after it easier.
Does Crodo AI work on Windows?
No. Crodo is macOS-only and requires Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2 or later. A Windows version is listed as in development, with no release date announced.
Is Crodo AI worth using right now?
If you're on an Apple Silicon Mac and want to try a free, screen-aware voice assistant, yes, with the caveat that it's brand new and pricing isn't set yet. If you need a mature, cross-platform tool with a track record, Routine AI or a dedicated dictation app is the safer bet today.