guide · noise cancelling apps

Best noise cancelling apps for Mac in 2026, free and paid

Published 5 November 2026

You can remove background noise from your Mac microphone for free. macOS has Voice Isolation built in, and Zoom and Teams have their own noise suppression. Try those first. A noise cancelling app is worth it when you want one clean mic in every app, including recorders. Here is what each option costs, where it works and what it needs, taken from each maker’s own pages.

At a glance

The free options

Voice Isolation, built into macOS

Voice Isolation is a mic mode that filters out background sound so your voice comes through. You choose it from inside an app that supports Mic Modes, such as FaceTime, and it is either on or off. Apps without Mic Modes hear your raw mic. How to turn on Voice Isolation.

Your call app’s own noise suppression

Zoom removes background noise by default, and you can set its strength to Auto, Low, Medium or High in its audio settings. Teams turns noise suppression on by default in its desktop app, and you can switch it off in its device settings. Google Meet’s noise cancellation on a computer needs certain Google Workspace plans or a Google One plan with 2 TB or more. Each one cleans its own app only, so a recorder or OBS still hears the noise.

MetalVoice

MetalVoice is a free, open-source app for Apple silicon Macs. It uses an AI model, DeepFilterNet, to remove noise and room echo in real time. It doesn’t add a microphone of its own. Instead, you install a free audio routing tool such as BlackHole, send MetalVoice’s sound to it, and pick BlackHole as the mic in each app. It suits you if you’re comfortable setting up audio yourself.

The paid apps

Krisp

Krisp is the best-known noise cancelling app. Besides background noise, it removes background voices and echo, and it can clean up other people’s noise on the call. Its plans also include AI meeting notes, transcripts and recording. It needs an account and runs on Mac and Windows. Krisp and Aurio side by side.

SoundVeil

SoundVeil is a Mac app that adds “SoundVeil Mic”, which any app that lets you pick a mic can use. It removes noise on your Mac. It offers monthly, yearly and lifetime pricing, a 7-day trial without an email or card, and optional speaker echo cancellation. It needs macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon.

IRIS Clarity

IRIS Clarity is aimed at teams and contact centres. It cleans both sides of a call and runs on Mac and Windows. It is priced per seat, with an enterprise plan for 100 seats or more. The trial starts with an account.

Aurio

Aurio is our app. It adds “Aurio Microphone”, which any app that lets you pick a mic can use. It removes background noise in real time with an AI model that runs on your Mac. A strength slider sets how hard it works, and an A/B preview lets you hear the difference on your own voice before a call. It runs on macOS 13.3 or later on Apple silicon, and the 14-day trial needs no card, email or account.

It doesn’t clean other people’s audio, remove echo or take meeting notes. It can’t fix a recording you’ve already made. And it doesn’t run on Intel Macs or Windows.

Cleaning a recording instead

Everything above cleans your mic live, before the sound reaches a call. If the noise is already in a recording, you need an audio editor instead. Audacity is free on Mac and has a Noise Reduction effect.

Which one to choose

Most of these have a free trial, so try them with your own mic and your own noise. Make a short test recording with each, or ask someone on a call how you sound.

• You call in FaceTime or another app with Mic Modes: Voice Isolation.
• You only use Zoom or Teams: their built-in noise suppression.
• You want free, in every app, and don’t mind setting up audio routing: MetalVoice.
• You want meeting notes: Krisp.
• You want other people’s noise cleaned too, or Windows: Krisp or IRIS Clarity.
• You’re buying for a team or contact centre: IRIS Clarity.
• You want a virtual mic for every app, without an account: SoundVeil or Aurio. SoundVeil has monthly plans and speaker echo cancellation, on macOS 14 or later. Aurio has a strength slider and an A/B preview, on macOS 13.3 or later.

Questions

Is there noise cancellation on a MacBook?

Yes. macOS has Voice Isolation, which you turn on from inside an app that supports Mic Modes, such as FaceTime. It works the same way on a MacBook, an iMac or a Mac mini.

Is there a free AI noise cancellation app for Mac?

Yes. MetalVoice is free, open source and uses an AI model called DeepFilterNet. Voice Isolation is free and built into macOS, and Zoom and Teams include noise suppression at no extra cost.

Does Krisp work on Mac?

Yes. Krisp has a Mac app and also runs on Windows. Any app that lets you pick a mic can use “Krisp Microphone”.

Does noise cancellation send my voice to a server?

It depends on the app. Aurio, Krisp, SoundVeil, MetalVoice and IRIS Clarity say their noise cancellation runs on your device. Google Meet’s noise cancellation on a computer runs in Google’s cloud. Apple, Zoom and Teams don’t say where theirs runs.

How do I stop my mic picking up background noise?

Start with the mic itself: move it closer to your mouth and away from the noise. Then turn on one of the options above. The free fixes, step by step.

About this guide

This guide is written by Siphesihle Mavuso, who makes Aurio, so it isn’t neutral. To keep it fair, the free options come first, and every price and requirement for the other apps comes from the maker’s own website, checked on 5 November 2026. We haven’t run the other apps side by side, so this page compares what they offer, not how they sound. If anything here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it.

Krisp, SoundVeil, IRIS Clarity, MetalVoice, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Audacity are trademarks of their owners. Aurio is not affiliated with any of them.