Tool: Krisp What it does: AI-powered noise cancellation for calls and video interviews Pricing: Free (60 minutes/day), Pro $8/month (unlimited), Enterprise custom pricing Best for: Recruiters conducting phone/video interviews from noisy environments, candidates interviewing from home

If you've ever tried to conduct a professional phone screen while your dog barks at the mailman, your neighbor's landscaping crew fires up leaf blowers, or your kids burst into your home office, you need Krisp. Krisp uses AI to remove background noise in real-time from both sides of calls—making you sound like you're in a professional studio even when you're in complete chaos.

Here's why this matters for recruiting: 73% of recruiters and candidates now conduct interviews remotely, often from home environments that aren't optimized for professional calls. Background noise creates negative impressions, makes conversations difficult to follow, and forces people to repeat themselves—all of which damage interview quality and candidate experience.

Krisp eliminates that problem by removing background noise before it reaches the call—dogs barking, children screaming, traffic noise, construction sounds, keyboard typing, even background voices all get filtered out. You sound professional regardless of environment.

What Krisp Actually Does

Think of Krisp as a layer between your microphone and your calling apps that uses AI to distinguish human voice from background noise:

Real-time noise cancellation: Krisp runs on your computer and filters audio in real-time as you speak. It separates your voice from background sounds and only sends the clean voice audio to Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, phone calls, or whatever communication app you're using.

Bidirectional noise removal: Krisp can remove noise from both your microphone (what others hear) and your speaker (what you hear). If a candidate is interviewing from a coffee shop, you won't hear the espresso machine and background conversations—Krisp filters it out on your end.

Works with all communication apps: Krisp isn't tied to specific calling software—it works with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Slack calls, phone calls via softphones, recording software, and any other application that uses your microphone. You enable it once, and it works everywhere.

Completely private and local processing: All audio processing happens on your device—nothing gets sent to Krisp's servers. Your interview conversations remain private and aren't stored or analyzed externally.

How Recruiters and Candidates Actually Use Krisp

Let's talk specific recruiting use cases:

Phone screens from home offices: User reviews report that recruiters conducting phone screens from home offices use Krisp to eliminate noise from pets, family members, deliveries, and household activities. Instead of muting constantly or apologizing for disruptions, they sound professional throughout the call.

You can take calls from your home office without stress about whether your dog will bark or your kids will interrupt. Krisp filters it out automatically—the candidate never hears it.

Video interviews in non-ideal environments: Krisp enables professional interviews from coffee shops, co-working spaces, airports, or anywhere with ambient noise. Recruiters traveling between offices or candidates without private spaces can conduct high-quality interviews from public locations.

User reviews report using Krisp when interviewing from hotel rooms (removes hallway noise and neighboring room sounds), home offices (removes construction noise from outside), and even cars (removes road noise during emergency scheduling situations—though this isn't recommended as a regular practice).

Candidate-side interview quality: Smart candidates use Krisp when interviewing from homes with roommates, family, pets, or street noise. They sound polished and professional even when their environment isn't ideal.

Some recruiters proactively recommend Krisp to candidates when scheduling interviews, particularly for senior roles where first impressions matter. "If you're taking the call from home, I recommend using Krisp.ai for noise cancellation—makes the call quality much better."

Recording interview calls clearly: If you're recording phone screens or video interviews for note-taking or panel review, Krisp ensures recordings have clean audio without background noise. This makes transcription more accurate and recordings more pleasant to review.

The Features That Make Krisp Worth It

Here's what makes Krisp effective for professional calls:

AI noise cancellation that actually works: User reviews consistently praise Krisp's noise removal effectiveness. Unlike basic noise suppression in Zoom or Teams (which reduces all non-speech sounds but often makes voices sound muffled), Krisp uses sophisticated AI models trained on thousands of noise types to remove noise while preserving natural voice quality.

Common sounds it removes effectively: barking dogs, crying babies, keyboard typing, mouse clicking, construction noise, traffic sounds, lawn equipment, background conversations, sirens, airplane noise, and household appliances.

Echo cancellation: Beyond noise removal, Krisp eliminates echo and acoustic feedback—common problems when using laptop speakers and microphone simultaneously. This prevents the awkward "can you hear me?" loops.

Voice clarity enhancement: Krisp doesn't just remove noise—it enhances voice clarity and volume consistency. If you tend to speak quietly or move around while talking, Krisp normalizes your audio so you're consistently audible.

Call recording and transcription: Krisp Pro includes call recording and AI-generated transcription features. You can record interviews with one click and get automatic transcripts for note-taking—though check local laws on call recording consent requirements.

Meeting notes and summaries: Krisp's AI can generate meeting summaries and action items from calls. For recruiting calls, this means automatic capture of key candidate responses, technical assessments discussed, and follow-up items.

Simple on/off toggle: Krisp sits in your system tray with a simple on/off switch. You enable it when you need professional audio quality and disable it when you don't. No complicated configuration required.

Low CPU usage: User reviews report that Krisp is lightweight and doesn't consume significant computer resources—you can run it continuously without performance impact on your laptop.

The Limitations You Need to Know

Krisp isn't perfect for every situation:

60-minute daily limit on free plan: The free version caps you at 60 minutes of noise cancellation per day. That's fine for a couple of interviews but insufficient if you're conducting phone screens all day. Heavy users need the Pro plan ($8/month unlimited).

Doesn't fix terrible microphones: Krisp removes background noise, but it can't make a bad microphone sound good. If your microphone is low-quality, muffled, or has hardware issues, Krisp won't fix those fundamental problems. Invest in a decent USB microphone or headset for best results.

Occasional voice artifacts with extreme noise: User reviews report that in extremely noisy environments (jackhammer outside your window, very loud music), Krisp can sometimes introduce slight artifacts or robotic qualities to voice audio. It's still better than the noise, but not perfect.

Requires desktop application: Krisp only works on Windows and Mac computers—it doesn't work on phones or tablets. If you're taking interviews on your phone, you can't use Krisp.

Privacy concerns for some corporate environments: Some companies prohibit third-party audio processing tools due to security policies—even though Krisp processes everything locally. Check with your IT/security team before using it for interviews involving confidential information.

Pricing Breakdown

Krisp pricing is straightforward:

Free: 60 minutes per day of noise cancellation, basic features. Good for light interview use or testing.

Pro ($8/month or $96/year): Unlimited noise cancellation, echo cancellation, recording, transcription, meeting notes. Best value for recruiters conducting daily interviews.

Enterprise (custom pricing): Team management, SSO, advanced analytics, dedicated support. For recruiting organizations wanting centralized deployment.

Most individual recruiters do fine on the free plan if they conduct 2-3 interviews daily. If you're doing more than that, the Pro plan at $8/month is extremely cost-effective for the professionalism it enables.

How to Get Started with Krisp

If you want to use Krisp for recruiting calls, here's how to set it up:

Download and install: Visit krisp.ai and download the desktop app for Windows or Mac. Installation takes about 2 minutes.

Set Krisp as your microphone in calling apps: In Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or your phone system, select "Krisp Microphone" as your audio input device. Krisp becomes the intermediary between your physical microphone and the calling app.

Enable speaker noise cancellation if needed: If candidates often call from noisy environments, enable Krisp's speaker noise cancellation. This removes noise from what you hear on your end.

Test it before important calls: Run a test call with a colleague to verify Krisp is working correctly. Have them make noise (play music, knock on desk, talk in background) while you speak to confirm noise removal works.

Use the mute/unmute toggle strategically: Even with Krisp, you should still mute yourself when coughing, sneezing, or dealing with major disruptions. Krisp handles background noise, but it's not magic for foreground interruptions.

Pair with a decent headset: Krisp works best with a quality USB microphone or headset. Don't rely on laptop built-in microphones—they pick up too much keyboard noise and have poor audio quality.

Alternatives to Consider

If Krisp doesn't fit your needs, these alternatives offer similar functionality:

NVIDIA RTX Voice: Free noise cancellation if you have an NVIDIA RTX graphics card. Slightly less effective than Krisp but costs nothing for compatible hardware.

Built-in noise suppression in Zoom/Teams: Zoom and Microsoft Teams have native noise suppression features. They're okay but not as powerful as Krisp's dedicated AI models. Try them first—upgrade to Krisp if they're insufficient.

Cleanfeed: Browser-based professional audio recording platform with noise reduction. Better for podcast-style interviews than quick phone screens.

High-quality headsets with built-in noise cancellation: Headsets like Jabra Evolve2 85 or Bose 700 UC have hardware-based noise cancellation. More expensive than Krisp but very effective.

The Bottom Line

Krisp eliminates the background noise that makes remote interviews sound unprofessional. For $8/month (or free for light use), you get AI noise cancellation that works across all calling apps and makes you sound like you're in a studio even when you're not.

User reviews consistently report that Krisp delivers immediate ROI for remote recruiters—it eliminates embarrassment from noisy environments, improves interview quality, and enables professional calls from anywhere.

If you conduct remote interviews regularly and don't have a dedicated quiet office space, Krisp is essential. The free plan is worth trying even if you're skeptical—60 minutes per day is enough to test it on a few calls and see the difference.

Your environment doesn't have to be perfectly silent for professional calls anymore. Krisp makes noise irrelevant.

Source: Krisp