Most Mac teleprompters scroll when they hear noise. Tellie is different: it tracks the words you actually say, checks off what you have covered, and stays invisible on Zoom. The teleprompter itself is a free Mac app, no signup. Voice Follow, Stagehand, and the Companion are Pro, a one-time $29 with a 10-day trial and no card.
Free forever as a teleprompter. 10 days of Pro on the house, no card.
There are two kinds of voice teleprompter app for Mac, and the difference is everything. Most of them do sound-detection scrolling: they move the script while they hear a voice and pause when the room goes quiet. That keeps pace, but it does not know what you said. Jump back a line, skip a paragraph, or make your point in different words, and it just keeps rolling.
Tellie does word tracking. On-device speech recognition matches your spoken words to the script, so the read line sits on the exact words you are saying. Backtrack and it follows you back. Ad-lib and it waits, then picks up where you return. Your voice never leaves your Mac. Voice sync vs. word tracking, explained →
Mark the sections you must cover and the exact points you need to land, and Stagehand watches your take as you talk: must-cover sections turn green as you reach them, key points check themselves off the moment you say them (in any words, anywhere in the take), and a quiet heads-up warns you by name if an important point is about to run out of time. When you stop, Take Coach scores the take and hands you the one thing to sharpen next. All on-device, invisible to everyone but you.
The Mac teleprompter field splits two ways: does the app follow your words or just the sound of your voice, and is it a one-time buy or a subscription? Here is where the popular macbook teleprompter apps land. Prices as published by each maker; check the latest before you buy.
| App | Follows your words | Lives in the notch | Invisible on Zoom | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tellie | Yes, word-level | Yes | Yes | Free tier · Pro $29 once |
| Avocado | No, sound-paced | Yes | Yes | Free tier · Pro $7.99/mo |
| VoicePrompter | Yes, word-level | No, floating window | Not documented | Paid |
| CueNotch | No, sound-paced | Yes | Hidden mode | Paid |
| Moody | No, sound-paced | Yes | Not documented | $39 one-time |
| NotchPrompter | No, sound-paced | Yes | Hidden mode | Paid |
No scores, no stars, just what each app does. Only Tellie combines word-level voice-follow, a spot in the notch, and a one-time price. The full field guide →
The Tellie Mac teleprompter is free forever: load a script, hit play, read at your pace, in the notch or a window you size yourself, and it stays invisible on calls. No account, no trial clock on the basics. The Pro features, Voice Follow, Stagehand, and the Companion, are a one-time $29 (not a subscription), and every new copy starts with 10 days of Pro switched on, no card. Free stays free when the trial ends.
With the Companion (Pro beta), your Mac does the listening and your phone, tablet, or laptop becomes the display and the remote, over your own local Wi-Fi. Stand an iPhone or iPad near any camera lens and read from there, control play and jumps from your hand, or keep a private checklist on a second screen. Meet the Companion →
“Tellie truly is a magnificent app.”
Sprague Theobald · Emmy-winning writer and producer
It depends on how you talk to camera. Tellie is built for people who speak naturally: its on-device Voice Follow tracks the words you actually say, in 40+ languages, and scrolls to match, so you can pause, skip, and ad-lib without touching a key. It lives in the Mac notch or a window you size yourself, stays invisible on Zoom and recordings, and is free to download, with the voice and coaching features as a one-time $29 Pro. If you read word for word at a steady pace, a plain auto-scroll app is enough; if you improvise, a voice-following prompter fits better.
Yes. Tellie is a complete Mac teleprompter for free: open a script from Word, PDF, Pages, or plain text, hit play, and read at your own pace in the notch or a resizable window, with no account and no trial clock on the basics. Voice Follow, Stagehand, and the Companion are the paid Pro features, a one-time $29, and every new install gets 10 days of Pro switched on with no card.
Yes. Tellie's Voice Follow uses on-device speech recognition to track the words you actually say and scroll to match, rather than creeping at a fixed speed you have to chase. Pause, skip a line, or ad-lib and it holds your place, then picks you up when you return to the script. It works in 40+ languages and regional variants, entirely on your Mac with no cloud.
Yes. Tellie's prompter window is excluded from screen capture, so on Zoom, Teams, WebEx, or a screen recording, everyone else sees only your desktop, never your notes. A per-session toggle can reveal it on purpose for a demo. That is what lets you read on a live call or a recorded take with nobody the wiser.
On a Mac with a notch, Tellie turns that black bar into a teleprompter and a glanceable status surface. On a Mac without one, or when you want more room, it runs as a floating prompter window you can size and place anywhere. Either way the reading surface stays invisible to screen capture.
Tellie is free to download and free forever as a teleprompter. Tellie Pro is a one-time $29, never a subscription, good for 3 Macs, with a 14-day refund. Pro adds Voice Follow, Stagehand, Presenter Magic, Take Coach, and the Companion, and every new install gets 10 days of Pro with no card and no sign-up.
The free Mac teleprompter is one download away. Try Pro free for 10 days, no card.
Download TellieMore: Tellie overview · Best teleprompter apps · For actors · For Zoom