Source availability
Screenpipe is source-available on GitHub. Chronicle is a closed-source OpenAI feature.
- Screenpipe
- Source available; personal use is free and commercial use requires a license
- OpenAI Chronicle
- Not available
VS
Product comparison · reviewed August 1, 2026
Screenpipe vs OpenAI Chronicle: which is right for your workflow?
Full screen + audio + keyboard memory vs 6-hour Codex screenshot context. A side-by-side look at scope, data control, platform support, and extensibility—without pretending one product is best for everyone.
Same criteria
Both products are evaluated against the same feature and deployment questions.
Trade-offs included
OpenAI Chronicle's strengths are shown alongside Screenpipe's.
No winner score
The right choice depends on the job, risk model, and operating environment.
The practical differences
Where the products differ
Start with the criteria that can actually change your decision. Marketing category labels are less useful than concrete operating constraints.
Platform Support
- Screenpipe
- macOS, Windows, Linux
- OpenAI Chronicle
- macOS only
Available Regions
- Screenpipe
- Global
- OpenAI Chronicle
- Not in EU, UK, Switzerland
Capture: Screen
- Screenpipe
- Continuous video across every monitor
- OpenAI Chronicle
- Periodic screenshots
Capture: Audio
Chronicle docs: 'It does not have access to your microphone or system audio.'
- Screenpipe
- 24/7 mic + system audio, local transcription
- OpenAI Chronicle
- Not available
Capture: Keyboard
- Screenpipe
- Available
- OpenAI Chronicle
- Not available
Side by side
Screenpipe vs OpenAI Chronicle
Capabilities can change. Treat this as an evaluation starting point and verify purchase-critical requirements with each vendor.
| Criterion | Screenpipe | OpenAI Chronicle |
|---|---|---|
| Source availabilityScreenpipe is source-available on GitHub. Chronicle is a closed-source OpenAI feature. | Source available; personal use is free and commercial use requires a license | Not available |
| Platform Support | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS only |
| Available Regions | Global | Not in EU, UK, Switzerland |
| Capture: Screen | Continuous video across every monitor | Periodic screenshots |
| Capture: AudioChronicle docs: 'It does not have access to your microphone or system audio.' | 24/7 mic + system audio, local transcription | Not available |
| Capture: Keyboard | Available | Not available |
| Capture: Clipboard | Available | Not available |
| Capture: Accessibility TreeScreenpipe reads the macOS / Windows accessibility tree as structured text. Chronicle relies on screenshots + OCR. | Primary — OCR is fallback | Not available |
| History Depth | Months, configurable | 6 hours |
| Data Storage | 100% local by default | Local memories, but screenshots processed on OpenAI servers |
| Works With Any AI | Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama, Apple Intelligence, Windows AI | Codex only |
| Developer API | REST + MCP server | Not available |
| Automation / Scheduled tasks | Scheduled tasks trigger on events (meeting ended, PR merged, daily) | Not available |
| Team Tier | Team plan with shared workflows | Not available |
| Enterprise Tier | SSO, admin policies, audit, self-host | Not available |
| Audience | Individuals, teams, and enterprises | ChatGPT Pro individual subscribers |
Decision guide
Choose based on the job
Choose OpenAI Chronicle if
- Tight integration with the Codex coding agent
- Works inside an app a lot of Pro users already have installed
- Local markdown memory files you can inspect and edit
- 6-hour automatic deletion of raw screen captures
- Pause control for sensitive contexts
Choose Screenpipe if
- You need continuous screen and audio context, not only meeting notes or active-window context.
- You want local-only capture and search as a supported operating mode.
- Your team uses a mix of macOS, Windows, and Linux.
- You need an auditable, source-available capture engine and an API for agents or internal workflows.
Context
Key trade-offs in detail
Shallow history vs durable memory
Chronicle deletes raw screen captures after 6 hours. That's a deliberate privacy choice for a coding helper — but it also means it can't answer 'what did I see last Tuesday?' or 'pull up that error from this morning's standup'. Screenpipe keeps months of searchable history locally, indexed by app, time, speaker, and content. Different products with different memory horizons.
Vision-only vs full signal
Chronicle only captures screenshots. No microphone, no system audio, no keyboard, no clipboard, no accessibility tree. The OpenAI docs are explicit about this. Screenshots + OCR are a noisy, partial view of what's happening: you lose meeting audio entirely, you lose the structured text that the accessibility tree exposes for free, and you lose everything the user typed or copied. Screenpipe captures all of these signals continuously and treats screen video + OCR as the fallback layer when accessibility data isn't available.
Locked to Codex vs any AI
Chronicle is a context-feeder for the Codex coding agent. Its memories aren't queryable from Claude, Gemini, your own agent, or a local Ollama model. Screenpipe ships a REST API and an MCP server — every model you use can read the same memory. If you switch models tomorrow, your memory comes with you.
Not built for teams or enterprise
Chronicle is ChatGPT Pro only — there's no Team or Enterprise tier, no admin policy controls, no SSO, no audit trail, no central deployment story, and it's blocked in the EU, UK, and Switzerland. Screenpipe ships a Team plan and an Enterprise tier with admin policies, SSO, audit, scoped capture controls, and self-host. For a company that wants to give every employee an AI memory layer they actually own, this is the gap.
Open-source vs black box
Chronicle sends selected screen frames to OpenAI servers for ephemeral processing. You trust the privacy policy. Screenpipe is source-available on GitHub — every line of the capture engine, the storage layer, and the sync path is auditable. For software that watches your screen all day, the ability to verify what it does matters, especially for security teams signing off on a deployment.
Six months behind on the same idea
OpenAI launching a small, scoped screen-memory feature inside Codex is a meaningful signal: continuous screen context for AI is real. But it's been Screenpipe's core thesis since 2024, with the depth, breadth, and developer surface to match. Chronicle in 2026 looks like a stripped-down preview of what Screenpipe already shipped: a vision-only, single-platform, individual-tier subset of what an AI memory layer can be.
FAQ
Questions worth asking
Disclosure: this comparison is written and maintained by Screenpipe, not an independent review publication.
Are Screenpipe and OpenAI Chronicle direct substitutes?+
Chronicle is an opt-in research preview inside the OpenAI Codex Mac app. It captures screenshots of recent screen activity, OCRs them, and feeds short-lived context into Codex coding sessions. Screen captures older than 6 hours are deleted; selected frames are processed in an ephemeral Codex session on OpenAI servers and turned into local markdown memories. The overlap depends on the job you are buying for: Screenpipe focuses on continuous, searchable screen and audio context, while OpenAI Chronicle may be a better fit for the narrower workflows described above.
Where is OpenAI Chronicle stronger?+
OpenAI Chronicle is a credible choice for teams that value tight integration with the codex coding agent, works inside an app a lot of pro users already have installed, local markdown memory files you can inspect and edit. Those strengths should be weighed against the deployment, data-control, platform, and extensibility differences in the table.
Where is Screenpipe stronger?+
Screenpipe is designed for continuous screen and audio capture, local-only capture and search, cross-platform deployment, and programmatic access through its local API and MCP integrations. Those advantages matter most when privacy, broad work context, or custom automation is the buying criterion.
Is this an independent comparison?+
No. Screenpipe publishes this page. We include OpenAI Chronicle's strengths, avoid a numeric winner score, and state the criteria so readers can verify the claims that matter to them. Product capabilities change, so confirm critical details with each vendor before purchasing.
Evaluate with your own data
Try Screenpipe before you decide.
Install it, test the workflows that matter, and compare the result against your real requirements—not a vendor scorecard.