Zetsu
Menu-bar noise canceller · macOS 26+ · Apple Silicon
Cut the noise.
Both ways.
Every noise canceller cleans your microphone. Zetsu also cleans what you hear — the other side’s barking dog, keyboard clatter and street noise — before it reaches your ears. All processed on your Mac. Nothing leaves it.
notarized by Apple · free to evaluate · named after 絶 — Japanese for “to sever”
One app, two directions.
Zetsu installs a pair of one-way virtual audio devices. Your meeting app talks to them like any mic and speaker — Zetsu does the cleaning in between.
Send — your voice
Physical mic→ Zetsu · noise removal→ Zetsu Mic→ Zoom / Meet / Teams
Pick Zetsu Mic as the microphone in your meeting app. Your voice flows through even with noise removal toggled off — no scrambling to change settings mid-call.
Receive — their voice
Zoom / Meet / Teams→ Zetsu Speaker→ Zetsu · noise removal→ Your headphones
Point the meeting app’s output at Zetsu Speaker, choose your real headphones inside Zetsu, and the other side arrives clean.
No mis-selection, by design
One-way virtual devices
Zetsu Mic only appears in microphone pickers, Zetsu Speaker only in output pickers. And both appear only while Zetsu is running — quit the app and they hide, so you can never be stuck on a silent device.
Lives in the menu bar
No Dock icon, no windows
Everything — device pickers, engine choice, driver install and removal, updates — sits in one menu. Installing the driver asks for your admin password once; removing it is one click.
Two engines. Pick per direction.
Each direction runs its own engine, so you can spend quality where it matters and latency where it hurts.
dfn3
DeepFilterNet3 — deep suppression
rnnoise
RNNoise — featherweight
Defaults: dfn3 on send, rnnoise on receive. Zetsu shows the estimated latency of your current choice in the menu.
Your audio never leaves your Mac.
- On-device processing. Noise removal runs locally on Apple Silicon. Your audio is never recorded, stored or uploaded by Zetsu.
- No account, no analytics. The app has no sign-in, no telemetry. This website sets no cookies and runs no trackers.
- One network request. The app only checks our update feed for new versions (standard Sparkle update check).
Details in the privacy policy.
Free beta. Fair license.
The honest part: Zetsu is in public beta — download it and evaluate it for free. A license is not a pre-order: it’s your right to keep using Zetsu beyond evaluation, on up to 3 Macs, and your key arrives by email immediately. Current builds don’t technically enforce keys yet; when in-app activation ships, the same key unlocks it.
Monthly
Subscription
$2 / month
cancel anytime
- License key for up to 3 Macs
- Valid while subscribed
- All updates included
Lifetime
One-time purchase
$48
pay once, keep forever
- Perpetual license key, up to 3 Macs
- No renewals, ever
- All updates via the built-in updater
Prices in USD. Checkout, taxes, receipts and license keys are handled by Polar, our merchant of record. Keys arrive by email and can be managed — along with subscriptions and invoices — in the customer portal. See Terms & EULA.
Questions, answered.
Why does installation ask for an admin password?
Zetsu ships a CoreAudio virtual-device driver (Zetsu Mic / Zetsu Speaker). Installing it into the system audio plug-in folder requires administrator approval — once. You can remove the driver from Zetsu’s menu at any time.
Does my audio ever leave my Mac?
No. Processing is entirely on-device. Zetsu doesn’t record, store or transmit your audio, and has no account or telemetry. The only network request the app makes is the Sparkle update check.
dfn3 or rnnoise — which should I use?
Keep the defaults: dfn3 on send (strongest suppression where it counts) and rnnoise on receive (lowest latency for live listening). If the other side is very noisy, switch receive to dfn3 — it adds roughly 30 ms.
I hear nothing — what should I check?
Three usual suspects: the meeting app’s speaker must be set to Zetsu Speaker (inside the app, not macOS system output); your real output device must be selected in Zetsu’s receive section; and devices need to run at 48,000 Hz (Audio MIDI Setup).
What exactly do I get when I buy?
A license — the right to use Zetsu beyond free evaluation — plus its key (prefix ZETSU), delivered by email through Polar, valid on up to 3 Macs. Beta builds don’t technically enforce keys yet; once activation ships, your key unlocks the app. Monthly keys stay valid while the subscription is active; Lifetime keys don’t expire.
How do refunds and cancellation work?
Subscriptions can be cancelled anytime in the Polar customer portal — you keep access until the period ends. Refund requests are handled through Polar, our merchant of record; see the refund section of our terms.
How do I uninstall?
Remove the virtual devices from Zetsu’s menu (asks for your password once), quit the app, and delete Zetsu.app. Gone without a trace.