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 · 7-day free trial, no card · 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 modes. One switch.
Pick how hard Zetsu works. The mode applies to send and receive alike, so both directions always match.
Performance
DeepFilterNet3 — maximum suppression
Echo
RNNoise — battery saver
Default: Performance. Zetsu shows the estimated added latency of the receive path in the menu.
Hear it for yourself.
Two live takes from the developer’s real home office — dishes in the kitchen, a game controller nearby, typing while talking. Take 1 is the bare microphone; take 2 was recorded through Zetsu in Performance mode.
Transcript
Hi, this is a quick test of Zetsu. Right now, my wife is washing the dishes in the kitchen behind me, my daughter is playing a game right next to me, and I’m now typing on my keyboard — like this. Can you hear the dishes? The game? My keyboard? This is my microphone with no noise removal at all. Remember this sound.
Transcript
Hi, this is Zetsu running in Performance mode. My wife is still washing the dishes in the kitchen behind me, my daughter is still playing her game right next to me, and I am — yep — now still typing on my keyboard, right now. A moment ago, you could hear all of that. Now Zetsu is doing its strongest noise removal — and you should only hear my voice.
Recorded by Zetsu’s developer, unedited — English is not my first language; the noise (and the accent) are real. Best judged with headphones. Or skip the demo: the free trial runs on your own mic and meetings.
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.
- Two kinds of network requests, neither is audio. License activation and periodic re-checks (Polar), and the Sparkle update check. That’s all.
Details in the privacy policy.
Pick your license.
Try before you buy: Zetsu comes with a 7-day free trial — all features, no card, started from the app’s menu. When you’re convinced: buy a license, get your key by email within a minute, paste it into Zetsu’s menu — done. One key activates up to 3 Macs (one user); move or free activations anytime in the customer portal.
Monthly
Subscription
$5 / month
cancel anytime
- License key for up to 3 Macs
- Valid while subscribed
- All updates included
Annual
Subscription — 2 months free
$50 / year
≈ $4.17/month, cancel anytime
- License key for up to 3 Macs
- Valid while subscribed
- All updates included
Lifetime
One-time purchase
$100
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.
How does the free trial work?
Download Zetsu and click Start 7-Day Free Trial in its menu — no card, no account, all features. The trial begins only when you click, not on install. When it ends, your audio keeps flowing through Zetsu untouched; only noise cancellation locks until you activate a license key.
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. Its only network requests are license activation/re-checks and the Sparkle update check — details in the privacy policy.
Does Zetsu need an internet connection?
Only for licensing and updates: activating your key, a periodic license re-check (with a 14-day offline grace window), and the Sparkle update check. Your audio is processed entirely on-device and never leaves your Mac.
Echo or Performance — which should I use?
Keep the default, Performance: it runs the strongest suppression (DeepFilterNet3) in both directions. On battery, switch to Echo — it uses the lighter RNNoise engine, trading a little suppression for noticeably lower battery and CPU use. Zetsu shows the estimated added latency of the receive path in the menu.
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 and its key (prefix ZETSU), delivered by email through Polar right after purchase. Enter the key in Zetsu’s menu to activate — up to 3 Macs per key, manageable in the customer portal. Monthly and Annual 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.