InterviewBeacon vs LockedIn AI: Pricing, Refunds, and Languages Compared

InterviewBeacon and LockedIn AI both put a private, on-screen suggestion in front of you during a live interview call, but they’re built on opposite models. InterviewBeacon is a $79 one-time purchase that runs on your own OpenAI or Anthropic key with local transcription; LockedIn AI is a managed cloud subscription with a much wider feature set — more languages, a practice mode, and the option to bring a human into the session. One disclosure up front: we have not personally tested LockedIn AI. Everything below comes from LockedIn AI’s own pricing page (captured as screenshots on two separate dates), its published refund policy, and a documented pattern of third-party reviews — not from hands-on use.

Where LockedIn AI is ahead

We’re not going to pretend this is one-sided — LockedIn AI does several things InterviewBeacon deliberately doesn’t.

Language coverage. LockedIn AI supports 42 languages, including regional accents and dialects. InterviewBeacon is English-first. If you’re interviewing in another language — or in English with an interviewer who might switch — this is a real and decisive reason to pick LockedIn AI instead.

A place to rehearse first. LockedIn AI’s built-in Mock Interview Simulator lets you practice a behavioral question, a case study, or a sales roleplay before you’re actually on the call. InterviewBeacon has no practice mode at all — it only helps once you’re live.

A human option and a tunable overlay. LockedIn Duo lets you invite a live person into a private session for coaching alongside the AI, and the overlay’s transparency is adjustable to taste. InterviewBeacon is AI-only with a fixed, opaque panel — both are conscious product choices on our end, not oversights, but if either one matters to you, LockedIn AI has it and we don’t.

Where InterviewBeacon is ahead

You buy a license, not a subscription. $79 covers a 6-month license with no auto-renewal — nothing keeps charging your card until you track down a cancel button. Renewing after 6 months is a deliberate second purchase, not something that happens on its own.

BYOK means no markup on the AI itself. You supply your own OpenAI or Anthropic key and pay the provider directly, at their rate. LockedIn AI is a managed service, so both the transcription and the AI billing run through them, bundled into the subscription price.

A refund window with no fine print. 14 days, no usage threshold, no case-by-case review after the fact.

Pricing and billing, honestly

InterviewBeacon’s price is one number: $79, once, for a 6-month license. No tiers, no auto-renewal — if you use it past that window, renewing is a deliberate purchase.

LockedIn AI’s pricing, at our last check, was $54.99/month on a month-to-month plan or $39.99/month on a three-month plan — both shown as promotional rates against a $109.98/month list price, with the same “LOCKIN50” promo code and countdown timer active across two checks 19 days apart. That’s two independent confirmations of the same promo, not one stale screenshot, but treat it as the price as of our last check, not a permanent one — verify the current figure on their site before buying. A separately reported one-time “lifetime” price (around $1,499) shows up on third-party aggregators only; we couldn’t confirm it directly, so we’re not stating it as fact.

At the promotional monthly rate, six months of LockedIn AI runs roughly $330; at the 3-month rate, roughly $240. InterviewBeacon’s six-month license is $79.

Refunds

InterviewBeacon: 14 days, no conditions attached.

LockedIn AI’s published policy is tighter. Monthly and quarterly subscriptions are non-refundable once the billing period starts — cancelling stops future charges but doesn’t refund the current period. Annual subscriptions get a partial refund only if you cancel within the first 7 days. Genuine billing errors (a duplicate charge, no access delivered, a charge after you already cancelled) are handled separately if reported within 7 days of the transaction. (Sourced directly from lockedinai.com/refund-policy.)

Keeping the hint window off your own screen

InterviewBeacon has an optional setting that excludes the hint window from your own screen-capture stream — useful if you’re sharing your screen for an unrelated reason during the same session and don’t want a private note visible in that capture. It’s off by default and free to turn on — no separate tier gates it. This is about what shows up in a recording or share of your own screen; it has nothing to do with what an interviewer is told or sees on their side of the call.

LockedIn AI markets its overlay heavily around staying concealed during screen sharing, with an adjustable-transparency design it calls “Stealth Mode.” Whether that holds up in practice is a separate question from the marketing: there’s a documented pattern across Trustpilot and Reddit reviews of the overlay still showing up in the captured stream despite the feature — a recurring theme across multiple reviews, not a one-off complaint. We haven’t tested this ourselves, so we’re reporting the pattern, not confirming or denying it.

Choose LockedIn AI if…

• You interview in a language other than English, or need real accent/dialect handling (42 languages).
• You want to rehearse with a built-in mock-interview simulator before the real call.
• You’d value an adjustable overlay, or the option to bring a live human helper into your session via LockedIn Duo.
• You’d rather have the AI bundled into a managed subscription than set up your own API key.

Choose InterviewBeacon if…

• You’d rather pay once than carry a monthly subscription.
• You want your interview audio transcribed locally and to run on your own AI key at cost.
• You want an unconditional 14-day refund window.
• You mainly need in-the-moment help on the call itself — sales, consulting, management, behavioral, or any other interview — and don’t need built-in practice or a human-assist option.
• You want screen-capture exclusion included, without paying for a premium tier.

Neither list is a trick — if the LockedIn AI column describes what you need, it’s genuinely the better fit for that. For a broader look at the category, see our best AI interview assistant roundup.

LockedIn AI is a trademark of its respective owner. InterviewBeacon is not affiliated with or endorsed by LockedIn AI.