Free noise suppression software: the small-print comparison
Three real free suppressors exist, and none charges money — each charges something else. This page names the tax: hardware, scope or flavor. The fourth we used to list, Krisp, now charges money after a 7-day trial.
Nobody charges money
$0
- real free suppressors
- three
- that charge money
- none
- Krisp, after 7 days
- $8/user/month
The three, with their taxes — and the one that left
NVIDIA Broadcast — pays in hardware. Unlimited suppression plus room-echo removal, free forever; requires GeForce RTX 2060, Quadro RTX 3000, TITAN RTX or higher and Windows 10/11 64-bit. If you qualify, stop reading and install it.
SteelSeries Sonar — pays in flavor. Unlimited and free, works with any headset and any mic — no steelseries hardware required, with ClearCast working on incoming teammates too. But it's Windows 10 (RS5+) only, arrives inside the GG suite, and its mixer speaks fluent gamer.
Discord's toggle — pays in scope. Discord's built-in suppression is powered by krisp, runs on-device, free for all users Enable at User Settings → Voice & Video → Advanced → Noise Suppression → Krisp; remember filters only your own outgoing noise — teammates need their own toggle.
Krisp — now pays in money. Still the fullest featured suppressor we’ve audited: two-way cleanup, every call app, Windows and macOS both. But the free plan that made it the fourth entry is retired; as of October 8, 2026 Krisp offers a 7-day trial with no card, then $8/user/month billed annually. Receipt: the Krisp re-audit.
Receipts, condensed
| Tool | Allowance | The tax | Incoming audio too? |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Broadcast | unlimited | RTX GPU, Windows | yes |
| SteelSeries Sonar | unlimited | Windows + GG suite | yes |
| Discord toggle | unlimited | Discord only | no — your side only |
| Krisp (trial) | 7 days, once | $8/user/month after | yes |
Three free suppressors, and one trial
The ring is each tool’s free allowance; the line under it is what it charges instead.
NVIDIA Broadcast
unlimited · pays in hardware
SteelSeries Sonar
unlimited · pays in flavor
Discord toggle
unlimited · pays in scope
Krisp
7-day trial · now pays in money
ALL means the tool has no meter to draw. Krisp’s dial is all but empty: seven trial days, then no free allowance at all — the only one of the four that ends.
When free suppression is genuinely enough
A qualifying GPU, a Windows PC that can host Sonar, or a social life that happens on Discord: covered, permanently, $0. The cases that outgrow free are predictable — a Mac with calls in several apps, or needing identical behavior across two machines — and they're priced honestly on free vs paid. For recordings rather than live calls, suppression is the wrong tool entirely: that's the online cleanup lane.
Fair questions
- Is noise suppression the same as noise cancellation?
- For software shopping, treat them as one errand: removing non-voice sound from a microphone. “Suppression” shows up more around live filtering — which is what this page compares in free form.
- What's the catch with free suppression tools?
- Never money — always something else. Broadcast charges hardware (RTX only), Sonar charges flavor (Windows, gamer suite), and Discord's toggle charges scope (Discord only). Krisp used to charge time, a daily free allowance; now it's a 7-day trial and then money, so it left this list. Pick the tax you already pay.