Teleprompter for Mac, PC or laptop: the four options, compared

A teleprompter for a Mac or PC has an easier job than one on a phone, because a laptop’s webcam sits above a large screen and you can put the words right beneath it. The four routes below differ in cost, in how close the words get to the lens, and in whether anything records. We make Orate, a phone teleprompter with no desktop app, and a free browser online teleprompter that runs on any computer. Other products are described from their own websites and store listings, checked on 2 November 2026.

The four options at a glance

A browser teleprompter, free on Mac and PC

For most people this is the answer, and it is the one we recommend first. There is nothing to install, it works the same in Safari, Chrome, Edge or Firefox, and it runs on a locked-down work laptop where you cannot add software.

Our online teleprompter is free with no sign-up. You paste the script, set a speed in words a minute (150 is a natural start for English), and it counts in for three seconds and scrolls past a reading mark. While it runs, the space bar pauses, the up and down arrows change speed by ten words a minute without losing your place, M mirrors the text for glass, F goes full screen, and C shows your webcam dimmed behind the words so you can check framing. The camera view is a preview only; nothing is recorded or uploaded, and the script stays in your browser.

Other browser tools are worth knowing. CuePrompter is free, needs no sign-up, has a mirror mode and does not record. Speakflow and Teleprompter.com both run in the browser too, with free plans and paid tiers; they are covered with the desktop apps below. Choosing a speed is the step people get wrong: start slower than feels right and adjust while you read, as set out in the best teleprompter scroll speed.

Desktop teleprompter apps for Mac and Windows

A desktop app earns its place when the prompter has to sit on top of something else, such as a video call, a slide deck or streaming software, or when someone else will drive it from a remote.

Two things to check before you commit to one. First, whether a see-through overlay is really what you want: reading over a call means reading over moving faces, which is harder than reading a plain column, and a narrowed browser window under the webcam often does the same job. Second, whether voice scrolling works with your microphone setup and accent; every voice prompter loses its place in predictable ways, explained in how a voice activated teleprompter works. How Teleprompter Pro and Teleprompter Premium+ compare on phones is in Teleprompter Premium vs Orate.

A phone under the webcam

If you need the whole laptop screen for slides or the call, use your phone as the prompter. Stand it upright against the screen, top edge just under the webcam, or clip it to the lid with a small phone mount. The words are now a few centimetres below the lens on a screen of their own, and your computer carries on recording or streaming.

Any phone teleprompter that has a read-only mode will do. In Orate, use the prompter-only mode: the script scrolls without recording, you can change pace mid-read without losing your place, and Follow my voice (Pro) can keep up with you so nobody has to touch the phone. Turn the phone on its side if the lid is short; the reading band moves with the lens. One honest limit: Orate has no remote or clicker support, so pausing means a tap or, with Follow my voice, simply stopping talking.

There is also the simpler route. If the video does not have to come from the computer, record it on the phone instead: its front camera is usually better than a laptop webcam, and a prompter that sits directly under that camera solves the eye-line problem outright. The setup is in how to use a teleprompter on your phone and a talking-head setup with a phone.

Beam-splitter glass in front of the lens

A hardware teleprompter puts a sheet of part-mirrored glass at 45 degrees in front of the camera. The camera sees through it; you see the screen below reflected in it. Because the reflection flips the text, the screen has to show it mirrored, which is what the Mirror setting in the browser and desktop tools above is for. Orate’s phone apps have no mirror setting, so they are not the tool for glass. Why teleprompters are mirrored explains the optics.

The all-in-one option for computers is the Elgato Prompter, listed at $299.99 on Elgato’s site on 2 November 2026: a 9-inch display behind 70/30 beam-splitter glass, one USB-C cable, working with Windows 11 and macOS 13.3 or newer through Elgato’s free Camera Hub software. Its Voice Sync feature needs an NVIDIA RTX 2060 or an Apple M1 or newer. It takes webcams, DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, depending on the model. The cheaper route is a tablet or phone under a generic glass rig, running any prompter with a mirror mode, including the free browser tool.

Glass is the only option where your eyes are genuinely on the lens. It is also bulky and slower to set up, so it pays off for courses and weekly videos rather than one call.

Setting up a laptop so the reading does not show

The webcam is a dot at the top centre of the screen. Every centimetre the words sit below it is an angle the viewer can see. At 55 cm from the screen, a line 3 cm below the lens is about 3 degrees off; at 10 cm it is about 10 degrees, and at the bottom of a 13-inch screen, around 18 cm down, it is about 18 degrees. That is arithmetic, not research, but it is why full-screen text at a small size reads as scanning. Where the gap starts to show is covered in why teleprompter videos look like reading.

1. Narrow the window. Make the prompter window about a third of the screen wide and drag it to the top centre, so the reading line is 2–5 cm under the lens. Narrow lines also stop your eyes travelling sideways.
2. Raise the laptop. Put it on books or a stand until the webcam is at eye height. Looking down into a laptop is a worse angle than any prompter can fix.
3. Sit back. At 60–70 cm rather than 40, the same distance on screen becomes a smaller angle. Increase the text size to match.
4. Use one screen. With an external monitor, the prompter goes on the screen the webcam is mounted on, and the webcam goes top centre.
5. Light from the front. Face a window or put a lamp behind the laptop. It does more for the picture than the prompter does.

The longer guide to keeping your eyes on the lens is how to read a script while looking at the camera.

What records the video

A browser teleprompter only scrolls, so something else records. On a Mac, QuickTime Player’s New Movie Recording uses the webcam. On Windows, the built-in Camera app does the same. In a meeting, the call’s own recording works, and a webinar or stream records in its own software. Some desktop apps record as well; check the free tier for a watermark before a take you care about, using the test in teleprompter apps and watermarks.

If you are recording a talk with slides, recording a video presentation covers the structure, and the speech length calculator turns a time slot into a word count before you write.

Questions people ask

Is there a free teleprompter for Mac?

Yes. A browser teleprompter runs in Safari or Chrome on any Mac with nothing to install. The free online teleprompter on this site scrolls in words a minute, mirrors for glass and goes full screen. For a desktop app, QPrompt is free and open source, and Speakflow and Teleprompter.com have free plans, as of November 2026.

What is the best teleprompter for a Windows PC?

For most people, a browser teleprompter in Edge or Chrome, narrowed and placed under the webcam, because it is free and installs nothing. If you need it to float over a call or take a clicker, Speakflow has a Windows app and QPrompt is free and open source on Windows, as checked in November 2026.

Can I use a teleprompter on Zoom or Teams?

Yes. Put the meeting window to one side and the prompter, narrowed, at the top centre of the screen under the webcam, then pause it when someone asks a question. Some desktop apps float a see-through prompter over the call. A phone propped just under the webcam also works and leaves the whole screen for the meeting.

Does Orate have a Mac or Windows app?

No. Orate is a phone app for iPhone, iPad and Android, and it records with the script under the front camera. On a Mac, Windows PC or laptop, use the free online teleprompter on this site, which scrolls, mirrors and goes full screen but does not record. You can also run Orate on a phone propped under your webcam.

How do I stop my eyes moving when I read from a laptop?

Keep the reading line within a few centimetres of the webcam and the lines short. Make the prompter window about a third of the screen wide, drag it to the top centre, raise the laptop to eye height and sit a little further back with larger text. At 55 cm, text 10 cm below the lens is about 10 degrees off, which viewers notice.