Captions vs Descript

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan: Descript — $16/mo vs $24.99/mo for Captions
Free plan: Both have one
Public API: Descript has one; not confirmed by us for Captions
Best fit: Captions: Creators shooting talking-head shorts on a phone and publishing several a week · Descript: Podcasters and interview shows where the edit is driven by what was said
Platforms: Captions: Web, iOS, Android, macOS · Descript: macOS, Windows, Web

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

CaptionsMobile-first AI video editor that cuts, captions, dubs and drops b-roll into talking-head footage

DescriptEdit video and podcasts by rewriting the transcript

Side by side

Fact	Captions	Descript
Category	AI Video Editing	AI Video Editing
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starts at	$24.99/mo	$16/mo
Public API	Not confirmed	Yes
Trust score	96 / 100	96 / 100
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, macOS	macOS, Windows, Web, API
Company	NOCAP, Inc.	Descript
Launched	2021	2017
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 16, 2026

What our research says

Captions

Captions is the strongest of the phone-first short-video editors, and the caption styling plus eye-contact correction are the two features people actually keep it for. The AI edit pass genuinely removes an hour of manual cutting from a weekly-video habit. The pricing is the problem: it is credit-metered, the published table is labelled iOS-only, and the entry tier's 500 credits disappear fast once you use the generative features it exists to sell.

Pros

Automatic scene cutting, caption burn-in, b-roll insertion and music in one pass over raw footage
Over 100 caption styles and support for 100+ languages, including dubbing
Eye-contact correction handles the single most obvious tell in scripted creator video
Runs on iOS, Android, web and desktop with the same account
Free tier still gives trimming, transitions and library media, so the app is usable before paying

Cons

Everything generative is credit-metered, so the monthly price understates real cost at volume
The pricing page states it reflects iOS plans only, which leaves web and Android buyers guessing
Credit rollover is capped at 3x the monthly allowance, so banking credits for a big project does not work

Descript

Descript is the right tool when your footage is people talking and you would rather edit a document than a timeline. Anyone cutting to music, working frame-accurate, or grading footage will fight it the whole way.

Pros

Transcript-first editing genuinely collapses the time to a rough cut for spoken content
Studio Sound rescues bad room audio well enough to skip a re-record
The API is included with any paid plan rather than sold as a separate tier
One project holds recording, editing, captions, translation and publishing

Cons

Two independent meters, media hours and AI credits, so either can strand you mid-month
The API cannot export a media file directly, you still download through the app
Entry paid tier is single-seat and capped at 10 media hours
Free tier watermarks exports, so it is a demo rather than a usable tier

Which one fits

Choose Captions if you need

Creators shooting talking-head shorts on a phone and publishing several a week
Getting a script read off-screen to look like direct-to-camera delivery
Producing the same clip in several languages with dubbing and translated captions

Choose Descript if you need

Podcasters and interview shows where the edit is driven by what was said
Course, demo and webinar recordings that need a fast, clean pass
Teams with no trained editor who still have to ship weekly video
Automating repetitive transcribe-clean-caption pipelines through the API