Launched 2017 · Verified Oct 16, 2026

Descript

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AI Video Editing Write a reviewUnited StatesEffect71/ 100

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Edit video and podcasts by rewriting the transcript

transcript editingpodcast editingvideo editing voice cloning screen recordingFreemium · from $16/mo

Listed on EffectHub · Aug 16, 2026

InputsOutputsmacOS · Windows · Web · API

Screenshot of the Descript website — descript.com as we captured it — our own screenshot, not the vendor’s press image.

Pricing

Pricing model: Freemium
Paid options from: $16/mo
Billing: Monthly

Free gives 1 media hour a month, 100 one-off AI credits, 5GB storage and watermarked 720p exports. Hobbyist is $16/mo billed annually, $24 month-to-month; Creator $24 on annual, $35 month-to-month; Business $50 on annual, $65 month-to-month. Paid tiers meter two resources at once: media hours (10 / 30 / 40) and AI credits (400 / 800 / 1500). API and MCP calls draw down the same plan credits at no extra charge.

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Overview

About Descript

Descript transcribes a recording and applies edits to the text back onto the underlying video and audio, so cutting a word cuts the take. Filler-word stripping, Studio Sound cleanup, screen capture, translation, dubbing and a trained voice model for patching lines share one project. A credit-metered API and an MCP server drive the same operations from code or from an AI assistant, drawing on the plan's own credits and media minutes.

Platforms: macOS · Windows · Web · API
API: Yes
Last verified: Oct 16, 2026

Verified sources

Free: 60 media minutes/month, 100 one-time AI credits, 5GB, watermarked 720p export. Hobbyist $16 annual / $24 monthly (10 hrs, 400 credits); Creator $24 / $35 (30 hrs, 800 credits, team of 3); Business $50 / $65 (40 hrs, 1500 credits, team of 5); Enterprise custom (15 October 2026)descript.com ↗
'API access is available for all paying users at no additional cost', usage 'draws from the AI credits and media minutes on your plan'; a Descript MCP connects to Claude or another assistant; 'direct media file exports are not supported yet' (15 October 2026)descript.com ↗
Founded 2017 by Andrew Mason in San Francisco as a spin-off of Detourresearch.contrary.com ↗
Raised roughly $100M from the OpenAI Startup Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, Redpoint and Spark Capitaldescript.com ↗

Fact check

Is Descript legit?

We don’t label tools safe or unsafe. Below are the records we checked ourselves, each with the date we read it.

Domain registered: Aug 19, 1999 (27 years ago)Registry record (RDAP), registrar 1API GmbH, looked up Sep 6, 2026
TLS certificate: Issued by Google Trust Services, valid until Dec 30, 2026Seen in our own connection to the site on Oct 16, 2026
Last checked: Oct 16, 2026The site answered
On the market since: 2017The vendor's own material, read by us
Operated by: Descript, United StatesOur research, card verified Oct 15, 2026

How we collect these records

Editorial verdict

Pros & cons of Descript

high confidence

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

Best for

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

Not for

Narrative or music-led editing that needs frame-level timeline control
Colour grading, compositing or anything finishing-grade
Heavy monthly volume, where the media-hour caps bite before the credit caps do

Watch out: The prices on the pricing page are annual rates. Month-to-month costs 50% more at the entry tier ($24 against $16), and the media-hour allowance is per month and does not roll over.

#16inAI Video Editing· of 29 tools, ranked by rating and popularity

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