Descript
Edit audio and video by editing the transcript — plus AI cleanup tools
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Facts checked · Nov 2026 — the pricing, free-plan and watermark facts on this page were checked against Descript's official pages. See how we verify and the listing changelog.
Price alerts for Descript
AI video tools change prices and credit rules without warning — Kling has raised prices roughly 3× before. Get emailed when Descript's price, credits or free plan changes.
Our verdict
Best for podcasters and talking-head creators: record, get a transcript, and edit the video by deleting words from the text — with AI cleanup that fixes bad audio in one click.
Descript at a glance
| Starting price | Paid plans; free tier available |
| Pricing type | Freemium |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free export allowed | ✓ |
| Category | AI Video Editors |
| Entry price estimate (our calculator) | $16/month, subscription-based |
| How the billing works | Hobbyist/Creator entry tiers; priced around media hours on the plan |
What Descript really costs
Descript meters two things, and the first is the one people misjudge: media hours count the raw media you import or record and have processed, not the length of your finished video. A messy 3-hour interview that becomes a tight 40 minutes still consumed 3 media hours. Hobbyist's 10 hours a month at $16/month billed annually works out at $1.60 per media hour; Creator's 30 hours at $24 brings that to about $0.80 per media hour, which is why Creator is the value tier for weekly publishers.
The second meter is AI credits — 400 a month on Hobbyist, 800 on Creator, 1,500 on Business — spent by Underlord, AI speech, generated media and the AI cleanup tools. Only Creator and Business can buy top-ups for hours and credits, so a Hobbyist user who runs dry mid-month must upgrade rather than top up. Because both meters depend on your recording habits rather than a per-finished-minute rate, no cost cards are derived here: estimate your raw recording hours per month, not your published minutes, and size the plan to that.
No cost cards are shown because Descript has no per-finished-minute rate: billing is a per-person subscription metered by raw media hours and AI credits, per its official pricing page, checked Nov 2026. The per-media-hour figures above are simple divisions of that page's plan prices by its plan allowances.
What is Descript?
Descript records, transcribes and then lets you edit audio and video by editing the transcript. Deleting a sentence from the text deletes it from the video. That single idea reorganises editing for speech-heavy content: instead of scrubbing a timeline for the moment a guest repeated themselves, you read, select and cut. Around it sit AI tools that remove filler words, clean up poor recordings into studio-like sound, correct eye contact, and clone your voice so a correction can be typed rather than re-recorded.
It is an editor, not a generator. Descript will not invent footage from a prompt; it makes the footage you recorded faster to shape. That is why podcasters and talking-head creators are its natural audience and why visual, music-driven editing is its weak side. The pricing follows the workflow: you are metered on media hours — the amount of recorded media you process — plus a pool of AI credits for the AI features, rather than on exports or finished minutes.
How Descript works
- 1Create a free account and start a project — the free plan includes 1 media hour a month and 100 one-time AI credits, per Descript's pricing comparison.
- 2Record inside Descript or import your audio or video; it is transcribed automatically in your chosen language.
- 3Edit the transcript: delete words, sentences and whole tangents, and the media follows the text.
- 4Run the cleanup tools — remove filler words, shorten silences, and apply Studio Sound to rough recordings.
- 5Fix mistakes with your cloned voice where a paid plan includes it, instead of booking a re-record for one wrong word.
- 6Add captions or clips for social, then export — watermark-free export starts with the paid plans, per the pricing page.
Core features
Transcript-based editing
The defining feature: the transcript is the timeline. Cutting text cuts media, which makes long interviews, podcasts and talks dramatically faster to shape than waveform editing.
Filler word removal
One pass highlights and removes ums, ahs, repeated words and false starts, and a companion tool shortens word gaps. On an hour of conversation this is the difference between an afternoon and a coffee.
Studio Sound cleanup
One-click audio cleanup that removes background noise and evens out speech, aimed at recordings made in ordinary rooms. It is limited on the free plan and fully included on paid plans, per the pricing comparison.
Voice cloning (Overdub)
Create an AI version of your own voice and type corrections instead of re-recording them. Paid plans include AI speech with custom voice clones; used honestly, it fixes names, dates and prices in published recordings.
Underlord AI co-editor
Descript's AI assistant, included on paid plans (limited on free), which can make polished edits from prompts, pick out clip-worthy moments, draft scripts and show notes, and generate images and video inside a project, drawing on your AI credit pool.
Captions, clips and translation
Dynamic captions, clip creation from longer recordings, and — higher up the plans — translation and dubbing into 30+ languages with proofreading on Business. The repurposing layer that turns one recording into a week of posts.
The free plan — the full truth
Descript's free plan is a real working sample. Our verified data confirms free exports are allowed, and Descript's own pricing comparison gives the free plan 1 media hour a month and 100 one-time AI credits, with the AI tools — Studio Sound, filler removal, eye contact and the rest — present but limited. One hour is enough to edit a podcast episode or a talking-head video properly and learn whether transcript editing suits your brain.
Where the free plan stops is polish and scale. The pricing page headlines the first paid tier, Hobbyist, as the step that elevates projects watermark-free, with 1080p watermark-free export — watermark-free output is presented as a paid feature, so plan on Hobbyist if the video is for publication. One hour of media also disappears fast for anyone recording weekly, and note the AI credits on free are one-time, not monthly: once the 100 are spent, the AI layer is largely a preview until you pay.
- • Free plan: 1 media hour/month, per Descript's pricing comparison
- • Free AI credits are 100, one-time — not a monthly pool
- • AI tools are limited (not full access) on the free plan, per the comparison table
- • Watermark-free export is a paid-plan feature on the pricing page — Hobbyist exports 1080p watermark-free
- • Free exports are allowed (verified) — the limits are hours, credits and polish, not exporting itself
Descript pricing plans
| Plan | Price | Credits included | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 media hour/month; 100 one-time AI credits; AI tools limited | Editing one real episode to learn transcript-based editing |
| Hobbyist | $16/month billed annually ($24 monthly) | 10 media hours/month; 400 AI credits/month; 1080p watermark-free export | Solo creators publishing speech-heavy video without a watermark |
| Creator | $24/month billed annually ($35 monthly) | 30 media hours/month; 800 AI credits/month; 4K watermark-free export; top-ups available | Weekly podcasters and video creators — three times Hobbyist's hours for $8 more |
| Business | $50/month billed annually ($65 monthly) | 40 media hours/month; 1,500 AI credits/month; Brand Studio, dubbing in 30+ languages, custom avatars | Teams producing together, with brand controls and priority support |
Plans, prices and allowances are from Descript's official pricing page, checked Nov 2026. All prices are per person; an Enterprise tier with custom allowances, SSO and audit logs sits above Business.
Pros
- + Text-based editing is genuinely faster for speech than any timeline
- + Filler-word and silence removal saves hours on long recordings
- + Studio Sound rescues recordings made in bad rooms
- + Voice cloning turns corrections into typing instead of re-recording
- + Creator tier triples the media hours for a small step up in price
Cons
- − Media hours count raw footage, so long recordings drain the plan faster than expected
- − Less suited to visual, music-driven editing
- − Free AI credits are a one-time 100, not a monthly allowance
- − Hobbyist cannot buy top-ups — running out means upgrading
- − It edits what you recorded; it does not generate footage from prompts
Best for
- ✓ Podcasters editing long conversations every week
- ✓ Talking-head creators who record more than they publish
- ✓ Interview and webinar producers who need clips and captions from one recording
- ✓ Creators whose audio quality needs rescuing as often as their edits do
Not ideal for
- ✕ Creators who want footage generated from prompts
- ✕ Music-video and visual editors who live on the timeline
- ✕ Anyone whose workflow is a few minutes of finished video from hours of raw takes, on a tight plan
Descript alternatives
See all alternatives →Runway is the first alternative in this editor category of our catalogue, and it is the opposite philosophy: generation first, with editing tools around the generated shot — choose it when the footage does not exist yet. Vizard is the pick when the job is narrower: turning long recordings into short clips automatically, without Descript's full editing environment. VEED is the broader browser editor, stronger for team marketing workflows and social features, weaker on transcript-first editing. All three are listed below with their verified facts.
Runway
Runway is one of the most complete creative AI video platforms, combining text and image-to-video generation with editing tools such as background changes, relighting and object removal. It is aimed at creators and teams who want generation and post-production in one workspace rather than a single-purpose generator.
Vizard converts long recordings into multiple short, captioned clips, detecting speakers and highlights automatically. It is popular with marketing teams, coaches and agencies that produce shorts from webinars, podcasts and meetings in bulk.
VEED is an online video editor that has added many AI features: auto subtitles, eye-contact correction, noise removal, avatars and text-to-video. It suits social and marketing teams who want editing and AI assistance in the browser without installing software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Descript free?
Yes — a free plan with 1 media hour a month and 100 one-time AI credits, per Descript's pricing comparison, and free exports are allowed. Watermark-free export is a paid feature: Hobbyist starts at $16/month billed annually.
What are Descript media hours?
The amount of imported or recorded media processed in Descript, per editor — raw footage, not finished length. A 3-hour recording uses 3 media hours even if the published edit is 40 minutes. Plans include 10 (Hobbyist), 30 (Creator) or 40 (Business) hours a month.
Descript or VEED?
Descript wins for speech-heavy editing: transcript editing, filler removal and audio cleanup. VEED is a broader browser editor with strong caption and social features for teams. If your video is mostly people talking, Descript; if it is assembled marketing content, VEED.
How much does one Descript video cost?
There is no per-video charge. Cost is your subscription against the raw media hours your recording consumed: on Creator ($24/month billed annually, 30 media hours) an hour of raw footage costs about $0.80 in allowance, whether it becomes one video or five clips.
Can Descript remove filler words and fix bad audio?
Yes — those are core features. Remove Filler Words strips ums and repeats, Shorten Word Gaps tightens silences, and Studio Sound cleans background noise and evens out speech. All three are limited on the free plan and fully included on paid plans, per the pricing comparison.
Does Descript generate video from prompts?
That is not its job. Descript edits recordings; its AI generates supporting material (images, speech, drafts) inside projects and Underlord can help assemble edits, but the footage itself is yours. For prompt-to-video generation, look at the text-to-video tools in our catalogue instead.