Making clips

The 13 best clipping tools, by job

13 clipping tools compared by job: AI auto-clippers, free editors and caption tools, with prices from each vendor's pricing page, September 2026.

Updated September 30, 20269 min read13 sources

In short

What are the best tools for clipping?

There is no single best clipping tool, so pick one for each job. For free manual editing, DaVinci Resolve's free version, CapCut and Clipchamp's free plan cover cutting, overlays and captions. AI auto-clippers such as OpusClip, Vizard, Klap, Ssemble and Choppity find clips for you, and Submagic adds styled captions; entry paid plans cost $6 to $29 a month as of September 2026, depending on the tool and billing term, and free tiers add limits or watermarks. Choose the cheapest tool that imports your footage and meets your campaign's rules on format, captions and watermark.

On this page

Pick by job, not by brand
AI auto-clippers compared
Editors: free and paid
Where FastClip fits (our tool)
How to choose: a checklist and a cost example
Questions
Sources

Pick by job, not by brand

Clipping is four jobs: find the moment, cut and frame it, caption it, and brand it for a campaign. Some tools do all four; most do one or two well. Start with the job that costs you the most time.

Job	Free options	Paid options	Notes
Find moments automatically	Free tiers of OpusClip, Vizard, Choppity and Riverside (limited credits or hours, watermark, low resolution or short storage)	OpusClip, Vizard, Klap, Ssemble, Choppity	AI picks are a shortlist. Check context and payoff yourself
Cut, frame and export vertical	DaVinci Resolve (free), CapCut, Clipchamp	Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio, CapCut Pro	Full-screen 9:16 crops need a layout or reframe tool
Captions	TikTok, YouTube and Instagram auto captions; CapCut auto captions	Submagic, OpusClip, Vizard, Descript	Always correct names and numbers by hand
Campaign watermark or logo	DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, Clipchamp	Any paid editor with overlay tracks	Check that the tool lets you place a provided PNG exactly where the brief says
Pick exact words from a transcript	Descript free plan; FastClip free plan (YouTube sources)	Descript paid plans	Best for podcasts, interviews and talks
Best free setup	DaVinci Resolve or CapCut to edit, the platform's own auto captions	None needed	Free AI tiers are for testing: they add watermarks, 720p exports, 3-day storage or small monthly quotas

AI auto-clippers compared

Prices below are copied from each vendor's own pricing page, in US dollars: OpusClip, Vizard, Klap, Submagic and Descript on 2026-09-28; Ssemble, Choppity and Riverside on 2026-09-29. Vendors change prices often; check the page before you buy.

Tool	Free plan	Entry paid plan	What it does, and who it fits	Watch out for
OpusClip	$0: 60 credits a month, up to 1080p, has watermark, no editing, clips not exportable after 3 days	Starter $15/mo (monthly only), 150 credits; Pro $29/mo monthly or $14.50/mo billed $174 a year	AI clipping with a Virality Score, animated captions, auto reframe, direct posting. Fits clippers who want a ranked shortlist from long videos	Free clips expire for export after 3 days
Vizard	$0: 60 credits a month (1 credit = 1 minute of uploaded video), 720p export, 3-day storage	Creator $29/mo monthly or $14.50/mo billed $174 a year; no watermark, 4K export	AI clipping, auto subtitling, auto reframe, scheduling. Fits long uploads, because credits are counted in source minutes	Free exports are 720p
Klap	One free video to try (Klap says it adds no watermark), then a paid plan	Basic $14/mo billed yearly for 100 clips a month; Pro $39/mo billed yearly for 300 clips	"Only pay for clips you generate"; AI clipping, unlimited social accounts. Fits clippers who want to budget per generated clip	Prices shown are billed yearly
Ssemble	The pricing page FAQ mentions a free plan but lists no free-plan limits	Pro $6/mo billed $72 a year (shown against $15/mo), 360 video credits a year; 1 credit = 1 video from a segment of up to 20 minutes	AI clipping plus scheduled posting to TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. Fits clippers who post many clips and want posting in the same tool	Each credit covers one segment of up to 20 minutes of source video; credits do not roll over
Choppity	$0: 1 hour of AI video analysis a month, 2 GB storage, 3-day project storage, no credit card	Starter $20/mo monthly or $14/mo billed yearly: 3 hours of AI analysis a month, 1080p HD exports, 1 social account	AI clip finding, captions, auto reframe, speaker tracking and transcript editing. Fits podcasters and small teams	The plan table lists 1080p exports only for paid plans
Submagic	Free trial of 3 short videos, watermarked	Starter $19/mo billed monthly: 45 credits = 15 videos, 2-minute videos, 1080p 30 fps, no watermark	Captions, AI hook titles, silence and bad-take removal. Fits short clips that need styled captions	Starter caps video length at 2 minutes
Descript	$0: 60 media minutes a month, 720p export	Hobbyist $16/mo billed annually or $24 monthly: 10 media hours, 1080p watermark-free export	Edit video by editing the transcript; Create Clips tool. Fits podcasters and talk content	More an editor than an auto-clipper
Riverside	$0: 2 hours of multi-track recording (one-off), 720p, Riverside watermark, Magic Clips included	Pro $29/mo monthly or $24/mo billed $288 a year: up to 4K, no watermark, Magic Clips	A remote recording studio and text-based editor; its Magic Clips AI tool makes short clips. Fits podcasters who record their own show on Riverside	The free 2 recording hours are a one-off allowance, not monthly

Weigh the main criticism of AI clippers. A model that ranks moments cannot know what context a new viewer lacks, so some picks start too late or end before the payoff. Tools that many clippers share also tend to produce similar-looking captions. They are fastest when you treat their output as a first draft and apply your own checklist.

Side-by-side comparisons with FastClip, from the same vendor pages: OpusClip alternative, Vizard alternative, Klap alternative and Submagic alternative. For scored shortlists, see the best podcast clip makers, the best OpusClip alternatives and the best audiogram makers.

Editors: free and paid

Editor	Price (vendor page, 2026-09-28)	Strengths for clipping
DaVinci Resolve	Free version; DaVinci Resolve Studio $295 purchase	Professional editing and color. The free version handles up to Ultra HD 3840x2160 at up to 60 fps in 8-bit formats. Transparent PNG overlays work automatically
CapCut	Free to download; CapCut says Pro pricing "can vary depending on your region, device, and available promotions" (CapCut Help)	Fast vertical editing on phone and desktop, auto captions, overlays. Remove template endings that carry CapCut branding
Clipchamp	Free plan with watermark-free exports up to 1080p; Premium through Microsoft 365 Personal or Family, up to 4K	Browser-based, simple logo overlays, no Clipchamp watermark
Adobe Premiere	$22.99/mo, annual plan billed monthly; 7-day free trial	Full professional timeline editor; a good fit if you already use Adobe apps

If you are new, start with CapCut or Clipchamp for speed, or DaVinci Resolve if you want a free editor you will not outgrow. Premiere makes sense when you already use Adobe apps or work with a team that does.

Where FastClip fits (our tool)

FastClip is our product, so read this section with that in mind. It has a narrow job: talk-driven clips where the exact words matter, such as podcasts, interviews and commentary.

It imports YouTube links, X links, Google Drive video files shared by link, and uploaded video files up to 5 GB. For YouTube sources you can pick the clip by selecting words in the transcript instead of scrubbing a timeline. It suggests where to clip and opens on the best moment: the most replayed parts of a YouTube video, AI picks from the transcript for other videos with speech. It burns in word-timed captions and adds no FastClip watermark. It exports a source-shaped video, a full-screen 9:16 crop (1080 x 1920), or a 9:16 "card" with the video framed under a title. In the full-screen crop you set the camera path with keyframes, or turn on Follow faces automatically and then adjust the keyframes. It can burn one logo image into every finished clip, with corner placement, size and opacity set once in Settings > Watermark. It posts directly to Instagram Reels and X; for TikTok and YouTube you download the MP4. It is free: 100 draft clips, 100 finished clips, 50 YouTube or upload imports, 50 X imports, and Google Drive links with no total limit (daily caps: 30 finished clips).

It is the wrong tool for several common clipping jobs. It does not import frame.io or Spotify links or whole Drive folders, and it does not add music. For clips with music, use one of the editors above. See our podcast clipping guide for the workflow it suits.

You can try it by pasting a link on the YouTube clip maker page.

How to choose: a checklist and a cost example

Can it import your footage? Check your source: YouTube link, Drive folder or local file.
Can it produce the format the campaign wants? Full-screen 9:16 or a framed layout.
Can you edit captions? You must fix names and numbers before export.
Can you place the campaign's logo file exactly where the brief says?
Does the free tier add a watermark or cap resolution? A tool's own watermark adds branding the campaign did not ask for.
What does one usable clip cost? Divide the monthly price by the clips you will actually post.

Worked example, using the list prices above and assuming you use every credit: Submagic Starter at $19 for 15 videos costs about $1.27 per video. Klap Basic at $14 a month billed yearly for 100 clips costs about $0.14 per generated clip, but you pay for the full year up front and not every generated clip is postable. Vizard Creator at $29 billed monthly buys 600 minutes of uploads a month, about $2.90 per hour of source video. If campaigns pay around $1 per 1,000 views (the median for public Clipster clipping campaigns on 2026-09-25), a $1.27 clip needs about 1,270 paid views to cover its tool cost. Try your own numbers in the clipping calculator.

Questions

Is there a free clipping tool?

Yes. The best free option for most clippers is a free editor plus the platform's own tools: DaVinci Resolve's free version, CapCut or Clipchamp's free plan (Clipchamp states it adds no watermark) to cut and caption. Free AI clipper tiers work for testing but add limits: OpusClip adds a watermark and stops free exports after 3 days, Vizard exports at 720p, Choppity gives 1 hour of AI analysis a month, and Riverside's free plan adds its watermark. As of September 2026, Klap and Submagic list no free plan.

Is OpusClip free?

OpusClip has a free plan with 60 credits a month, but its pricing page says free clips have a watermark, cannot be edited, and can no longer be exported after 3 days. Paid plans start at $15 a month (Starter, billed monthly) as of September 2026.

Do I need an AI clipping tool?

No. AI tools save time on long videos, but a free editor plus the platform's own signals, such as YouTube's Most replayed graph and the transcript, can find strong moments. Many clippers use AI for the first shortlist and edit by hand.

Is CapCut free?

CapCut can be downloaded and used for free, and CapCut says exports can usually be made without a watermark once you remove template endings. CapCut Pro costs extra, and CapCut says its price varies by region, device and promotion.

Which tool is best for podcast clips?

Tools that let you edit from the transcript work well for talk: Descript, Choppity, and FastClip for YouTube sources. If you record your show on Riverside, its Magic Clips tool is included on every plan, the free plan too. AI clippers such as OpusClip and Vizard also target podcasts. Check caption accuracy on names and numbers whichever you choose.

Sources

We checked every claim on this page against these sources on the date above. Platform rules and rates change often. Found an error? Tell us.