Descript

Descript transcribes whatever you record or import, then you cut by editing the words. Delete a sentence in the text and the footage goes with it. It also handles multitrack projects, speaker labels, captions, screen recording, and remote guest recording through Rooms.

The AI layer, called Underlord, strips filler words, cleans audio with Studio Sound, fixes eye contact, and can regenerate speech.

The honest framing: it runs on web and desktop with no mobile editing at all, and each Drive carries its own subscription with Editor seats billed on top. Fine for one small team, fiddly the moment billing spans several Drives.

The sweet spot is one recording turned into many things. A 40-minute webinar becomes the replay, a clip reel, captions, show notes, and social copy in a single sitting.

Practitioners report saving one to two hours per podcast episode on cleanup alone, though they still eyeball every suggested edit.

Sales and enablement teams like it for a plainer reason: someone can trim a demo or pitch video and add captions without handing the file to a dedicated editor.

Heavy projects are the first trap. Long or multicam timelines crawl, imports and exports drag, and automatic multicam has thrown errors for real users. Do a proof run with a 30-to-60-minute multi-speaker file on your actual hardware before you hang a deadline on it.

AI credits are the second. Underlord runs on credits, and a failed edit you retry three times eats three times the quota. Free gives 100 credits a month, Hobbyist 400, and users still hit the wall. Watch the meter on your own workflow before promising volume.

And skip Descript for color, VFX, or frame-accurate cuts. Reviewers like TechRadar put those jobs well outside its range.

Free is $0 with 1 media hour and 100 AI credits a month. Paid runs Hobbyist at $16 per person per month annual ($24 monthly), Creator at $24 ($35), and Business at $50 ($65), with Enterprise custom. Price is per person, Editor seats are charged, and each Drive bills on its own, so a three-person Creator team is billed as three.

The real variable is AI credits, which move with how much AI editing you do and how often an action fails and repeats. Price a pilot on your own footage before trusting a plan's headline number.