AI video editing tools worth knowing, by job

How did we pick these AI video editing tools?

We grouped the tools by the job they do and read each maker's own pages on 3 November 2026. Prices, platforms and features are as published. Where a page says nothing, we write "Not published". We ran no accuracy tests for this page, so nothing is ranked on quality.

The order follows the edit: tools inside your editor, then cutting tools, shorts, generation and finishing.

Disclosure: we make mouzeclick, a mouse app with panels for Premiere Pro and After Effects. It is not on this list. For plugins that are not AI, see our Premiere Pro plugins sorted by job.

How do the best AI video editing tools compare?

Checked on 3 November 2026. Prices are copied as each page showed them. Offers change, so check before you buy.

What AI tools are built into Premiere Pro?

Premiere already does transcript editing, caption translation and clip extension, so check it before you buy anything else. Adobe now calls the app Adobe Premiere, a name that covers desktop and mobile.

• Text-Based Editing. Adobe says it transcribes your video on import. You build a rough cut by copying and pasting text.
• Caption translation into 18 languages.
• Generative Extend extends clips, adds frames and generates missing ambient sound, using Firefly.
• Generate from the timeline: video and sound effects, using the sequence as reference.

Adobe says Firefly-powered generative features use generative credits.

• The single-app plan includes 25 credits a month. It costs US$22.99/mo, annual billed monthly, for the first year and for new subscribers.
• Creative Cloud Pro includes 4,000 credits and 20+ more apps. It costs US$69.99/mo, or US$34.99/mo for the first 3 months for new subscribers.
• Adobe publishes no credit cost per feature.

There is no perpetual licence. The free trial runs on Windows and macOS. You pay nothing until it ends, and you get a full refund if you cancel within 14 days after that. Premiere on mobile is a free app for iPhone and Android.

For captions in more depth, see our auto captions in Premiere Pro guide.

Best for: Premiere users who want transcript cuts and the odd extended clip without a new app.

How do Adobe Firefly credits work for video?

Adobe Firefly has its own plans, each with monthly generative credits. Adobe says Premiere's generative credits can be bought with a subscription or come with Creative Cloud plans. The pages we read do not say whether Firefly plan credits apply inside Premiere. On 3 November 2026 the Firefly page showed:

• Free: limited daily generations on select image, video and audio models.
• Standard, US$9.99/mo: 2,000 credits. That covers up to 20 five-second videos or 6 minutes of audio or video translation.
• Pro, US$19.99/mo: 4,000 credits, for 40 videos or 13 minutes.
• Pro Plus, US$49.99/mo: 10,000 credits, for 100 videos or 33 minutes.

Paid plans include unlimited standard image features such as Generative Fill. Video generation and non-Adobe models spend credits. You can upgrade or buy extra credits. Rollover rules and pack prices are Not published.

Best for: editors who generate short video clips often and want a credit plan sized to that.

What AI features does DaVinci Resolve Studio add?

Studio adds the DaVinci Neural Engine, which Blackmagic says powers automatic AI region tracking, AI voice isolation, a music remixer and a dialogue separator. Studio also adds:

• temporal and AI spatial noise reduction
• text based editing
• magic mask
• dozens of additional Resolve FX

Blackmagic listed Studio 21 at $236 (was $295). The page does not say whether that is a one-time purchase.

The free version runs on Mac, Windows and Linux. It handles virtually all 8-bit formats up to 60fps at Ultra HD 3840 x 2160, with multi-user collaboration and HDR grading.

On the technical side, Studio adds:

• 10-bit up to 120fps, at resolutions up to 32K
• multiple GPUs
• hardware H.264 and H.265 encoding and decoding
• Metal and Apple Silicon optimisation on a Mac, and OpenCL and CUDA on Windows and Linux

Resolve also offers vertical and square timelines, Smart Reframe, and direct upload to YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo and X.

See DaVinci Resolve free vs Studio and Premiere Pro vs DaVinci Resolve.

Best for: editors who want masking, tracking and dialogue clean-up in the same app they cut and grade in.

Is CapCut desktop good for AI captions?

For quick social captions, yes, and the steps are short:

1. Start a New Project, click Import and drag your footage to the timeline.
2. Open the Text tab in the top menu bar.
3. Pick Auto captions in the sidebar.
4. Set the source language and click Create.

Captions can be translated into another language, and you can export a standalone SRT file.

The desktop app runs on Windows 7 or later (Windows 10 recommended) and macOS 10.14 or later. It also lists media search by objects, dialogue and people, and a colour wheel with auto adjust.

CapCut says its AI captions on CapCut Web are free. It does not publish the Pro price, which features need Pro, or whether desktop auto captions need Pro. Our CapCut auto captions guide covers the fixes.

Best for: short social videos where captions matter more than a precise timeline.

What does AutoCut do inside Premiere Pro and Resolve?

AutoCut is a plugin that edits inside Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. It lists Premiere Pro 2023–2027 and Resolve 18.6 or later, Free and Studio, on Windows and macOS. The Basic tier covers only silence removal. The AI Plan includes all 10+ features:

• Silences: the demo shows a −26 dB threshold and Calm, Paced and Energetic settings.
• Repeat: keeps the best of several takes.
• Podcast: switches camera angles by speaker.
• AutoZoom, and word-by-word AutoCaptions. Advanced AutoCaptions has 90+ editable presets.
• AutoB-Rolls: adds AI images and Storyblocks footage.
• AutoChapters and AutoResize.

Prices:

• Basic: $6.6/month ($79 billed yearly).
• AI Plan: $14.9/month ($178.8 billed yearly).
• Enterprise: $19.9/month per licence ($238.8 billed yearly per licence).

There is no limit on project length. One licence works on two computers, one at a time. See our AutoCut alternatives comparison.

Best for: Premiere or Resolve editors who want talking-footage fixes in their own timeline.

How is FireCut different from AutoCut?

FireCut covers similar ground (silences, captions, zooms, chapters, podcasts and shorts). The published differences: it supports Premiere Pro from 2022, its Resolve version also runs on Linux, and it shows no prices on the pages we read.

• Premiere Pro: version 2022 or later, on Windows or macOS.
• DaVinci Resolve: version 20 or later, Free or Studio, on Windows, Mac or Linux.

How the main tools work:

• Silences: pick loose, default or tight and click Go. Advanced mode adds a dB threshold, minimum duration, padding and J-cuts, and lets you exclude single silences.
• Filler words: go to Remove filler words and click Analyze audio. Left-click jumps to a word and right-click toggles its deletion. Then cut them all or add markers.
• Multi-track: tag each track to a speaker, click Analyze and preview the suggested cuts.

Every plan has a 7-day free trial.

Features that call AI or transcription need the internet. Transcription uses your plan's allowance. Once you pass the quota, you can keep working from an existing subtitle track.

Read our FireCut alternatives comparison.

Best for: Resolve editors on Linux, and anyone who wants to review filler words one by one.

Should you edit talking footage by text in Descript?

If your footage is mostly speech, Descript is built for it: it transcribes the recording, and editing the text edits the video. It runs on Mac and Windows, and in a web version.

What it does:

• Removes filler words and silences.
• Adds captions from the transcript, and subtitles in 30+ languages.
• Studio Sound strips background noise, echo and hiss.
• Underlord, its co-editor, writes, edits, designs and generates visuals or voiceovers as you direct it.

Prices:

• Free: $0, with 1 media hour and 100 AI credits, and no credit card.
• Hobbyist shows $24 and $16 per person a month.
• Creator shows $35 and $24.
• Business shows $50 and $65.

The pages do not label which paid price is monthly and which is annual. The Free plan also differs between pages: one says 720p watermark-free, the captions page says 720p with a watermark.

Its MCP page lists timeline export as EDL, AAF, SESX, FCPXML, Premiere XML or Resolve XML.

Compare it in Descript vs Premiere Pro.

Best for: podcasts and talking heads, edited by people who think in words.

Is Gling worth it for YouTube talking heads?

For solo creators with lots of retakes, it fits well. Gling transcribes your recording, then removes bad takes, silences and filler words like "um" and "uh". You review the proposed cuts and restore any take or pause you want before export. It also removes background noise.

It exports MP4 or MP3 with SRT captions; on Free the MP4 carries a watermark. XML timelines for Premiere, Final Cut Pro and Resolve need a paid plan.

Prices:

• Free: 1 hour of edited media a month, a watermark, and no export to editors.
• Plus: $20/mo, or $10/mo paid annually, for 10 hours.
• Pro: $40 or $20, for 30 hours.
• Elite: $100 or $50, for 100 hours.

Unused hours don't roll over, and you don't need a card to try it.

Things to check first:

• It is desktop only, and the systems are not named.
• Multicam and separate-mic projects work only when you export to Resolve or Final Cut. For Premiere, sync before you upload.
• It relies on speech, so it is a poor fit for videos without talking.

More in our Gling AI review.

Best for: one-person YouTube channels cutting long takes.

What is Submagic good for?

Submagic turns raw footage into captioned shorts. You upload a video or paste a YouTube link. It adds captions, removes silences, inserts B-roll and finds key moments. Magic Clips cuts one video into several shorts.

The homepage claims caption styles in 123 languages; another Submagic page lists 48+ supported languages. Other features:

• Exports up to 4K at 60fps.
• Schedules posts from the editor.
• A shared team workspace.
• Cut and trim by editing the transcript.
• A live API.

Its TikTok Caption Generator is free, with no sign-up. Prices, limits, trial terms, watermarks, a desktop app and a Premiere integration were all Not published. See our Submagic alternatives.

Best for: social teams posting many shorts who don't need a desktop timeline.

Can OpusClip turn long videos into shorts?

Yes, that is its main job: clipping with a Virality Score, captions, auto reframe and posting. On Pro it imports from YouTube, Google Drive, Vimeo, Zoom, Twitch, Riverside, StreamYard and more. Pro also exports to Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

Plans:

• Free: 60 credits a month, up to 1080p, a watermark and no editing. Clips can't be exported after 3 days.
• Starter, $15 billed monthly: 150 credits, captions in 20+ languages, an editor, filler and silence removal, and no watermark.
• Pro, $29 monthly or $14.5/mo billed annually: 300 credits, 2 seats, AI B-Roll, and 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9 output.

New users get a 7-day Pro trial with no card. AI Producer, its agent for talking-head footage, is included in the account. A desktop app is Not published.

Best for: podcasters and streamers clipping long recordings at volume.

When does Runway make sense for video editors?

Runway makes sense when you need to generate a shot, not cut one, such as a cutaway you could not film. It is a cloud platform that generates and edits video, images and audio, with iPhone and Android apps.

Credits set the pace. Gen-4.5 uses 12 credits per second of video.

• Standard: $12/month billed annually (the page strikes through $15). It gives 625 credits a month, about 52 seconds of Gen-4.5.
• Pro: $28/month billed annually, with 2,250 credits.
• Max: $76/month billed annually, with 9,500 credits and one month of rollover.
• Free: 125 one-time credits that never expire.

Standard lists no watermarks and 4K upscaling; Pro and Max list unlimited 4K video upscaling. Max adds HDR, ProRes and image-sequence generations. Other export formats and clip lengths are Not published. Standard and Pro credits reset each billing cycle.

Runway lists Gen-4.5's limits itself: causal reasoning ("effects sometimes precede causes"), object permanence and success bias.

Best for: editors who need a few generated shots a month.

What does Topaz Video do for footage quality?

Topaz Video is a desktop app for enhancing video on Mac and Windows. It starts at $59/mo. The desktop app supports more codecs and containers than Topaz's web enhancer, including ProRes and MKV.

Topaz lists an Adobe Premiere Panel among its cloud apps, but doesn't tie it to Topaz Video. A trial, an annual price, a perpetual licence and system requirements are Not published.

Best for: improving footage in a separate app before it reaches the edit.

What does Colourlab Ai do for colour balancing?

It balances shots outside your editor and sends the result back. Colourlab Ai 4 costs $49/month, $399/year or $799 perpetual. The perpetual licence includes free updates and one free major-version upgrade. A 14-day trial starts through its Houston app.

It needs an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later) on macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Windows and Intel Macs are listed as coming soon. Workflows are listed for Resolve, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Avid Media Composer.

With Premiere it is not a plug-in:

• Timelines move through OTIO, and rendered media comes back.
• Graphics are skipped.
• Multicam and nested sequences are not supported.
• Adjustments are baked into the media, not returned as editable effects.

With Resolve Studio connected, it fetches the timeline, balances the clips and pushes the result back. That overwrites the grade on those clips.

See our Premiere Pro colour grading plugins.

Best for: Mac editors balancing many shots before a final grade.

How do you choose an AI tool for your edit?

Pick the job first, then look at how you get billed.

1. Start with what you already pay for. Premiere includes Text-Based Editing and 25 credits a month. Resolve's free version may be enough until you need the Neural Engine.
2. Decide where the edit lives. AutoCut and FireCut cut inside your timeline. Descript, Gling and OpusClip edit in their own apps and export back. Runway and Topaz work outside your editor.
3. Read the meter. Firefly, Runway and OpusClip spend credits. Gling counts hours that don't roll over. Descript counts media hours and AI credits. AutoCut and Colourlab charge a flat plan.
4. Check your computer. Colourlab needs an Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14 or later. Resolve and FireCut's Resolve version run on Linux.
5. Trial it on your own footage. FireCut gives 7 days, OpusClip a 7-day Pro trial with no card, and Colourlab 14 days.

To compare many tools on one job, see our silence remover roundup and auto caption generators compared.

Questions people ask

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.

1. Adobe Premiere product page
2. Adobe Premiere free trial
3. Adobe Creative Cloud plans (video and audio)
4. Adobe Firefly plans
5. Adobe Firefly video editor (extra credits)
6. DaVinci Resolve
7. DaVinci Resolve Studio
8. DaVinci Resolve what's new
9. CapCut desktop video editor
10. CapCut add subtitles to video
11. CapCut AI caption generator
12. AutoCut home
13. AutoCut pricing
14. AutoCut download
15. FireCut home
16. FireCut: remove silences in Resolve
17. FireCut: remove filler words
18. FireCut: multi-track
19. Descript home
20. Descript video editor and plans
21. Descript video editing
22. Descript captions
23. Descript MCP (export formats)
24. Gling home
25. Gling pricing
26. Gling save time
27. Gling quality content
28. Submagic home
29. Submagic TikTok caption generator
30. Submagic video hook generator (language count)
31. OpusClip home
32. OpusClip pricing
33. OpusClip AI video editor
34. Runway home
35. Runway pricing
36. Runway Gen-4.5
37. Topaz Labs
38. Topaz video enhancer
39. Colourlab Ai home
40. Colourlab Ai pricing
41. Colourlab Ai download
42. Colourlab Ai Premiere Pro workflow
43. Colourlab Ai Resolve Studio workflow

Keep reading