FX Console for Premiere Pro: the closest options

Does FX Console work in Premiere Pro?

No. Video Copilot's own page offers FX Console as a plug-in for After Effects. The only requirements it lists are for After Effects: After Effects CC and above, CC2014 included, no CS6. The page does not mention Premiere Pro, so there is no Premiere version to download or install.

We make mouzeclick, which is one of the options below. Its section is separate and labelled as ours, and we say where the other tools are the better pick.

Inside After Effects, FX Console is free, with Windows and Mac downloads. The FX Console update post lists these version 1 features:

• Access FX and presets quickly
• Create FX shortcuts
• Create FX overrides
• Export a snapshot as PNG
• An automatic snapshot tool and gallery

Later updates on the same page added these:

• V1.0.1: a custom shortcut key, import and export of a settings file, and Tab to jump to presets in the search results.
• V1.0.4: IME input for Japanese, Chinese and Korean in the Mac version, and faster gallery performance.
• V1.0.7: UTF language support for AE2026, and macOS Catalina support.

The post is dated 1 May 2018 but includes AE2026 notes, so the date and the changelog don't match. We report what the page shows. Video Copilot's text gives no default shortcut for opening FX Console. For install steps inside After Effects, see our FX Console for After Effects guide.

Why do Premiere editors look for an FX Console alternative?

Mostly because the habit sticks. In After Effects you press a shortcut, type a few letters and hit Enter. Open Premiere Pro and that habit has nowhere to go, because FX Console doesn't run there.

Three situations lead people to this page:

• You edit in Premiere and animate in After Effects. You want one search habit in both apps, not two.
• You found Excalibur and want to compare it. It is a Premiere extension built on the same idea: keyboard search for effects, presets and transitions. At $120 plus VAT, it is worth knowing what else exists. That is why searches for a Premiere Pro Excalibur alternative are covered here too.
• You want effects on the mouse, not only the keyboard. A search box still needs both hands. Some editors want the five effects they use most one flick away.

The rest of this page covers:

• the two tools listed for Premiere Pro
• one After Effects toolbar that comes up in the same conversations
• what each one costs, as shown on 3 November 2026

How do the FX Console-style tools compare for Premiere Pro?

Only two of the four tools here are listed for Premiere Pro: Excalibur and mouzeclick's Search effects. FX Console and KBar are listed for After Effects. Prices and versions are as each maker's page showed them when we checked on 3 November 2026.

"Not published" means the maker's page doesn't say. We don't guess.

Is Excalibur the closest FX Console alternative for Premiere Pro?

On scope, yes. Excalibur is a Premiere Pro extension built on the same idea as FX Console. Its product page says you search for and apply effects, presets and transitions with your fingers on the keyboard.

It does more than a search box. The page lists three more things:

• modified versions of Premiere Pro commands
• combinations of actions
• keyboard shortcuts for everything above

The details as shown on 3 November 2026:

• Price: $120 plus applicable VAT. The page doesn't say whether that is one payment or a subscription.
• Requirements: Premiere Pro 2020 or later, on Windows or on macOS 10.14.5 or later.
• Licence: two machines per user.
• Trial, version number and After Effects support: not published on the page.

Best for: keyboard-first Premiere editors who work on two machines. It suits you if you want preset and transition search plus chained commands in a single panel.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it): how does Search effects work?

Search effects is an FX Console-style search box for Premiere Pro, and we make it. Type part of an effect's name and press Enter to apply it. Press Shift+Enter instead to apply it and also pin it to the Tool wheel. It runs on Windows and Mac.

What it searches and how it ranks results:

• It finds every installed effect and transition, including audio effects and third-party plug-ins.
• Your 12 most recent picks sit at the top. Exact matches and names where a word starts with what you typed come next.
• It works in After Effects as well, so the same habit covers both apps.

The Search effects page in the feature library lists its 10 items. Search effects is not sold on its own. It is one of four core panels in the mouzeclick plan, next to the bridge, mouzeclick Studio and the mouzeclick Toolbar. The plan also includes the 22 Premiere Pro and After Effects extensions and the mouse app. Our all-in-one Premiere Pro extension guide shows what else runs in Premiere and what runs on a Mac.

Where each part runs:

• Windows and Mac: Search effects, both Tool wheels, the Toolbar and the 8 Premiere Pro extensions.
• Windows only: the two workspace panels, auto, styled and Hinglish captions, Retakes, cloud sync and in-app updates.

The plan costs $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys (see pricing). The free trial lasts 3 days and needs no card. Every Premiere Pro and After Effects tool works fully during it.

What it doesn't cover, going by our own published list:

• Saved presets aren't named among the things it searches.
• The search box doesn't chain actions. In mouzeclick, chains are macros in the mouse app.

Best for: editors who move between Premiere Pro and After Effects, on Windows or Mac. It also suits you if you want your most-used effects on the mouse as well as the keyboard.

What about KBar or a toolbar instead of a search box?

KBar is an After Effects tool, so it doesn't answer the Premiere question. Its aescripts page describes KBar3 as customisable, shareable toolbars for After Effects CC 2019 and above. Its compatibility list covers 2022 to 2026, and it does not say whether KBar works in Premiere Pro.

Inside After Effects it works differently from FX Console: you click a button instead of typing. What the page lists:

• Buttons can run effects and presets, menu commands, extensions, expressions, scripts and scriptlets, and shell commands.
• You can make up to 4 toolbars, using keyboard modifiers.
• You can pick from 600+ icons or use your own PNG or SVG files.
• You can bulk import and export buttons.
• The newest version in its history is 3.1.3, dated 15 November 2025.
• Only upgrade prices are shown: $20 for KBar2 users and $30 for KBar1 users.

If you like the toolbar idea in Premiere, the mouzeclick Toolbar (ours, Windows and Mac) holds 14 tools. You can pin tools to keys 1 to 9 and press / or Ctrl+F to find one. It shows them as a list, cards, icons or one row. Our KBar alternative comparison compares toolbars with a mouse wheel in more detail.

Best for (KBar): After Effects artists who think in buttons and want to share toolbars with others.

Can you apply Premiere Pro effects from the mouse?

Yes, with mouzeclick's Tool wheel (we make it). It works only in Premiere Pro and After Effects, on Windows and Mac. The Premiere wheel holds 112 tools in 12 segments, and its tools include your installed effects. Any effect you pin with Shift+Enter in Search effects goes onto the wheel.

How it opens and behaves:

• Open it with F10, any key or mouse button, or a held right button. For the held right button you set the delay, from 80 to 600 ms. A quick right click still opens Premiere's own menu.
• Tap and it stays open. Or hold and flick to pick a tool. Release in the centre to cancel.
• Scroll between layouts, for example one for editing, one for colour and one for motion.
• You build it yourself: drag tools onto segments, rename them, give them icons and colours, and lock finished ones.

The mouse app around the wheel puts shortcuts on any mouse your computer sees, with no driver. It uses up to five standard buttons plus scroll and tilt.

• Per-app buttons: Mouse 4 can cut in Premiere and do something else in Chrome.
• Eleven slots per button: tap, hold, move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll.
• Built-in shortcuts: the library has 309 on Windows.
• Options wheel: opens with F8 and holds 48 favourites per app.

See Premiere Pro mouse shortcuts on any mouse and the Premiere Pro and After Effects tools page for the full set.

How do you set up Search effects in Premiere Pro?

Install the mouzeclick app and add the Premiere bridge from inside it. Then restart Premiere and open the panel from Window › Extensions. The app walks you through this on first run.

1. Start the free trial. The key and the Windows and Mac download links arrive by email. The 3 days start the first time you open the app with the key.
2. Install the app and paste the key. On a Mac, drag the app to Applications. Apple has not notarized it yet, so allow it once under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Security › Open Anyway. Then turn on mouzeclick under Accessibility and Input Monitoring, and quit and reopen it. The Mac install guide has all four steps.
3. Press each mouse button once so the settings page matches your mouse.
4. On the app's Tool wheel page, press Install Premiere bridge (or Install After Effects bridge). Restart Premiere Pro.
5. In Premiere, open Window › Extensions and pick Search effects.
6. Keep mouzeclick running while you work. It needs an internet connection while it runs. If the connection drops, the shortcuts pause and the mouse acts normally until it returns.

mouzeclick publishes no minimum Premiere Pro version, so check yours during the 3-day trial. If a panel doesn't appear under Window › Extensions, these guides cover the usual causes:

• installing Premiere Pro extensions
• fixing extensions that show greyed out

Where FX Console and Excalibur are still the better pick

If you only work in After Effects, use FX Console. It is free, and you don't need a paid plan to search effects there.

• FX Console, for After Effects-only work. If search is all you want, free is hard to beat. Its page names presets in the search (Tab jumps to them), FX overrides, and an automatic snapshot tool with a gallery. We haven't shown anything that matches the snapshot gallery or the overrides, so we don't claim to.
• Excalibur, for preset search in Premiere. Its page names presets and transitions in the keyboard search. Our published list for Search effects names effects and transitions, not saved presets.
• Excalibur, for chained commands inside the search. Modified Premiere commands and combinations of actions sit in the same panel. In mouzeclick, chains are macros in the mouse app, which is a separate place.
• Excalibur, for two machines. It allows two machines per user. A mouzeclick key runs on one computer at a time; to move it, you release the old computer first.
• Either, if you want one tool and nothing else. mouzeclick is sold as one plan with a lot in it. If effect search is your only job, a single-purpose tool may suit you better.

Where mouzeclick makes sense:

• You switch between Premiere Pro and After Effects and want the same search in both.
• You want effects on the mouse through the Tool wheel.
• You work on Windows or Mac.

Which FX Console alternative should a Premiere editor pick?

Pick by where you work and what you want to search.

• Pick FX Console if you only need fast effect search in After Effects and want it free.
• Pick Excalibur if you live in Premiere Pro and use two machines. It fits if you want presets and transitions in a keyboard search, plus chained commands.
• Pick KBar if you prefer clicking buttons in After Effects and want shareable toolbars.
• Pick mouzeclick (ours) if you want one search box in both Premiere Pro and After Effects, on Windows or Mac. You also get a Tool wheel and per-app mouse buttons. On Windows the plan also includes the two workspace panels.

You can mix them. FX Console lives in After Effects, so it doesn't compete with any tool you choose for Premiere. For more Premiere options by job, see our Premiere Pro plugins guide.

Questions people ask

Sources

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

1. Video Copilot: FX Console updated (V1.0.7 changelog, requirements, downloads)
2. Knights of the Editing Table: Excalibur, Premiere Pro extension (price, requirements, licence)
3. aescripts: KBar (compatibility, features, upgrade prices, version history)
4. Adobe: Premiere product page (name change, membership, single-app price)

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