With Little Money: 8 Descript Tools to Edit Video

The free plan

Video editing by typing, for $0: eight steps, simplest first. Here's how it works. Number eight: you edit audio and video just by editing their text. Descript offers a free plan, with no credit card required to start.

When you change the transcript, the media under it updates by itself. The free plan includes main AI tools, like filler word removal and Studio Sound. It gives sixty minutes of media a month. Those minutes count what you upload or record, transcribed or not.

It also comes with 100 AI credits, one time. By our count, sixty minutes a month is six ten-minute recordings. The link is in the description. Up next, starting a project.

Start a project and record

Number seven: a new project starts from New project, in the top-right corner. You drag a file straight into the script to upload and transcribe it in one step. On the free plan, each file can be up to one gigabyte. You can also record your camera, screen or audio, up to four hours a session.

Recording uses media minutes too, the same as an upload. It runs in a browser tab too, but not on small phone screens. By our count, four hours is 240 minutes, four times a free month. If step-by-step guides like this help you, subscribe.

Every official page is linked below. Then, the transcript.

Get and fix the transcript

Number six: Descript turns every file you add into editable text, automatically. On current plans, transcription itself isn't metered. With clear audio, accuracy can reach up to 95%. By our count, that still leaves about fifty words to check in a thousand.

You fix a word with Correct, and the audio stays exactly the same. A double-click, then Correct or the C key, lets you type it right. It handles one language per file, from more than two dozen. Now, how deleting text removes video clips.

Edit by deleting words

Number five: when you delete a word from the transcript, it disappears from the video too. You select the text, press Delete or Backspace, and it leaves the transcript and the media. When you cut and paste a sentence, the media moves with it. Nothing is erased, because Descript hides cut media instead of deleting it.

A right-click on the edit boundary brings a cut back exactly as it was. With Ignore, text stays in the script, struck through, but won't play. Smooth, on the edit boundary, runs Regenerate to heal a jumpy or awkward cut. Regenerate can also replace words, with an authorized custom AI speaker.

Tiny fades of about five samples sit between clips, so there's no pop. By our count, five samples last about a tenth of a millisecond. Coming up, the ums and uhs.

Cut filler words and pauses

Number four: Descript finds filler words like um and uh, underlined in light blue. The Remove filler words tool, in the AI Tools panel, takes them out. An option called Avoid harsh cuts keeps those edits sounding natural. The Shorten word gaps tool trims pauses to a target, like 200 milliseconds.

By our count, five one-second pauses trimmed that way save four seconds. Filler detection works in English only, and these tools are limited on the free plan. Then, a voice that sounds like a studio.

Give the voice a studio sound

Number three: Studio Sound brings a rough take far closer to a studio recording. It's made for voices that sound noisy, echoey, or recorded on a laptop mic. You select the script layer, then switch it on in the Properties panel, under Audio Effects. An Intensity slider sets how much it changes the file.

It needs an internet connection, and it works on a whole file at once. It only works on recorded voices, not on AI-generated speech. Auto-leveling evens out each clip's loudness toward one target, and it's on by default. Room tone reads the first thirty seconds of a file to learn the quiet of the room.

So you record at least fifteen seconds of silence before you speak. By our count, fifteen seconds is half of that thirty-second window. One run costs at most thirty AI credits a file. Next, captions and video sizes.

Captions and video sizes

Number two: Descript builds captions straight from your script, timed to your media. One click on a caption style applies its font, colors and animation. Captions are unlimited on every plan, the free one included. A video can be square, vertical, horizontal or a custom shape.

By our count, three set shapes and four resolutions make twelve combinations. Gallery layout packs style your scenes, while custom packs need a paid plan. Last, exporting and sharing.

Export and share

Number one: Export sits in the top right corner of the editor. A video goes out as a standard video file, or as a short, silent looping clip. Audio goes out as a common audio file, with no length limit. Free exports stop at seven-twenty p and carry a small watermark in the corner.

A share link lets anyone watch or listen in a browser, with no account or download needed. On the free plan, that link holds a video up to one hour long. Descript claims no ownership of what you make. A paid plan removes the watermark from all future exports.

Hobbyist costs $16 a person a month billed yearly, or twenty-four month to month. By our count, sixteen times twelve is $192 a year, against 288 monthly. Now that your edit's done, which apps actually pay you to edit? Click the video on screen now.