The best AI tools to edit raw footage in 2026

Who wrote this, and why that matters

This shortlist is published by Shorty, and Shorty is one of the tools in it. Treat it as a vendor round-up, because that is what it is. We have tried to earn the read anyway: every competitor description comes from that product’s own documentation, we name the jobs where another tool is the better answer, and we say plainly where Shorty is the wrong choice. There are no affiliate links and no paid placements.

We are not claiming an independent benchmark. What follows is a map of which product is built for which starting point, which is the thing that actually decides the answer.

Editing raw footage is a different job from clipping or generating

Raw footage here means clips you filmed and have not edited yet: a phone full of trip clips, a product shoot, an interview. An editing tool selects, orders and finishes that material. A clipper pulls short moments out of one long recording, and a generator makes new footage from a prompt. Several products below do more than one of these, so the useful question is which job each one does with the footage you actually have.

How we compared them

We sorted by starting point rather than by feature count, because a feature list will not tell you whether a tool can do your job. Three questions separate these products: what material do you begin with, who makes the editorial decisions, and what do you have to do after the first output.

Feature descriptions are checked against each product’s own documentation, linked at the end. The pricing table separates dated plan descriptions from links to current plans. Prices, currencies, billing periods and included usage can change; a quoted subscription price is not the cost of an approved video.

The shortlist at a glance

Read the second column first: the footage a tool is built for predicts the fit better than its feature list.

1. Shorty — best for a folder of separate clips you want turned into a finished short

Shorty takes the clips and photos you shot, up to 150 per edit, with a written brief or an optional reference video. It picks the shots, orders them and adds music, captions, transitions and effects, then renders an MP4. Before it edits, it asks about anything your brief leaves open, such as the length or whether to keep your voice, and afterwards you revise by message.

Where Shorty is the wrong choice: if you want to set every cut, keyframe or audio layer yourself, its browser timeline is for reviewing the rendered video, not for authoring it. It also needs your material. It can turn your photos into generated shots when you ask, but it does not make a video from a prompt alone.

Pricing: Creator US$19, Pro US$49, Studio US$99 or Max US$199 per month; annual billing is discounted by 30% across all paid plans. Paid plans include monthly credits for analysis and rendering (4,400 on Creator), an edit uses about 594 credits on Auto, the default director (Shorty Nitro since 28 October 2026), or about 100 with GPT 6 Luna (about 7 or 44 edits a month on Creator), and the actual cost of an edit varies with the footage processed.

2. OpusClip AI Producer — best for one person talking to camera

AI Producer edits raw talking-head footage with captions, B-roll, motion design and audio treatments, then takes instructions for changes. OpusClip describes it as built for short-form, single-speaker video, and its entry page recommends one person talking to camera for under five minutes. Its clipping product is the separate route for turning one long recording into shorts.

Where it is the wrong choice: a shoot of unrelated clips with nobody talking to camera.

Pricing: Free plan with watermarked clips and 60 credits a month; Starter US$15/month (monthly billing only) and Pro US$29/month, or US$174/year on the annual rate, at US prices when reviewed; OpusClip charges less in some countries. Plans meter credits.

3. Descript — best when what was said drives the cut

Descript’s Underlord can act on an editing brief, improve audio, remove pauses and add visuals or captions, and you can change the video by editing its transcript. The result stays an editable Descript project.

Where it is the wrong choice: footage with little speech, where the story is in the pictures.

Pricing: Free plan with watermarked 720p exports; Hobbyist US$16/month billed annually or US$24 monthly, Creator US$24/month billed annually or US$35 monthly, and Business US$50/month billed annually or US$65 monthly when reviewed. Plans meter media hours and AI credits.

4. Captions — best for a styled face-camera edit

Captions AI Edit applies captions, transitions, B-roll and music to uploaded footage in vertical or horizontal styles on web and app. You refine the result with prompts or in its editor.

Trial it on a multi-clip story without a presenter before relying on it for that.

Pricing: Free basic editing without AI usage credits; Max US$24.99/month and Frontier from US$69.99/month when reviewed. Displayed prices reflect iOS plans; confirm billing terms in your account.

5. InVideo — best when you want an agent’s assembly and a full timeline

InVideo’s help describes uploading your footage, asking an agent for an assembly, refining the clips on a browser multitrack timeline and exporting to professional editors. It can also edit your footage from a reference video. Generated media and stock are part of the same workflow, so check what each output is made of.

Pricing: Starter was US$10 per seat/month billed annually (US$120 a year) or US$20 billed monthly, with 400 credits per seat a month and Agent Two Lite only, when reviewed; Plus and Max add credits and agents. Manual timeline edits and downloads use no credits; AI work does. Monthly credits do not roll over. Check agent access and seats for the selected tier.

6. Kapwing — best when a team finishes what the AI assembles

Kapwing’s Kai can take supporting media, plan a storyboard and assemble a video. You review the generation budget, then refine the result in Kapwing’s collaborative browser editor, which also handles subtitles and translation.

Pricing: A limited free plan; Pro US$24/member/month or US$192/year, and Business US$64/member/month or US$600/year when reviewed. Paid plans include monthly AI credits.

7. Eddie AI — best for professional rough cuts

Eddie AI logs large shoots and assembles interview, documentary or multicam footage from prompts. It places B-roll, adds music or colour adjustments and hands the rough cut to a professional editing application.

Where it is the wrong choice: you need a finished social video today and nobody will take the rough cut further.

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go credits cover imports, editing requests and generated media. The page lists a 1,000-credit pack for US$10 and says purchased credits do not expire; check the current estimate for your project.

8. CapCut — best when you would rather cut it yourself for free

CapCut is a hands-on editor with templates, effects, captions and automatic helpers on phone, desktop and web. Its Long video to shorts tool selects excerpts for you to edit further.

Where it is the wrong choice: you want the cut decided for you rather than made by hand.

Pricing: A free plan plus Pro, Ultra and Teams subscriptions; CapCut shows prices for reference only and says the final rate depends on region, platform and checkout after you sign in.

Pricing and source review dates

These are dated plan descriptions, not live quotes. Follow the current-plan links to check billing period, seats, export limits and AI usage before buying. A lower monthly subscription does not establish a lower cost per finished video.

Sources: OpusClip pricing · Descript pricing · Captions pricing · InVideo AI pricing · Kapwing pricing · Eddie AI pricing · CapCut pricing. Review dates are listed with each source in the table.

Pick by the footage you have

If you only read one section, read this one.

Sources: OpusClip: AI video editor · Descript: Underlord · Captions: AI Edit · InVideo: editable timeline and handoff · InVideo: edit your footage from a reference video · Kapwing: Kai assembly and Studio finishing · Eddie AI · CapCut: automatic clipping workflow. Review dates are listed with each source in the table.

How to evaluate these recommendations on your footage

No numerical score or timed product test is claimed here. Use one representative deliverable and one revision to test the workflow that fits your starting material. Keep your own results; the checklist below is a proposed evaluation, not a published benchmark.

Sources: An edit with source footage and a published brief · The labelled Revisions product demo · Cost evaluation worksheet. These are Shorty’s published examples and evaluation guidance, not competitor test results.