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Speech · Buying guide

Best AI tools to remove filler words from video in 2026

For filler removal inside a finished social edit from one prompt, use Shorty. For editing long recordings as text, Descript. For a free social editor, CapCut. For recorded interviews and podcasts, Riverside. If you already cut in Premiere Pro, its transcript panel removes “uh” and “umm.” For one-click cleanup, VEED’s Magic Cut, and for clipping long videos, OpusClip.

Remove the ums in Shorty Read the guide

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The short answer

Key takeaways

  • For filler removal inside a finished short edit from one prompt, Shorty cuts ums, uhs, stutters and false starts and re-times the captions.
  • Descript, CapCut, Riverside and Premiere Pro make filler removal a separate pass you run, review and then keep editing after.
  • Premiere Pro detects “uh” and “umm”; CapCut and Riverside also flag “like” and “you know.”
  • VEED’s Magic Cut takes one click but is English only, according to its help centre.
  • Test the same 60-second clip in two tools and listen at every cut.

How we compared them

This guide is published by Shorty, one of the tools listed. It compares how each tool removes filler words according to its own documentation, checked on 20 October 2026, plus our own measured results for Shorty. It does not rank output quality across tools. There are no affiliate links or paid placements.

The shortlist at a glance

AI filler-word removers compared
ToolBest forHow filler removal worksWorth knowing
ShortyFinished short-form edits from footage and a briefOne sentence in the brief or a revision; candidates judged in contextCaptions, sound cues and length rebuilt on the clean take; up to three minutes of speech per clip
DescriptEditing long recordings as textAI Tools → Remove filler words, review list“Avoid harsh cuts” option; retakes and word gaps are separate tools
CapCutFree, all-round social editingIdentify filler words during auto captions, then deleteDetects um, uh, like, you know and pauses as examples
RiversideRecorded interviews and podcastsAI tools → Remove filler words, review each cardFlags contextual fillers and a “Harsh cuts” group; all plans
Premiere ProEditors already in PremiereTranscript panel filter → Delete allDetects “uh” and “umm”
VEEDOne-click cleanupMagic Cut removes fillers, silences and repeated mistakesEnglish only, according to its help centre
OpusClipClipping long videos into shortsSpeech Cleanup: fillers, pauses, bad takesPaid plans; captions added before cleanup need redoing, per its API guide
SubmagicCaptioned shortsRemove Filler Words, Bad Takes and Silences toolsFiller removal on Pro and Business plans
GlingRough cuts of YouTube recordingsAuto-removes fillers, silences and bad takesExports a timeline to Premiere, Final Cut or Resolve
TimeBoltLong recordings on the desktopUMCHECK detects 25+ preset fillers and custom phrasesCounts and highlights each detection before cutting

Sources: Descript: filler words · CapCut: filler word removal · Riverside: remove filler words · Premiere Pro: detect and delete pauses and filler words · VEED: Magic Cut · OpusClip: Speech Cleanup · OpusClip: filler-word removal API guide · Submagic pricing · Gling pricing · TimeBolt UMCHECK. Competitor features checked 20 October 2026 in each tool’s own documentation. Plans and features change, so check the current page before you choose.

Shorty: filler removal inside the edit

Shorty is an AI video editor that makes the whole edit from your footage and a written brief. Filler removal is one line in that brief, so there is no separate pass and no export in between. A verbatim recognizer keeps every hesitation in the transcript, a phonetic aligner places the cut points, and the director judges each “like” or “you know” in its sentence. Captions, sound cues and length are then built on the clean take.

Choose it when you want a finished vertical video, not a cleaned recording to keep editing. Today it handles up to three minutes of speech per clip, and it is tested by ear in English and Russian.

Descript alternatives for filler-word removal

If you want something other than Descript, pick by what happens after the cleanup. For a finished short edit from one brief, Shorty. For a free editor with captions, CapCut. For interviews you record in the same app, Riverside. For one click on a single clip, VEED. For a rough cut you finish in a desktop editor, Gling or TimeBolt.

How to choose

  1. Decide whether you need a cleaned recording or a finished video. Filler buttons clean; Shorty edits.
  2. Check what each tool detects. Some stop at “uh” and “um”; others include “like”, repeats and false starts.
  3. Check what happens to captions after the cuts.
  4. Test the same 60-second clip in two tools and listen at every cut.

See it on four real talks

We ran four public talks through the same tool the director uses inside an edit. Across them, 107 words came out in 80 cuts, including every “um” and “uh” in the transcripts, and every kept word survived in order. The launch post plays each one before and after, with every removed word struck through.

Filler-word removal on four public talks (Shorty, October 2026)
RecordingLength before → afterWords cutCutsUms and uhs left
Nik Storonsky, Revolut2:00 → 1:49.840280 of 13
Prime Intellect, NVIDIA event1:00 → 0:53.238270 of 16
Arjun Karanam, Trajectory2:00 → 1:54.422210 of 8
Elon Musk, Tesla Roadster event2:00 → 1:58.4740 of 1

Sources: Shorty News: four talks before and after. Measured on excerpts of public YouTube talks on 20 October 2026. Results depend on the recording.

Keep the ideas coming

Filler-word removal in Shorty

Feature

Shorty removes filler words as part of the edit. Write “remove the ums” in your brief, and the director cuts hesitations, stutters, repeated words and false starts from the picture and the sound, keeps words like “like” where they mean something, and rebuilds captions, music cues and the edit’s length on the clean take.

How to remove filler words like um and uh

Speech and filler words

Use an editor that finds the fillers in the speech and cuts them for you. In Shorty, write “remove the ums and false starts” in your brief: the director cuts the hesitations, stutters and restarts and builds the rest of the edit, captions included, on the clean take. In Descript, CapCut or Premiere Pro, filler removal is its own step: transcribe, review the detected words, delete them, then keep editing.

Remove filler words and add captions in one step

Speech and filler words

Yes. In Shorty, one brief does both: write “remove the ums and add word-by-word captions,” and the director cuts the fillers, then times the captions to the speech as it is after the cuts. Other editors can do both inside one app, but as separate steps, and captions made before a cleanup can fall out of sync.

The best AI video editors in 2026

Buying guides

There is no single best AI video editor; the right one depends on what you start with. Shorty when you have a folder of clips and want a finished cut from a written brief or a reference video. Descript when the edit is driven by what was said. OpusClip for turning one long recording into shorts. Captions for face-camera video. Submagic for caption packaging. CapCut and VEED when you want to make the cuts yourself. Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve for frame-level finishing. Runway when you need shots you never filmed.

CapCut alternatives

Choosing and using an editor

If you want AI to assemble your raw clips instead of editing everything by hand in CapCut, try Shorty: upload the clips, write a brief or add an optional reference video, and review a rendered first cut you can revise by chat. Choose Descript to edit speech through its transcript, OpusClip to pull highlights from one long recording, and Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve when you want to place every clip yourself.

Questions, answered.

What is the best AI tool to remove filler words from video?

It depends on what you need at the end. For a finished short-form edit from one prompt, Shorty removes fillers inside the edit and re-times captions. For editing a long recording as text, Descript. For free social editing, CapCut. For recorded interviews, Riverside.

Is there a free filler word remover?

CapCut’s filler-word page says the feature is free with its trial, and Riverside lists filler removal on all plans. Descript’s free plan has a limited number of AI credits. Check each tool’s current plan page before you rely on it.

What is a good Descript alternative for removing filler words?

Shorty if you want a finished short edit from one brief, CapCut for a free editor with captions, Riverside for recorded interviews, VEED for one-click cleanup, and Gling or TimeBolt for rough cuts of long recordings.

Does it catch every um?

It removes every hesitation its transcript records; on the four talks in our launch post, that was all 38. A hesitation the recognizer doesn’t hear can’t be cut, so listen to the result and ask in a revision if one slipped through.

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Remove the ums in Shorty