US prices per editor, yearly and monthly
Descript Pricing and Descript Plans with the Cost per Editor and Year
Every Descript plan in US dollars, what 1 to 5 editors pay a year, and the allowances that decide whether you outgrow a plan in week two: media hours, AI credits and seat caps.
Hobbyist
$192
a year, 1 editor
Creator
$288
a year per editor
Business
$600
a year per editor
Have the transcript but not the shot? The panel on the right renders original 4 to 12 second clips from a prompt or a photo, ready to drop over a Descript cut as b-roll.
The short answer
Descript costs $16 a month per editor on Hobbyist, $24 on Creator and $50 on Business when billed yearly, or $24, $35 and $65 month to month. Hobbyist is a single seat with 10 media hours and 1080p export. Creator adds 4K, 30 hours and up to 3 editors. Business takes up to 5 editors, and a team of five pays $3,000 a year.
Prices and allowances were read from descript.com/pricing, and the rollover and top up rules from Descript's help center, in October 2026. Descript reworked its plans in September 2025, replacing transcription hours with media minutes and adding AI credits, so older reviews that quote $12 Creator or $24 Pro plans describe tiers that no longer exist.
So the um, like, biggest change this quarter was moving our onboarding you know into video.
[b-roll: customer team at a whiteboard]
Descript plans and prices in US dollars
Three paid tiers, a free plan and Enterprise. Every price is per editor. Yearly billing saves 33 percent on Hobbyist, 31 percent on Creator and 23 percent on Business against paying monthly.
| Plan | Yearly billing | Monthly billing | Media hours a month | AI credits a month | Export | Editors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 | 100 once | 720p, watermark | 1 |
| Hobbyist | $16 a month ($192 a year) | $24 | 10 | 400 | 1080p | 1 |
| Creator | $24 a month ($288 a year) | $35 | 30 | 800 | 4K | 1 to 3 |
| Business | $50 a month ($600 a year) | $65 | 40 | 1,500 | 4K | up to 5 |
| Enterprise | Quote | Quote | Custom | Custom | 4K | Custom |
Storage is 5 GB on Free, 100 GB on Hobbyist, 1 TB on Creator and 2 TB on Business. Media hours and AI credits are per editor and pooled across the drive. Enterprise adds SSO, SCIM, audit logs, custom legal terms and invoice or ACH payment instead of a card.
What a Descript team plan costs a year for 1 to 5 editors
Seat caps shape the bill as much as the price does. Hobbyist stops at one person, Creator at three and Business at five, so a sixth editor means an Enterprise quote rather than one more seat.
| Editors | Creator yearly | Creator monthly | Business yearly | Business monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $288 | $420 | $600 | $780 |
| 2 | $576 | $840 | $1,200 | $1,560 |
| 3 | $864 | $1,260 | $1,800 | $2,340 |
| 5 | Not available | Not available | $3,000 | $3,900 |
A solo podcaster on Hobbyist pays $192 a year, or $288 paying monthly. Three editors on Creator yearly ($864) cost less than two on Business ($1,200), so Business only pays off when you need the fourth or fifth seat, the 1,500 credits, Brand Studio or priority support.
Where the Descript bill ends up higher than the plan price
The sticker price is per editor, but the allowances run out on raw footage, not finished minutes. These are the rules buyers find out after the first month.
Raw uploads count, not the final cut
Media minutes are charged on everything you upload or record, transcribed or not. Three 60 minute camera angles for one 40 minute podcast use 3 hours of a 10 hour Hobbyist month.
Nothing rolls over
Unused media minutes and AI credits expire at the end of each month. A team that records in bursts pays for quiet months it cannot bank.
Top ups only on Creator and up
Hobbyist cannot buy extra hours or credits, so running out means upgrading. Top ups on Creator and Business are used after the monthly allowance and expire 12 months after purchase.
Upgrading does not reset usage
Move up mid cycle and what you already used still counts against the new limit, so an upgrade on day 25 buys less headroom than it seems.
AI work has no fixed rate
Studio Sound and filler word removal cap at 30 credits per file, but Underlord has no fixed price per action, and AI voices, avatars and generated video cost more the longer the output and the stronger the model.
Seat caps force a jump
Creator stops at 3 editors and Business at 5. The sixth person turns a $3,000 Business year into an Enterprise negotiation.
Which Descript plan to buy
Solo podcaster or YouTuber
Hobbyist
One seat, 10 hours of uploads and 1080p is enough for a weekly 45 minute show recorded on one or two tracks. Pick Creator the month you start uploading multicam or long raw sessions, because Hobbyist has no top ups.
Marketing or content team of 2 to 3
Creator
30 hours and 800 credits per editor, 4K, custom fonts and white label share pages. It is the cheapest way to put three people on one drive: $864 a year on yearly billing.
Training or comms team of 4 to 5
Business
Up to 5 editors, 1,500 credits each, Team Brand Studio, translation proofreading and an SLA. Training teams who also need SCORM, quizzes and screen capture usually price it against Camtasia.
Training teams comparing desktop editors can read our Camtasia pricing per license guide, and if text based editing of narration is the only Descript feature you need, TechSmith sells it standalone; see Audiate pricing per seat. Podcasters who cut each episode into Shorts and Reels can check Opus Clip pricing and credits for the clipping side of the budget.
Descript pricing next to other editors and a clip generator
Yearly price for one seat, from each vendor's own pricing page. Descript is the editor of the group; a clip generator does a different job and costs far more per second, which is why most teams run one alongside the other.
| Tool and plan | One seat a year | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Descript Creator | $288 | Transcript editing of podcasts and talking video, 4K |
| VEED Pro | $265 | Browser editing with subtitles, translation and brand kits |
| Camtasia Essentials | $179.88 | Screen recorded tutorials, includes Audiate and Snagit |
| Audiate (standalone) | $199.99 | Text based narration editing only |
| VideoMake Plus | $288 ($24 a month), or $49 monthly | Rendering new 4 to 12 second shots you never filmed |
Be clear on the trade. Descript edits footage you already have and is the cheaper buy for that. VideoMake does not edit, transcribe or caption; it renders original clips from a prompt or a still image at 1 credit per second of 720p, so Plus on monthly billing ($49) buys 49 seconds of new footage a month and Plus yearly ($288) buys 24 seconds a month. That is the right purchase when the cut needs an establishing shot, a product in use or a scene that was never filmed. If you are leaving Descript rather than adding to it, our Descript alternative comparison lists replacements by job, and VEED pricing per seat has the closest browser editor priced for teams.
The kind of establishing shot a transcript editor cannot create: rendered, then laid over the narration as b-roll.
Questions people ask about Descript pricing
How much does Descript cost per month?
Descript costs $16 a month per editor on Hobbyist, $24 on Creator and $50 on Business when you pay yearly, which is $192, $288 and $600 a year. Paying month to month raises the same plans to $24, $35 and $65 per editor. Enterprise is quoted by sales, and the free plan exports 720p with a watermark.
Is Descript free to use?
Descript has a free plan with 60 media minutes a month, 100 AI credits given once, 5 GB of storage and 720p exports that carry a watermark. It is fine for testing the transcript editor on one short file. Removing the watermark and getting 1080p takes Hobbyist, the cheapest paid plan, at $16 a month billed yearly.
What is the difference between Descript Hobbyist and Creator?
Creator costs $8 more a month per editor on yearly billing and buys three times the media hours (30 instead of 10), twice the AI credits (800 instead of 400), 4K export instead of 1080p, 1 TB of storage instead of 100 GB, top ups, custom fonts and room for up to 3 editors. Hobbyist is one person only.
Does Descript charge per user?
Yes. Every paid Descript plan is priced per editor, and each editor seat adds its own media minutes and AI credits to a shared pool for the drive. Hobbyist allows one seat, Creator up to 3 and Business up to 5. A team bigger than five editors is moved to an Enterprise quote.
Do Descript media minutes and AI credits roll over?
No. Descript's help center says unused media minutes and unused AI credits do not roll over to the next month. Upgrading mid cycle does not reset usage either, so what you already used counts against the new limit. Top ups, sold only on Creator and Business, are spent after the monthly allowance and expire 12 months after purchase.
What uses Descript media minutes?
Media minutes count everything you upload or record, whether or not it gets transcribed: audio and video files, screen and webcam recordings made in Descript, Rooms sessions by total session length, and even still images at one second each. A podcaster who uploads raw 90 minute takes burns minutes far faster than the finished episode length suggests.
Is Descript worth paying for?
It is worth paying for if you edit talking, podcast or screen recorded video and want to cut it like a document, remove filler words and fix audio with Studio Sound. It is a weaker buy if what your video lacks is footage, such as a scene you never filmed, because a transcript editor cannot create a shot that does not exist.
Render the b-roll your Descript cut is missing
Describe the shot or upload a still, pick 9:16 or 16:9 and 4, 8 or 12 seconds, and download an original clip with commercial rights to drop onto your timeline.