Stack the free tiers
OpusClip, Vizard and Quso together give ~200 minutes of picks a month. Use them to find moments, then recut the winners watermark-free in CapCut.
"Free" in AI clipping means anything from unlimited self-hosted clipping to one watermarked demo. This list ranks ten free options on what you can actually post from them: whether exports carry a watermark, how long a source can be, what resolution you get, how long projects survive, and whether commercial use is allowed. Every entry links to a full review.
Every clipper on this list says free somewhere on its pricing page. They mean very different things. At the top, SupoClip and CapCut cost nothing however much you clip; you pay in setup time or manual effort. In the middle, Katto and ClipForge give a few clean clips a month you can post. Below that, OpusClip, Vizard and Quso watermark free exports: fine for judging whether the picks are good, not for a campaign submission. At the bottom, Klap and Submagic offer a single conversion or a short trial.
Ranked on what the free tier lets you ship. Paid upgrade price shown so you know what's behind the wall.
Open-source (AGPL-3.0) and self-hosted with Docker. Transcription via AssemblyAI, picks from the LLM you choose (Gemini, GPT, Claude or free local Ollama), face-tracked 9:16, word-synced captions, MCP server and API. No quotas, no watermark, no length cap.
Free on desktop, web and mobile, with an AI long-video-to-shorts tool (sources up to 3 h / 10 GB) that detects highlights, reframes to 9:16 with subject focus and captions in 20+ languages. Plus the manual editor every clipper ends up using anyway.
Two videos a month up to 30 minutes each, 720p with a watermark, 16 caption styles, and, unusually, the CLI, MCP server and REST API on the free plan. Re-renders and dubs don't spend quota, so two slots can become many variants.
Three projects a month, sources up to 30 minutes, 720p export, no card required. Transcript-based picks with a 0–100 score and a reason, three caption styles and five hook lines per clip. No watermark is listed on free output.
Sixty credits (source minutes) a month with the best picks in the category, but free exports are watermarked, there's no editor or Virality Score, projects last three days, and the licence is non-commercial.
Sixty credits a month, 60-minute / 1 GB uploads, text-based editing and 13 link sources, but 720p export capped at 10 minutes, a watermark, three-day retention and one TikTok account.
Seventy-five credits a month, uploads to 30 minutes, AI clips and captions, YouTube chapters, and direct TikTok publishing. Exports are 720p with a watermark.
Fifteen minutes of video and two "Magic clips" a month: enough to see how it handles a stream, not enough to clip one. The clipper marketplace is free to join regardless, which is the real free offer here.
One free conversion with no signup, no card and no watermark advertised. A fair test of its link input and Reframe 2 layouts, then it's $29 a month ($14 annual).
No permanent free plan. The trial lets you edit three short videos with a watermark (sources disagree on whether export is allowed). Clipping is the Magic Clips add-on anyway; the free value is seeing the captions.
| Tool | Free quota | Max source | Watermark | Resolution | Retention | Commercial | Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SupoClip | Unlimited (self-host) | Unlimited | No | Source | Yours | Yes (AGPL) | $9.99 hosted |
| CapCut | Unlimited manual | 3 h (AI tool) | No (manual) | 1080p | Local | Yes | Pro, regional |
| Katto | 2 videos / mo | 30 min | Yes | 720p | — | Yes | €8.90 |
| ClipForge | 3 projects / mo | 30 min | Not listed | 720p | — | Yes | $19 |
| OpusClip | 60 credits / mo | 60 min of credits | Yes | 1080p | 3 days | No | $15 |
| Vizard | 60 credits / mo | 60 min / 1 GB | Yes | 720p, 10-min export | 3 days | — | $29 ($14.50 annual) |
| Quso.ai | 75 credits / mo | 30 min | Yes | 720p | — | — | $19–29 |
| StreamClipping | 15 min / mo | 15 min | Logo | — | — | — | €19 |
| Klap | 1 conversion | 4 h | No | — | — | — | $29 ($14 annual) |
| Submagic | 3-video trial | 2 min | Yes | 1080p | — | — | $19 / member |
"—" means the vendor doesn't publish it. Free tiers change often; confirm on the pricing page before planning a campaign around one.
OpusClip, Vizard and Quso together give ~200 minutes of picks a month. Use them to find moments, then recut the winners watermark-free in CapCut.
A watermarked export still tells you the timestamp. Note it, cut that segment yourself, and you've used the best AI picks for nothing.
Campaigns reject them, and some ban the account. Katto, ClipForge, SupoClip and CapCut are the free options whose output can go to a campaign.
Three-day retention on OpusClip and Vizard free tiers means clips vanish. Export immediately and keep your own folder.
If a campaign pays $1.25 per 1K and you post 20 clips a month, the first $15 plan pays for itself at ~12,000 views. Check it in the earnings calculator.
SupoClip with a local Ollama model is the only path to unlimited, private, API-driven clipping at zero marginal cost. Expect an evening of setup.
SupoClip, self-hosted. CapCut's manual editor is also free and watermark-free. Among hosted tools, Katto and ClipForge give a few clean clips a month; Klap gives one.
Only if the export has no watermark and the licence allows commercial use. OpusClip's free tier is explicitly non-commercial. Katto, ClipForge, SupoClip and CapCut are safe; the watermarked tiers aren't.
A credit is a source minute, so 60 credits is one hour of video, not 60 clips. A single 90-minute podcast won't fit. Narrow the range or split the file.
OpusClip, by a margin. Use it to scout timestamps even if you can't post its watermarked output.
Katto Solo at €4.90 a month on annual billing, with agent access included. OpusClip Starter at $15 monthly is the cheapest with a strong editor. See best AI clipping tools.