# BitterClip — full documentation and blog corpus

Concatenated Markdown of every BitterClip docs page and blog post, generated from the content collections. Recording → Episode → Clip is the editable product model; a Moment saves intent for review. BitterClip is a product of SheetGenius, Inc. (https://company.sheetgenius.com).

---

# BitterClip docs
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs
Description: Finished episodes and clips from the conversations you record, made with the agent built into the editor. Start here.

# BitterClip docs

::what-is-bitter-clip
::

::signup-cta
::

## Start here

New to BitterClip? Start with the agent built into the editor, walk through your first cut, then pick up the handful of words you'll see everywhere. Most people begin by setting up a project, which is the home for one show or series.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/use-the-built-in-agent
    label: Use the built-in agent
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Your first clip
  - to: /docs/getting-started/what-is-bitterclip
    label: What is BitterClip?
  - to: /docs/getting-started/projects-and-collaborators
    label: Projects and collaborators
  - to: /docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording
    label: Import a Zoom cloud recording
  - to: /docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout
    label: Import your YouTube archive
---
::

## Use BitterClip's agent, or yours

BitterClip's agent is built into the editor and needs no setup; see
[Use the built-in agent](/docs/getting-started/use-the-built-in-agent). If you connect ChatGPT or Claude, ask it to
open a recording; where the host supports write actions, you can also ask for a specific
cut in the same workbench. The source stays attached, the result stays editable, and
nothing is selected or published without your direction.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/assistants/overview
    label: Use BitterClip from your AI assistant
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-chatgpt
    label: Connect ChatGPT
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-claude
    label: Connect Claude
---
::

## Connect your channels

Hook up the places you publish. Once a channel is connected, you can send a finished clip to it without leaving BitterClip.

::callout{type="warning"}
Connecting YouTube has one trap that quietly breaks the link. The YouTube guide walks you through choosing the right account.
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube
  - to: /docs/connect/x
    label: Connect X
  - to: /docs/connect/linkedin
    label: Connect LinkedIn
  - to: /docs/connect/instagram
    label: Connect Instagram
---
::

## After you've made clips

Once you have a clip you like, this is where you find it again. Download it, share it, or send it out to your channels.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/find-and-share-clips
    label: Find and share your clips
  - to: /docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
    label: Publish a clip
---
::

## More

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
  - to: /docs/help/faq
    label: FAQ
  - to: /docs/changelog
    label: What's new
---
::

---

# What is BitterClip?
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/what-is-bitterclip
Description: A plain introduction to BitterClip, the Recording → Episode → Clip model, and how a clip gets made.

# What is BitterClip?

If you record conversations, interviews, or sessions and want a finished episode and clips out of them, this page explains what BitterClip does and the few words you'll see throughout the docs.

## BitterClip in plain words

::what-is-bitter-clip
::

You don't need to connect an assistant or configure anything before starting. The Creator
trial is $1 for 7 days (card required), then $24/month. Cancel anytime. Bring one
recording up to two hours and use the included $5 of agent work while balance remains. You can add exactly $20,
$50, or $100 of agent work during an active trial or paid plan. Top-ups never auto-activate
paid Creator; early activation requires a separate explicit $24 authorization. Creator
supports files up to 4 GB after payment. Producer is $99/month. There is no recurring Free
plan; if you cancel, your existing work stays available and new processing may require an
active plan.

## The three things you'll work with

::what-is-episode
::

::callout{type="note"}
An older BitterClip post may call an Episode a "Moment." Today a Moment is a saved
point of editorial intent for review; an Episode or Clip is the editable production.
::

## Where it runs

There are two ways to work, and your recordings and clips are the same in both. The browser
is the place to manage everything in one window. If you'd rather just say what you want out
loud, ChatGPT or Claude can help while you talk it through. In ChatGPT, what the
assistant can change depends on your plan and workspace. Whichever you start in,
you can pick up where you left off in the other. The
[assistant guide](/docs/assistants/overview) walks through that side.

## How a clip actually gets made

The cut is built from the words you keep, not from numbers you type in.

::how-the-cut-works
::

## Ready to try it?

::signup-cta
::

## Next steps

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip
  - to: /docs/assistants/overview
    label: Use BitterClip from your AI assistant
---
::

---

# Use the built-in agent
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/use-the-built-in-agent
Description: Open an Episode, say what you want in plain words, and direct the cut until it is right. Nothing to connect.

# Use the built-in agent

BitterClip's agent sits beside the editor. Open an Episode and it's already there. You don't
connect anything, and there's no prompt to learn.

## What to ask for

Say what you want the way you'd say it to an editor:

- **A cut.** "Make a 60-second highlight of this session focused on the pricing discussion."
- **A change to the cut you have.** "Tighten the opening." "Lose the sponsor tangent."
  "Start on her answer, not the question."
- **The picture.** "Use the wide shot for the intro." "Stay on the guest through that answer."
- **Finish.** "Add a title for Jay the first time he speaks." "Put a music bed under the cold
  open."
- **Delivery.** "Render it." Then download the MP4 or copy a review link from the Outputs tab.

You don't have to phrase anything a particular way, or know how the editor works. Say what's
wrong; the agent chooses how to fix it.

## How it works with you

- It reads the transcript and the picture before it cuts, and every cut point lands on the
  audio, not on a guess. Each change stays linked to the exact moment it came from.
- What it changes is an ordinary edit: keep adjusting it by hand, or undo it.
- Nothing renders until you ask, and nothing is published until you confirm that exact post.
- Ask for a clip and it makes a new one from the Episode rather than changing the Episode.

## Choose the model

Pick the agent's model in the chooser beside the composer, from low-cost models for simple
changes to the strongest for hard jobs like multicam cuts and reels. The models are served
through OpenRouter, and the chooser shows what a typical request costs on each.

## Agent work

Every plan includes agent work: $5 during the Creator trial, $10 a month on Creator, and $40 a
month on Producer, with $20, $50, and $100 top-ups. Each request costs what OpenRouter billed
for it, plus a flat 15% that covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail
after they're billed. Billing shows what's left. When it runs out, the editor still works by
hand.

## Prefer ChatGPT or Claude?

They can operate the whole workbench through a connector, and their work runs on your ChatGPT
or Claude plan rather than on your agent work. See
[Use BitterClip from your AI assistant](/docs/assistants/overview).

---

# Your first clip
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
Description: Sign up, upload a recording, and get your first captioned clip out, start to finish, in the browser.

# Your first clip

This walks you from a brand-new account to a finished clip you can download, all in your
browser. You don't need any editing experience.

## 1. Sign up

::signup-cta
::

## 2. Create a project

A project is a home for one show or series. Your recordings, episodes, and clips all live
inside it, so everything from the same show stays together. Make one and give it a name
you'll recognize later: your podcast title, your channel name, whatever fits.

## 3. Upload a recording

Open your project and click to upload, or drag your file onto the upload area. This is the
raw file you're starting from: an interview, an episode, a talk you gave. BitterClip takes
any file your device sees as audio or video. How large it can be depends on your plan.

::callout{type="tip"}
Moving a whole channel instead of one recording? Use
[Import your YouTube archive](/docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout) to turn the
videos you exported with Google Takeout into individual Episodes.
::

::callout{type="tip"}
If Zoom cloud import is enabled for your studio, you can let a completed meeting arrive
automatically instead. Follow [Import a Zoom cloud recording](/docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording)
to check the destination and verify the Episode.
::

::callout{type="note"}
Uploading and transcribing need a verified email first. Click the link in the email
BitterClip sent when you signed up and you're set. (If you signed in with Google, you're
already verified.) When an upload or transcription won't go through, this is usually why.
See [troubleshooting](/docs/help/troubleshooting).
::

## 4. Let BitterClip transcribe it

Once the upload finishes, BitterClip transcribes it into words timed to the audio. This runs
in the background and can take a while on a long recording, so feel free to leave and come
back. It keeps processing. When it's done, the recording becomes its own
[**episode**](/docs/getting-started/what-is-bitterclip) automatically, and the episode is the
thing you'll actually work in.

::callout{type="tip"}
An episode is just your recording, ready to clip. If you join more than one recording
together later, they share a single episode timeline. For your first clip, one recording is
one episode.
::

## 5. Open the episode and find the part worth sharing

Open the episode and you'll see the full transcript. Read through it, then select the words
you want to keep. Selecting the words is how you pick your clip.

::how-the-cut-works
::

## 6. Fine-tune the start and end

Your clip shows up in the transcript editor with a start and an end already set. Read it
over. To trim or extend it, change which words you've got selected, the same thing you did in
step 5. Add a word at the front for a little lead-in, or drop one at the end to tighten the
ending. The cut follows your selection.

## 7. Export the captioned clip

When the clip looks right, hit Export. You'll get a chance to pick the shape of the video
first. Exports keep your source's shape by default (a widescreen recording stays
widescreen), and you can choose vertical or square when you export. Pick vertical if you're
headed for Shorts, Reels, or TikTok.

BitterClip then renders an MP4 with the captions burned right into the picture, so they look
the same everywhere you post it. (If you ever turn captions off, the video comes out without
them.) Rendering runs in the background, so give it a moment to finish.

That's your first clip. You'll find it in your project's **Outputs** tab, linked back to the
recording it came from, and it's ready to download or share.

::example-clip-prompt
::

See [Use BitterClip from your AI assistant](/docs/assistants/overview) to set that up.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/find-and-share-clips
    label: Find and share your clips
  - to: /docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
    label: Publish a clip to your channels
---
::

---

# Projects and collaborators
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/projects-and-collaborators
Description: What a project is, how to switch between projects, and how to invite an editor, reviewer, or client to work alongside you.

# Projects and collaborators

A project keeps one show or series together, and you can invite the people you work with into it. This page covers what a project is, how to move between them, and how to bring in an editor, a reviewer, or a client.

## What a project is

A project is the home for a show or series. Everything you make lives inside one: the recordings you upload, the episodes built from them, and the clips you export. When you start a new podcast, take on a new client, or begin a new series, give it its own project so its recordings and clips stay together and don't mix with anything else.

You created your first project when you signed up and uploaded a recording. Make as many as you need; one per show or per client is a good rule of thumb.

## Switching between projects

Your projects live on the Projects page, listed under your studio. Open the one you want, and the recordings, episodes, and clips you see all belong to it. Go back any time to move to another show.

When you connect an assistant like ChatGPT or Claude, it works inside the project you point
it at. Recordings it opens—and, where the host supports write actions, Clips it makes—stay
scoped to that Project.

## Inviting a collaborator

You don't have to do everything yourself. If you own a project, you can invite someone to
work in it alongside you: an editor, a co-host, a reviewer, or a client. Depending on the
role you give them, they can open your recordings and make Clips in the browser or through
an assistant whose plan and workspace policy allow writes. You upload once, and your
collaborators work from the same recordings.

When you send an invite, you choose what that person can do:

- **Editor**: opens your episodes and exports their own clips, just like you.
- **Reviewer**: opens your episodes and reviews the work, without exporting.
- **Viewer**: looks at the project without changing anything.

Pick the role that fits. A client who wants to pull their own clips needs editor access. A stakeholder who just wants to watch along can be a viewer.

To share a project:

1. Open the project you want to share and go to its invitations page.
2. Send an invite to your collaborator's email address, and pick their role.
3. They get an invite link. Their email arrives if delivery is set up, but the link is what matters, so you can also send it to them yourself.
4. They open the link and accept.

The link stays valid for about two weeks. If it lapses before your collaborator gets to it, resend the invite from the same page. You can also revoke an invite there to un-share the project, which cuts that person's access.

::callout{type="note"}
A new collaborator sets a password when they accept, which creates their own account. If they already have a BitterClip account, they sign in with the invited email first. Either way it's quick, and they don't need a paid plan to join you.
::

After someone accepts, the shared project shows up in their own studio under a **Shared with you** shelf. They keep their own home and projects; yours simply appears alongside them.

One thing to know: publishing to your connected channels stays with you. An editor can find, review, and export clips, but only you, the project owner, can post them out to your YouTube, LinkedIn, or X. So you can hand the clipping to a client and still keep the final say on what goes live.

::callout{type="tip"}
A clip a collaborator makes is still tied back to the original recording it came from, so it's easy to see where it started and find the full context later.
::

## Next steps

::signup-cta
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-chatgpt
    label: Use it from ChatGPT
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-claude
    label: Use it from Claude
---
::

---

# Import a Zoom cloud recording
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording
Description: Check Zoom import configuration, record a meeting to the cloud, follow it into BitterClip, and verify the Episode before deleting the original.

# Import a Zoom cloud recording

If Zoom import has been enabled for your studio, a completed cloud recording can arrive in
BitterClip without downloading and uploading it yourself. BitterClip creates one Capture
Session for the meeting, brings in the available video views, and builds an editable Episode
inside the configured Project.

This guide starts with the configuration check, then follows the exact buttons you will use. It
also includes a short confidence test for your first real meeting.

::callout{type="note"}
Zoom import is currently configured for a studio, not connected by each person from
Settings. If the Zoom section does not say **Configured**, the status underneath tells you
what is missing. **Configured** means the required deployment values and target Project are
present; it does not prove that Zoom has delivered a recording. Do not paste Zoom credentials
into a support message.
::

::zoom-import-settings-link
::

## Before the meeting

### 1. Open Zoom settings in BitterClip

1. Sign in to BitterClip.
2. Click your name or avatar in the upper-right corner.
3. Click **Settings**.
4. Scroll to **Recording import → Zoom**.

The direct link above opens the same section.

### 2. Confirm the destination

The Zoom row should say **Configured** and name the Project that will receive meetings.
Click **Open target Project** to make sure it is the destination you expect.

Look for **Last successful delivery** underneath the Project. That timestamp is stronger
evidence than **Configured**. If Settings instead says that no successful delivery has been
proven yet, use the short test meeting in this guide as your first proof and keep the Zoom
original until the entire checklist passes.

If the row says **Setup incomplete**, **Targets another Studio**, or **Not configured**, stop
there. The explanation under the status names the problem. Click **Check setup again** after
your deployment operator changes it, or contact [BitterClip support](#if-the-import-needs-attention)
before recording anything you expect to import automatically.

::callout{type="warning"}
The destination is chosen before the recording arrives. Settings does not currently let you
route an individual Zoom meeting to a different Project. Confirm the named Project first.
::

### 3. Check the Zoom side

This path works with a **Zoom cloud recording**, not a recording stored only on your
computer. In Zoom, make sure the meeting is being recorded to the cloud. End the meeting
normally and wait until Zoom says the cloud recording has finished processing.

Only record people and material you have the right and consent to record. Importing does not
publish the meeting anywhere.

## Follow the recording into BitterClip

### 4. Find the new Episode

Return to the target Project you confirmed in step 2 and reload the page. A new Episode card
will say **Importing from Zoom**. Click **View progress** to open its Capture Session.

If the card has not appeared yet, use the diagnostic path: click your name or avatar, click
**Settings**, scroll to **Recording import → Zoom**, and click **Check for updates**. Under
**Recent Zoom deliveries**, the meeting should appear as one of these states:

- **Received** — Zoom delivered the meeting and the import is waiting to start.
- **Waiting for Zoom** — Zoom is still preparing the cloud recording files, or the import is
  queued.
- **Receiving files** — BitterClip is bringing the completed files into the Capture Session.
- **Building Episode** — the files arrived and BitterClip is organizing the Episode.
- **Episode ready** — the editable Episode has been built.
- **Needs attention** — the automatic import stopped and needs a retry or manual recovery.

From a delivery row, click **Open Capture Session** when that action appears. You can leave
while an import is working. Long meetings and several video views take longer, and Zoom's
own processing happens before BitterClip receives the delivery.

### 5. Open the Capture Session

The Capture Session says whether it is **Receiving your Zoom recording** or **Building your
Episode** and checks again automatically. Do not add the same files manually while the
automatic import is still working; that can create a second, unnecessary intake attempt.

When the page says **Episode ready**, click **Open Episode**.

## Verify the first Episode

Before deleting the Zoom original, check the parts that would expose an incomplete import:

1. Play the first and last 20 seconds.
2. Find one sentence near the start and one near the end in the transcript, then play each
   one to check that the words and audio agree.
3. If the meeting used screen sharing or more than one Zoom view, click **Sources · Compact**
   (the **Inspect sources** control) and check that the useful views arrived once each.
4. Listen across two speaker changes and make sure the meeting audio is continuous.
5. Select a short passage, click **Preview as Clip**, then **Create First Cut**. When it is
   ready, click **Download MP4** and play the file through once.

Expect the meeting's mixed audio and the completed video views Zoom made available. Separate
per-participant audio and automatic participant-name assignment are not part of this import
yet.

::callout{type="tip"}
For a first confidence test, use a 5–10 minute meeting with two people. Speak near the
beginning and end, share the screen for a minute, and switch between speakers. That one test
exercises delivery, multiple views, transcription, Episode assembly, playback, and export.
::

## If the import needs attention

Keep the original cloud recording in Zoom while you recover it.

1. Return to **Settings → Recording import → Zoom**.
2. Find the meeting marked **Needs attention**.
3. Read the recovery sentence on that row. It distinguishes a retryable delivery from one
   that needs manual recovery.
4. If shown, click **Retry Zoom import** once. Expect the state to return to **Waiting for
   Zoom**.
5. If **Open Capture Session** appears, click it. Files already received are preserved there;
   follow the recovery sentence and use **Browse files** only for missing footage.
6. If there is no Capture Session and no retry, download the completed video from Zoom,
   click **Open target Project**, click **Add footage**, then **Browse files**. This creates the
   manual fallback without discarding the Zoom original.

If no meeting appears at all, confirm that Zoom finished processing a cloud recording, reload
Settings, and recheck that the Zoom row still says **Configured**. Then contact support with the
meeting topic, approximate end time, and the status shown in BitterClip. Do not send the Zoom
download link, passcode, or credentials.

::support-contact
::

## Tomorrow's confidence check

- [ ] Zoom says the test meeting's cloud recording is ready.
- [ ] BitterClip Settings shows the expected Project and either a recent successful delivery
      or the new test delivery.
- [ ] The target Project card says **Importing from Zoom** and **View progress** opens it.
- [ ] **Open Capture Session** shows progress without asking for a duplicate upload.
- [ ] **Open Episode** reaches a playable, editable Episode.
- [ ] Beginning, end, transcript timing, audio, and useful Zoom views are present.
- [ ] A short Clip exports and the downloaded MP4 plays correctly.
- [ ] The original Zoom recording remains available until every check passes.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
  - to: /docs/getting-started/projects-and-collaborators
    label: Projects and collaborators
---
::

---

# Import your YouTube archive
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout
Description: Export videos you uploaded with Google Takeout, then bring the ZIP files into BitterClip as source-linked Episodes.

# Import your YouTube archive

If you uploaded a collection of videos to YouTube, Google Takeout gives you a direct way to
export them. BitterClip can inspect that export, let you choose what belongs together, and
turn each selected video into an Episode inside one Project.

This is an archive import, not a YouTube downloader and not a publishing connection. Use it
only for videos you uploaded or otherwise have the right to copy. See
[Connect YouTube](/docs/connect/youtube) when you want BitterClip to publish finished clips
to your channel.

::callout{type="warning"}
Importing does not publish anything. A label such as **Public**, **Unlisted**, or **Private**
describes how the source was set on YouTube; it does not change the Episode's visibility or
post it anywhere.
::

## 1. Create one Google Takeout export

1. Sign in to the Google Account that owns the channel, then open
   [Google Takeout](https://takeout.google.com/).
2. Choose **Deselect all**.
3. Select **YouTube and YouTube Music**. Open **All YouTube data included** and make sure
   your uploaded videos and their metadata are included.
4. Choose **Next step**.

Choose **Export once**. A recurring export is unnecessary for a first import.

If the channel belongs to a Brand Account, switch to the Brand Account used to upload the
videos before making the export. Google's
[Takeout help](https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190) explains the account
switch and the full export process.

## 2. Choose ZIP and an archive size

Choose **.zip** as the file type. For the maximum archive size:

- **50 GB is recommended** because it gives Google more room to keep the export in fewer
  parts.
- **2 GB works too.** It creates more ZIP files for a large channel, and you will need to
  download and provide every part.

The size setting only controls where Google splits the archive. It does not change the
resolution of the videos inside it. Choose your delivery method, then select **Create
export**. Google will notify you when the files are ready.

## 3. Download every part

Download all of the ZIP files Google created for this export. Keep them zipped and together
in one folder until the import is complete.

::callout{type="tip"}
An export split into six ZIP files is still one archive. Missing one part can mean missing
videos or metadata in BitterClip.
::

## 4. Open the importer

Sign in to BitterClip, open the account menu, and choose **Import YouTube archive**. You can
drop in one ZIP, select all of the ZIP parts together, or choose a folder that contains
them.

BitterClip first inspects the ZIP files in your browser. It finds the videos and reads the
metadata without sending the whole archive to BitterClip as one giant upload. Nothing is
imported until you review the map and start the import.

## 5. Review the map and choose a Project

The review shows the videos BitterClip found, their total running time and size, and any
metadata or matching warnings. For each video, BitterClip uses as much Takeout metadata as
is available, including its:

- title and description;
- YouTube create or publish timestamp, kept as source provenance rather than treated as a
  recording date;
- source privacy label; and
- video filename and technical details.

When the same upload appears in more than one rendition, BitterClip selects the
highest-resolution copy present in the Takeout files. You can still deselect any video you
do not want to import.

Choose one destination for the selected videos:

- **Create a new Project** when the archive belongs to one show or series.
- **Use an existing Project** when those Episodes belong with work already in BitterClip.

If the archive contains several shows, import one selection into its Project, then return
and import another selection into a different Project.

## 6. Start the import

BitterClip extracts and uploads each selected video individually. Every video becomes its
own Episode in the Project you chose. The screen shows the current file, completed Episodes,
items still waiting, and anything that needs attention.

Large archives take time, but completed Episodes are saved as the batch proceeds. Media
inspection and transcription can continue after a video is stored, so an Episode may need a
little more time before its transcript is ready.

Nothing in this flow publishes to YouTube or any other channel.

## Continue an interrupted import

Keep the original ZIP files until the batch is finished. If you close the tab or lose your
connection:

1. Return to **Import YouTube archive** and choose **Continue**.
2. Select the same complete set of ZIP files again.
3. BitterClip restores the original Project choice and selection, keeps completed Episodes,
   and resumes the remaining work.

Choosing the same archive again does not require a second media transfer for a Recording
that BitterClip has already completed.

## What video quality should you expect?

BitterClip preserves the highest-resolution rendition it finds in your Takeout archive. It
does not reach back into YouTube to fetch a different copy.

Google says Takeout may provide an uploaded video in its original format or as an H.264/AAC
MP4. That exported copy may be compressed and can differ from the camera master or another
original you kept. If you have a higher-quality master, upload that file directly instead.
Google's [YouTube owner-download help](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/56100?hl=en) also
explains the difference between downloading one of your uploads and exporting all of them
with Takeout.

## Troubleshooting

### Some videos are missing

Confirm that you downloaded every ZIP part and included videos in the Takeout selection. If
the missing uploads belong to a Brand Account, switch to that Brand Account and create a new
export. Google specifically calls out Brand Accounts as a common reason videos are absent.

### Titles or descriptions are missing

Some exports contain less metadata than others. BitterClip will flag missing details and use
the video filename as a fallback title. You can edit the Episode after import.

### The import stopped partway through

Choose **Continue** and select the same ZIP set. Already completed Episodes are safe. If the
screen shows a plan or billing action, follow that prompt before resuming; a collaborator may
need the Project owner to do this.

### The Episode exists but has no transcript yet

The video upload and the transcription are separate steps. Leave the Project open or return
later; processing continues in the background.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/projects-and-collaborators
    label: Organize Projects and collaborators
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make a clip from an Episode
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube for publishing
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
---
::

---

# Find and share your clips
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/find-and-share-clips
Description: Where your finished clips live, how to download the MP4, and how to share a clip as a link people can play anywhere.

# Find and share your clips

You've made a clip or two. Here's where they live, how to grab the video file, and how to
hand someone a link they can play without ever opening BitterClip.

## Where your finished clips live

Every clip and rendered video you make lands in your project's **Outputs tab**. It sits in
the project tab bar next to Episodes and Sources, and it gathers everything you've finished:
the clips you cut, plus any longer videos you've put together.

Each clip stays linked to the recording it started from. So if you want to revisit the full
episode, pull a different clip, or just jog your memory on the context, the trail back is
always there.

## Download a clip

A clip needs a moment to render before you can grab the file. Right after you cut it, you may
see it marked "rendering" on its card; once it's ready, a **Download** button appears. You
don't have to open the clip first. The download is right there on the card.

What you get is an MP4. By default it keeps your source's shape (a widescreen recording stays
widescreen), and you can choose vertical or square when you export. Captions are burned right
into the video by default, so they travel with it everywhere you post. If you turned captions
off at export, the file comes out without them.

::callout{type="tip"}
Because the captions live inside the video, there's no separate caption file to upload and
nothing extra to set up. Drop the MP4 into a post and the words are already there.
::

## Share a clip with a link

You can also publish a clip as a shareable link. Switch it on and you get a small video player
that plays the clip on any web page: your site, a blog post, a landing page. Whoever you send
it to never has to open BitterClip. They just press play.

You turn this on per clip, from the clip's card in the **Outputs tab**. The clip has to be
exported and finished rendering first; if there's no ready export yet, the toggle won't switch
on. You can turn it back off any time you want to stop sharing publicly.

::callout{type="note"}
Sharing a clip as a live, embeddable player is included on paid Creator and Producer plans (not
during the trial). The embed page re-checks your plan every time it loads, so if your plan lapses,
the shared link quietly stops playing until the plan is active again.
::

::signup-cta
::

::callout{type="note"}
Downloading the MP4 always works once a clip has rendered. The shareable link is the extra step
for when you'd rather have a clip play live on a page than hand someone a file.
::

::callout{type="warning"}
No download or embed option showing up? The clip is probably still rendering, or live embeds
aren't included on your plan yet. Give a fresh render a minute, then refresh the Outputs tab.
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
    label: Publish a clip to your channels
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make another clip
  - to: /docs/assistants/overview
    label: Do it all from your AI assistant
---
::

---

# Use BitterClip from your AI assistant
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/assistants/overview
Description: Connect Claude or ChatGPT to browse and work with BitterClip; editing support depends on the host plan.

# Use BitterClip from your AI assistant

You connect BitterClip to Claude or ChatGPT, then ask the assistant to find a
source-backed moment and prepare it for review. In Claude, the assistant can carry that
through to an editable Clip and a rendered video. In ChatGPT, what a custom connection can
change depends on your plan and workspace; when it can only read, it can still browse
Episodes, read transcripts, and open the workspace when the host supports it, and you
continue the edit in BitterClip's browser.

::callout{type="note"}
Claude supports custom connectors on every plan. In ChatGPT, the Plugin directory is
visible across plans, but custom-MCP access and actions depend on plan, role, workspace
policy, region, model, and rollout. BitterClip's browser workspace works for everyone.
::

You'll need a BitterClip account first. The Creator trial lasts seven days and requires a
card: $1 today, then $24/month; cancel anytime. It includes $5 of
agent work for one recording up to two hours. Producer is $99/month. Already have an account and just
want the connect steps?
[Jump to Connect your assistant](#connect-your-assistant).

::signup-cta
::

::what-is-bitter-clip
::

## Try the editor right here

This is the BitterClip transcript editor a supported host can open. Have a play with it.

::live-editor-embed
::

## What you can ask for

::example-clip-prompt
::

You don't have to phrase it any particular way. "Pull up my interview," "suggest moments
worth posting," and "cut the part where she talks about pricing" all work. The assistant
reads the transcript and proposes moments for you to choose from. A connection with write
actions can save a review point and prepare the editor for you.

## What your assistant can do for you

These are a handful of the things you can ask for once you're connected. Ask for a specific
cut, then inspect or revise the source-backed result in the editor. BitterClip does not
silently pick a "strong clip" for you; your request supplies the direction. A connection
with write actions can also prepare an upload handoff for a Recording you choose to add.

For tool names, descriptions, input fields, and errors, see the
[BitterClip tool reference](/docs/assistants/tool-reference). This static page
is generated from the deployed Rails catalog during the site build and shows
the product release it reflects. Available actions depend on your host and
account permissions.

## How it connects

::assistant-connection-intro
::

::callout{type="note"}
New to the word **episode**? The
[What is BitterClip?](/docs/getting-started/what-is-bitterclip) guide walks through it in
plain words.
::

## What lives in chat, and what lives in the web app

Your assistant helps find, review, and tune clips with you. Where the selected
connection allows writes, it can prepare a post and open the exact package for
review. Final confirmation happens in BitterClip.

::chat-vs-web-app
::

## Nothing posts until you set it up

::approval-promise
::

## Connect your assistant

Both assistants connect to the same BitterClip account, but their setup rules differ.

Using Claude? Add it in one click:

::add-to-claude
::

The [connect page](/connect) has one-click setup for Claude, ChatGPT and Claude Code, and
shows what's connected when you're signed in.

Or choose the guide for the host you use:

- **[Connect Claude](/docs/assistants/connect-claude)**: add BitterClip under
  **Customize → Connectors**, sign in, then enable it for the conversation where you need it.
- **[Connect ChatGPT](/docs/assistants/connect-chatgpt)**: BitterClip isn't in ChatGPT's
  plugin directory yet, so you add it as a custom app in **Developer mode**.

Connecting is all you need. BitterClip's built-in Agent already receives the
editing skills. For Claude Code and Codex, an optional
[plugin](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing) provides those skills
alongside the connection.

If the connection doesn't take or your recordings don't show up, the
[troubleshooting guide](/docs/help/troubleshooting) covers the usual fixes, and you can
always reach us:

::support-contact
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-chatgpt
    label: Connect ChatGPT
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-claude
    label: Connect Claude
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip in the browser
  - to: /docs/getting-started/what-is-bitterclip
    label: What is BitterClip?
---
::

---

# Connect ChatGPT
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/assistants/connect-chatgpt
Description: Add BitterClip to ChatGPT as a custom app in Developer mode, check the connection, then make your first clip.

# Connect ChatGPT

BitterClip isn't listed in ChatGPT's plugin directory yet, so you add it yourself as a
custom app. This page walks you through adding it, checking the connection without
changing anything, and making your first clip.

::callout{type="note"}
Custom apps need ChatGPT's **Developer mode**, which depends on your plan, and a workspace
admin may need to allow it. What a custom app can change also depends on your plan and
workspace. If ChatGPT can read your recordings but won't make changes, it can still find
and explain moments, and you finish the cut in BitterClip's browser editor.
::

## Before you start

::connect-prereqs
::

## Add BitterClip in ChatGPT

::assistant-connection-intro
::

1. Open ChatGPT **Settings → Security and login** and turn on **Developer mode**. Your workspace may require an admin to make this available.
2. Open the top-level **Plugins** page at `chatgpt.com/plugins` and click the plus button.
3. Enter **Name** — BitterClip — and a short description.
4. Under **Connection**, choose the public **Server URL** method and paste the address above (it ends in `/mcp`): `https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp`.
5. Create the connection. ChatGPT discovers BitterClip's sign-in setup automatically; sign in to BitterClip when prompted.
6. Review the tools ChatGPT discovered.

::callout{type="note"}
ChatGPT moves its menus and labels around, so the exact wording can differ. Stuck? See
[Troubleshooting](/docs/help/troubleshooting).
::

## Sign in to BitterClip

If ChatGPT asks you to connect BitterClip, complete the BitterClip sign-in window, then
review the discovered tools.

The connection renews itself in the background, so you shouldn't need to sign in again. If
ChatGPT ever asks you to reconnect, click **Connect**; you don't need to remove and re-add
BitterClip.

::callout{type="warning"}
ChatGPT's plugin information says it may share relevant chats and memories with a connected
app. Before using customer recordings, review your ChatGPT Memory and privacy settings and
only include context you intend to share. That broader context is not needed just to prove
the connection works.
::

## Check the connection before making anything

Start a fresh chat and ask:

> "Using BitterClip, list my three latest episodes with their titles and lengths. Don't
> open, edit, render, or publish anything."

That cleanly proves ChatGPT can reach your BitterClip account without mixing setup with an
edit or render.

Then test the read-only editor handoff:

> "Using BitterClip, open my most recent ready episode read-only in the BitterClip
> workspace. Don't place review points or change anything."

The transcript workspace should appear in the conversation when the current ChatGPT surface
supports the interactive MCP workspace.

## Make your first clip in chat

This needs a connection that can make changes (see the plan note at the top of this
page). With a read-only connection, ChatGPT can still explain what it found and you
continue in BitterClip's browser.

If your account is empty, upload a recording first so there's something to clip. The
[browser walkthrough](/docs/getting-started/your-first-clip) shows you how. Once you have
one, just ask:

::example-clip-prompt{prompt="Pull up my latest interview and find the strongest moment."}
::

ChatGPT can inspect the Episode and point to a promising stretch. If your connection can
make changes, it can save a review point and prepare the Episode editor. Inspect the
source and choose the cut there; asking for a Clip saves an editable cut, while asking
for an Export starts a separate render. A read-only connection can explain its findings
and direct you to continue in BitterClip's browser.

::chat-vs-web-app
::

## Nothing posts until you set it up

::approval-promise
::

## Troubleshooting

If the connection won't show up, the sign-in window doesn't open, or a clip doesn't
appear the way you expected, see [Troubleshooting](/docs/help/troubleshooting).

::signup-cta
::

## Next steps

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-claude
    label: Connect Claude instead
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip in the browser
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
---
::

---

# Connect Claude
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/assistants/connect-claude
Description: Add BitterClip to Claude as a Connector and review your first source-backed clip.

# Connect Claude

Connect BitterClip to Claude once and you can make clips just by asking. After that,
the BitterClip tools and a live transcript editor show up right inside your
conversation. Here's how to set it up and pull your first clip.

## Before you start

::connect-prereqs
::

::callout{type="note"}
Claude supports custom connectors on Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. A Free
account can add one custom connector, so BitterClip can be that one.
::

## Add BitterClip as a connector in Claude

::assistant-connection-intro
::

The quickest way is one click:

::add-to-claude
::

To add it by hand instead: Claude keeps Skills, Connectors, Plugins, and Settings as
separate sections under **Customize**, and BitterClip goes under **Connectors**.

1. In Claude, open **Customize → Connectors** and click **+ → Add custom connector**.
2. In **Step 1 of 2**, fill in:
   - **Name** — BitterClip
   - **URL** — paste the address above (it ends in `/mcp`): `https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp`
3. Click **Continue**. Leave OAuth Client ID and Secret blank if the next step shows
   advanced settings; BitterClip and Claude discover the connection automatically.
4. Finish adding the connector.

## Connect and sign in

BitterClip now shows up in **Customize → Connectors**. If it shows a **Connect** button,
click it. Claude opens BitterClip so you can sign in. When you return, the row should say
**Connected**.

The connection renews itself in the background, so you shouldn't need to sign in again. If
Claude ever shows **Connection expired**, click **Connect**; you don't need to remove and
re-add BitterClip.

## Enable BitterClip in this conversation

Connected and enabled are separate. In the chat composer, click **+ → Connectors** and make
sure BitterClip is checked for this conversation. You can turn it off there whenever the
conversation does not need access to your recordings.

::callout{type="tip"}
Claude's BitterClip page groups tools as **Interactive**, **Read-only**,
**Write/delete**, and **App-only**. Keep Interactive and Write/delete tools on **Needs
approval**. To reduce prompts, allow only the exact reads you trust—such as **List episodes**
and **Read an episode**—instead of changing a whole group to Always allow.
::

Claude conservatively puts **Check render status** in Write/delete. Checking does not start
or charge a render, but it may tidy the delivery record for a finished Clip, so leaving it
on **Needs approval** is the honest default.

::callout{type="note"}
Claude moves its menus around now and then, so the wording can differ. The shape stays the
same: **Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector**, point it at the BitterClip address
above, authorize it, then enable it in the conversation where you want to use it.
::

You'll know it worked when BitterClip's tools turn up in your conversation and Claude can
answer about your recordings.

Before asking Claude to cut anything, try this small check:

> "Using BitterClip, list my three latest episodes with their titles and lengths. Don't
> open, edit, render, or publish anything."

That proves the connector is enabled and signed in without changing your work.

## Make your first clip in chat

If your account is empty, upload a recording first so there's something to clip. You
can do that from the [browser walkthrough](/docs/getting-started/your-first-clip). Once
you have a recording, ask Claude in plain words:

::example-clip-prompt
::

## Review and export in the editor

Claude can inspect the Episode, explain a promising stretch, and save a review point.
Ask it to prepare the Episode editor when you want to inspect the source. A host that
supports BitterClip's interactive workspace can open it in the conversation; you can
also open the same Episode in BitterClip's browser. Check the words, speakers, and
boundaries before asking for an editable Clip.

Keep talking to Claude to revise the cut ("start it on her question," "trim the last few
seconds"), or edit it in the browser. When the Clip looks right, ask Claude to render
an Export. Rendering is a separate step; the exact finished version appears in your
Project once it is ready.

::chat-vs-web-app
::

## Nothing posts until you set it up

::approval-promise
::

## Troubleshooting

If Claude says no BitterClip tools are available even though Customize shows
the connector as Connected, open **+ → Connectors** in that conversation and
turn BitterClip on. Account-level connection and conversation-level enablement
are separate; without the toggle Claude may try an unrelated artifact or code
tool instead.

The finished BitterClip card can mount even when Claude's prose says it cannot
confirm what the host displayed. Trust the visible card: it should show the
Clip title, Ready status, Play preview, Download MP4, and Open in editor. The
model's tool summary and the host's rendered UI are separate evidence layers.

If a connection won't stick or a clip doesn't show up, see the
[troubleshooting guide](/docs/help/troubleshooting).

::signup-cta
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/assistants/overview
    label: Using BitterClip from your assistant
  - to: /docs/assistants/connect-chatgpt
    label: Connect ChatGPT instead
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make a clip in the browser
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
---
::

---

# Install BitterClip in Claude Code or Codex
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/assistants/install
Description: Instructions an AI agent follows to connect BitterClip in Claude Code or Codex, have the person sign in, verify, and hand off to editing.

# Install BitterClip in Claude Code or Codex

This page is written for AI agents installing BitterClip in Claude Code or Codex.
BitterClip's built-in Agent already has the editing skills; it needs no plugin
installation. People can use the [connect page](/connect), which also covers
Claude and ChatGPT.

To have an agent install BitterClip, send it this message. In Codex, start it with `/goal`.

```text
Read https://bitterclip.com/docs/assistants/install and follow it exactly to install BitterClip, then tell me how to start.
```

## Installation contract

- **Server:** `https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp`, streamable HTTP with OAuth sign-in. Server
  name: `bitterclip`; Claude Code lists the plugin's server as `plugin:bitterclip:bitterclip`.
- Use only the section for the client you are running in. Do not install into both Claude
  Code and Codex because both are present.
- Inspect first. If a working `bitterclip` server already points at the address above, keep
  it and go to verification. Preserve unrelated servers and configuration.
- The person signs in to BitterClip in their own browser and clicks **Allow**. Never ask for a
  password, cookie or token, and never add a bearer token or authorization header.
- Installation ends after verification and the handoff. Do not upload media, create
  projects, edit, render or publish while installing.
- Report the client, the server address, sign-in and verification separately. If a step is
  still pending, such as a new session or sign-in, name it instead of saying the installation
  is ready.

## Install in Claude Code

1. Inspect the current configuration:

   ```bash
   claude plugin list
   claude mcp get plugin:bitterclip:bitterclip
   ```

2. If the BitterClip plugin is missing, add its marketplace and install it for this user.
   It brings the connection and BitterClip's editing skills:

   ```bash
   claude plugin marketplace add sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing
   claude plugin install bitterclip@bitterclip
   ```

   If this Claude Code cannot install plugins, add the connection alone instead and say so
   in your report:

   ```bash
   claude mcp add --scope user --transport http bitterclip https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp
   ```

3. Sign in. The plugin loads in a new session. Ask the person to start one, run `/mcp`,
   choose BitterClip, then **Authenticate**. Their browser opens BitterClip; they sign in and
   click **Allow**. Ask:

   ```text
   Please start a new Claude Code session, run /mcp, choose BitterClip and authenticate. Sign in to BitterClip in the browser window that opens and click Allow, then let me know.
   ```

4. Verify. `claude mcp get plugin:bitterclip:bitterclip` (or `claude mcp get bitterclip`
   for the connection alone) must show `https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp` and a connected
   status. In a session where BitterClip's tools are loaded, call `projects_list` with `{}`:
   a structured response proves an authenticated read that changes nothing.

5. Hand off. Tell the person to start a new Claude Code session in a folder without a code
   repository, since the work is a video, and send:

   ```text
   Using BitterClip, help me make my first clip. Briefly explain how you can help, then show my recent recordings or help me upload one.
   ```

## Install in Codex

1. Find the executable. The ChatGPT desktop app bundles Codex at
   `/Applications/ChatGPT.app/Contents/Resources/codex` on macOS. Use it when present;
   otherwise use `codex` on the shell path.

   ```bash
   /Applications/ChatGPT.app/Contents/Resources/codex --version || codex --version
   ```

2. Inspect the current configuration:

   ```bash
   codex plugin list
   codex mcp list
   ```

3. If the BitterClip plugin is missing, add its marketplace and install it. It brings the
   connection and BitterClip's editing skills:

   ```bash
   codex plugin marketplace add https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing.git --ref main
   codex plugin add bitterclip@bitterclip
   ```

   If this Codex cannot install plugins, add the connection alone and say so in your report:

   ```bash
   codex mcp add bitterclip --url https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp
   ```

4. Sign in. The command opens the person's browser, where they sign in to BitterClip and
   click **Allow**. Wait for it to report success. If a browser window opened, do not also
   open the URL it prints: the sign-in callback works once.

   ```bash
   codex mcp login bitterclip
   ```

5. Verify. `codex mcp list` must show `bitterclip` at `https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp`. The
   tools load in a new task, whose first `projects_list` call proves the authenticated read.

6. Hand off. Create a new task with the starter prompt below if this client lets you, or ask
   the person to start one, then end with one line saying the installation is done and where
   to continue.

   ```text
   Using BitterClip, help me make my first clip. Briefly explain how you can help, then show my recent recordings or help me upload one.
   ```

## Troubleshooting

- **Sign-in fails or is refused:** repeat the client's sign-in step. After the first sign-in
  the connection renews itself.
- **`GET https://app.bitterclip.com/mcp` returns 405:** expected for this transport; it is
  not an authentication test.
- **The server is missing after installation:** start a new session or task, then inspect
  again.
- **A tool call is refused:** BitterClip's response says why and what to do; relay it to the
  person.

The [BitterClip plugin](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing) is the source of
the marketplaces above.

---

# Connect YouTube
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/connect/youtube
Description: Connect a YouTube channel as a publishing destination, and clear the Brand-Account trap that quietly breaks the connection.

# Connect YouTube

Once you connect a channel, BitterClip can post your finished clips to YouTube for you. One thing trips up almost everyone: the Google account you sign in with has to be able to act as the channel, and most channels live behind a Brand Account rather than a plain Gmail. Get that part right and the connection holds.

## Before you start

::connect-prereqs
::

## What connecting YouTube lets you do

::connector-scopes{connector="youtube"}
::

## Set your destination channel first

Before you connect anything, tell BitterClip which channel you're publishing to. Open **Settings** in the app, go to **Publishing accounts**, and find the YouTube row.

The simplest way to fill it in: open your channel in a browser, copy the web address from the address bar, and paste it into the channel field. A YouTube Studio, Videos, or Shorts URL all work. (If you happen to know your channel ID, the one that starts with `UC`, you can paste that instead.)

Save it, then connect. The connect flow has to know which channel to aim at, so if you skip this step it won't have a target to look for.

::callout{type="tip"}
If you already have the channel open in YouTube Studio, the address in your browser bar is exactly what you need. Copy it and paste it straight in.
::

## Connect with the right Google account

With your destination channel saved, choose **Connect** and sign in with Google. At Google's "Choose an account" step, pick the account that can actually manage that channel. This is where most people get stuck. Here's the trap and how to get past it:

::you-tube-brand-account-warning
::

Channel still won't show up? The heads-up above is almost always why. A YouTube Studio "manager" role is not the same as Brand Account access. Get yourself added on the Brand Account, choose it at the Google sign-in step, and the channel appears.

## Publishing privacy and defaults

You decide how your YouTube uploads behave by default in **Settings**, under **Publishing defaults**. That's where you set the privacy for uploads: private, unlisted, or public. The control stays greyed out until you've saved a destination channel and connected it, so sort the connection out first.

::callout{type="note"}
YouTube account restrictions or BitterClip's current upload policy can make an upload
private even when you requested a wider audience. Review the effective privacy shown
in BitterClip before confirming the exact post.
::

## Posting to YouTube alongside X and LinkedIn

If you prepare the same clip for several channels, a LinkedIn package can include the YouTube link when its video needs a link instead of a native upload. Publish the YouTube package first so the link exists, then review and confirm the exact LinkedIn package. A long video for X uses a manual handoff.

## Reconnecting later

::reconnect-note{connector="youtube"}
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
    label: Publish a clip
  - to: /docs/connect/x
    label: Connect X
  - to: /docs/connect/linkedin
    label: Connect LinkedIn
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
---
::

---

# Connect X
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/connect/x
Description: Connect X so BitterClip can post your clips to your feed, including how the sign-in works and when to reconnect.

# Connect X

Once X is connected, BitterClip can post a finished clip to your feed for you. This page walks through the sign-in and what you're agreeing to.

## Before you start

::connect-prereqs
::

## What connecting X lets you do

When you connect, X asks you to approve the permissions below. Each one does this:

::connector-scopes{connector="x"}
::

One of those permissions lets BitterClip read your posts. That's so a clip can go out as a short thread when it makes sense, with the parts in the right order.

## Connect X

1. Open **Settings** in the BitterClip app.
2. Find X under **Publishing accounts** and click **Connect**.
3. Sign in to X and approve the permissions above.

When you return to BitterClip, the X row should show **Connected**.

::callout{type="tip"}
Sign in with the X account you actually want your clips posted to. Whatever account you authorize is the one BitterClip posts from. If the connection doesn't take, double-check you picked the right account, then try again.
::

## What gets posted, and when

::approval-promise
::

## Reconnecting

::reconnect-note{connector="x"}
::

## Next steps

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube
  - to: /docs/connect/linkedin
    label: Connect LinkedIn
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip
---
::

---

# Connect LinkedIn
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/connect/linkedin
Description: Connect LinkedIn so BitterClip can post your clips to your own feed.

# Connect LinkedIn

Hook up LinkedIn once and BitterClip can post your clips to your own feed for you. You
do the connecting here; from then on, publishing happens right inside BitterClip.

## Before you start

::connect-prereqs
::

## What connecting LinkedIn lets BitterClip do

When you connect, LinkedIn asks you to allow a few things. Here's what each one means in
plain words:

::connector-scopes{connector="linkedin"}
::

## Connect LinkedIn

1. Open **Settings** in the BitterClip app and find LinkedIn under **Publishing accounts**.
2. Choose **Connect**. BitterClip sends you over to LinkedIn to sign in.
3. Sign in as yourself and approve the permissions above. LinkedIn brings you back to
   BitterClip, and the channel shows as **Connected**.

Once connected, publishing a clip to LinkedIn works the same as any other channel. See
[Publish a clip](/docs/publishing/publish-a-clip).

## Posts go to your own feed

BitterClip posts your clips to your personal LinkedIn feed, as you. It can't post to a
company page or to someone else's account. Want a clip on a company page? Publish it to
your own feed first, then share it across to the page yourself.

## If you connected LinkedIn a while ago

::reconnect-note{connector="linkedin"}
::

If a LinkedIn post fails, your connection probably predates a permission LinkedIn now
requires. Reconnect to grant it, then try the post again. The same fix covers a post that
goes up but is missing its YouTube link in the comments.

## What gets posted, and when

::approval-promise
::

::callout{type="tip"}
Want the same opening copy on every post draft? You can set a shared post-body template
under **Settings → Publishing**, and it'll start your LinkedIn and X drafts for you. See
[Publish a clip](/docs/publishing/publish-a-clip) for the full list of publishing defaults.
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
    label: Publish a clip
  - to: /docs/connect/x
    label: Connect X
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube
  - to: /docs
    label: Back to the docs hub
---
::

---

# Connect Instagram
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/connect/instagram
Description: What the Connect Instagram button does today, and the dependable way to get your clips onto Instagram right now.

# Connect Instagram

Yes, there's a **Connect Instagram** button in Settings. To be straight with you, it can't post a clip to your feed for you yet, and that limit is on Meta's side, not ours. The good news is the path that does work is quick.

::connect-prereqs{:publishing="true"}
::

## What the Connect button does

Instagram shows up in **Settings** next to your other channels. The difference is under the hood. Connecting Instagram runs through Facebook, where you authorize a Facebook Page that has an Instagram professional account linked to it. That's Meta's requirement for any app that posts to Instagram, not a choice we made. If you post from a personal account (most creators do), there's nothing to connect there.

::instagram-capped-note
::

## The dependable path today

BitterClip does the part that's hard to do well: it finds the moment and cuts the clip cleanly. From there you download it, move it to your phone, and post it in the Instagram app. You handle the upload, so you write the caption and decide exactly how it goes out.

## Post a clip on Instagram, step by step

1. Make and export your clip in BitterClip. Exports keep your source's shape by default (a widescreen recording stays widescreen), and you can choose vertical or square when you export. For a Reel, pick vertical so the clip fills a phone screen.
2. Download the finished clip from BitterClip.
3. Get the file onto your phone. AirDrop it from a Mac, drop it in a shared cloud folder, or download it straight from your phone's browser.

::callout{type="note"}
You post Reels from the Instagram app on your phone, so the clip has to live on your phone first. If you exported on a computer, move the file over before the next step.
::

4. Save the video to your phone's camera roll.
5. Open the Instagram app and start a new Reel or post.
6. Pick the clip from your camera roll, add your caption, and share.

## What's coming

We'd like BitterClip to post to Instagram for you one day, and we're working toward it. When it lands, direct posting will still need what Meta requires: an Instagram professional account linked to a Facebook Page. Until then, the manual hand-off above is the reliable way through.

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
    label: Publish a clip
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
---
::

---

# Publish a clip
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/publishing/publish-a-clip
Description: Prepare a finished clip for connected channels, confirm the exact post in BitterClip, and check its status.

# Publish a clip

Once you've exported a clip, BitterClip can send it to your connected channels: YouTube,
LinkedIn, and X. Every prepared post waits for you to review and confirm the exact
video, copy, and destination before anything goes out.

(Instagram works differently. There's no reliable one-click posting to it yet, so you hand
the clip to your phone instead. See [Connect Instagram](/docs/connect/instagram) for the way
that works today.)

## Before you start

::connect-prereqs{:publishing="true"}
::

New here? Make a clip first in [Your first clip](/docs/getting-started/your-first-clip). The
clip needs to finish exporting before you can publish it, because publishing sends that
rendered output.

## Prepare a post for review

Preparing a post creates a draft. It does not publish anything.

::approval-promise
::

## Confirm the exact package

::callout{type="note"}
A **package** is just your finished post for one channel: the clip, the caption that goes
with it, and where it's headed. Think of it as the post staged for you to check, not yet
sent.
::

When you ask BitterClip to publish, it builds one of these packages for each channel. You
look it over, read the caption, check the destination, watch the clip, and confirm the
exact package in BitterClip.

The package stays a draft until you confirm it. Preparing it never sends it.

::callout{type="tip"}
You can ask Claude, or ChatGPT when your connection can make changes, to prepare the
publication. The assistant can open the review; confirm the exact displayed package in
BitterClip only when it reads right. If your ChatGPT connection can only read, use the
BitterClip browser workspace instead.
::

## Publish a whole episode at once

You don't have to prepare one clip at a time, and you don't have to repeat yourself for each
channel. BitterClip can take a whole episode's finished output and prepare it for YouTube,
LinkedIn, and X in one step. It builds one reviewable package per channel; confirm each
package before it goes out.

A channel counts as ready when it's connected and still has permission to post. A channel you
connected a while ago can go stale and need reconnecting. The note at the bottom of this page
points you to each channel's setup.

## Publishing a longer, assembled video

The same publishing flow works when you've stitched several pieces into a longer video, not
just a single clip. Once that longer video has finished rendering, you review and send it the
same way: one reviewable package per channel, each requiring your exact confirmation.

## Check on a post after publishing

Publishing runs in the background, so a post can take a moment to land. You can check the
status of anything you've sent, in the BitterClip app or by asking your assistant in chat, to
see whether it's still working, finished, or waiting on you.

If a post simply fails, BitterClip flags it for review. Open it, fix what it points to (often
a caption, or a channel that needs reconnecting), and try again. For a stuck post that won't
clear, see [Troubleshooting](/docs/help/troubleshooting).

## If a post needs a second look

Sometimes BitterClip can't tell whether a post actually went out. When that happens, it asks
you to check the channel before retrying instead of failing outright. Don't hit publish
again. Go look at the channel first, because the post may already be live, and republishing
would create a duplicate. Once you've confirmed what's really there, BitterClip can bring its
record back in line.

::callout{type="warning"}
A "verify before retrying" prompt means BitterClip isn't sure the post made it. Check the
channel before you try again, so you don't post the same clip twice.
::

## Where your publishing defaults live

You don't have to set the same things every time. In the BitterClip app, open **Settings**
and find the **Publishing defaults** section. You can set, in this order:

- **Platforms**: the channels a new package goes to by default.
- **YouTube privacy**: the requested starting privacy of a YouTube upload. A service
  policy or YouTube restriction may make the effective upload private.
- **Default tags**.
- **Post body template**: default copy for your X or LinkedIn posts.

Set these once and every new package starts from them.

::callout{type="note"}
Each channel has its own setup steps worth knowing first. See
[Connect YouTube](/docs/connect/youtube), [Connect X](/docs/connect/x), and
[Connect LinkedIn](/docs/connect/linkedin) for the sign-in details and reconnect steps,
including the channel-account trap that quietly breaks YouTube connections.
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/find-and-share-clips
    label: Find and share your clips
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube
  - to: /docs/connect/x
    label: Connect X
  - to: /docs/connect/linkedin
    label: Connect LinkedIn
---
::

---

# FAQ
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/help/faq
Description: Quick answers to the questions creators ask most about BitterClip: cost, coding, where it runs, where your clips live, and publishing.

# FAQ

Short answers to the things people ask before they get started. If your question isn't here, the [troubleshooting guide](/docs/help/troubleshooting) covers the common snags, and you can always reach a human.

## What does BitterClip cost?

Creator is $1 for your first 7 days (card required), then $24/month. Cancel anytime; the $1
isn't refunded. Bring one recording up to
two hours. The trial includes $5 of agent work while balance remains, and its Exports are
watermarked. You can add exactly $20, $50, or $100 of agent work during an active trial or
paid plan. Top-ups never auto-activate paid Creator; early activation requires a separate
explicit $24 authorization. Clean Exports unlock after the first $24 monthly payment.
Paid Creator includes 10 source-footage hours, $10 of agent work, and files up to 4 GB.
Producer is $99/month with 40 source-footage hours, $40 of agent work, and files up to 20
GB. There is no recurring Free plan. If you cancel, your existing work stays available so
you can return without losing it; new processing may require an active plan.

::signup-cta
::

## Do I need to know how to code?

No. BitterClip is built for creators, not developers. There's nothing to install, no config files, and no commands to run. You upload a recording, pick the part you want to keep, and BitterClip handles the rest. If you can highlight text, you can make a clip.

## What happens after I upload?

BitterClip transcribes the recording for you, lining up every word with the audio. Once that's done, you open the episode and pick the part you want, either in the browser or by chatting with your assistant. How long the transcription takes depends on how long your recording is, but you can leave the page and come back to it later.

## Can I bring over all the videos I uploaded to YouTube?

Yes. Export your own uploads with Google Takeout, then give BitterClip the ZIP file or all
parts of a split archive. You can review the videos, choose one Project, and import each
selected video as its own Episode. This does not download other people's videos and does not
publish anything. Follow [Import your YouTube archive](/docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout)
for the full walkthrough.

## Does it work with ChatGPT, Claude, or both?

Both, but the connection rules are different today. Claude lets every plan add
a custom connector (Free accounts can add one). In ChatGPT, BitterClip isn't in the
plugin directory yet, so you add it as a custom app in Developer mode; what it can
change depends on your plan and workspace. The
[assistant guide](/docs/assistants/overview)
walks through both paths. You can always skip the assistant and work in your browser.

## Do I have to use an AI assistant, or can I use the browser?

Either one. The clipping itself works the same whether you chat or click, and your recordings, episodes, and clips show up in both places.

::chat-vs-web-app
::

## Where do my recordings and clips live?

In your BitterClip workspace. Uploaded recordings stay there, and every clip you export lands in your project's Outputs tab, the gallery of finished clips, ready to download or share.

::how-the-cut-works
::

The [find and share guide](/docs/getting-started/find-and-share-clips) shows where everything ends up.

## Will it post to my channels without asking?

You're in control. First you connect a channel yourself (see [connect your channels](/docs/connect/youtube)). Every prepared post then waits for you to review and confirm it in BitterClip before anything goes out.

::approval-promise
::

You can read the whole flow on the [publish a clip](/docs/publishing/publish-a-clip) page.

## Can two people work on one episode or one project?

Yes, in two ways.

First, one episode can be built from more than one recording:

::what-is-episode
::

Second, you can invite an editor or client into a project. They get an invite link, accept it, and then they can pull their own clips from your recordings, in the browser or by connecting their own assistant. The [projects and collaborators](/docs/getting-started/projects-and-collaborators) page covers inviting people.

## What file types can I upload?

Any common video or audio file. Podcasts, interviews, calls, recorded streams: if your device sees it as video or audio, you can upload it and BitterClip will transcribe it.

Large files are fine too. How big you can go depends on your plan. If a file gets rejected, it's almost always because your device didn't label it as video or audio. Re-export it through a normal recorder or editor so it comes out as a standard video or audio file, and it'll go through.

## Still have a question?

::support-contact
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Make your first clip
  - to: /docs/getting-started/projects-and-collaborators
    label: Invite a collaborator
  - to: /docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout
    label: Import your YouTube archive
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect your channels
  - to: /docs/help/troubleshooting
    label: Troubleshooting
---
::

---

# Troubleshooting
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/help/troubleshooting
Description: The most common snags people hit with BitterClip, each with a quick fix.

# Troubleshooting

Hit a snag? Find your problem below and try the fix.

## I get asked to verify my email before I can do something

If you just signed up, check this first. Transcribing a recording costs us real money to run, so we hold it until you've confirmed your address. That means uploading and transcribing are both blocked until you verify. You'll see a banner in the app that says "Verify your email to unlock transcription."

When you signed up, we sent you an email with a verification link. Open it, click the link, and you're set. If you can't find it, check your spam folder. You can also hit the **Resend email** button in the banner at the top of the app while you're signed in.

::callout{type="tip"}
If you signed up with Google, your email is already verified, since Google has confirmed your address.
::

## My recording isn't showing up as an episode yet

When you upload a recording, BitterClip turns it into its own **episode** automatically. An episode is the stitched transcript timeline you actually work in.

If you just signed up and nothing uploaded, check the email-verification step above first: an unverified account can't upload yet.

If the upload went through, the episode isn't instant. Transcribing takes a little time, longer for long files. Give it a few moments and refresh. It'll appear once the transcript is ready.

## My Zoom recording did not arrive

First confirm that Zoom finished processing a **cloud recording**. A recording stored only
on your computer does not enter the automatic import.

In BitterClip, click your name or avatar, then **Settings**. Scroll to **Recording import →
Zoom** and check the status and destination Project. If the row says **Configured**, click
**Check for updates** and look under **Recent Zoom deliveries**. Click **Open Capture
Session** when that action appears for the meeting.

If the meeting says **Needs attention**, read the recovery sentence on the row. Click **Retry
Zoom import** once only when that action is offered, then **Open Capture Session** to watch
its progress. Keep the original recording in Zoom. If the Capture Session exists, preserve
the files already there and use **Browse files** only for missing footage. If there is no
Capture Session and no retry, click **Open target Project**, **Add footage**, then **Browse
files**. The full [Zoom cloud recording guide](/docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording)
includes the exact click path and verification checklist.

Never send a Zoom download link, passcode, client secret, or webhook secret in a support
message. The meeting topic, approximate end time, and BitterClip status are enough to start
diagnosis.

## A clip is still processing, or my export is "pending"

Exporting a clip runs in the background so you can keep working. Depending on the length and how busy things are, it can take a bit to finish.

You don't have to sit and wait. Finished clips land in your project's Outputs tab, so check there when you come back and it'll show as ready once the cut is done. See [Find and share your clips](/docs/getting-started/find-and-share-clips) for where to look.

## My file got rejected when I tried to upload it

BitterClip takes any common video or audio file. When an upload bounces, it's almost always because your device tagged the file as something other than audio or video, not because of its name or extension.

The fix is to re-export it as a standard format (mp4 or mov for video, mp3 for audio) and upload that. One more thing to check: very large files depend on your plan, so if a long recording won't go through, that may be the reason.

## My YouTube archive import is missing videos

First, make sure you selected every ZIP part from the same Google Takeout export. A 2 GB
archive size can produce many parts, and a missing part can hold videos or their metadata.

If the files are all there, check which Google account created the export. Channels attached
to a Brand Account need an export made while that Brand Account is selected. Also confirm
that videos were included under **YouTube and YouTube Music** in Takeout. The
[YouTube archive import guide](/docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout) covers the exact
setup and how to continue a batch without duplicating completed Episodes.

## My YouTube channel doesn't show up when I connect

If you're connecting YouTube and your channel never appears, two things are usually behind it.

First, set your destination channel before you connect. Open **Settings**, find the YouTube section, and paste your channel URL or ID. The connect flow needs a target to aim at, so it can't find your channel if you haven't told it which one.

Second, sign in with the right account:

::you-tube-brand-account-warning
::

The full walkthrough is in [Connect YouTube](/docs/connect/youtube).

## A channel says "Reconnect required"

::reconnect-note{connector="youtube"}
::

## A speaker has the wrong name

If a speaker is labeled wrong, you can fix it yourself. Open the recording where they appear, click the speaker's name in the transcript, and type the correct one. BitterClip updates the captions to match, so your clips show the right person.

## Instagram won't post my clip automatically

::instagram-capped-note
::

For the full picture, see [Connect Instagram](/docs/connect/instagram).

## A post got stuck and asks me to "verify before retrying"

Sometimes a publish ends in a spot where BitterClip isn't sure whether your post actually went out. When that happens, it pauses and asks you to check before doing anything else.

::callout{type="warning"}
Don't hit publish again. A second try could post your clip twice. Open the channel you were posting to, confirm whether the clip is already there, and go from what you find.
::

If the clip did post, keep it; BitterClip can bring its record back in line. If you don't see it, or you can't tell, [reach out](#still-stuck) before retrying. A delayed post may still land, so an empty channel page is not proof that another send is safe.

## Still stuck

::support-contact
::

::next-steps
---
links:
  - to: /docs/getting-started/your-first-clip
    label: Your first clip
  - to: /docs/getting-started/import-youtube-takeout
    label: Import your YouTube archive
  - to: /docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording
    label: Import a Zoom cloud recording
  - to: /docs/connect/youtube
    label: Connect YouTube
  - to: /docs/connect/instagram
    label: Connect Instagram
  - to: /docs/changelog
    label: What's new
---
::

---

# What's new
Source: https://bitterclip.com/docs/changelog
Description: A running list of notable changes to BitterClip, newest first.

# What's new

This is a running list of the changes worth knowing about. Newest is at the top, and we keep each entry short so you can skim the page in a minute.

## Recent updates

### Zoom cloud recordings can become Episodes automatically

For studios with Zoom import enabled, a completed cloud recording can now arrive as a
Capture Session and build an editable Episode in the configured Project. Settings shows the
destination, recent deliveries, current progress, and either a retry when one is safe or the
manual recovery path. Follow [Import a Zoom cloud recording](/docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording)
for the exact click path and first-meeting checklist.

### Creator trial and paid plans

The Creator trial lasts seven days and requires a card: $1 today for your first seven days,
then $24/month starting when those seven days end unless you cancel before then. The $1 is
a separate introductory payment, not a credit toward the monthly price. Cancelling stops the
monthly charge; it does not refund the $1. Once the payment method is accepted and the trial
starts, Billing shows your exact cancel-before time. The trial includes $5 of agent work for
one recording up to two hours. Trial exports are watermarked; clean exports unlock after the
first $24 monthly payment. Exactly $20, $50, and $100 top-ups are available during an active
trial or paid plan and do not activate paid Creator early. Producer is $99/month. There is no recurring Free plan. If you cancel, your existing work
stays available so you can return without losing it; new processing may require an active
plan.

### Give your show a signature look

Every project now has an FX tab. Pick a signature effect, add your logo and
colors as a dark or light brand pack, and your clips open and close with a
branded title card — with the episode's own title rendered right into the
video. The full-screen Signature Studio lets you audition motion and sound
together and save looks to your library, so your whole catalog stays
consistent. Read the [Identity Studio launch post](/blog/your-show-has-a-signature-now)
for the full story.

### Your assistant can design your opener

Hand ChatGPT or Claude your logo and describe the feel you want. It builds
your brand pack, designs the opening animation itself, previews frames of its
own work, and refines until it looks right — then saves it as your project's
opener. See the [assistants overview](/docs/assistants/overview) to get
connected.

### Public download links for finished clips

You can now create a public link to any rendered video — a direct MP4
download that works anywhere and expires on its own (7 days by default, up to
14). Use it to hand a clip to a client or pass it into other tools like
Zapier without exporting and re-uploading. Ask your assistant for "a public
link to that render."

### Fix a speaker's name from chat

Spotted a mislabeled speaker? Ask your assistant to rename them. The
transcript and the captions on future renders pick up the correction.

### Cut several moments into one video

Ask your assistant for a montage: give it the moments in order and it builds
a single video, with branded intro and outro blocks if your project has them.
It flags edges that may need a closer listen before rendering.

### See what's on screen, right in chat

Ask your assistant to pull frames from a moment and a small gallery appears
in the conversation. Pick the frame you mean and download it — useful for
thumbnails and for checking what the camera saw.

### Sharper automatic titles and descriptions

On paid plans, new uploads get titles, descriptions, and chapters written by
a stronger pipeline that reads the whole recording — not just the first few
minutes.

### Uploads that tell you the truth

The uploader now shows your plan's limits up front and reports problems in
the upload tile itself instead of failing quietly. Project tabs are also
proper links now — back, refresh, and sharing a tab URL all behave.

### A guide site for creators
These help pages are new. They walk you through making your first clip, connecting ChatGPT or Claude, and getting clips out to YouTube, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Plain language, written for creators. Start with [your first clip](/docs/getting-started/your-first-clip).

### Earlier: free to start
Earlier signup opened a workspace without checkout or a trial clock. That offer has since
been replaced by the Creator trial described above.

### Post clips to your channels
You can connect YouTube, X, and LinkedIn and prepare finished clips for those channels. Every package now waits for your review and exact confirmation in BitterClip before it goes out. See the connect guides for [YouTube](/docs/connect/youtube), [X](/docs/connect/x), and [LinkedIn](/docs/connect/linkedin).

::callout{type="note"}
Instagram is a special case. You'll see a Connect button, but auto-posting to your feed is limited by Meta's rules. See the [Connect Instagram](/docs/connect/instagram) guide for the working path.
::

### Clip right inside your AI assistant
BitterClip connects to ChatGPT and Claude. Ask for a strong moment in an Episode, and your assistant can point you to source-backed evidence. Connections with write actions can save a review point and prepare the editor. The [assistants overview](/docs/assistants/overview) explains the host differences.

### Captions, built in
Clips export with captions burned right into the video, styled to sit cleanly in the frame. That's the default. If you turn captions off before you export, the video comes out without them.

## A note on subscribing

For now, this is a single page we update by hand. We may add a subscribable feed later; until then, this page is the place to look.

---

# Pi vs. DeepSeek Harness: why we chose Pi
Source: https://bitterclip.com/blog/pi-vs-deepseek-harness
Description: A concrete look at why BitterClip uses the Pi agent harness for its embedded AI agent, how it works, and when DeepSeek Harness would fit better.
Date: 2026-08-18
Author: Michael Ruescher, Founder

An early version of BitterClip's in-product agent got confused about a missing
tool, searched through the server filesystem, and then told us BitterClip could
not add background music.

BitterClip could add background music. The agent just couldn't see the right way
to do it.

That was the moment our harness decision became much simpler. Inside a video
editor, we did not want a coding agent with a side job. We wanted an agent that
could do exactly what BitterClip could do, through the same operations every
other client uses, and nothing else.

We chose the [Pi agent harness](https://pi.dev/) for that job.
[DeepSeek Harness](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness) arrived
after that decision, so this is not a story about rejecting it in a bake-off.
It is an impressive foundation and, for some products, the better choice. For
BitterClip, we would still choose Pi.

## What is an agent harness?

The model is the intelligence. The harness is everything that lets that
intelligence get work done: the conversation loop, tools, streaming, retries,
memory, compaction, and the connection to a user interface.

That makes the title easy to misread. This isn't Pi versus a DeepSeek model.
Both harnesses can call models from multiple providers. Can Pi run a DeepSeek
model? [Yes—DeepSeek publishes an official Pi integration guide](https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/agent_integrations/pi_mono/).
That is a separate decision from using DeepSeek Harness. In fact, one DeepSeek
Harness adapter uses Pi's lower-level
[`pi-ai`](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/blob/dsh-v0.1.0-rc.7/packages/llm/llm-pi-ai/README.md)
package.

Models and harnesses are separate choices. We can change the model without
rebuilding the product around it.

## What BitterClip actually needed

[BitterClip](/docs/getting-started/what-is-bitterclip) is a transcript-first
media workshop. You can ask the agent to find a moment, trim a section, create a
Clip, start a Render, or undo an edit without leaving the editor.

Most of that machinery already existed before the embedded agent. Rails owns
the recordings, transcripts, edit operations, permissions, revisions, renders,
and account boundaries. [ChatGPT and Claude already reach those operations
through BitterClip's MCP server](/docs/assistants/overview).

The new agent didn't need another workflow engine. It needed to become one
more careful client of the product we already had.

That gave us four requirements:

1. The model should see only BitterClip's MCP tools: no shell, filesystem,
   browser, skills, or subagents.
2. The editor should receive live text, progress, tool activity, cancellation,
   and usage events while the agent works.
3. Conversations should survive a reload, and the stored copy should stay with
   BitterClip.
4. The harness should remain replaceable without rewriting the editor or the
   product's operations.

Our internal shorthand is: **BitterClip remembers the video. The harness
remembers the conversation. MCP is the only way between them.**

## How we embedded Pi in BitterClip

Two protocols keep those jobs separate.
[ACP](https://agentclientprotocol.com/get-started/introduction) carries the
conversation between the editor and the agent.
[MCP](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/getting-started/intro) gives the model
a typed set of things BitterClip can do. In production, the path looks like
this:

```text
BitterClip editor
      │  ACP: prompts, progress, tool activity, cancellation
      ▼
Rails bridge
      │  ACP
      ▼
Pi session
      │  MCP: BitterClip tools only
      ▼
Rails operations, authorization, recordings, and edits
```

Pi owns the middle. Its
[SDK](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/blob/v0.84.1/packages/coding-agent/docs/sdk.md)
gives us the agent loop, streaming events, provider adapters, retries,
compaction, and tree-structured sessions. We wrote the two adapters around it:
an ACP server facing the editor and an MCP client facing BitterClip.

We use ACP's session and activity vocabulary, plus small BitterClip-specific
updates for save receipts and diagnostics. A replacement harness could keep the
editor and product operations, but its adapter would still need to implement
that contract.

The important part is how we create the session. This is a simplified version
of our Pi 0.84.1 setup:

```ts
const tools = await loadBitterClipMcpTools()
const names = tools.map((tool) => tool.name)

const { session } = await createAgentSession({
  tools: names,
  customTools: tools,
  excludeTools: ["read", "bash", "edit", "write", "grep", "find", "ls"],
  resourceLoader: lockedDownResourceLoader,
  sessionManager,
})
```

The allowlist comes straight from BitterClip's MCP server. If a tool isn't on
that list, Pi never registers it. We also turn off extension, skill,
prompt-template, theme, and context-file discovery, then replace Pi's coding
prompt with BitterClip's own prompt.

At startup, we inspect Pi's live tool registry and refuse to serve unless it
contains every expected BitterClip tool and zero built-ins.

That may sound fussy. It is cheaper than discovering later that an inactive
shell could be switched back on.

## Pi vs. DeepSeek Harness at a glance

The two projects overlap, but they start from different centers of gravity.

| Question | Pi in BitterClip | DeepSeek Harness v0.1.0-rc.7 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What do you start with? | A small TypeScript agent runtime with an SDK | A plugin-based agent platform with web and headless profiles |
| How do you customize it? | Construct a session in code with a prompt, model, tools, resources, and storage | Assemble or replace Cordis plugins |
| What does it provide? | Loop, streaming, retries, providers, compaction, and session history | Those foundations plus a UI, jobs, goals, workflows, subagents, policy, and more |
| Which tools reach the model? | The exact custom-tool allowlist we construct and check | The tools registered by the chosen plugin profile; the shipped base is broad but can be recomposed |
| How does its current ACP path fit our editor? | We own the adapter, including live deltas, tool traces, history loading, and BitterClip receipts | The upstream adapter creates fresh sessions and sends committed answers; live progress, tool activity, resume, fork, and delete are not exposed over ACP |
| What evidence do we have today? | Pi 0.84.1 is pinned and serving in BitterClip; upgrades still need tool-surface, migration, and resume tests | v0.1.0-rc.7 is a [developer preview](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/blob/dsh-v0.1.0-rc.7/README.md#developer-preview) whose maintainers warn of breaking changes |

DeepSeek Harness is aiming at a larger problem. That is precisely what makes it
interesting.

## What we like about DeepSeek Harness

DeepSeek Harness is built around one powerful idea:
[everything is a plugin](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/blob/dsh-v0.1.0-rc.7/docs/architecture.md).
Models, tools, sessions, policies, jobs, and the UI all plug into Cordis. Its
append-only session log makes runs easier to replay and inspect, and you can
replace one capability without forking the core.

If we were building a general agent workbench, that would be hard to ignore. The
web UI, job panel, goals, workflows, sandbox policies, and subagent providers
would save real work.

It isn't limited to the bundled web UI. DeepSeek Harness also has public agent
APIs and [an out-of-process TypeScript SDK](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/blob/dsh-v0.1.0-rc.7/packages/sdk/README.md)
for custom integrations. For agents that genuinely need shell and filesystem
access, its approval, policy, and sandbox seams provide controls Pi doesn't
supply by itself.

BitterClip already has a backend, an editor, jobs, permissions, and one
established set of editing operations. Putting another full platform in the
middle would force us to answer the same question over and over: does this state
belong to Rails or to the harness?

DeepSeek Harness can be pared down. That is one of its strengths. For
BitterClip, though, we would need to build a custom profile, keep conversation
data on our side of the boundary, extend ACP, and adapt its MCP tool names and
presentation to our existing editor. Most of that work would be spent making
the platform deliberately smaller.

The current upstream
[ACP adapter](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/blob/dsh-v0.1.0-rc.7/packages/acp/acp/README.md)
is the clearest example. The harness has live internal events—its own web UI uses
them—but the upstream ACP adapter is built for clean automation: create a fresh
session, submit a prompt, wait for a committed answer, cancel if needed. Our
interactive editor lets people watch tools run, reopen old conversations,
inspect what changed, and undo edits. We would have to extend the adapter before
the harness could replace what is serving today.

All of that is possible. It just wouldn't improve BitterClip enough to justify
the work today.

## Pi is not a security boundary

There is an important caveat. Pi's normal coding-agent experience includes
file and shell tools, and Pi
[doesn't provide a built-in permission system](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/blob/v0.84.1/README.md#permissions--containerization).
By default it runs with the permissions of its process.

Our safety doesn't come from the word “minimal.” It comes from the system we
built around the runtime:

- the unwanted tools are absent from the live registry, not hidden by the UI;
- the agent runs as a non-root user in a separate container, with bounded,
  private, non-executable temporary storage and no persistent volume;
- every product action goes back through Rails authorization;
- the model never chooses which account it is acting for; and
- agent edits carry a revision and receipt, so people can see exactly what
  changed and undo it.

The container is useful hardening, not a complete sandbox around Bun. This is
also why we don't call our setup “Pi out of the box.” We use Pi as a library
and take responsibility for the boundary.

## The tradeoffs we accepted

Pi is small, but the integration work is still ours. We own the ACP adapter, the
MCP-to-Pi tool bridge, conversation storage, and the tests around them.

There is another catch: Pi owns the format for conversation history. Rails
stores those session bytes without parsing the conversation itself. That keeps
us from quietly rebuilding Pi in Ruby, but upgrades need careful migration and
resume testing.

Finally, a narrow system can fail quietly. An empty allowlist leaves you with an
agent that chats perfectly and cannot do a thing. So startup checks both
failures: zero Pi built-ins and every expected BitterClip tool. That turns the
background-music failure from our opening into a boot error instead of a bad
answer in front of a user.

Those are real costs. They are still smaller than owning two product backends.

## When we would choose DeepSeek Harness instead

We would put DeepSeek Harness near the top of the list if the harness itself
were the product:

- a coding or research workbench with several frontends;
- a system where users assemble agents from plugins;
- a multi-agent environment with jobs, goals, workflows, and shared policy;
- a platform that needs a rich, replayable event model as its primary state; or
- a new product without an existing backend that already owns tools,
  authorization, and durable work.

In that situation, DeepSeek Harness's larger surface is not overhead. It is the
thing you would otherwise have to build.

## The five questions we would ask again

If you are choosing an agent harness for an application, start with the product
boundary rather than a feature matrix:

1. What must the model never be able to do?
2. Which system stores the real customer data and enforces permissions?
3. Do you need an agent platform, or only an agent loop inside an existing
   product?
4. At runtime, can you prove exactly which tools the model can use?
5. Can you replace the harness without replacing your product?

For BitterClip, those answers pointed to Pi. It isn't a universal winner. It
let us keep the agent narrow without rebuilding the parts of BitterClip that
already worked.

If we had to make the choice again, we would start with the same question: where
should the harness stop and the product begin?

---

*Version note: this field report describes BitterClip's pinned Pi 0.84.1
integration and DeepSeek Harness v0.1.0-rc.7, reviewed on August 18, 2026.
DeepSeek Harness is in developer preview and changing quickly. We will revisit
the comparison as its embedded interfaces mature.*

---

# Visual analysis in BitterClip just got a lot faster
Source: https://bitterclip.com/blog/gemini-3-7-multiple-witnesses
Description: Gemini 3.7 cut median model response time by 61% in our video tests, with no strong semantic difference from 3.6. So we upgraded and kept 3.6 as the fallback.
Date: 2026-08-14
Author: Michael Ruescher, Founder

Visual analysis in BitterClip just got a lot faster.

We upgraded our main visual model from Gemini 3.6 to Gemini 3.7. In matched
testing, median model response time fell from 27.8 seconds to 10.8 seconds. That
is a 61.1% lower response time. Estimated cost was 24.6% lower too.

We did not find a strong semantic difference between the two models in the
footage we reviewed. Both generally understood the scene. So we put the faster
one in front and kept Gemini 3.6 as the fallback.

The route there was less direct. Our first Gemini 3.7 production test went
backward in time.

The model said a visual event began at 146 seconds and ended at 20.8 seconds. If
you were looking for a reason not to upgrade, there it was.

Then Gemini 3.6 did the same kind of thing.

That was the useful moment. We had blamed the new model before looking closely
at the question we were asking it.

## We were asking for too much

BitterClip uses Gemini to understand what is happening in a video and when it
happens. Our old response format asked for a precise start and end for every
visual observation:

```text
start_seconds: 146.0
end_seconds:    20.8
```

The numbers were individually valid. Together, they were impossible.

![A sanitized model response shows an impossible interval running from 146 seconds back to 20.8 seconds.](/images/blog/gemini-3-7-benchmark/timestamp-reversal.svg)

The deeper problem was that video often does not contain a clean ending. A
camera can show someone beginning a movement, then turn away while the movement
continues. Asking the model for an exact duration invites it to guess.

So we tried a smaller question: where can you actually see the thing?

```text
at_seconds: 146.0
```

That point is still a model claim, and BitterClip still has to check it against
the source. But it is a much cleaner unit of evidence. BitterClip can build a
short playback range around it for navigation without pretending the action
lasted for that whole range.

![A model-guessed duration is replaced by one model-authored evidence point and a separate playback range.](/images/blog/gemini-3-7-benchmark/evidence-point-contract.svg)

## What the testing showed

We ran 192 matched calls across the same two video chunks and four response
formats. We did not find a strong semantic difference between Gemini 3.6 and
3.7 in the material we reviewed. Both could understand the scene, and both
could produce bad timing under the old interval format.

The operational difference was clear:

| Fixed test workload | Gemini 3.6 | Gemini 3.7 |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Raw temporal checks passed | 94 / 96 | 92 / 96 |
| Median provider latency | 27.8 s | **10.8 s** |
| Estimated provider cost | $2.75 | **$2.08** |

Google charged both models at the same rate; 3.7 simply used fewer tokens in
this test. The point format also passed all 48 of its raw timing checks.

A larger follow-up stopped early because of a bug in our audit code, so we did
not use it to declare a benchmark winner. It did not change the practical read:
3.7 was much faster, a little cheaper, and not meaningfully different in the
footage we reviewed.

## We upgraded

We ran a strict two-chunk production canary, changed one model pin, and ran one
more live visual-path check. All three calls used Gemini 3.7 without falling
back or retrying.

Gemini 3.7 is now the primary model for BitterClip’s visual analysis. Gemini 3.6
remains the fallback. If wider use exposes a problem, we can put 3.6 back in
front with the same small pin change.

The point-format work remains separate from the model upgrade. The useful result
for people using BitterClip today is simpler: visual analysis now spends much
less time waiting on the model. We upgraded, kept a clean way back, and moved
on.

---

The comparison used 96 calls per model on two fixed silent video chunks. The
cost figures are rate-card estimates, not a reconciled provider bill. This was a
focused product test, not a general benchmark of video understanding.

---

# A condensed memory of the work
Source: https://bitterclip.com/blog/a-condensed-memory-of-the-work
Description: A coach we work with sends every client a highlight reel of their session — not as marketing, but as memory. That habit explains more about where BitterClip is going than any feature list.
Date: 2026-07-08
Author: Michael Ruescher, Founder

Andrew coaches strength athletes in person, and he films every session. When
a client drives home, a short reel follows them: the best lift of the day,
the fix that finally clicked, the rep that looked the way it's supposed to
look.

The first time he described this, we almost mis-heard it as a marketing
habit. It isn't. The reels are **part of the coaching**. A session is two
hours; what a client can hold onto is about ninety seconds. The reel is that
ninety seconds, a condensed memory of the work, something to replay between
visits. Reel after reel, they become a running record of progress, and that
continuity *is* the relationship.

We think that's what recordings are actually for.

## Most of what you record, you lose

Think about your own archive for a second. The podcast episodes, the client calls,
the coaching sessions, the interviews: hours of the realest material your
work produces, and almost all of it is write-only. You record it, store it,
and never open it again, because opening it costs too much. An hour of video
is an hour of your life to review.

The industry's answer has been to make more content out of it. Ten viral
clips from every episode. That treats your archive as ore for the feed, and
it misses what Andrew understands instinctively: the recording's first
audience is *the people who were in it*.

## Clips as citations

Everything BitterClip makes keeps a receipt. A clip isn't a loose file. It
points back to the exact words, the exact speaker, the exact seconds of the
source it came from. We think of a finished clip as a **citation**: a claim
about what mattered, with the evidence attached.

That's what makes the condensed-memory habit trustworthy. Andrew's reel
isn't "content inspired by Tuesday's session." It *is* Tuesday's session,
the true ninety seconds of it, with nothing invented in between. When he and
a client disagree about how the lift looked, the source is one step away.
The clip settles it, because the clip can prove where it came from.

And because your assistant can read the transcript, search it, and zoom into
the moment where someone actually said the thing, "find where we talked
about her grip" is a question, not an afternoon.

## The archive should age like wine

Here's where this goes, and we'll be plain that we're partway there: an
archive you can *study*, not just store.

Andrew doesn't have one session with a client. He has months of them, in
order. The good questions live across that sequence: what changed since
March, which cue finally worked, what to plan for next Tuesday. BitterClip
already gives you the pieces, with every session transcribed, every speaker
known, every moment addressable. The work ahead of us is making the
*sequence* as readable as the session, so your assistant can read a season
of work the way it reads an episode.

Most footage just sits in a folder somewhere. It piles up, and you never
really go back into it. Andrew's archive works the other way: every session
he adds makes the older ones more useful, because now there's a history to
read across. It actually gets better with age, like good wine.

That's the promise of recording everything: not more posts, but a memory of
your work that's condensed enough to hold onto and cited well enough to
trust.

---

# We stopped making templates
Source: https://bitterclip.com/blog/we-stopped-making-templates
Description: Every effect in BitterClip is real code — which means your AI assistant can write one, look at rendered frames of its own work, and make it better. Why we built motion design that way.
Date: 2026-07-08
Author: Michael Ruescher, Founder

Open any clip tool and you'll find the same thing: a wall of templates.
Hundreds of them. Someone designed each one eighteen months ago, and it shows
— they're frozen at whatever taste, trends, and tools existed the day they
shipped. Your job is to scroll until one feels close enough, and then live
with "close enough" forever.

We shipped Identity Studio without a template wall, and it wasn't an
oversight. It was the whole point.

## An effect is a program

In BitterClip, an opener isn't a video file with your logo composited on
top. It's a **scene** — a compact program with a stage, elements, and
motion, keyed to time and sound. This is what a minimal one looks like:

```js
export const scene = {
  id: 'my-scene',
  mount(ctx) {
    const root = document.createElement('div')
    root.className = 'scene my-scene'
    root.innerHTML = '<style>.my-scene{background:#000}</style><b>YOUR MARK</b>'
    ctx.layer.append(root)
    return { root }
  },
  frame(ctx) {
    // motion, keyed to ctx.sync.progress and the soundtrack's amplitude
    ctx.refs.root.style.opacity = ctx.sync.progress
  },
}
```

The real ones are richer — the Signal Lock effect that glitches your
wordmark into focus is a few hundred lines — but the shape is the same:
plain code, drawing on a stage, in time with sound. When your render bakes,
the scene bakes with it, into the actual MP4.

## Why code instead of templates

Because code is the one format that gets better on its own.

A template is a frozen decision. Code is a *language* — and the striking
thing about the last few years is that models have gotten very, very good at
languages. When motion design is code, your AI assistant can do what a
motion designer does: write a draft, **look at rendered frames of its own
work**, notice the wordmark is drifting or the beat lands late, revise, and
look again. That loop — write, preview, critique, revise — runs right inside
your ChatGPT or Claude conversation, against your brand pack, until the
opener feels intentional.

We watched an assistant that had never seen these tools take a logo and a
one-line brief and produce a working signature opener, end to end, in one
conversation. Not by picking template #47 — by writing the scene.

## The bet underneath

Here's the honest version of the bet: **models improve every quarter;
template libraries don't.**

If we shipped five hundred templates today, they'd be stale by spring, and
the only fix would be us designing five hundred more. Instead we shipped a
small set of signature effects we're proud of — and a contract that lets any
sufficiently good model author new ones. Every time the models get better at
code, at visual judgment, at taste, your ceiling rises. You didn't upgrade
anything. Your subscription didn't change. The tool underneath your
assistant just became a better designer.

That's the principle we build on across BitterClip: prefer general
mechanisms that ride the improvement curve over special-cased features that
freeze it. Effects-as-code is the most visible example — the same idea runs
through how assistants read transcripts, pick moments, and cut episodes.

## What stays yours

Here's the part I should be honest about, because I lived it: the fiddling
doesn't go away. It moves up a level.

The signature effects that ship with BitterClip — Signal Lock included —
were made in exactly this loop, and it took a long, iterative process to
get them right. But I never wrote a line of the code. I worked the way a
producer works: watch the take, react in plain language — "I want the
letters to feel like they're being smeared horizontally, but not
vertically," "the flash is too eager," "let it settle a beat later" — and
let the model translate taste into code. Less operating a timeline, more being Rick
Rubin on the couch: you don't play the instruments; you know when it's
right.

That's the job that's left, and it's the good part. You bring the brand,
the references, the "again, but calmer," and the final yes. The assistant
brings the hands. And because every scene is inspectable code bound to your
account, you can always open the lab, see exactly what it made, and change
your mind tomorrow.

The template wall asked you to settle. This asks you to produce.

*Your show, your taste, better hands every quarter.*

---

# Your show has a signature now
Source: https://bitterclip.com/blog/your-show-has-a-signature-now
Description: Introducing Identity Studio: branded openers, outros, and a signature look for every project — designed by you in a full-screen studio, or by your AI assistant, live, in the conversation.
Date: 2026-07-08
Author: Michael Ruescher, Founder

Clips made by tools look like they came from a tool. You've seen it: the
same caption style, the same hard cut into the same watermark, ten near-identical
shorts a day. The clip might be good. It still doesn't feel like it belongs to
anyone.

A show you take seriously opens a certain way. The wordmark lands. The
episode title reads. The sound resolves. *Then* the moment plays. That beat —
two seconds, maybe three — is the difference between "a clip" and "an episode
of something."

Today that beat is part of BitterClip.

## What shipped

**Every project now has an FX tab.** Pick a signature effect — Signal Lock,
Harmonic Resolve, and a growing set — bind it to your brand, and every render
from that project opens and closes as *yours*. Brand packs are strict dark or
light: your logo, wordmark, palette, fonts, and tagline on a pure stage, no
mud in between. Opener titles are per-episode, so "Episode 14: The Deadlift
Session" is baked into the video itself, not slapped on as a thumbnail.

![Project FX tab showing the signature shelf with saved opener and outro effects.](/images/blog/identity-studio/fx-tab.jpg)

**Signature Studio is the full-screen lab.** Audition motion and sound
together, tune the beat until it lands, and save the result to your identity
library. The library lives at your account level — build the look once, set
it as the default for a project, and every future render carries it.

**And it survives all the way to the file.** This isn't a preview skin. The
opener, the outro, the title, the captions — they're rendered into the MP4
you download or publish, through the same pipeline that cuts the clip
itself.

## The part we're most excited about: your assistant can design it

Here's the thing we built underneath, and it's the reason this release exists.

Motion design in BitterClip isn't a template picker. Every effect is a small
piece of real code — a scene with a stage, elements, and motion keyed to time
and sound. Which means something interesting: **a model can write one.**

[Connect ChatGPT or Claude](/docs/assistants/overview), hand it your logo,
and describe the vibe —
"minimal, confident, dark, one pulse of color when the wordmark locks in."
Your assistant ingests the asset, writes your brand pack, and then writes the
scene itself. It previews actual frames of its own work, looks at them,
revises the code, and previews again — the same loop a motion designer runs,
compressed into your conversation. When it feels right, it saves the result
as your project's opener.

We watched an AI assistant that had never seen these tools before take a
logo and a one-line brief and produce a working signature opener —
full-frame stage, wordmark resolving on the beat, motion locked to the
soundtrack — end to end, in one conversation.

Why build it this way instead of shipping a hundred templates? Because
templates are frozen at whatever taste we had the day we made them, and
models get better every quarter. Effects-as-code means the ceiling on your
opener is the ceiling on your assistant — and that ceiling keeps moving up.
You bring the taste and the yes/no. The assistant brings the hands.

*Want to see it on your own show? [Connect your assistant](/docs/assistants/overview)
and ask for an opener.*

## Built with our design partners

This release didn't come from a roadmap. It came from early customers who
kept telling us what a finished show actually needs.

**Frontier Studio** pushed us hardest here — Rohan, who hosts the
[Founder-Led Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/@rohan_karunakaran), is the
reason we leaned into signatures at all. When we offered to start
experimenting with his show's raw footage, he texted back:

> Read my mind. MVP for a podcast: 30-sec sizzle intro hook, tightly
> edited, light audio/color grading on full episode. As close to
> one-shotted thumbnail & title, description template based on library
> template. Click to publish.

That text is the bar this release is built against: the hook, then the
signature, then the episode — the whole broadcast package, produced for
every episode, with taste applied once and carried automatically. "Does
this feel like a real show?" was the question every effect had to survive.

**Andrew** of [Strength & Positions](https://www.strengthandpositions.com/)
coaches in person and films every session. The highlight reels
he sends his clients aren't marketing — they're part of the coaching: a
condensed memory of the session's best work, something a client holds onto
between visits. Reel after reel, they become a running record of progress,
and that continuity *is* the relationship. What Andrew asked of us is that
each reel feel like part of that ongoing story — same look, same care, an
episode of something the client is in — rather than a loose file in a text
thread.

If you're producing a show or building a client business on recorded
sessions and want to push on BitterClip with us, we'd love to hear from you.

## Getting the finished thing out

One more piece, because a signature clip that's stuck inside a tool isn't
finished: you can now mint a **public download link** for any rendered
output. It's a direct MP4 URL that expires (7 days by default, up to 14) —
hand it to a client, drop it into a Zapier flow, feed it to a captioning or
scheduling tool. No integration required on their side; if it can fetch a
URL, it can take your clip. Ask your assistant for "a public link to that
render" and it's done.

*Know what mattered in the recording — then make it look like yours.*

---

# Compare BitterClip
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare

Head-to-head comparisons with recording tools, editors, and clip generators, each with a short answer, a job-by-job table, and fine print from the other tool's own pages. See the canonical page for the current comparison and official sources.

---

# BitterClip vs CapCut: Phone Edits vs Finished Episodes
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut
Description: CapCut is a free phone editor built for short-form video. BitterClip turns recorded conversations into finished episodes and clips.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut

Checked 2026-09-25 against 16 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

CapCut is a free phone editor built for short-form video. BitterClip turns recorded conversations into finished episodes and clips.

## Short answer

CapCut is a free phone editor built for short videos. BitterClip turns long recorded conversations into finished episodes and clips.

| | BitterClip | CapCut |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You record long conversations and every one has to become an episode plus clips. | You make short videos on your phone and want templates, effects, and one tap to TikTok. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: a capable editor. Pro: $19.99/month (Varies by region, device and promotions). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Record a guest on separate tracks** (favors BitterClip). On paid plans, a guest joins from a link with no account, each of you is recorded on your own track, and the episode arrives transcribed. CapCut's recorders capture your own camera or screen; its docs describe no way to record a remote guest.
- **Your own AI runs the whole editor** (favors BitterClip). ChatGPT, Claude or Codex get all 63 editing tools, on the AI plan you already pay for. CapCut × Codex drafts and adjusts timelines from the ChatGPT desktop app, outside the U.S. for now.
- **A free phone editor with templates and effects** (favors CapCut). The template, effects and sound library is enormous and much of it free; the phone and tablet apps publish to TikTok in one tap. Desktop exports reach 4K at 60fps, device permitting.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 3, CapCut better on 3, tie on 6.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | CapCut | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cutting a rambling tangent | **Delete the words.** Select the tangent in the transcript, hit delete, and the video is cut on the word. | **Desktop, one clip at a time.** On desktop, turn on transcript-based editing from the Layout menu, edit the text, and the media follows. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A drafting plugin, outside the U.S.** CapCut × Codex drafts a video and adjusts its timeline from the ChatGPT desktop app on PC; a U.S. launch is listed as coming soon. | BitterClip |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Say what's off.** Tell it what's wrong and the same cut changes; undo goes all the way back. | **By hand, or by chat outside the U.S.** Preview the generated short and open "Edit more" to work on it by hand; outside the U.S., CapCut × Codex adjusts the timeline from chat. | Even |
| Deciding which moments are worth clipping | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **The scene detector picks.** It reads changes in visuals, audio, and context, then builds shorts with auto subtitles. | Even |
| A session you shot on two cameras | **Compose up to five.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail, or grid, and switching cameras never touches the audio. | **Desktop multicam, by hand.** The desktop app syncs angles by audio or a marker and switches between up to 9 of them in its preview. | Even |
| The word it heard wrong | **Fix that one word.** Active-word highlight, your own placement and accent color, and per-word fixes for misheard words. | **Correct the caption text.** Auto Captions run on web, desktop, and mobile, corrected one caption block at a time. | Even |
| Making the vertical version | **One tap, timing intact.** The vertical version carries the captions and timing across, framed on a focal point. | **Feed it the long file.** Its long-video-to-shorts tool makes portrait clips with auto subtitles from your files, Drive, or Dropbox. | Even |
| Getting the session recorded | **You and a guest, live.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. The episode arrives transcribed. | **Records on the phone.** The mobile app shoots straight into an edit, with the phone's own camera and effects. | BitterClip |
| Getting recordings from other people | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **Records only you.** Its recorders capture your own camera or screen; team spaces and review links let people watch and comment, not record for you. | BitterClip |
| Editing away from your desk | **Works in a phone browser.** Nothing to install; it opens in a phone browser, but there's no app. | **Made for the phone.** Full mobile and tablet apps, and one-tap TikTok publishing lives only there. | CapCut |
| Getting the finished cut to someone else | **A link anyone can open.** 1080p download, review links that need no account, and posts to YouTube, LinkedIn or X after you confirm each one. | **One tap to TikTok.** Share to TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook; desktop documents up to 4K at 60fps, device permitting. | CapCut |
| What a month costs | **$1 for 7 days, then $24.** Creator needs a card for the trial, and you can cancel anytime. Producer is $99/month. | **Free tier, or Pro at $19.99.** The free tier is a capable editor; Pro is $19.99/month or $179.99/year, and Standard's price appears only in-app and varies by region. | CapCut |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

CapCut: Pro $19.99/month (Varies by region, device and promotions), including $179.99 a year if billed annually; AI credits each month. The catch: Subscription credits last one month and don't roll over; top-up credits can't be refunded or applied toward a Pro plan. Source: https://www.capcut.com/resource/capcut-standard-vs-pro

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for CapCut

From CapCut's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### What you agree to when you upload

CapCut's global terms grant it a "non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual and worldwide license to use your User Content", scoped "for the purposes of operating, developing and providing the Services, subject to your Platform settings." US users are governed by separate CapCut US terms. A separate clause licenses your username, image, and likeness to identify you as the source of your content, "including for use in sponsored content."

Source: [CapCut Terms of Service](https://www.capcut.com/clause/terms-of-service)

### Pro credits expire every month

Subscription credits are valid for one subscription month and do not roll over. Purchased top-up credits last two years and "cannot be refunded or exchanged to cash," transferred between accounts, or applied toward a Pro plan.

Source: [CapCut credits rules](https://www.capcut.com/clause/credits-rule)

### The dollar figure lives in the app

CapCut's help pages avoid dollar figures: pricing "can vary depending on your region, device, and available promotions," and they send you to the in-app subscription page. The Standard tier introduced in March 2026 has no published price on capcut.com.

Source: [CapCut help: How much does CapCut Pro cost](https://www.capcut.com/help/how-much-does-capcut-pro-cost)

## FAQ

### Is CapCut worth it in 2026?

Yes, if you make short videos on your phone: the free tier is a real editor, the template and effects library is deep, and TikTok is one tap away. If your raw material is an hour of people talking that has to become an episode and clips every week, BitterClip fits better.

### What is the best CapCut alternative for podcasts and talking-head video?

BitterClip, if your work starts with a recording. Record it in the browser or bring the session in from your phone, Zoom, Riverside, or a camera, cut it by deleting words in the transcript, and every clip remembers exactly where in the recording it came from. CapCut stays the better pick for effects-heavy short-form made on a phone.

### Does BitterClip record, or do I have to bring footage?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. CapCut's docs describe no equivalent: its recorders capture you, and its team spaces and review links let people watch and comment, not record into your account.

### Does CapCut own your videos?

No. CapCut has stated it "has never claimed ownership of users' work," and the license's stated purpose is operating, developing, and providing the Services. In CapCut's global terms that license is still transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual, and worldwide (US users have separate terms), and a separate clause licenses your username, image, and likeness, including for use in sponsored content. Read both clauses before you upload a client's footage.

### Does CapCut have an API or agent support?

Partly. CapCut × Codex, a plugin for the ChatGPT desktop app on PC (outside the U.S. for now), drafts a video and adjusts its timeline from chat; capcut.com documents no public API. BitterClip opens the whole editing workbench (63 tools) to ChatGPT, Claude or Codex, on the AI plan you already pay for.

### Is CapCut still owned by ByteDance?

In the U.S., partly. CapCut's U.S. operations were folded into the TikTok USDS Joint Venture, which closed on January 22, 2026 — majority U.S.-owned, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX each holding about 15% and ByteDance retaining 19.9%. The joint venture's data and oversight safeguards explicitly extend to CapCut.

### Is BitterClip free?

There is no permanent free plan. Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month; the trial needs a card, and you can cancel anytime. Bring one recording up to two hours; the trial includes $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it. Trial exports are watermarked.

## The full comparison

## You recorded ninety minutes. Now what.

It is Tuesday. There is a ninety-minute session — a podcast, a client call, a workshop — either sitting on your drive or recorded straight into the browser, and by Friday it has to be one clean episode and four or five short clips, captioned, on brand, sent. Then the same thing happens next week.

CapCut can get you there. You will do it on a timeline: scrub, split, delete, scrub back, then find the same tangent a second time because the first cut clipped a syllable. Desktop transcript editing helps — turn it on from the Layout menu, edit the text, the video follows — but it is one tool tucked inside a consumer editor, not the way the app thinks.

BitterClip starts from the words. However the session got there, it arrives as prose you can read. Select the tangent, hit delete, and the video is cut on the word, not near it, because the edit is timed to the audio itself. And in October, when someone asks where a line came from, one click puts you back at that exact spot in the full recording.

## You can record it here too

The session does not have to arrive from somewhere else. Every project has a browser recorder, and the finished take drops straight into your edit. Prop your phone up, or sit at a laptop, and it captures camera and mic, up to 1080p, and the take arrives in the project already transcribed.

Recording a conversation works the same way. On a paid plan, open Studio and send your guest a link — no account, nothing to install — and each of you is recorded on your own track, so afterward you cut between you like a two-camera shoot. Each browser also records its own 720p copy, uploaded after the call and checked intact. The edit starts from the server recording, and you can swap in a local copy by hand. Or, on Producer, skip the call: write a short brief, share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, no account needed, each answer arriving as its own episode. CapCut's docs describe no way to record a remote guest or to let someone else record into your account.

## Say what you want changed

The other difference is how you give the instruction, and who can give it. In CapCut you mostly click; outside the U.S., the CapCut × Codex plugin for the ChatGPT desktop app on PC can also draft a video and adjust its timeline from chat. In BitterClip you can click too, or you can just ask — in ChatGPT, in Claude, or in the editor's own chat panel: cut the tangent around 14:20 and tighten the intro. What comes back is an ordinary edit. Open it, drag it, change your mind, undo it, all the way back. Your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench, and nothing your assistant does lands somewhere you cannot reach by hand.

Picking the moments works the same way: ask BitterClip's agent to find them and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. CapCut's shorts tool, by contrast, watches for changes in visuals, audio, and context and decides what counts as a highlight. To find a moment yourself, search everything you have recorded by what was said, who said it, or what was on screen.

## Keep CapCut for what it's great at

CapCut is a good editor and it is free. For short video made on a phone — trending templates, effects, sound, one tap to TikTok — it is the default for real reasons. If that is the work, stay where you are.

The switch is worth considering when the shape of the week changes: you are not making one short any more, you are finishing a recording, and then another recording. Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month; the trial needs a card, and you can cancel anytime. Bring one recording up to two hours; the trial includes $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it. Trial exports are watermarked.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about CapCut comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 3, CapCut 3, tie 6.
- **Where the facts come from.** 16 public sources, mostly CapCut’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/capcut.md)

## Sources

- [CapCut homepage](https://www.capcut.com/)
- [CapCut × Codex: ChatGPT desktop plugin](https://www.capcut.com/tools/capcut-x-codex)
- [CapCut Terms of Service (updated April 15, 2026)](https://www.capcut.com/clause/terms-of-service)
- [CapCut: About CapCut's Terms of Service (ToS explainer)](https://www.capcut.com/resource/about-capcut-terms-of-service)
- [CapCut credits rules](https://www.capcut.com/clause/credits-rule)
- [CapCut: Standard vs Pro comparison](https://www.capcut.com/resource/capcut-standard-vs-pro)
- [CapCut help: New CapCut subscription pricing](https://www.capcut.com/help/new-capcut-subscription-pricing)
- [CapCut help: Pricing change (March 25, 2026)](https://www.capcut.com/help/pricing-change)
- [CapCut help: How much does CapCut Pro cost](https://www.capcut.com/help/how-much-does-capcut-pro-cost)
- [CapCut resource: Transcript-based editing](https://www.capcut.com/resource/edit-video-with-text)
- [CapCut tool: AI long video to short video](https://www.capcut.com/tools/ai-long-video-to-short-video)
- [CapCut help: Auto captions](https://www.capcut.com/help/auto-captions-in-capcut)
- [CapCut resource: Multicam editing guide](https://www.capcut.com/resource/multicam-editing)
- [CapCut help: Linking TikTok with CapCut](https://www.capcut.com/help/how-to-link-tiktok-with-capcut)
- [CapCut help: No 2K/4K export option](https://www.capcut.com/help/no-2k-or-4k-option-for-export)
- [TikTok newsroom: USDS Joint Venture announcement](https://newsroom.tiktok.com/announcement-from-the-new-tiktok-usds-joint-venture-llc)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs Captions](https://bitterclip.com/compare/captions)
- [BitterClip vs VEED](https://bitterclip.com/compare/veed)
- [BitterClip vs Kapwing](https://bitterclip.com/compare/kapwing)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)

---

# BitterClip vs Captions: Finish the Whole Session
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/captions
Description: Captions styles short vertical video shot on a phone. BitterClip turns a whole recorded session into a finished episode and clips.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/captions

Checked 2026-09-25 against 15 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Captions styles short vertical video shot on a phone. BitterClip turns a whole recorded session into a finished episode and clips.

## Short answer

Captions styles short vertical videos shot on your phone. BitterClip turns a whole recorded session into a finished episode and the clips you choose.

| | BitterClip | Captions |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You record long conversations, and each one needs an episode plus clips. | You shoot short vertical video on an iPhone, or want an avatar presenting for you. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: basic tools, no watermark. Max: $24.99/month (Captions' listed prices reflect iOS plans only). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **The whole session, not ten minutes** (favors BitterClip). A long session comes in whole and you cut from all of it. Captions' manual editor caps projects at 10 minutes; its Clips feature only mines long videos for shorts.
- **Edit by deleting words** (favors BitterClip). Select a sentence in the transcript, delete it, and the cut lands on the word. In Captions you fix caption wording phrase by phrase; its docs describe no way to cut the video from it.
- **A styled short, straight from your iPhone** (favors Captions). Shoot in the iPhone app with its teleprompter, and short single-speaker footage comes back captioned and styled with almost no manual work. Avatars and generated video are there too.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 7, Captions better on 2, tie on 2.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Captions | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Recording a remote guest on a separate track | **A guest joins from a link.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. | **Records on your phone.** The iOS app records in-app with a teleprompter and edits without leaving the app; its docs describe no remote guest track. | BitterClip |
| When the conversation ran ninety minutes | **That's the normal case.** A long session comes in whole, and you cut from all of it. | **Clips it, edits 10 minutes.** Clips takes up to 3 hours and returns ranked shorts, but the manual editor caps at 10 minutes. | BitterClip |
| Cutting out a rambling answer | **Delete the words.** Select the sentence in the transcript, delete it, and the cut lands on the word. | **Caption wording only.** You correct caption wording phrase by phrase in a side panel; its docs describe no way to cut the video from it. | BitterClip |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Change the cut you have.** Tell it what's wrong and the same cut changes; undo goes all the way back. | **Revise by chat on Max, or by hand.** Chat to Edit makes targeted changes to the existing video, and the timeline takes manual edits. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **Chat inside Captions, 2 credits a message.** Its chat editor is on Max and above; the public API covers captioning and generation, not the whole editor. | BitterClip |
| Two or three cameras on one conversation | **Cut between five angles.** Side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and switching never touches the audio. | **One speaker, raw footage.** AI Edit requires single-speaker unedited video, and no multicam appears in the docs. | BitterClip |
| Working at a desk rather than on a phone | **Same editor everywhere.** It runs in any browser with nothing to install, and it works from a phone browser. | **The iPhone app is the product.** Their own docs list what web is missing — manual trimming, text, keyframes, transitions. | BitterClip |
| A styled vertical clip in the next ten minutes | **One tap for the vertical.** Any landscape cut gets a vertical version with captions and timing carried across. | **Styled almost hands-free.** Short single-speaker vertical footage comes back styled with almost no manual work. | Captions |
| Wanting a presenter you never filmed | **Only footage you recorded.** BitterClip doesn't generate presenters. | **Avatars are the core product.** Avatars, digital twins, and prompt-to-video sit at the center of the Mirage product. | Captions |
| Getting recordings from other people | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **Records only you.** The phone app's camera and teleprompter record the account holder; its docs describe no link for someone else to record into your account. | BitterClip |
| What the monthly bill looks like | **$1 for 7 days, then $24.** Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month. | **Credits spent per feature.** Basic is $9.99/month; Max is $24.99 for 500 credits, and unused credits are forfeited when you cancel. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Captions: Max $24.99/month (Captions' listed prices reflect iOS plans only), including 500 credits a month; Chat editing at 2 credits a message; Clips from videos up to 3 hours. The catch: On downgrade, excess credits are forfeited at once; cancel and every remaining credit is gone at period end. Source: https://www.captions.ai/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Captions

From Captions's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Your footage can train their models unless you're on Enterprise

Mirage's privacy policy states user information is used to "train our artificial intelligence/machine learning models," and describes no self-serve opt-out. Training-data exclusion appears on the pricing page as an Enterprise plan feature.

Source: [Mirage privacy policy](https://mirage.app/legal/privacy-policy)

### The prices you see are the iPhone prices

The fine print on Captions' own pricing page reads "Features and prices reflect iOS plans only." Their feature-availability docs list what the web editor is missing: manual trimming, text, keyframes, and transitions, among other tools.

Source: [Captions pricing page (fine print)](https://www.captions.ai/pricing)

### Downgrade or cancel and your credits are gone

Captions' help docs say that on downgrade, "Balance is immediately reduced to the new plan's cap. Any excess credits are forfeited." On cancellation, "All remaining credits are forfeited at the end of the billing period." Rollover caps at three times your monthly allowance.

Source: [Captions help — AI usage and credits](https://captions.ai/help/docs/ai-usage)

### The license you grant covers what you upload and what comes out

You keep ownership of your content, and you grant Mirage a royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, reproduce, modify, and create derivative works from both your input and your output, scoped "to provide the Services, to improve the Services, and to develop new services and products." The license survives termination of the terms.

Source: [Captions Terms of Service, section 2.2](https://mirage.app/legal/captions-terms)

## FAQ

### Is Captions worth it?

Yes, if you shoot short vertical video on your phone: the iOS app records, captions, and styles a clip faster than you would by hand. If your recordings are long, it covers only part of the job: Clips can pull ranked shorts from a video up to three hours, but AI Edit wants a few minutes of one speaker and the manual editor caps projects at ten minutes, so a 45-minute call can be mined for clips but not edited into an episode.

### What is the best Captions alternative?

BitterClip, if you're leaving because a 10-minute editor doesn't fit real recordings. A whole session goes in; a finished episode and vertical clips come out, and you can keep changing them. If what you want is a different avatar or short-form generator, there are several.

### Can I edit Captions' AI output?

Yes. Chat to Edit, on Max and above, makes targeted changes to the existing video from a prompt, and the timeline takes manual edits; you can also revert individual AI Edit cuts. On desktop, a spelling correction regenerates the entire video and costs about a credit. In BitterClip, a fix is an ordinary edit, changing a cut by hand costs nothing extra, and undo works all the way back.

### Does BitterClip record video like Captions does?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link. There's no teleprompter and no native iOS app, so if a phone teleprompter is the part you need, that is a real Captions advantage.

### Can BitterClip handle long videos?

Long recordings are the whole point. A long session becomes one project you cut an episode and vertical clips from. Captions' Clips feature takes a video up to 3 hours and returns ranked shorts, on Max and above; its manual editor caps projects at 10 minutes and AI Edit wants a few minutes of one speaker, so the full cut isn't something it makes.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Captions records the person holding the phone, with its in-app camera and teleprompter; its docs describe no link for someone else to record into your account.

### Which is more affordable, BitterClip or Captions?

They charge for different things, so price one real month of your work on both. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month; the trial needs a card, and you can cancel anytime. Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month. Producer is $99/month with 40 hours of footage, $40 of AI agent use, and priority rendering. Captions Basic is $9.99/month, and Max is $24.99 for 500 credits spent per feature; its free plan has no watermark but limits you to basic tools, and unused credits are forfeited when you cancel.

## The full comparison

## The day your recording stops fitting

You finished a 70-minute conversation. It was good. Now it's sitting on a drive, and somewhere in it are the twelve minutes worth keeping and four clips worth posting — and you have no idea which twelve minutes.

Captions can take that file, but only to mine it. Its Clips feature accepts up to three hours and hands back a ranked batch of shorts. Editing is another story: the manual editor caps projects at ten minutes, and AI Edit wants a few minutes of single-speaker, unedited footage. Those limits aren't bugs. They describe what the product is for: making one short talking video look styled, fast. It is good at that. If that's your work, stay with it.

BitterClip starts where that stops. The whole recording goes in — phone, Zoom, Riverside, a camera, or recorded straight into the project from your browser — and you cut from all of it. Prop your phone up, hit record in the project, and the take arrives already transcribed. Talking to someone? On a paid plan, open Studio, send your guest a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer you can even skip the call: send a link and have guests record themselves on their own time, each answer arriving as its own episode. You read the transcript, select the sentence where the tangent starts, delete it, and the video loses that stretch. Cuts land on the word, not near it, because they are timed to the audio itself. When you have the landscape cut, one tap makes the vertical version, captions and timing carried across. Every clip remembers where it came from, so one click jumps back to that spot in the full recording.

## What a second pass costs

This is the part you feel on a Tuesday afternoon, on the fourth pass.

In Captions, Chat to Edit makes targeted changes to the existing video on Max and above, at 2 credits a message, and the timeline takes manual edits. A fresh AI Edit costs 10 to 40 credits a pass, and on desktop, correcting a misspelled word regenerates the whole video for about a credit.

In BitterClip, changing a cut by hand costs nothing extra, and undo works all the way back. Asking the agent for a change draws on the AI agent use your plan includes, and it changes the cut you have rather than generating a new one. A review link plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks, so nobody argues about which version they saw. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score.

## Two companies, two bets

In September 2025, the company behind Captions renamed itself Mirage, an AI video research lab; the app is still called Captions. The bet is generated video: avatars, digital twins, prompt-to-video. If you want a presenter made for you, that's the right shop, and BitterClip isn't in that business at all.

BitterClip bets the other way. The sessions you already recorded are the asset, and the work is finishing them. So the editing happens wherever you already are — in ChatGPT, in Claude, or right in the editor. Your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench. "Cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" comes back as a normal edit: open it, keep going by hand, or undo it.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Captions comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 7, Captions 2, tie 2.
- **Where the facts come from.** 15 public sources, mostly Captions’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/captions.md)

## Sources

- [Captions pricing page](https://www.captions.ai/pricing)
- [Captions help — AI usage and credits](https://captions.ai/help/docs/ai-usage)
- [Captions help — AI Edit requirements and limits](https://captions.ai/help/docs/project/ai-edit)
- [Captions help — feature availability by platform](https://captions.ai/help/docs/feature-availability)
- [Captions help — editing caption spelling](https://captions.ai/help/docs/captions/edit-spelling)
- [Captions help — chat-based editing](https://captions.ai/help/docs/timeline/chat-to-edit)
- [Captions help — subscriptions and plans](https://captions.ai/help/docs/subscriptions)
- [Captions help — API overview](https://captions.ai/help/docs/api/overview)
- [Captions feature page — add captions to videos](https://captions.ai/features/add-captions-to-videos)
- [Captions help — Clips](https://captions.ai/help/docs/project/clips)
- [Captions feature page — create clips](https://captions.ai/features/create-clips)
- [Captions help — Camera and Teleprompter](https://captions.ai/help/docs/project/camera)
- [Captions Terms of Service (mirage.app)](https://mirage.app/legal/captions-terms)
- [Mirage privacy policy](https://mirage.app/legal/privacy-policy)
- [Introducing Mirage — Captions rebrand announcement](https://captions.ai/blog/introducing-mirage-the-future-video-starts-now)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs VEED](https://bitterclip.com/compare/veed)
- [BitterClip vs Kapwing](https://bitterclip.com/compare/kapwing)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)

---

# BitterClip vs Descript: One Session In, Episode and Clips Out
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript
Description: Descript records and edits every kind of video in one app. BitterClip turns your recordings into finished episodes and clips. Where each wins, and how to switch.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript

Checked 2026-09-25 against 13 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Descript records and edits every kind of video in one app. BitterClip turns your recordings into finished episodes and clips. Where each wins, and how to switch.

## Short answer

Descript records and edits every kind of video in one app. BitterClip's agent turns each recording into a finished episode and clips, and your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor.

| | BitterClip | Descript |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | Every session has to come out as an episode plus vertical clips. | You want recording, screen capture and editing in one app, or voice cloning to patch lines. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: 720p exports with a watermark. Hobbyist: $24/month ($16 a month billed annually). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Your own AI runs the whole editor** (favors BitterClip). ChatGPT, Claude or Codex get all 63 editing tools, on the AI plan you already pay for. Descript's MCP imports, runs Underlord and publishes, and Underlord's work spends Descript AI credits.
- **One link, up to 25 people** (favors BitterClip). On Producer, write a brief and share one link: up to 25 people record on their own time, each answer its own episode. Descript's nearest thing is still a live call.
- **Recording and editing under one roof** (favors Descript). Rooms records up to ten people in up to 4K, screen capture lives in the same app, and voice cloning patches a flubbed line. Editing the transcript edits the video.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 3, Descript better on 2, tie on 6.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Descript | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Getting the recording in the first place | **Records you and a guest.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. Screen sharing works too. | **Bigger rooms, recorded locally.** Rooms records up to ten people in up to 4K, and the screen recorder lives in the same app you edit in. | Descript |
| Collecting recordings on people's own time | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **A room that records itself.** A scheduled Room can let anyone with the link start recording without you, but it's a live call — no brief, no private retakes, desktop only. | BitterClip |
| Everything else you might want to do to a video | **Recorded conversations only.** Built for sessions you recorded, not for every kind of video you might make. | **The bigger toolkit.** Voice cloning to patch a flubbed line, script collaboration, 4K export on Creator and up, and teams of up to five, billed per person. | Descript |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A bridge to Underlord.** Its MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor import, run Underlord and publish; Underlord's work spends Descript AI credits. | BitterClip |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Fix the cut you have.** Say what's wrong and that cut changes; undo goes all the way back. | **Underlord takes feedback.** It takes feedback round after round and leaves a normal project you can keep editing by hand. | Even |
| Whether the cut lands on the word | **Cut on the word.** Cuts follow the transcript's word timings. | **Edit it like a document.** Delete words in the transcript and the timeline follows. | Even |
| Deciding which moments are worth clipping | **Its agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or search by what was said, who said it, or what was on screen. There's no virality score. | **It picks for you.** Create clips generates 1–20 clips at lengths you set, dressed with captions, music, and b-roll. | Even |
| When more than one camera was rolling | **Up to five cameras.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail, or grid, and switching never touches the audio. | **Automatic Multicam, adjustable.** Automatic Multicam switches speakers and adds cutaways; you can tune it and edit scene layouts. | Even |
| Getting the vertical version out | **One tap, captions carried.** The 9:16 version keeps your captions and timing, cropped or fitted around a focal point. | **Presets for every shape.** Portrait 9:16 and square 1:1 presets in Create clips, plus extra layout packs. | Even |
| What the monthly bill buys | **$1 for 7 days, then $24.** Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month; changing a cut by hand never adds a charge. | **Minutes plus AI credits.** Hobbyist is $24 a month ($16 billed annually) for 600 media minutes and 400 AI credits; unused ones expire monthly. | Even |
| Working somewhere that isn't your desk | **Opens in a browser.** Nothing to install, and it works in a phone browser. | **Desktop or web.** macOS and Windows apps plus web; Descript says mobile browsers aren't officially supported. | BitterClip |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Descript: Hobbyist $24/month ($16 a month billed annually), including 600 media minutes a month; 400 AI credits a month. The catch: Unused media minutes and AI credits expire at the end of each month. Source: https://www.descript.com/pricing

## Coming from Descript

1. Export the original media from Descript. Project files don't transfer, so bring the recordings themselves.
2. Upload them to a BitterClip project. Each arrives transcribed, with every clip tied to its spot in the full recording.
3. Direct the first cut in plain words or by deleting words in the transcript.

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Descript

From Descript's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Monthly minutes and credits don't roll over

On current Descript plans, unused media minutes and AI credits do not roll over month to month. Top-ups are consumed only after the monthly allowance runs out, roll over for up to 12 months from purchase, then expire — and they are non-refundable.

Source: [Descript Help — Top-Ups](https://help.descript.com/billing-payments-plans/top-ups)

### What the terms say about your content

Section 8.2 grants Descript a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide license to user content — stated as subject to Section 9's usage limitations and confidentiality obligations. Section 8.4(e) lets Descript use your Input and Output to train its own models unless you opt out, while its third-party AI providers are contractually barred from training on that data. Section 17 says that on termination of access, Descript deletes stored user content — backups are solely your responsibility.

Source: [Descript Terms of Service](https://www.descript.com/terms)

### Cancelling drops you to Free

Cancel and your plan runs to the end of the billing cycle, then the account drops to Free. Projects stay accessible, but features from the previous plan that aren't in Free stop applying — and Free exports are 720p with a watermark.

Source: [Descript Help — Downgrade or cancel a subscription](https://help.descript.com/billing-payments-plans/cancel)

## FAQ

### Is Descript worth it?

Yes, if you record and edit in the same app — remote recording, screen capture, transcript editing and Underlord revisions under one roof is a real thing to pay for. BitterClip fits better when every session has to come out as an episode plus vertical clips, and when you want your own ChatGPT or Claude running the whole editor.

### What is the best Descript alternative?

Depends which half you're replacing. If your week is about turning recorded sessions into a full episode and a few vertical clips, that's the job BitterClip was built for. If you're leaving because the recording itself isn't good enough, you need a better recorder, not a different editor.

### Can I edit what Descript's AI produces?

Yes. Underlord's edits land in a normal project you can keep editing by hand, and it takes feedback round after round. In BitterClip an assistant's edit is an ordinary edit too: keep changing it by hand or undo it.

### Does BitterClip record?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Descript's help center describes no request-and-respond feature; "Asynchronous Recording" is an open request on its feature board. The nearest thing is a scheduled Room that anyone with the link can start recording without you, which is still a live call, desktop only, with no brief or private retakes.

### Is BitterClip cheaper than Descript?

BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days (card required), then $24/month with 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use; Producer is $99/month with 40 hours, $40 of AI agent use and priority rendering. Descript Hobbyist is $24/month ($16 billed annually) for 600 media minutes and 400 AI credits. They count different things, so price one real month of your work on both.

### Can I switch from Descript to BitterClip?

Your recordings move; your timeline doesn't. Descript project files don't transfer, so you bring the original media — and from there every clip you make remembers where it came from, one click back to that spot in the full recording.

## The full comparison

## The recording went great. Now it's Sunday.

You have ninety minutes of good conversation and three hours of work in front of you. That's the problem. Descript and BitterClip both go after it — they just start from opposite ends.

Descript starts at the microphone. It records you, records your screen, records the person on the other end of the call, and drops all of it into an editor that reads like a document. Delete a sentence in the transcript and the video loses the sentence. [Underlord](https://www.descript.com/underlord), its AI co-editor, takes feedback and leaves you a normal project you can keep editing by hand. Descript even lets assistants outside the app reach in to import, transcribe, and run Underlord — [their docs cover it](https://help.descript.com/api-and-mcp/mcp).

BitterClip starts at the file — including one it records for you. Every project has a browser recorder in it: prop your phone up and talk, and the take drops straight into your edit, already transcribed. It captures camera and mic on a laptop or phone, up to 1080p. For a conversation, open Studio on a paid plan: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track, so you can cut between you. And on Producer there's async recording: write a short brief, share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, each answer landing as its own episode. Descript's nearest equivalent is a scheduled Room that starts without you, which is still a live call. And bringing what you already shot — phone, Zoom, Riverside, a camera card — is still the common case, and everything after that is the product.

## Editing by asking

The difference you feel daily is how much of the editor an assistant can reach. Descript's MCP hands the job to Underlord. In BitterClip, ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench directly. Say "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" in ChatGPT, in Claude, or in the panel beside the editor, and what comes back is an ordinary edit. Open it, nudge the in-point by hand, undo it. There is no separate AI mode with its own rules, and nothing you can only do one way.

## What each plan counts

Since September 2025, Descript's plans count media minutes plus AI credits, and by [Descript's own metering docs](https://help.descript.com/billing-payments-plans/track-and-understand-your-media-minutes-and-ai-credits), unused minutes and credits expire at month end.

BitterClip's paid plans include hours of footage and AI agent use: Creator is $24/month with 10 hours and $10; Producer is $99/month with 40 hours, $40, and priority rendering. Changing a cut by hand costs nothing extra. When the first pass is wrong, you say what's wrong and that cut changes, and a review link plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks.

## Finding the moments

Descript's [Create clips](https://help.descript.com/repurpose/create-clips-from-your-content) will hand you one to twenty clips at whatever length you ask for. In BitterClip, ask the agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. You can also search everything you have ever recorded by what was said, who said it, or what was on screen. Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, and one click on any clip jumps back to that spot in the full recording.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Descript comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 3, Descript 2, tie 6.
- **Where the facts come from.** 13 public sources, mostly Descript’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/descript.md)

## Sources

- [Descript pricing](https://www.descript.com/pricing)
- [Descript homepage](https://www.descript.com/)
- [Descript — Underlord](https://www.descript.com/underlord)
- [Descript Terms of Service](https://www.descript.com/terms)
- [Descript Help — Top-Ups: Buy Additional Media Minutes and AI Credits](https://help.descript.com/billing-payments-plans/top-ups)
- [Descript Help — Track and understand your media minutes and AI credits](https://help.descript.com/billing-payments-plans/track-and-understand-your-media-minutes-and-ai-credits)
- [Descript Help — Create clips from your content](https://help.descript.com/repurpose/create-clips-from-your-content)
- [Descript Help — Automatic multicam](https://help.descript.com/visuals/automatic-multicam)
- [Descript Help — System requirements](https://help.descript.com/getting-started/descript-system-requirements)
- [Descript Help — Schedule a Room](https://help.descript.com/record/schedule)
- [Descript feature board: Asynchronous Recording](https://feedback.descript.com/feature-requests/p/asynchronous-recording)
- [Descript Help — Downgrade or cancel a subscription](https://help.descript.com/billing-payments-plans/cancel)
- [Descript Help — Descript MCP overview](https://help.descript.com/api-and-mcp/mcp)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs Captions](https://bitterclip.com/compare/captions)
- [BitterClip vs VEED](https://bitterclip.com/compare/veed)
- [BitterClip vs Kapwing](https://bitterclip.com/compare/kapwing)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)

---

# BitterClip vs Kapwing: Long Recordings or Social Video?
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/kapwing
Description: Kapwing is a browser studio for short social video. BitterClip turns long recordings into finished episodes and vertical clips.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/kapwing

Checked 2026-09-25 against 12 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Kapwing is a browser studio for short social video. BitterClip turns long recordings into finished episodes and vertical clips.

## Short answer

Kapwing is a browser studio where a team makes short social video from prompts and templates. BitterClip turns long recordings into finished episodes and clips.

| | BitterClip | Kapwing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | Your videos start as a long recording that has to become an episode plus clips. | Your videos start as a prompt or template, with two or three people editing together. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: 720p watermarked exports up to four minutes; projects can be deleted after three days. Pro: $24/month ($16 a month billed annually, per seat). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Cut between up to five cameras** (favors BitterClip). Switch between up to five cameras without touching the audio, delete words in the transcript to cut, and make the vertical version in one tap. Kapwing's editor works one clip at a time.
- **One link, up to 25 people** (favors BitterClip). On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own time, with no account; each answer arrives as its own episode. In Kapwing, someone records into your workspace only as a member.
- **The team studio for social video** (favors Kapwing). Text-to-video, text-to-speech, dubbing, 100+ caption templates, translation into 100+ languages, shared workspaces with comments, and posting straight to TikTok, Facebook and YouTube.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 3, Kapwing better on 2, tie on 6.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Kapwing | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you're starting with | **Record here or bring it.** Record in the browser, solo or with a guest on a Studio link, or upload from phone, Zoom, Riverside, or a camera. | **A prompt, a template, some stock.** Generating short social video from text, templates, and stock assets is the core of the product. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **Kai in-app; a narrow beta connector.** Kai edits by chat inside Kapwing and spends its AI credits; a closed-beta Claude and ChatGPT connector handles upload, subtitles, dubbing and export. | BitterClip |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Change the cut you have.** Tell it what's wrong and the same cut changes; undo goes all the way back. | **Kai or by hand.** Keep prompting for longer, shorter, or different clips, or ask Kai for a follow-up change; the rest is '100% customizable directly in the studio.' | Even |
| Who decides which moments are good | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **The generator picks first.** Repurpose Studio reads your prompt, picks the 'best sections,' and makes 15-second to 3-minute clips. | Even |
| Whether the cut lands on the word | **Cut on the word.** Delete words in the transcript; cuts follow the transcript's word timings. | **Delete words, the video trims.** A text-based editor built for cutting filler out of interviews, with comments and shared editing. | Even |
| Editing an imported ninety-minute recording | **The normal case.** Upload a ninety-minute recording and edit the episode and clips from its transcript. | **Fits, up to two hours.** Exports and link uploads cap at 120 minutes even on paid plans; the clipper takes sources of two to three hours. | Even |
| Making the captions look right | **Fix the misheard word.** Active-word highlight, custom placement, accent color, speaker titles, and per-word corrections. | **More caption looks.** 100+ styled templates, per-word animation, multi-speaker styling, translation into 100+ languages, SRT and VTT download. | Kapwing |
| Shooting with more than one camera | **Cut between five angles.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail, or grid, and switching never touches the audio. | **One clip at a time.** Drag-and-drop editing centered on captions, templates, resizing, and AI generation. | BitterClip |
| Getting the finished video out the door | **Download, link, or post.** A 1080p MP4 download, review links anyone can open without an account, and posts to YouTube, LinkedIn or X after you confirm each one. | **Posts to TikTok and Facebook.** Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Shorts direct; Instagram still means exporting the MP4 and posting by hand. | Kapwing |
| Getting recordings from other people | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **Only by adding a seat.** Someone can record into your workspace only as a member, with a Kapwing account and, on paid plans, a billed seat. | BitterClip |
| What a month costs | **$1 for 7 days, then $24.** Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month; cancel anytime. Producer is $99/month. | **$24 a month, per seat.** $24/month ($16 billed annually) with 1,000 AI credits that reset on the 1st and never roll over. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Kapwing: Pro $24/month ($16 a month billed annually, per seat), including 1,000 AI credits a month; Watermark-free exports up to 4K; Projects kept while you subscribe. The catch: AI credits reset on the 1st, not your billing date, and never roll over. Source: https://www.kapwing.com/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Kapwing

From Kapwing's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Credits reset on the first of the month, not your billing date

AI features on every Kapwing plan draw from monthly credits. Unused credits don't roll over, and they reset on the first of each month no matter when you were billed.

Source: [Kapwing Subscription FAQ](https://www.kapwing.com/help/subscription-faq/)

### The license you grant when you upload

Uploading grants Kapwing a non-exclusive license to publish your content on Kapwing services and to store, display, reformat, and distribute it, including showing advertising alongside your content and using it to promote Kapwing. The same terms say Kapwing will 'never sell your content to third parties without your explicit permission.'

Source: [Kapwing Terms of Service](https://www.kapwing.com/policies/terms-of-service)

### Free projects can be deleted after three days

Projects in a free workspace are subject to deletion after three days; paid workspaces keep projects 'for the duration of the subscription.' Kapwing's own FAQ warns against treating it as the only long-term copy of your source files or finished work.

Source: [Kapwing Help FAQ](https://www.kapwing.com/help/kapwing-faq/)

## FAQ

### Is Kapwing worth it?

Yes, if the job is short social video made in the browser with other people: the caption templates, the AI generation suite, and the shared workspaces earn the money. If the job is turning a long recording into a finished episode and clips every week, BitterClip fits better.

### What is the best Kapwing alternative?

For turning talks, podcasts, or coaching sessions into episodes and clips week after week, BitterClip. You record in the browser or bring a file in, cut it by editing the transcript, and get the full episode plus vertical clips out of the same pass. If you want a different template-driven social editor, another studio-style tool will suit you better.

### Is BitterClip better than Kapwing?

For finishing recordings, yes. For turning a prompt into a social video, no. BitterClip cuts on the word, keeps every clip tied to the moment it came from, undoes exactly, and takes instructions from ChatGPT, Claude, or the editor. Kapwing is better at making short videos out of prompts, templates, and stock.

### Does BitterClip record, or do I have to bring footage?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link.

### Can I edit Kapwing's AI-generated clips?

You can. Kapwing says Repurpose Studio clips are '100% customizable directly in the studio,' so you're never stuck with what the generator handed you. In Kapwing you re-prompt Repurpose, ask Kai for a follow-up change, or finish on the timeline. In BitterClip you say what's wrong, in the editor or from your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex, and the same cut changes; undo goes all the way back.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Kapwing's docs describe no equivalent: someone can record into your workspace only as a member with a Kapwing account, billed as a seat on paid plans.

### Does Kapwing watermark free exports?

Every free-plan export carries a Kapwing watermark, resolution stops at 720p, and free projects can be deleted after three days. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month; the trial needs a card and its exports are watermarked, and paid Creator exports are clean.

### Does Kapwing have an API?

Its docs describe no public developer API or Zapier app. What it has is the Kapwing MCP, in closed beta with a small set of testers, which lets Claude and ChatGPT upload, subtitle, translate, dub, and download exports in your workspace; Kapwing plans to open it to Pro, Business, and Enterprise. BitterClip opens the whole editing workbench (63 tools) to ChatGPT, Claude or Codex, and the result is an ordinary edit.

## The full comparison

## Week one is fine. Week six tells you the truth.

You upload the talk, run Repurpose Studio, get a batch of clips the AI picked, restyle the captions, export. A decent afternoon. Then you do it again the next week, and the week after, and the shape of the job shows itself: the machine proposes the sections, and every one of them gets finished inside Kapwing — music, brand assets, B-roll — before any of it can go out. Kapwing says its AI clips are "100% customizable directly in the studio." That's true: you finish them there, by hand or by asking Kai, clip by clip, and the work stays inside Kapwing's own editor.

BitterClip starts from the recording instead of from a prompt. Prop your phone up and record straight into the project from the browser, send one link on Producer and let up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, or drop in a file you already have from Zoom, Riverside, or a camera. Either way you get a transcript you can edit like a document. Select the sentence where you rambled, delete it, and a real cut happens in the video. It lands on the word rather than near it, because cuts are timed to the audio itself. The vertical version is one tap, captions and timing carried across. Openers and outros, speaker titles, music you can listen to before you commit to it. Same kit every week, so the second episode isn't a rebuild of the first.

## Ask for the edit instead of going to find it

When a Kapwing clip is 80% right, you close the last 20% inside Kapwing: by hand in the studio, or by asking Kai, which spends Kapwing's AI credits. Its closed-beta connector lets Claude and ChatGPT upload, subtitle, dub and export. When a BitterClip cut is 80% right, you say what's wrong — in ChatGPT, in Claude, or in the panel beside the editor — and it changes. Your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench, not just a few jobs. What comes back is a normal edit: keep nudging it yourself, or undo it, all the way back.

Two things fall out of that, and you feel both weekly. Every clip remembers where it came from, so one click puts you back at that spot in the full recording — worth a lot the day someone asks when exactly he said that. And a review link plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks, even after you've moved on.

Picking the moments can be a request too. Kapwing's Repurpose Studio picks the "best sections" from your prompt; in BitterClip, ask the agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score.

## The money is shaped differently

Kapwing bills each member of a Pro workspace separately, which makes sense when three people share a project. The BitterClip trial is $1 for 7 days; paid Creator is $24/month, with 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month, clean exports, and 4 GB files. Producer is $99/month with 40 hours of footage, $40 of AI agent use, clean exports, 20 GB files, and priority rendering. Price the footage and AI agent use your real month needs, not just the sticker.

If your work is one-off social videos made with a team in the browser, stay where you are; Kapwing is good at that. If your work is the same show, finished properly, every week, bring one recording over and see what comes back out.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Kapwing comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 3, Kapwing 2, tie 6.
- **Where the facts come from.** 12 public sources, mostly Kapwing’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/kapwing.md)

## Sources

- [Kapwing homepage](https://www.kapwing.com/)
- [Kapwing pricing](https://www.kapwing.com/pricing)
- [Kapwing Subscription FAQ](https://www.kapwing.com/help/subscription-faq/)
- [Kapwing Help FAQ](https://www.kapwing.com/help/kapwing-faq/)
- [Kapwing Repurpose Studio](https://www.kapwing.com/tools/repurpose)
- [Kapwing Auto Subtitle Generator](https://www.kapwing.com/tools/subtitles)
- [Kapwing text-based video editor](https://www.kapwing.com/ai/text-based-video-editor)
- [Kapwing help: about the Kapwing MCP](https://www.kapwing.com/help/about-the-kapwing-mcp/)
- [Kapwing help: how to use Repurpose](https://www.kapwing.com/help/how-to-use-kapwings-repurpose-tool/)
- [Kapwing release notes, June 2026](https://www.kapwing.com/help/release-notes-june-2026/)
- [Kapwing Share to Socials](https://www.kapwing.com/help/share-to-socials-from-kapwing/)
- [Kapwing Terms of Service](https://www.kapwing.com/policies/terms-of-service)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs Captions](https://bitterclip.com/compare/captions)
- [BitterClip vs VEED](https://bitterclip.com/compare/veed)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)

---

# BitterClip vs Klap: Control After the First Cut
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/klap
Description: Klap turns a link into shorts, fast. BitterClip finishes the whole recording — full episode plus vertical clips — and lets you edit any clip by hand or by asking.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/klap

Checked 2026-09-25 against 11 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Klap turns a link into shorts, fast. BitterClip finishes the whole recording — full episode plus vertical clips — and lets you edit any clip by hand or by asking.

## Short answer

Klap turns a link into a stack of shorts, fast. BitterClip turns the whole recording into a finished episode and clips you can keep editing.

| | BitterClip | Klap |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You want the whole recording finished, and you'd rather direct the edit than pick from a new stack. | You want a stack of shorts from one link with little effort, posted to four platforms on a schedule. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Basic: $29/month ($14 a month billed yearly). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Say what's wrong, and the same cut changes** (favors BitterClip). After generation, Klap lets you revise transcript selections, captions, branding and framing; for a different pick, you generate again. In BitterClip, drag the edge or say what's wrong in ChatGPT, Claude or the editor, and the same cut changes.
- **The whole episode, not just shorts** (favors BitterClip). Klap turns a long video into shorts; its docs describe no way to cut the long one into an episode. BitterClip makes both, cutting between up to five cameras.
- **Shorts at volume, posted for you** (favors Klap). Upload a video or paste a YouTube link, and Klap picks the moments, crops to vertical, captions in 52 languages, and schedules posts to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 6, Klap better on 2, tie on 2.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Klap | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you walk away with | **The whole episode, finished.** The full cut plus vertical clips from the same recording. | **A stack of shorts.** One long video goes in, many captioned vertical clips come out, one click. | BitterClip |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Change the same clip.** Say what's wrong or move it by hand, and undo works all the way back. | **Edit by hand, or generate again.** Change transcript selections, captions and framing, or generate a new stack. | BitterClip |
| How the moments get picked | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **A score ranks them.** A virality score sorts every clip, and by Klap's own description it "relies heavily on speech detection." | Even |
| Where a clip came from | **One click back to it.** Every clip remembers its spot, so one click drops you there in the full recording. | **Not in its docs.** Klap's docs describe no way to jump from a clip to its spot in the source video. | BitterClip |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A ChatGPT app for batches.** Its ChatGPT app creates projects, lists clips, exports and schedules posts; the REST API adds caption and reframe toggles. | BitterClip |
| Sessions shot on more than one camera | **Up to five cameras.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and cutting between them never touches the audio. | **One video in, shorts out.** Multicam editing isn't in Klap's docs. | BitterClip |
| Making the vertical version | **One tap, captions carried.** The 9:16 version keeps its captions and timing, cropped or fitted around a focal point. | **Vertical is the default.** Every clip arrives already cropped to portrait and captioned, without you asking. | Even |
| Where the recording comes from | **Record in the browser.** Solo, or with a guest on a Studio link (paid plans), each on your own track, or bring footage you shot anywhere else. | **A link or a file.** The API adds S3, GCS, and public URLs, with Google Drive and Twitch listed as coming. | BitterClip |
| Getting it in front of people | **Three channels, each confirmed.** YouTube, LinkedIn and X after you confirm each post, plus a 1080p download and a review link anyone can watch without an account. | **It posts for you.** TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn, with unlimited social accounts and analytics built in. | Klap |
| How much you have to learn | **There's an editor to learn.** Transcript, cameras, captions, music, brand FX — more to hold in your head on day one. | **Paste a link. Done.** Start by uploading a video or pasting a YouTube link; the first clip lands minutes after signup. | Klap |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Klap: Basic $29/month ($14 a month billed yearly), including 300 upload minutes a month; Unlimited social accounts and analytics. The catch: Basic includes 300 upload minutes a month, and the pricing page lists no watermark, resolution or rollover terms. Source: https://klap.app/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Klap

From Klap's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Upload-minute allowances

The monthly plans cost $29, $79 and $189 and include 300, 900 and 2,700 upload minutes. Billed yearly, they're $14, $39 and $94 a month.

Source: [Klap pricing page](https://klap.app/pricing)

### Their own privacy policy says consent isn't being collected yet

Klap's privacy policy, rewritten September 25, 2026, says RunPod hosts the open-source models that transcribe your videos, that OpenRouter, the model providers it routes to, and OpenAI receive your transcripts, and that Google's Gemini receives video with no speech. The same policy says explicit consent for sharing data with third-party AI models is not currently obtained and a consent mechanism is being implemented.

Source: [Klap privacy policy](https://klap.app/privacy-policy)

### They can close your account at any time, without notice

The consumer Terms reserve the right to "terminate or suspend your access to our Service at any time, for any reason, without notice or liability," and say nothing about your projects after you cancel. The retention promises live elsewhere: the DPA and, since September 2026, the privacy policy say content is kept until you delete it or your account, plus up to 30 days in backups.

Source: [Klap Terms of Service](https://klap.app/terms-of-services)

## FAQ

### Is Klap worth it?

Yes, for turning talking-head long-form into captioned vertical clips you'll mostly post as they come. One click in, ranked clips out, posting and scheduling to four platforms included, and after generation you can revise transcript selections, captions, branding and framing. BitterClip fits better when the recording also needs a finished episode, cuts between cameras, or edits you direct in words.

### What is the best Klap alternative?

BitterClip, if you're leaving because you want the cut to be right — saying what's wrong and having the same clip change, cuts that follow the transcript's word timings, the full episode finished alongside the shorts. If you're shopping on price for shorts volume, Klap's $14/month yearly-billed Basic tier holds up fine.

### Can I edit Klap's output?

Yes. After generation, you can revise transcript selections, captions, branding and framing: highlight a sentence to keep it, strike one to cut it, restyle the captions, add a logo, and save style presets. Cutting between cameras isn't in its docs.

### Does BitterClip have a virality score like Klap?

No. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments, or pick them yourself; every clip is one click from the spot it came from in the full recording. Klap ranks candidates with a virality score; BitterClip's agent makes a first cut you direct and edit.

### Can BitterClip make vertical shorts like Klap?

It can. The 9:16 version of any landscape cut is one tap, with captions and timing carried across, cropped or fitted around a focal point. The difference is that the short stays tied to the full cut, and to the exact moment in the recording it came from.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Klap's docs describe no recorder; it works from links and files you give it.

### Which is cheaper, BitterClip or Klap?

They charge for different things. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month (card required, cancel anytime), and includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month. Producer is $99/month with 40 hours of footage, $40 of AI agent use, and priority rendering. Klap Basic is $29/month, or $14/month billed yearly, and includes 300 upload minutes a month; the larger plans are $79 and $189 monthly for 900 and 2,700 upload minutes.

## The full comparison

## You're looking at a clip that's almost right

Ninety minutes of good conversation went in. You pasted the link, the machine handed back a stack of vertical clips, and one of them is close — the story is all there, but it starts a beat late and the punchline lands on a word that got sliced in half. Now what?

This is where the road narrows. In Klap you can strike a sentence in the transcript, keep another, restyle the captions, adjust the framing, save the look as a preset. For a lot of clips that's enough. But when the pick itself is wrong — the setup without the payoff, or the wrong three minutes entirely — you generate again and choose from a new stack.

BitterClip treats the first cut as a draft. You fix the one you have: pull words out of the transcript and the video changes, drag the edge yourself, or say "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" in ChatGPT or Claude while you're already sitting in there. What comes back is an ordinary edit — open it, keep working on it by hand, or undo it, all the way back to where you started. Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so you cut on the word rather than near it. And every clip remembers where it came from, so one click puts you back at that spot in the full recording when someone asks why it's in there.

That's also why BitterClip has no virality score: ask its agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. A ranker earns its keep when you're shipping fifteen shorts a week and watching none of them. It gets in the way when you're choosing the two moments that have to stand for an hour of your work.

## The shorts aren't the work. The episode is.

Klap treats your long video as raw material. Shorts come out, and while the API can caption or reframe a whole video, its docs describe no way to cut the long one into something you'd publish on its own. If a session exists only to feed the clip machine, that's efficient.

Most people recording twenty minutes to two hours of real work — a podcast, a coaching session, a training — need the session itself finished. Tangents gone. Two or three cameras cut together without the sound going sideways. Misheard words fixed in the captions. An opener on the front, music cues you listen to before you commit to them. In BitterClip the full episode is the thing you're making, and the vertical version is one tap away, carrying its captions and timing with it. One recording, one finished package. Months later, when you need that one exchange from March, you search everything you've recorded — by what was said, who said it, or what was on screen.

If you left Klap because the picks kept missing and the editor stopped just short of the fix, that's the gap you were feeling. Try it on one recording of up to two hours. Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required, cancel anytime. The trial includes $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it; trial exports are watermarked.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Klap comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 6, Klap 2, tie 2.
- **Where the facts come from.** 11 public sources, mostly Klap’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/klap.md)

## Sources

- [Klap homepage](https://klap.app/)
- [Klap pricing page](https://klap.app/pricing)
- [Klap Terms of Service](https://klap.app/terms-of-services)
- [Klap privacy policy](https://klap.app/privacy-policy)
- [Klap support (ChatGPT app)](https://klap.app/support)
- [Klap API documentation](https://docs.klap.app/)
- [Klap API pricing](https://docs.klap.app/pricing)
- [Klap API styling docs](https://docs.klap.app/styling)
- [Klap API upload-sources docs](https://docs.klap.app/usecases/generate-shorts)
- [Klap AI clip maker page](https://klap.app/tools/ai-clip-maker)
- [Klap's own Opus Clip comparison page](https://klap.app/alternatives/opus-clip)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)
- [BitterClip vs Vizard](https://bitterclip.com/compare/vizard)
- [BitterClip vs Munch](https://bitterclip.com/compare/munch)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)

---

# BitterClip vs Munch: Clipping Tool or Social Suite?
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/munch
Description: Munch became a social-posting suite. BitterClip turns recordings into finished episodes and clips. Pricing, how far you can edit, and which one fits the job you have.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/munch

Checked 2026-09-25 against 13 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Munch became a social-posting suite. BitterClip turns recordings into finished episodes and clips. Pricing, how far you can edit, and which one fits the job you have.

## Short answer

Munch writes your social posts and publishes them across five platforms. BitterClip turns your recordings into finished episodes and clips you can keep editing.

| | BitterClip | Munch |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You came for the clips and want to edit them, not generate new ones. | You want AI to write your posts and publish them to five platforms on a schedule. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Essential: $48/month ($38 a month billed annually). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Change the clip, not just its edges** (favors BitterClip). Munch lets you extend a clip up to 30 seconds, crop it or cut silences; past that, Re-Munch makes a new batch. In BitterClip, say what's off and the same cut tightens.
- **Edit by deleting words, or by asking** (favors BitterClip). Select words in the transcript, delete them, and they're gone from the video. ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench (63 tools) on the AI plan you already pay for. Munch documents neither.
- **Your social calendar, written and posted** (favors Munch). Munch reads your website and brand materials, writes posts and a content plan, then schedules and auto-publishes across five platforms. Its multi-brand plans cover up to 15 brands with team roles.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 4, Munch better on 2, tie on 4.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Munch | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you're paying for | **Clips, start to finish.** Recordings in; a full cut and vertical clips out, edited until they're right. | **A social media suite.** Clipping is one quota inside it, 500 to 7,500 minutes a month by plan. | Even |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Change the same clip.** Say what's off and the same cut gets tightened, instead of starting over. | **Extend it, or generate again.** Extend a clip, adjust its framing, or Re-Munch a new batch after changing a setting. | BitterClip |
| How much you can change | **Edit by deleting words.** Select words in the transcript, delete them, and a real edit happens. | **Trim at the edges.** Extend a clip up to 30 seconds, reframe with Manual Crop, cut silences. | BitterClip |
| Who decides which moments are good | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **The AI does.** Your recourse is a 30-second extension or a fresh batch with changed settings. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **None documented.** No public API, webhooks, or assistant surface documented; automation means auto-posting. | BitterClip |
| When you shot with more than one camera | **Up to five angles.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and the audio never wobbles. | **One video in.** Nothing documented for multicam; a single video goes in, clips and posts come out. | BitterClip |
| Getting the words on screen right | **Fix misheard words.** Active-word highlight, your placement and accent color, and per-word corrections. | **Save a look, reuse it.** AI subtitles with saveable templates for font, color, size, and animation. | Even |
| Running several brands or a team | **Built for your own recordings.** Built around finishing the recordings you make, not running a roster of client brands. | **Built for agencies.** Studio and Scale plans cover multi-brand workspaces with team roles, 5 and 15 brands. | Munch |
| Getting it in front of people | **Three channels, each confirmed.** YouTube, LinkedIn and X after you confirm each post, plus private review links and 1080p downloads. | **Posts it for you.** One-click scheduling to five platforms, plus a dashboard for how each post did. | Munch |
| Your first month | **$1 for 7 days, then $24/month.** Card required; cancel anytime. | **A 7-day trial, then $48.** Essential is $48/month, or $38 a month billed annually. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Munch: Essential $48/month ($38 a month billed annually), including 500 clipping minutes a month; Posts written from your brand materials; Auto-publishing to five platforms. The catch: Cancel, and your posts go view-only: nothing scheduled goes out, and after 30 days Munch may delete your content. Source: https://www.munchstudio.com/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Munch

From Munch's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Cancel, and your posts go view-only

After you cancel you can still see your posts but cannot download, schedule, or publish them, and anything already scheduled will not go out. The Terms give you 30 days after your subscription ends to get your content and deliverables out; after that, Munch may permanently delete them.

Source: [Munch Studio help: what happens when you cancel](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/13225020-will-i-lose-my-saved-posts-or-calendar-if-i-cancel)

### You agree to let your content train their AI

Section 8.2 of the Terms has you "acknowledge, instruct, and agree" to Munch using your Content to train its AI systems, scoped to providing the services to you, with a stated carve-out that it won't train on non-public personal data. The same section limits the content license to providing the service during your subscription.

Source: [Munch Studio Terms of Use, §8.2](https://www.munchstudio.com/terms-of-use)

## FAQ

### What happened to Munch (GetMunch)?

Munch rebranded to Munch Studio on December 31, 2025 and turned from an AI clipper into a full AI social-media-marketing suite. getmunch.com now redirects to munchstudio.com, and clipping survives as a monthly minute quota inside the new product. Existing accounts, projects, and clips carried over automatically.

### Is Munch Studio worth it?

Yes, if you want the whole suite: posts written from your website and materials, scheduled and auto-published across five platforms, with analytics, starting at $48/month. BitterClip fits better when the clips are the point and you want to edit them in the transcript or by saying what's wrong.

### What is the best Munch alternative for clipping?

BitterClip, if the clips were the point. That is the whole product: recordings in, a finished full cut and vertical clips out, edited by selecting words in the transcript or by asking in ChatGPT or Claude. Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month (card required, cancel anytime), and the trial takes one session of up to two hours through that workflow.

### Can I edit Munch's output?

Yes, at the edges: extend a clip by up to 30 seconds at either end, split and reframe segments with Manual Crop, and auto-remove silences. Past that the documented path is Re-Munch, which generates a new batch and requires changing at least one setting. Nothing in the docs lets you edit through the transcript.

### Is BitterClip better than Munch?

Yes, for turning recorded sessions into finished cuts and clips you control — that is the entire product, from transcript editing to multiple cameras to undo that goes all the way back. For hands-off post writing and auto-publishing across five platforms, Munch Studio is the better fit; BitterClip publishes to YouTube, LinkedIn and X, with each post confirmed first.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Munch's docs describe no recorder; it works from files you upload.

### How much does Munch Studio cost compared to BitterClip?

Munch Studio starts at $48/month (Essential, billed monthly; $38/month billed annually) with a 7-day trial; multi-brand plans run $148 and $398/month. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month (card required, cancel anytime). The trial includes one recording plus $5 of AI agent use to analyze it, make a first cut, and keep refining it. Producer is $99/month. What you're choosing between is a posting quota and a place to finish your recordings.

## The full comparison

## Munch combines clipping with social publishing

On December 31, 2025, GetMunch became Munch Studio. getmunch.com redirects there now, and the pitch changed from AI clipping to "the AI that does your social media marketing for you." Accounts, projects, and clips carried over — but clipping is now one quota, 500 minutes a month on the $48 Essential plan, inside a suite built around writing posts and putting them out.

That is a different product from the clipper many people signed up for. If you came to get clips out of your recordings, clipping is now one part of what you pay for.

## The loop you're leaving: editing clips and generating another selection

You finish a 90-minute conversation. Munch hands back a batch. One clip is close. Munch lets you extend a clip by up to 30 seconds at either end, adjust its framing and remove silences; Re-Munch generates another selection once you change at least one setting. BitterClip lets you cut dialogue in the transcript and direct changes to the existing cut.

Your recording is the reference: cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so you cut on the word, not near it. When a cut is 90% right, you say what is wrong, something like "the intro drags, lose the sponsor tangent," and that same cut gets tightened. Undo works all the way back. Every clip remembers where it came from, so one click jumps you to that spot in the full recording, and the review link you sent your co-host on Tuesday still plays that exact version on Thursday, never a later one, for up to two weeks.

You can also just read your way through it. The transcript is the edit: find the tangent in the words, select it, delete it, and it is gone from the video. Then one tap makes the vertical version, captions and timing carried across, and if a word came through wrong you fix that word.

## Automation pointed at the edit

Munch automates outward. Connect your accounts and it posts for you. There is no public API, webhook, or assistant surface in the docs — you work in their dashboard, and the AI works on your calendar.

BitterClip points the automation at the edit itself: ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench. Say "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" and what comes back is an ordinary edit: open it in the editor, keep changing it by hand, or undo it. There's no virality score, either. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself.

Munch decided its job is your calendar. BitterClip's job is the recording — the one sitting on your desktop right now with three hours of dread attached to it.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Munch comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 4, Munch 2, tie 4.
- **Where the facts come from.** 13 public sources, mostly Munch’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/munch.md)

## Sources

- [Munch Studio homepage](https://www.munchstudio.com/)
- [Munch Studio pricing](https://www.munchstudio.com/pricing)
- [Munch Studio Terms of Use](https://www.munchstudio.com/terms-of-use)
- [Munch Studio help: Re-Munch feature](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/8907880-using-the-re-munch-feature)
- [Munch Studio help: Extend Clip feature](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/9352607-using-the-extend-clip-feature)
- [Munch Studio help: free trial and billing](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/13114429-free-trial-demo-billing-during-trial)
- [Munch Studio help: plans, limits, and cancelations](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/15032725-plans-limits-billing-cancelations-multi-brand)
- [Munch Studio help: cancelations and refunds](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/13114532-cancelations-and-refunds)
- [Munch Studio help: what happens to posts if you cancel](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/13225020-will-i-lose-my-saved-posts-or-calendar-if-i-cancel)
- [Munch Studio help: social platform integrations](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/11801497-integrating-your-social-media-platforms-with-munch-studio)
- [Munch Studio help: subtitle templates](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/9361161-subtitles-template)
- [Munch Studio help: Brand Kit feature](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/articles/9008272-brand-kit-feature)
- [Munch Studio help center](https://help.munchstudio.com/en/)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)
- [BitterClip vs Vizard](https://bitterclip.com/compare/vizard)
- [BitterClip vs Klap](https://bitterclip.com/compare/klap)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)

---

# BitterClip vs OpusClip: The Clips You Ask For, Plus the Episode
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip
Description: OpusClip turns one long video into a stack of captioned shorts. BitterClip makes the clips you ask for, plus the full episode.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip

Checked 2026-09-25 against 12 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

OpusClip turns one long video into a stack of captioned shorts. BitterClip makes the clips you ask for, plus the full episode.

## Short answer

OpusClip turns one long video into a stack of captioned shorts. BitterClip makes the clips you ask for, plus the full episode.

| | BitterClip | OpusClip |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You'd rather say what each clip should be, and you want the full episode too. | You want ten captioned vertical clips by Friday, posted for you, without touching a timeline. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: 60 credits a month; watermarked clips, no editing, kept for three days. Starter: $15/month. |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Your own AI runs the whole editor** (favors BitterClip). ChatGPT, Claude or Codex get all 63 editing tools and do the work on the AI plan you already pay for. OpusClip's connector starts on Pro, in beta, and spends OpusClip credits.
- **The full episode, not just shorts** (favors BitterClip). Every recording leaves as the full episode plus the vertical version, made in one tap. Cut between up to five cameras; OpusClip re-frames a single upload.
- **A stack of shorts from one upload, posted for you** (favors OpusClip). Upload up to ten hours and get back a stack of captioned vertical clips. Starter posts them directly; Pro schedules six platforms with auto titles and hashtags.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 3, OpusClip better on 3, tie on 4.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | OpusClip | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Turning one recording into something you can post | **Edit by deleting words.** Select the words in the transcript, hit delete, and the video changes. | **Upload and walk away.** Feed it up to 10 hours; captioned vertical clips come back, and Free picks on spoken words only. | Even |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Say what's wrong.** Tell it what's off and the same clip changes; undo goes all the way back. | **Edit it by hand on paid plans.** Starter and up include text and timeline editing, plus a reprompt that runs the selection again; Free has no editing. | BitterClip |
| Cuts that don't clip your first word | **Cut on the word.** Cuts follow the transcript's word timings; delete words to move a cut. | **The model sets the edges.** The clipping model picks each boundary; moving one later means text or timeline editing, a paid feature. | Even |
| Deciding which moments are worth posting | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **It grades your clips.** On paid tiers a 0–99 score ranks hook, flow, value, and trend — a suggestion, their docs say. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A beta connector, from $29 Pro.** An official Claude connector and MCP server start on Pro, in beta and capped at 900 OpusClip credits a month. | BitterClip |
| Sessions you shot on more than one camera | **Cut between five cameras.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail, or grid, and switching never touches the audio. | **One video, re-framed.** ReframeAnything follows the subject and re-lays out a single upload, with speaker and screenshare splits. | BitterClip |
| Captions that spell your names right | **Fix the misheard word.** Per-word corrections, an active-word highlight, and your own placement and accent color. | **Animated templates, every tier.** Emoji and keyword highlighting, editable caption text, and a brand vocabulary for names; custom fonts are paid. | Even |
| Getting it in front of an audience | **Three channels, each confirmed.** Publishes to YouTube, LinkedIn and X after you confirm each post, plus review links and 1080p downloads. | **Posts it for you.** Direct posting from the $15 Starter tier; Pro schedules six platforms with auto titles and hashtags. | OpusClip |
| Footage that isn't two people talking | **Built for people talking.** Made for recorded conversations, from interviews to client sessions. | **Clips gameplay and vlogs.** On paid plans ClipAnything picks on visuals, sound, and emotion, from sources up to 10 hours. | OpusClip |
| What a month costs | **$1 for 7 days, then $24/month.** Paid Creator includes 10 hours of footage, $10 of AI agent use, clean exports, and 4 GB files. | **A free plan, then $15.** The free plan makes clips with no editing; Starter is $15 for 150 credits, one per source minute, and credits expire after 60 days. | OpusClip |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

OpusClip: Starter $15/month, including 150 credits, one per source minute; Text and timeline editing, plus reprompt; Direct posting of your clips. The catch: Monthly credits expire after 60 days, and projects expire after 30 days by default. Source: https://www.opus.pro/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for OpusClip

From OpusClip's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Monthly credits expire after 60 days

One credit equals one minute of source video processed. On monthly plans, unused credits expire 60 days after they're issued.

Source: [OpusClip Help — How are credits consumed](https://help.opus.pro/docs/article/how-are-credits-consumed)

### Your projects and exports have expiry dates

Free-plan exports and storage last 3 days. Projects expire after 30 days by default. Download what you want to keep.

Source: [OpusClip pricing page](https://www.opus.pro/pricing)

### Public uploads can appear in OpusClip's marketing

Private uploads get a service-scoped license: OpusClip may display and distribute your submission "for the sole purpose of making that Personal User Submission accessible to you." Public submissions broaden the grant to rights "in connection with OpusClip' business" — expressly including use of your public content in OpusClip's own marketing and promotion.

Source: [OpusClip Terms of Service](https://www.opus.pro/terms-of-service)

## FAQ

### Is OpusClip worth it?

Yes, for generating and scheduling captioned shorts. OpusClip combines clip generation, captions and scheduling across six platforms, and paid plans include text and timeline editing. BitterClip fits better when every recording also needs the full episode and you want to direct the edit in words.

### What is the best OpusClip alternative?

Choose BitterClip when you want to finish the full episode and its clips in one workbench and direct the edit in words. OpusClip's paid plans also let you revise clips by hand in its text and timeline editor.

### Can I edit OpusClip's output?

On paid plans, yes: Starter and up include text-based and timeline editing plus a reprompt that runs the selection again. Free has no editing — generating another batch is the only move. In BitterClip, editing is the whole product: select words in the transcript, delete them, and the video changes.

### Does BitterClip have a virality score?

No. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. OpusClip's 0–99 score is a paid-tier feature its own docs describe as suggesting engagement potential.

### Does BitterClip record?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link. OpusClip's docs describe no camera recorder.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. OpusClip's docs describe no way to record camera footage or collect it from anyone; it works from files and links you bring.

### Can BitterClip post directly to TikTok and Instagram?

No. BitterClip publishes to connected YouTube, LinkedIn and X accounts, with each post confirmed first; for TikTok and Instagram you get a review link or a 1080p MP4 download. If six-platform auto-posting is the center of your week, choose OpusClip.

### How is BitterClip's pricing different from OpusClip's credits?

They count different things. OpusClip charges one credit per source minute, and monthly credits expire after 60 days; Starter is $15/month for 150 credits. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month (card required, cancel anytime), and includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month. Producer is $99/month with 40 hours of footage, $40 of AI agent use, and priority rendering.

## The full comparison

## The batch came back and clip four is almost right

The clips land, and clip four is good — except it starts two seconds late and swallows the setup line. So what do you do with an almost-right clip?

On OpusClip's paid plans you can open that clip in the text and timeline editor and fix it by hand, or reprompt and review a fresh selection. Both work: the first means making the fix yourself, and the second means reviewing a new batch.

BitterClip's unit of work is the clip you already have. Open the transcript, select the words that shouldn't be there, delete them, and the video changes. If the intro drags, say so — in the editor or in ChatGPT: "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro." Either way what comes back is an ordinary edit. Open it, keep changing it by hand, or undo it, all the way back.

## Cut on the word, and find your way back

Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so you cut on the word rather than near it. Every clip remembers where it came from, so one click jumps you back to that spot in the full recording — and a review link plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks.

There is no score. OpusClip grades each clip 0–99 on hook, flow, value, and trend, and its own docs describe the number as suggesting engagement potential. BitterClip doesn't have one: ask its agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself.

ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench, the same tools the editor uses, and the result is a normal edit you can keep changing or undo. OpusClip now reaches Claude too: since September 2026 an official Claude connector and an MCP server work from the $29 Pro plan, in beta, capped at 900 credits a month, 30 requests a minute, and four projects at once. Full API access is still Business-only.

## Where OpusClip is the right tool

If the job is throughput — one long upload into a stack of scored, captioned vertical shorts with barely any of your time — OpusClip is built for it. It combines clip generation, captions and scheduling across six platforms, takes videos up to ten hours, and clips footage that isn't people talking. It raised a round from SoftBank and is expanding from clipping into a full AI video-agent platform.

BitterClip is for the other job. You have a recording — twenty minutes to two hours, recorded straight into the project from your browser or shot on a phone, Zoom, Riverside, or a camera and brought in — and every time you need the finished thing: the full episode, the vertical version, captions with the misheard names fixed, and a way to search everything you've recorded when you need that one moment from March back. Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required. The trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it; trial exports are watermarked.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about OpusClip comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 3, OpusClip 3, tie 4.
- **Where the facts come from.** 12 public sources, mostly OpusClip’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/opus-clip.md)

## Sources

- [OpusClip homepage](https://www.opus.pro/)
- [OpusClip pricing page](https://www.opus.pro/pricing)
- [OpusClip Help — Plans and credits](https://help.opus.pro/docs/article/plans-and-credits)
- [OpusClip Help — How are credits consumed](https://help.opus.pro/docs/article/how-are-credits-consumed)
- [OpusClip Help — Virality score](https://help.opus.pro/docs/article/virality-score)
- [OpusClip Terms of Service](https://www.opus.pro/terms-of-service)
- [OpusClip MCP server](https://www.opus.pro/mcp)
- [OpusClip Claude connector](https://help.opus.pro/api-reference/claude-connector)
- [OpusClip API reference — Limitations](https://help.opus.pro/api-reference/limitation)
- [OpusClip Help — Video length and upload limits](https://help.opus.pro/docs/article/video-length)
- [OpusClip mobile app page](https://www.opus.pro/mobile-app)
- [OpusClip funding announcement (SoftBank, OpusSearch launch)](https://www.opus.pro/blog/opusclip-raises-a-new-round-of-funding-from-softbank-and-launches-opussearch)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)
- [BitterClip vs Vizard](https://bitterclip.com/compare/vizard)
- [BitterClip vs Klap](https://bitterclip.com/compare/klap)
- [BitterClip vs Munch](https://bitterclip.com/compare/munch)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)

---

# BitterClip vs Podcastle: Remote Guests or Finished Episodes
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/podcastle
Description: Podcastle (now called Async) records your show and cleans it up. BitterClip turns those recordings into finished episodes and clips. Compared for 2026.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/podcastle

Checked 2026-09-25 against 15 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Podcastle (now called Async) records your show and cleans it up. BitterClip turns those recordings into finished episodes and clips. Compared for 2026.

## Short answer

Podcastle (now called Async) records up to ten people and hosts your audio show. BitterClip turns each session into a finished video episode and clips.

| | BitterClip | Podcastle |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | The finished thing is a video episode plus clips, not just cleaner audio. | You record several remote guests at once, or your audio show needs hosting and a feed. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: limited recording and editing. Pro: $39.99/month ($23.99 a month billed annually). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Cut between up to five cameras** (favors BitterClip). Choose solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and the audio never flinches. Async's AI brings the most expressive speaker forward; its feature pages don't mention choosing the angle.
- **One link, up to 25 people** (favors BitterClip). On Producer, up to 25 people record on their own time, each answer its own episode. Async's help center says the host starts every session.
- **Bigger rooms and a podcast feed** (favors Podcastle). Async records up to ten people locally with uncompressed WAV, 4K from Pro, and hosts your show free, with submission to Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 4, Podcastle better on 2, tie on 5.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Podcastle | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Getting everyone on the call recorded | **Records you and a guest.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. | **Records ten people at once.** Each person captured locally with uncompressed WAV, 4K from the $39.99 Pro plan, so a bad connection can't spoil the tracks. | Podcastle |
| Collecting recordings on people's own time | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **Host-started sessions only.** Its help center says guests can't begin a recording; the host starts every session. | BitterClip |
| Taking out a sentence that didn't land | **Cuts land on the word.** Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, and the picture follows the text. | **Clears the filler in bulk.** Search flags silences and filler words across the recording so you remove them in one pass. | Even |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Fix the cut you have.** Say what's off and it changes; undo works all the way back. | **Revise by chat or by hand.** Async's chat edits existing content from follow-up instructions, and you can adjust trims, captions, pacing, and reframing by hand. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A chat box in its editor.** Say what you want in Async's chat and it restructures the video inside Async; its docs describe no way for an outside agent to run the editor. | BitterClip |
| When there's more than one camera | **Switch angles like a director.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, up to five cameras, and the audio never flinches. | **AI Clips reframes speakers automatically.** Its AI brings the most expressive speaker to the front; its feature pages don't describe choosing between camera angles yourself. | Even |
| Making the vertical version | **One tap off your own cut.** The 9:16 version carries over the captions and timing you already approved. | **It picks the moments too.** AI Clips reframes to 9:16 with face detection and adds subtitles automatically. | Even |
| Finding a moment you half-remember | **Search everything you've recorded.** By what was said, who said it, or what was on screen. | **Search inside one transcript.** Its editor searches one transcript for words and phrases, and flags silences and filler. | BitterClip |
| Answering "where is that from?" six weeks later | **One click back to the source.** Every clip remembers its spot in the full recording, and a review link plays that exact version, never a later one, for up to two weeks. | **Not in its docs.** The AI Clips page describes clips you download, and no link back to the source moment. | BitterClip |
| Getting the episode into podcast apps | **Not what it's for.** Posts to YouTube, LinkedIn and X, each confirmed first, plus private review links and 1080p downloads; no feed or hosting. | **Free hosting and a feed.** A show page, an embeddable player, and submission to Apple Podcasts and Spotify. | Podcastle |
| What you pay each month | **$1 for 7 days, then $24.** Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month. | **$39.99 for Pro.** Pro is $23.99 a month billed annually; AI Clips spend a credit per minute, generated video far more, and credits reset monthly with no rollover. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Podcastle: Pro $39.99/month ($23.99 a month billed annually), including 4K recording for every guest; Monthly AI credits. The catch: Credits reset each month with nothing carried over, and top-ups on monthly plans expire after two months. Source: https://async.com/pricing/

## Coming from Podcastle

1. Download your recordings from Async.
2. Upload them to a BitterClip project. Each arrives transcribed and ready to cut.
3. Keep bigger panels in Async, or record one-guest conversations in Studio, each of you on your own track.

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Podcastle

From Podcastle's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### AI inputs and outputs can be used for training unless you email to opt out

Async's terms grant a perpetual, irrevocable, sublicensable license to store, copy, modify, and distribute your AI Input and Output — for running the platform, for research and development, and "to improve our services and those of the third party AI providers." Getting out of the AI-training use means sending the company a message.

Source: [Async Terms of Service](https://async.com/terms/)

### AI credits expire on a schedule

Monthly subscription credits reset at the start of each billing cycle and nothing carries over. Top-up credits last until the subscription ends on yearly plans but only two months on monthly plans, and yearly plans hand out credits month by month rather than all at once.

Source: [Async pricing page FAQ](https://async.com/pricing/)

### Account termination ends access and deletes stored content

Async's terms end access when an account is terminated and provide for deletion of the content in that account.

Source: [Async Terms of Service](https://async.com/terms/)

## FAQ

### Is Podcastle worth it in 2026?

Yes, if you record remote interviews and want AI to handle the cleanup — per-guest local capture for up to ten people, 4K from the $39.99 Pro plan, chat editing, and free podcast hosting. Podcastle became Async in January 2026 and now spans a wider generative-AI suite. BitterClip fits better when the finished thing is a video episode plus clips, and when you want your own ChatGPT or Claude running the whole editor.

### What is the best Podcastle alternative?

For finishing recordings into episodes and clips: BitterClip. It takes footage from anywhere — Podcastle included — and turns it into a full cut, a multicam picture, captions, and vertical clips. It records remote guests too — you and a guest, each on your own track — and on Producer it collects recordings people make on their own time, where Async's help center says the host starts every session. For rooms bigger than two, Async's studio holds more.

### Can I edit Podcastle's AI output, or do I have to regenerate?

You can edit it — Async's own pages say you can fine-tune trims, captions, pacing, and reframing in the editor after an AI pass, and its chat takes follow-up instructions on existing content. BitterClip works the same way on its own cut: tell it what's still wrong and that cut changes, and undo takes you back exactly. The difference is reach: ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run BitterClip's whole editor from outside it.

### Does BitterClip record podcasts?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link.

### Can guests record on their own time, without a live session?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Async (formerly Podcastle) doesn't: its help center says guests can't begin a recording, so every session needs the host to start it.

### Which costs less, BitterClip or Podcastle?

BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required, against Async's Essentials at $19.99/month ($11.99/month billed annually), which records at up to 720p; 4K recording is on Pro at $39.99/month ($23.99 billed annually). They count different things, though: Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month; Podcastle counts recording hours, transcription hours, and AI credits that reset monthly. Price what a real month of yours uses, not the sticker.

### Is Podcastle still Podcastle, or is it Async now?

It's Async. The rebrand landed January 28, 2026, and podcastle.ai now redirects to async.com. The company says accounts, projects, pricing, and billing carry over unchanged, with enterprise positioning and a developer voice API added on top.

## The full comparison

## The record light goes off. That's when the week starts.

Podcastle earned its users. It gets a guest on the line from a browser tab and records each person locally, with uncompressed WAV and up to 4K on Pro, uploaded as the call runs so a bad connection can't wreck the tracks. If getting a remote guest recorded is your problem, use it.

Then the file lands, and you have ninety minutes of two people talking and a Tuesday to turn it into something. Async's text-based editing page is written for podcasts and voiceovers: delete a word, the audio goes with it. Its AI can bring the most expressive speaker to the front, but its feature pages describe no way to choose the angle yourself.

That's the part BitterClip does. Bring in the recording — Podcastle's studio, Zoom, a phone, a camera — or record it here. Every project has a browser recorder: prop your phone up, hit record, and the take drops straight into your edit, already transcribed. For an interview, open Studio on a paid plan: your guest joins from a link and each of you is recorded on your own track. And on Producer, BitterClip does the thing Async's name suggests (Async's help center says the host starts every session there): write a short brief, share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, each answer arriving as its own episode. Either way, the next part is building the picture: one person, side by side, picture-in-picture, a speaker rail or a grid, up to five cameras. Cutting to a different angle never touches the audio, so what people hear is one continuous conversation. When the wide cut is done, one tap makes the vertical version with the captions and timing carried over. That's a finished package out of every session, not just cleaner sound.

## Two different meanings of "just chat with it"

Async's headline is "just chat with Async" — a chat box inside their editor. BitterClip's version is that the chat can be wherever you already are: the panel in the editor, the command line, or any MCP client. ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench on the AI plan you already pay for.

Say "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" and you get an ordinary edit — open it, drag it, change your mind, undo all the way back. When you delete a sentence in the transcript, the cut follows the transcript's word timings, so it lands on the word rather than near it. And you can ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score.

## What each plan counts

Async bills AI work in credits. AI Clips spend one per minute of footage and generated video runs far more, monthly credits reset with nothing carried over, and top-ups on a monthly plan expire after two months.

BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required; cancel anytime. The trial takes one recording up to two hours and includes $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it, plus watermarked exports. Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month. Producer is $99/month with 40 hours of footage, $40 of AI agent use, larger files, and priority rendering.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Podcastle comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 4, Podcastle 2, tie 5.
- **Where the facts come from.** 15 public sources, mostly Podcastle’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/podcastle.md)

## Sources

- [Async homepage](https://async.com/)
- [Podcastle is now Async (rebrand announcement)](https://async.com/announcements/podcastle-is-now-async/)
- [Async pricing page](https://async.com/pricing/)
- [Async help: How does Async Creator pricing work](https://help.async.com/en/articles/6535067-how-does-async-creator-pricing-work)
- [Async: Text-based editing](https://async.com/tools/text-based-editing/)
- [Async: AI Clips](https://async.com/ai-tools/ai-clips/)
- [Async: Recording studio](https://async.com/products/recording/)
- [Async: Video editor](https://async.com/products/video-editor/)
- [Async Intelligence (chat editing)](https://async.com/async-intelligence/)
- [Async: Meet Bumblebee Chat 2.0](https://async.com/blog/meet-bumblebee-chat-2-0/)
- [Async: Hosting Hub](https://async.com/products/hosting-hub/)
- [Async Voice API](https://async.com/async-voice-api/)
- [Async: AI models](https://async.com/ai-models/)
- [Async help: what is a non-host-centric approach](https://help.async.com/en/articles/10059192-what-is-a-non-host-centric-approach)
- [Async Terms of Service](https://async.com/terms/)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)

---

# BitterClip vs Riverside: Recording Is Half the Job
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside
Description: Both record remote guests. BitterClip is built to finish the episode, too. Which one to pick, where each wins, and how to edit a Riverside recording.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside

Checked 2026-09-25 against 21 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Both record remote guests. BitterClip is built to finish the episode, too. Which one to pick, where each wins, and how to edit a Riverside recording.

## Short answer

Riverside records big remote panels in up to 4K. BitterClip records you and a guest, then turns the session into a finished episode and clips.

| | BitterClip | Riverside |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | Finishing the episode is the part you dread, or you collect answers from one link. | You record big remote panels in 4K, or want podcast hosting in the same place. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: includes Magic Clips, without spending AI credits. Pro: $29/month ($24 a month billed annually). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Your own AI runs the whole editor** (favors BitterClip). ChatGPT, Claude or Codex get all 63 editing tools, on the AI plan you already pay for. Riverside's MCP covers transcript search, cuts and export; Co-Creator works inside its editor.
- **Async answers at a listed price** (favors BitterClip). On Producer ($99 a month), one link lets up to 25 people record on their own time. Riverside sells async links only on its Business plan, through sales.
- **The better recorder for big panels** (favors Riverside). Riverside records every guest locally in up to 4K, with room for large remote sessions. BitterClip's Studio records you and one guest.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 2, Riverside better on 2, tie on 7.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Riverside | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Getting the recording in the first place | **Records you and a guest.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. Each browser also keeps a local copy, checked intact. | **Local tracks, up to 4K.** Each guest is recorded locally on their own track, up to 4K, so bad wifi can't ruin the take. | Riverside |
| Collecting recordings on people's own time | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **On Business, via sales.** Async invite links with up to 10 prompts and an intro video, but only on the custom-priced Business plan. | BitterClip |
| Footage you shot somewhere else | **The normal way in.** The trial takes one recording up to two hours; Creator includes 10 hours of footage a month, Producer 40. | **15 hours a month.** Paid self-serve plans include 15 hours a month, unlimited on Business; its help center says there's currently no way to check what you've used. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A few jobs over MCP, from $39.** Riverside's MCP lets ChatGPT or Claude search transcripts, cut and export; Co-Creator, its chat editor, works inside Riverside. The API is Business-only. | BitterClip |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Fix the cut you have.** Tell it what's wrong with that cut and it changes that cut; undo goes all the way back. | **Chat with Co-Creator.** Co-Creator applies the edits you describe inside Riverside's editor, and Magic Clips open in the text-based editor for manual changes. | Even |
| Who decides which moments are good | **Its agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **It picks for you.** Magic Clips finds highlights and ships YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram presets, free and fast. | Even |
| Whether the cut lands where you meant | **Cut on the word.** Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so an edit lands on the word, not near it. | **Edit it like a document.** Delete a line of transcript and the video updates, with a timeline for cut, split, and trim. | Even |
| Cutting between cameras after the shoot | **Decide angles afterward.** Up to five cameras: solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail, or grid, and the audio never moves. | **Automatic layouts, or your own scenes.** Its editor can switch layouts by who's talking, or you set layouts and scenes by hand; in-person multicam needs the Mac app on Pro or above. | Even |
| Making the vertical version | **One tap, captions and all.** The 9:16 version keeps your captions and timing, cropped or fitted around a focal point. | **One tap, from its picks.** Vertical presets ship per platform in Magic Clips, and a clip can switch back to widescreen. | Even |
| Getting it out the door | **Download, share, publish.** A 1080p MP4 of exactly what you see, links anyone can watch, and posts to YouTube, LinkedIn and X, each confirmed first. | **Owns the podcast feed.** Podcast hosting from Pro up, publishing to Spotify, Transistor, and Castos, and Premiere and Final Cut timeline exports on Business. | Riverside |
| What the monthly bill buys | **Pays for the finishing.** Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, with 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use; Producer is $99 with 40 hours and $40. | **Pays for the recorder.** $29 Pro covers 4K capture, podcast hosting, and 15 hours of separate-track downloads; $39 Grow adds livestreaming and MCP; async links are Business-only. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Riverside: Pro $29/month ($24 a month billed annually), including 4K local recording for every guest; Podcast hosting. The catch: AI credits expire unused, and separate-track downloads stop at 15 hours a month until the next billing cycle. Source: https://riverside.com/pricing

## Coming from Riverside

1. Export the finished recording from Riverside, the same file you'd hand an editor.
2. Upload it to a BitterClip project. It arrives transcribed and ready to cut.
3. Keep big panels in Riverside and finish them here, or record one-guest conversations in Studio.

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Riverside

From Riverside's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Downloading each guest's track is capped every month

Pro, Grow, and Webinar include 15, 20, and 25 hours a month of separate-track downloads. Go over and everything you already have stays where it is, but you can't download new separate tracks until the next billing cycle or an upgrade.

Source: [Riverside pricing](https://riverside.com/pricing)

### AI credits don't roll over

Riverside's pricing page says 'Pro users start with 2000 free credits' for credit-gated tools like AI translation, which runs about 100 credits a minute. The refund policy says leftover credits don't carry into the next term, even if you never spent one.

Source: [Riverside refund and cancellation policy](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/7633971223325-Refund-and-Cancellation-Policy-for-paid-subscriptions)

### Your recordings are archived after two years

On self-serve plans, recordings move to archival storage two years after they were recorded, and getting one back can take up to 24 hours. The Terms separately say the platform 'is not intended to be used as storage, backup or archiving services.' Only Business accounts are exempt.

Source: [Riverside help: access archived recordings](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5599517085981-Access-archived-recordings)

## FAQ

### Is Riverside worth it?

Yes, for recording each guest locally, up to 4K, on their own track, for large remote sessions, and for an editor with transcript cuts, speaker layouts, Magic Clips and Co-Creator. BitterClip fits better when finishing the episode and its clips is the job, and when you want your own ChatGPT or Claude running the whole editor.

### What is the best Riverside alternative?

BitterClip, if editing is the half you're replacing. It records remote guests too — you and a guest, each on your own track — and on Producer it collects recordings asynchronously: send one link and people record themselves on their own time. What it does is take the file you already have and get it to a finished episode and clips — cutting by selecting words in the transcript, or by asking for the change in ChatGPT, Claude, or the editor.

### Can I edit Riverside recordings in BitterClip?

Yes. Export the recording from Riverside, bring it into BitterClip, and work on it like anything else. Record there and finish here, or record here too.

### Does BitterClip record podcasts or meetings?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link. For bigger rooms or 4K, Riverside records more.

### Is BitterClip cheaper than Riverside?

They pay for different jobs. Riverside's $29 Pro buys the recorder — 4K capture and 15 hours a month of separate-track downloads — and its async recording links sit on the custom-priced Business plan. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required, and buys 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month; $99 Producer buys 40 hours, $40 of AI agent use, and priority rendering. Compare what each dollar produces.

### Does BitterClip do async recording like Riverside?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Riverside has async recording too, with scripted prompts, an optional intro video, and no length limit, but only on its custom-priced Business plan, and its answers arrive as tracks in one project rather than as separate episodes.

### Does BitterClip have something like Magic Clips?

In a different shape. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. Once a landscape cut exists, the vertical version is one tap with captions and timing carried across. If you want highlights picked for you, Magic Clips does that on Riverside's Free plan without spending AI credits.

## The full comparison

## The session went great. Now it's Tuesday.

Ninety minutes of good conversation is sitting on a drive, and you already know how the next three hours go: scrub, guess, trim, watch it back, guess again. That's the job after the recording, and it's the one this page is about.

Riverside — it dropped the .fm and moved to riverside.com in May 2026 — is very good at recording. It pulls clean, locally recorded, separate tracks out of people scattered across the internet, and one guest's bad wifi doesn't wreck the take. That is a hard problem. BitterClip's Studio records you and a guest, each on your own track, but it doesn't try to beat Riverside at big 4K panels.

What happens after the session ends is a different story. The recording lands in an editor built around transcript deletes, timeline trims, speaker layouts, quick auto clips and Co-Creator, a chat editor, and the pricing tells you where the attention went: downloading each guest's track is a monthly quota, and the API sits behind a custom-priced plan. Recording is the building. Editing is the annex.

BitterClip is the annex, built out. There is a recorder in it: prop your phone up, record in the browser, and the take drops straight into your edit. It takes camera and mic from a laptop or phone browser, up to 1080p. For a conversation, open Studio on a paid plan: your guest joins from a link, no account, and each of you is recorded on your own track. Each browser also records its own 720p copy, uploaded after the call and checked intact; the edit starts from the server recording, and you can swap in a local copy by hand. On Producer there's a third door: write a short brief, share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, no account needed, each answer arriving as its own transcribed episode. Riverside has async links too, but only on Business, priced by its sales team. Or bring the file — a Riverside session, a Zoom call, a phone video, a camera card — and from there it's an episode you can work on, and find again months later by what was said, who said it, or what was on screen. It runs in a browser with nothing to install, and it'll get you through a fix from your phone.

## Ask for the change from wherever you already are

Both products now let an assistant work on your video from ChatGPT or Claude. Riverside's MCP connector, from the $39 Grow plan up, searches transcripts, cuts and exports, and Co-Creator, its chat editor, works inside Riverside. In BitterClip, ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench, on every plan, from any MCP client, and the built-in agent makes the same moves right inside the editor. Say "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" in the assistant you already had open, and what comes back is an ordinary edit. Open it, drag it, change your mind by hand, undo it.

## The cut lands on the word

The other difference is quieter, and you feel it every day rather than once. BitterClip's cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so an edit lands on the word instead of near it, and you're not nudging the edge a frame at a time. Every clip remembers where it came from, so one click puts you back at that spot in the full recording when someone asks where it's from. A review link plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks. When the first cut isn't right, you say what's wrong and that cut changes, and undo goes all the way back. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score.

Keep recording where recording is best. Finish where finishing is the whole product. Bring one Riverside session across and see what the same conversation looks like done.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Riverside comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 2, Riverside 2, tie 7.
- **Where the facts come from.** 21 public sources, mostly Riverside’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/riverside.md)

## Sources

- [Riverside homepage](https://riverside.com/)
- [Riverside pricing](https://riverside.com/pricing)
- [Riverside Business plan](https://riverside.com/business)
- [Riverside video editor](https://riverside.com/video-editor)
- [Riverside Magic Clips](https://riverside.com/magic-clips)
- [Riverside Terms & Conditions](https://riverside.com/terms-conditions)
- [Riverside async recording](https://riverside.com/async-recording)
- [Riverside help: async recording overview](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/15133246157469-Async-recording-Overview)
- [Riverside help: connect to Riverside MCP](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/37803607978141-Connect-to-Riverside-MCP)
- [Riverside Co-Creator](https://riverside.com/co-creator)
- [Riverside help: Co-Creator in the editor](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/30667273227421-Co-Creator-in-the-editor)
- [Riverside help: apply layouts in the editor](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/22758117638557-Apply-layouts-in-the-editor)
- [Riverside help: hosting overview](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/28858024864285-Hosting-Overview)
- [Riverside help: export edited timeline](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5701862492829-Export-edited-timeline)
- [Riverside refund and cancellation policy](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/7633971223325-Refund-and-Cancellation-Policy-for-paid-subscriptions)
- [Riverside help: access archived recordings](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5599517085981-Access-archived-recordings)
- [Riverside help: external upload limits](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/27728436340125-What-are-the-limits-for-uploading-external-files)
- [Riverside help: use a mobile device as a second camera](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/5767459419549-Use-mobile-device-as-second-camera-multicam-mode)
- [Riverside in-person recording](https://riverside.com/use-cases/in-person)
- [Riverside integrations overview](https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/13493160790685-Riverside-integrations-Overview)
- [Riverside rebrand announcement (PR Newswire, May 2026)](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riverside-formerly-riversidefm-officially-adopts-its-new-name-and-moves-to-riversidecom-302778167.html)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)
- [BitterClip vs Podcastle](https://bitterclip.com/compare/podcastle)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)

---

# BitterClip vs Submagic: Clips or Whole Recordings?
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic
Description: Submagic styles short clips fast. BitterClip turns a whole recording into a finished episode plus vertical clips. Prices, caps, and fine print compared.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic

Checked 2026-09-25 against 11 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Submagic styles short clips fast. BitterClip turns a whole recording into a finished episode plus vertical clips. Prices, caps, and fine print compared.

## Short answer

Submagic styles a short clip with animated caption templates in minutes. BitterClip turns a whole recording into a finished episode plus vertical clips.

| | BitterClip | Submagic |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You record whole conversations and each needs an episode plus vertical clips. | Your footage is already short and you want it captioned and posted today. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Pro: $39/month (Per member). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **Whole recordings, not two-minute clips** (favors BitterClip). Submagic caps a video at 2 minutes on Starter, 5 on Pro and 30 on Business; longer goes through Magic Clips, on a separate allowance. BitterClip takes the whole recording and cuts the episode first, then the clips.
- **Cut between up to five cameras** (favors BitterClip). Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and switching never touches the audio. Submagic's docs don't mention multiple cameras.
- **Captions that look right, fast** (favors Submagic). Upload a short clip, pick a template, export. Submagic captions in 123 languages with emoji, zooms, B-roll and a hook title, and schedules to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube on Pro and Business.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 5, Submagic better on 3, tie on 2.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Submagic | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you can bring in | **A whole recording.** Footage from a phone, Zoom, Riverside, or a camera, or a take recorded in the browser. | **A clip you already cut.** Short raw footage in, styled vertical out; a long video goes through Magic Clips. | BitterClip |
| Getting one short posted today | **One tap, after the cut.** Once the episode is cut, the vertical version is one tap, captions and timing included. | **Minutes, start to finish.** Upload, pick a template, export. | Submagic |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Say what's off.** Say what's off and the same cut changes; undo works all the way back. | **Fix it by hand.** Delete words from the transcript or trim the timeline, redo the captions, change the hook title, one change at a time. | BitterClip |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **An MCP for clips and publishing.** With an API key, Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Cursor can make clips, export and publish; ChatGPT and claude.ai on the web aren't supported. | BitterClip |
| How long your video is allowed to be | **Long recordings are normal.** The trial takes one recording up to two hours; Creator includes 10 hours of footage a month. | **2 minutes on Starter.** 5 minutes on Pro, 30 on Business; anything longer goes through Magic Clips. | BitterClip |
| Who decides which moments are good | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score, and every clip links back to where it came from. | **It picks, in bulk.** Magic Clips pulls 20+ highlights per long video, each with a virality score, and uses a separate clipping allowance. | Even |
| Making the captions look right | **Right words, your look.** Active-word highlight, placement, accent color, and per-word fixes when a name gets misheard. | **Templates that just look right.** Captions in 123 languages, with fonts, colors, and emoji effects that fire on the words. | Submagic |
| When you shot with more than one camera | **Up to five cameras.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail, or grid, and switching never touches the audio. | **One video in, one out.** Submagic's docs don't mention multiple cameras. | BitterClip |
| Getting it out the door | **Download, link, or post.** A 1080p MP4 of the exact current version, private review links, and YouTube, LinkedIn and X after you confirm each post. | **Three platforms, scheduled.** TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube on Pro and Business, with LinkedIn, Facebook, and X listed as coming soon. | Submagic |
| What a month costs | **$1 for 7 days, then $24/month.** Creator: 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use. Producer ($99): 40 hours, $40 of AI agent use, and priority rendering. | **$19 to $69 per member.** A free trial covers three short videos; Starter $19 ($12 annually) buys 15 videos, Pro $39 buys 40, Business $69 buys 100, each per member. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Submagic: Pro $39/month (Per member), including 40 videos a month, up to 5 minutes each; Scheduling to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. The catch: Anything over 5 minutes goes through Magic Clips, which turns long recordings into shorts and uses a separate clipping allowance. Source: https://www.submagic.co/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Submagic

From Submagic's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Clipping long videos uses a separate allowance

Magic Clips turns long recordings into shorts and uses a separate clipping allowance, apart from the plan's monthly video count.

Source: [Submagic help: how much it costs](https://care.submagic.co/en/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-use-submagic-1xm83pa/)

### The license you grant when you upload

Uploading grants TURBO STUDIO (the company behind Submagic) a worldwide, non-exclusive license to use, modify, reproduce, and distribute your content on and through the platform. Using your content to promote the product is a separate clause; email support to opt out.

Source: [Submagic Terms of Use](https://www.submagic.co/terms-of-use)

### What happens to your projects if you cancel

Access ends when the agreement does. Ask for your data back within 60 days of expiry or termination — after that, the terms say the company destroys it across all environments and servers.

Source: [Submagic Terms of Use](https://www.submagic.co/terms-of-use)

## FAQ

### Is Submagic worth it?

Yes, for short clips: it turns raw footage into a styled, captioned vertical with animated caption templates, effects and B-roll, and schedules it to TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. BitterClip fits better when what you have is whole recordings that need a finished episode plus clips.

### What is the best Submagic alternative?

BitterClip, if the wall you keep hitting is video length — you work in whole recordings, not 2-minute clips. Whole recordings go in, a finished episode plus vertical clips come out, and you fix the cut you have instead of starting over. If you only want cheaper captions for shorts, a simpler caption tool will serve you better than either of us.

### Can I edit Submagic's output?

Yes, inside its editor: the docs cover trimming the timeline, correcting transcript and caption mistakes, changing hook titles, and swapping B-roll and music. It's a real hands-on finishing pass. Where BitterClip differs is what happens after — a change you don't like undoes exactly, and a review link plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks.

### Can Submagic handle long videos?

Business takes videos up to 30 minutes; Starter stops at 2 minutes and Pro at 5. Magic Clips turns long recordings into shorts and uses a separate clipping allowance. In BitterClip, the trial accepts one recording up to two hours, Creator includes 10 hours of footage a month, and Producer 40.

### Does Submagic work with ChatGPT or Claude?

Claude, partly. Submagic documents an MCP server that Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Cursor can use with an API key to make Magic Clips, export, and publish; claude.ai on the web isn't supported yet, and its docs list no ChatGPT integration. Zapier, Make, n8n, and a REST API cover the rest. In BitterClip, ChatGPT, Claude (including claude.ai) or Codex can run the whole editing workbench (63 tools) on the AI plan you already pay for, with the same permissions you have yourself.

### Does BitterClip record?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link. Submagic's docs describe no recorder.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Submagic's docs describe no recorder.

### Is BitterClip better than Submagic?

For finishing whole recordings, yes. For putting an animated caption look on a clip that's already short, no — Submagic offers ready-made caption styles, effects and B-roll for short clips. Submagic is a finishing pass; BitterClip is where the cut gets made in the first place.

## The full comparison

## You didn't record a clip. You recorded a conversation.

That is usually the whole problem. There are 90 minutes of a podcast, a client session, or a founder call sitting on a drive, and what you need out of it is one finished episode and four or five verticals. Submagic starts one step after that. It takes a piece of footage and makes it look good — template captions, emoji, zooms, B-roll, a hook title. Its own help center describes the workflow plainly: upload, style, correct, export. For a clip under two minutes, that's a short path to something you'd post.

The catch is how much you're allowed to bring in. Starter caps a video at 2 minutes, Pro at 5, Business at 30. Turning a long recording into shorts is Magic Clips, which uses a separate clipping allowance and hands you a batch of machine-picked highlights.

BitterClip starts at the recording. Drop in the file — phone, Zoom, Riverside, a camera — and the transcript becomes the thing you edit. Find the tangent in the words, select it, delete it, and a real cut happens. Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so you cut on the word rather than near it. One tap makes the vertical version, captions and timing carried across.

You can also skip the drop and record straight into the project. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. Prop your phone up and go — it takes camera and mic from a laptop or phone browser, up to 1080p. For a conversation, open Studio on a paid plan: your guest joins from a link and each of you is recorded on your own track. And on Producer there's a third way in: share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, no account needed, each answer arriving as its own episode ready to cut. Submagic's docs describe no recorder — it styles footage you already have.

## A template can read the text. It can't hear the point.

It doesn't know that "forty percent" is the number the whole clip exists to deliver, so the emphasis lands wherever the template's rules put it. Submagic gives you real tools to fix that — its guide walks through correcting transcript errors and moving word highlights and emoji — but the fixing is yours, caption by caption, clip by clip.

In BitterClip, captions are something you can ask for. Tell ChatGPT to highlight the price and the deadline and fix the founder's name everywhere it got misheard, and that is what happens: active-word highlight, accent color, placement, per-word corrections. ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench, and so can BitterClip's own agent in the editor.

## Fix the cut you have.

Submagic's output is editable, not take-it-or-leave-it. You can trim the timeline, correct the captions, change the hook, swap the B-roll. What its docs describe is a finishing pass over a result the machine already produced.

BitterClip is built the other way around. When the first cut isn't right, you say what's wrong and the same cut gets better, with no starting over. Undo works, all the way back. A review link you send a client plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks. And every clip remembers where it came from, so "where did this line come from" still has an answer months later.

The trade in one line: Submagic is a fast finish for footage you have already made the decisions about. BitterClip is where the deciding happens. Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required, cancel anytime. The trial includes $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it; trial exports are watermarked.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Submagic comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 5, Submagic 3, tie 2.
- **Where the facts come from.** 11 public sources, mostly Submagic’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/submagic.md)

## Sources

- [Submagic homepage](https://www.submagic.co/)
- [Submagic pricing](https://www.submagic.co/pricing)
- [Submagic Terms of Use](https://www.submagic.co/terms-of-use)
- [Submagic integrations page](https://www.submagic.co/integrations)
- [Submagic v2 step-by-step guide (help center)](https://care.submagic.co/en/article/how-to-use-submagic-v2-step-by-step-guide-pafx7o/)
- [Magic Clips step-by-step guide (help center)](https://care.submagic.co/en/article/how-to-use-magic-clips-step-by-step-guide-15mve5q/)
- [Submagic free trial terms (help center)](https://care.submagic.co/en/article/does-submagic-have-a-free-trial-7opyg3/)
- [Submagic MCP server docs](https://docs.submagic.co/mcp-server)
- [Submagic social media scheduler](https://www.submagic.co/social-media-scheduler)
- [Submagic help: how much it costs](https://care.submagic.co/en/article/how-much-does-it-cost-to-use-submagic-1xm83pa/)
- [Submagic help: trimming a video](https://care.submagic.co/en/article/how-to-trim-a-video-in-submagic-1gyj5lb/)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs Vizard](https://bitterclip.com/compare/vizard)
- [BitterClip vs Klap](https://bitterclip.com/compare/klap)
- [BitterClip vs Munch](https://bitterclip.com/compare/munch)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)

---

# BitterClip vs VEED: Toolbox or Workshop?
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/veed
Description: VEED does many different video jobs in a browser. BitterClip does one recurring job: recordings into finished episodes and clips.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/veed

Checked 2026-09-25 against 17 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

VEED does many different video jobs in a browser. BitterClip does one recurring job: recordings into finished episodes and clips.

## Short answer

VEED handles many different video jobs in one browser tab. BitterClip does one job, every week: a recording in, a finished episode and clips out.

| | BitterClip | VEED |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | You record the same kind of session every week and it has to come out finished. | Your month is many different video jobs: subtitles, a dub, a captioned ad, a screen walkthrough. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: watermarked exports; free web uploads can be used for AI development. Creator: $25/month ($12 a month billed yearly, per user). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **The same show, finished every week** (favors BitterClip). Record you and a guest on separate tracks, or bring the file. Delete words to cut, switch between up to five cameras, and make the vertical version in one tap.
- **Your own AI runs the whole editor** (favors BitterClip). ChatGPT, Claude or Codex get all 63 editing tools, on the AI plan you already pay for. VEED's OpenEdit is a local beta for Apple Silicon Macs, and its MCP server generates avatar videos rather than editing.
- **Nearly every video job, one tab** (favors VEED). Subtitles in a long language list, translation, dubbing, avatars, templates, brand kits and a screen recorder, all in one browser tab, with real shared workspaces for a team.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 5, VEED better on 3, tie on 4.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | VEED | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| The twenty other video jobs on your list | **Not what it does.** It finishes recorded sessions into episodes and clips; it will not dub, generate avatars, or build ads. | **Covers nearly all of them.** Subtitles, translation, dubbing, avatars, templates and a screen recorder all live in the same browser tab. | VEED |
| Getting the session recorded | **You and a guest, live.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. | **Screen and webcam, 60 minutes.** Its browser recorder handles screen and webcam and stops at 60 minutes. | BitterClip |
| Getting recordings from other people | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **Only by adding a seat.** Someone can record into your workspace only as an invited collaborator, with a VEED account and a billed seat. | BitterClip |
| Editing an imported ninety-minute recording | **The normal case.** Upload a ninety-minute recording and edit the episode and clips from its transcript. | **Holds one in a project.** VEED advises keeping a project under five gigabytes and around four to five hours. | Even |
| Whether the cut lands on the word | **Cut on the word.** Delete words in the transcript; cuts follow the transcript's word timings. | **Delete words, footage goes.** Edit by Script cuts footage as you delete words, working from VEED's auto-generated subtitles. | Even |
| Working with more than one camera | **Cut between five angles.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and switching angles never touches the audio. | **Stack the tracks yourself.** The timeline layers tracks for picture-in-picture; VEED's docs don't cover synced multicam or angle switching. | BitterClip |
| Making the captions look right | **Fix the misheard word.** Active-word highlight, custom placement, accent color, speaker titles, and per-word fixes for misheard words. | **Captions in more languages.** Per-speaker styling, low-confidence words flagged, and a long translation list; SRT download needs a paid plan. | VEED |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A local beta, Macs only.** OpenEdit is agent-driven but runs on your own Apple Silicon Mac; VEED's MCP server generates avatar videos rather than editing. | BitterClip |
| Who decides which moments are good | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **Clips rates them first.** It scans a long video and rates sections for engagement before you have looked at them. | Even |
| Adding a second person to the project | **Send a link instead.** Private review links anyone can watch without an account, and nobody has to make one. | **Real shared workspaces.** Collaborators, comments, brand kits and version control, with reviewers and SSO on higher tiers. | VEED |
| Getting the finished video out the door | **Link, download, or post.** A 1080p MP4, review links that play the exact version you sent for up to two weeks, and posts to YouTube, LinkedIn or X after you confirm each one. | **Download, then post by hand.** VEED hosts and embeds, but tells you to download and upload to sharing sites yourself. | BitterClip |
| What a month costs | **$1 for 7 days, then $24.** Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month; cancel anytime. Producer is $99/month. | **$25 per editor.** Creator is $25 a month per editor ($12 billed yearly); AI credits and translation minutes never roll over. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

VEED: Creator $25/month ($12 a month billed yearly, per user), including 6,000 AI credits; No watermark; Unlimited auto subtitles. The catch: Priced per user, and AI credits and translation minutes never roll over. Source: https://www.veed.io/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for VEED

From VEED's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Every seat is billed, including invitations nobody accepted

VEED's help center says: 'All VEED paid plans are billed per seat.' And: 'Pending invitations count as seats. If you have invited someone who has not accepted yet, you are still charged for them.' A new seat is charged, prorated, straight away. Removing one turns the unused time into account credit, not a refund.

Source: [VEED collaborator charges](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/8517339-how-collaborator-charges-are-calculated)

### AI-development use on the free web plan

VEED's privacy policy names an activity called Development and Improvement Processing: 'training and developing any relevant artificial intelligence models (including associated pre-training, testing, benchmarking, adaptation and refinement).' It covers 'relevant personal data included in content submitted or uploaded to our Applications by users under a Free subscription', and it carves out the mobile apps: 'this does not include any content submitted or uploaded via our mobile applications.' Self-serve plans have no trial, so that free tier is where you'd test VEED.

Source: [VEED Privacy Policy](https://www.veed.io/privacy)

### Paid plans still grant an irrevocable content license

The AI-development clause covers free web accounts, but VEED's Terms of Sale separately take a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to reproduce and use the content you submit.

Source: [VEED Terms of Sale](https://www.veed.io/terms-of-sale)

### The watermark is burned in, so upgrading does not clean up old exports

'The watermark is hardcoded into the video file during the export process.' Anything you rendered before upgrading stays watermarked and has to be re-exported. A failed payment reverts the workspace to free behavior, and the watermark comes back on the next render.

Source: [VEED watermark help article](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/7060527-why-is-watermark-still-showing-if-i-am-a-paid-subscriber)

## FAQ

### Is VEED worth it?

Yes, if your video work is many different small jobs done fast in a browser: subtitles, translation, dubbing, a screen recording, a template-driven ad. When the work is one recording that has to become a finished episode and clips every week, BitterClip fits better.

### What is the best VEED alternative?

For turning podcasts, interviews, or client sessions into finished episodes and vertical clips week after week, BitterClip. You record it in the browser or bring the file you already have, cut it by editing the transcript, and get the episode plus the vertical version out of the same pass. If you want another general-purpose browser toolbox, VEED is hard to beat at that, and a straight swap will disappoint you.

### Does VEED train AI on my videos?

On the free web plan, it can. VEED's privacy policy provides for AI-development use (training and developing artificial intelligence models) of personal data in content uploaded through its free web service, with content from its mobile apps carved out. Paid plans are outside that clause, but the Terms of Sale separately take a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license to reproduce and use the content you submit. Read both documents before you upload a client's footage.

### Does VEED have a free trial?

Not on the self-serve plans. VEED's pricing page offers a trial to enterprise customers only, with a three-user minimum, so an individual evaluates on the watermarked free tier, which is the tier whose web uploads can be used for AI development. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month; the trial needs a card and its exports are watermarked, and paid Creator exports are clean.

### Can VEED edit a two-hour podcast?

It can hold one, but it is not built around one. VEED advises keeping a project under five gigabytes and around four to five hours, the browser recorder stops at 60 minutes on every plan, and Clips needs a source with between one minute and three hours of speech. BitterClip is built for sessions like this and treats the whole assembly (cut, cameras, captions, opener, vertical version) as one job.

### Does BitterClip record, or do I have to bring footage?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link. It doesn't record 4K.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. VEED's docs describe no equivalent: someone can record into your workspace only as an invited collaborator with a VEED account, billed as a seat.

### Does VEED have an API?

Hosted AI models and an MCP server, not an editor API. VEED's models (Fabric 1.0, Lip Sync, Subtitles, Green Screen, and Background Removal) run on fal.ai, a third-party marketplace, with a FAL key; its MCP server generates Fabric avatar videos from Claude and other MCP clients; and VEED says it doesn't offer an API for the full editor. BitterClip opens the whole editing workbench (63 tools) to ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, any MCP client or the command line, and the result is an ordinary edit you can keep changing by hand.

## The full comparison

## The toolbox is full. The bench is empty.

VEED is good at what it is for, and it is for a lot. Auto-subtitles across a long language list, translation, dubbing, avatars, a screen recorder, templates, brand kits, workspaces with comments and version control. If your month holds a dubbed ad, a captioned client clip and a screen walkthrough, VEED does all three in one tab.

The trouble starts when your month is not three different jobs but the same job, three times. Cut the tangent, fix the misheard words, add the opener, cut between cameras, export, rebuild the vertical by hand. Next week, again. A template and a brand kit carry the look across, and VEED is good at both, but the assembly underneath is hand work every time — and Clips, the one feature that would build the vertical for you, will not touch a video already in your account or a project you have already exported. And the bill scales with the number of editors, so the assembly costs per head.

## What one bench looks like

BitterClip records: every project has a browser recorder, and the take drops straight into your edit. Camera and mic from a laptop or phone, up to 1080p. For a conversation, open Studio on a paid plan: your guest joins from a link and each of you is recorded on your own track, so you cut between you afterward. On Producer there's a third way in: write a short brief, share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own time, no account needed, each answer arriving as its own episode. Most weeks you bring the file anyway: phone, Zoom, Riverside, a camera.

Either way you get a transcript you edit like a document: delete the rambling sentence and a real cut happens in the video, landing on the word rather than near it, because cuts are timed to the audio itself.

VEED has real transcript editing too; Edit by Script is on every plan. What differs is around it. Up to five cameras, and switching angles never touches the audio. Captions with an active-word highlight, your placement, and a per-word fix for the name it mishears. One tap makes the vertical version, captions and timing carried across. Same kit every week, so the sixth episode is not a rebuild of the first.

## Ask for the edit instead of finding it

Your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench. Ask from one of them, the editor, or the command line: tighten the intro, cut the tangent at 14:20. What comes back is a normal edit you can keep changing by hand. VEED is moving this way too: OpenEdit is agent-driven, and its MCP server generates avatar videos from Claude, but OpenEdit is a beta that runs on your own machine, on recent Apple Silicon Macs only.

Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month; the trial needs a card, and you can cancel anytime. The trial takes one recording up to two hours and includes $5 of AI agent use to analyze the recording, make a first cut, and keep refining it; its exports are watermarked. Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month; Producer is $99/month with 40 hours of footage, $40 of AI agent use, larger files, and priority rendering. If your week is many small video jobs, stay with VEED. If it is one recording that has to come out finished, bring one over.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about VEED comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 5, VEED 3, tie 4.
- **Where the facts come from.** 17 public sources, mostly VEED’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/veed.md)

## Sources

- [VEED homepage](https://www.veed.io/)
- [VEED pricing](https://www.veed.io/pricing)
- [VEED Privacy Policy](https://www.veed.io/privacy)
- [VEED Terms of Sale](https://www.veed.io/terms-of-sale)
- [VEED collaborator charges](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/8517339-how-collaborator-charges-are-calculated)
- [VEED watermark help article](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/7060527-why-is-watermark-still-showing-if-i-am-a-paid-subscriber)
- [VEED Edit by Script](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/11137955-how-to-use-our-edit-by-script-tool)
- [VEED recorder](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/11099678-how-to-use-veeds-recorder)
- [VEED timeline](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/10804541-what-you-need-to-know-about-veeds-timeline)
- [VEED subtitles](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/11172739-how-to-add-subtitles-to-your-video-automatically)
- [VEED Clips](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/11652474-how-to-use-our-clips-feature)
- [VEED uploads](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/10657034-how-to-upload-video-audio-music-or-image-files)
- [VEED sharing and embeds](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/11029688-how-to-share-your-videos)
- [VEED OpenEdit](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/16342833-how-to-use-openedit-veed-s-agent-driven-video-editor)
- [VEED API](https://www.veed.io/api)
- [VEED MCP](https://www.veed.io/tools/veed-mcp)
- [VEED Subtitles API](https://support.veed.io/en/articles/15230204-veed-subtitles-api)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs Captions](https://bitterclip.com/compare/captions)
- [BitterClip vs Kapwing](https://bitterclip.com/compare/kapwing)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Zoom](https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom)

---

# BitterClip vs Vizard: The Whole Episode, Not Just the Clips
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/vizard
Description: Vizard makes a lot of clips fast and cheap. BitterClip finishes the whole recording, the episode and then the clips, and you can keep editing both.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/vizard

Checked 2026-09-25 against 19 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Vizard makes a lot of clips fast and cheap. BitterClip finishes the whole recording, the episode and then the clips, and you can keep editing both.

## Short answer

Vizard turns one upload into 30+ captioned clips for very little money. BitterClip finishes the whole recording: the episode, then the clips.

| | BitterClip | Vizard |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | Each recording has to leave finished: the full episode, then the clips you direct. | You want a batch of captioned clips from every upload, posted on a schedule to six platforms. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: 60 upload-minutes a month at 720p, watermarked. Creator: $29/month ($174 billed yearly). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **The whole recording, not just clips** (favors BitterClip). Every recording leaves as the full episode plus the vertical version, made in one tap, cutting between up to five cameras. Vizard turns an upload into clips, and multicam isn't in its docs.
- **Your own AI runs the whole editor** (favors BitterClip). ChatGPT, Claude or Codex get all 63 editing tools, from trims to camera switches and captions, and return an ordinary edit. Vizard Agent revises clips on Vizard's own site.
- **Thirty-plus clips from one upload** (favors Vizard). One upload comes back as 30+ captioned verticals with reframing, emoji and social copy, scheduled out to six platforms. The free plan gives 60 upload-minutes a month.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 2, Vizard better on 4, tie on 4.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Vizard | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Turning one long upload into a pile of shorts | **Not the job it does.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There is no thirty-clip button. | **Thirty-plus in one pass.** One upload comes back as captioned verticals with reframing and the social copy written. | Vizard |
| Changing the first cut by saying what's wrong | **Change the same clip.** Say what's wrong and get the same cut back corrected; undo works all the way back. | **Revise with Vizard Agent or by hand.** Adjust transcript selections and clip boundaries, or give Vizard Agent feedback for another revision. | Even |
| When a clip starts half a word late | **Cut on the word.** Cuts follow the transcript's word timings. | **Its docs flag mid-sentence stops.** Vizard's help docs say clips can stop mid-sentence; you can extend a clip sentence by sentence or put struck-out transcript text back. | Even |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **A separate agent, plus an API.** Vizard Agent revises from your direction on its own site; the API's editing endpoint refuses anything three minutes or longer. | BitterClip |
| Deciding which moments are worth clipping | **The agent, or you.** Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. There's no virality score. | **The machine chooses first.** Spark 1.0 reads visuals, audio, and sentiment — fast, when you agree with its picks. | Even |
| You filmed with more than one camera | **Up to five cameras.** Solo, side by side, picture-in-picture, speaker rail or grid, and switching never touches the audio. | **Not in its docs.** The closest help article covers telling speaker and screen share apart in Zoom recordings. | BitterClip |
| Putting captions on the finished clip | **Fix the misheard word.** Active-word highlight, your placement and accent color, and per-word corrections when it hears wrong. | **50+ languages, animated.** Fonts, colors, animated styles, and emoji inserted for you, which you can edit or switch off. | Even |
| Getting it posted everywhere | **Three channels, each confirmed.** YouTube, LinkedIn and X after you confirm each post, plus review links that need no account and expiring links for handing off a render. | **Six platforms on a calendar.** TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook Pages, scheduled ahead of time. | Vizard |
| What a month costs | **$1 for 7 days, then $24/month.** Creator includes 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use; Producer, 40 hours and $40. | **A free plan, then $29.** The free plan gives 60 upload-minutes a month at 720p with a watermark; Creator is $29 for 600. | Vizard |
| Working from your phone | **Browser, nothing to install.** It works in a phone browser; there's no app. | **Real iOS and Android apps.** Native apps alongside the web editor, if you clip while you're out. | Vizard |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Vizard: Creator $29/month ($174 billed yearly), including 600 upload-minutes a month; Credits last 13 months when billed yearly. The catch: Monthly credits expire after 60 days, and unused Creator credits don't carry over when you move up to Business. Source: https://vizard.ai/pricing

## See the result

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded a conversation about quitting a twelve-year job to build bitter.sh. This one-minute vertical cut came out of it, made in BitterClip. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Vizard

From Vizard's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Model-training permission and stated practice

Vizard's terms permit model improvement using user content and usage data; its data-safety article says its models are trained on public YouTube data.

Source: [Vizard Terms of Service](https://vizard.ai/user-service.html)

### Monthly credits expire after 60 days

Each batch of credits lasts two months on monthly plans, 13 months on yearly ones. Unused Creator credits don't carry over when you move up to Business, and a downgrade only takes effect at the end of the billing cycle.

Source: [Vizard Help — How to upgrade or downgrade your plan](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/10441977-how-to-upgrade-or-downgrade-your-plan)

## FAQ

### Is Vizard worth it?

Yes, for generating batches of captioned clips from talking-head footage and scheduling them across six platforms, from $29 a month on Creator. Vizard also has transcript editing and Vizard Agent for revisions. BitterClip fits better when each recording has to leave as a finished episode plus clips, cut between cameras.

### What is the best Vizard alternative?

Depends what's bugging you. If it's clips that start or stop in the wrong place, BitterClip's cuts follow the transcript's word timings, and you fix the cut you have by deleting words or saying what's wrong. If you just want a different clip machine, BitterClip isn't one; it finishes whole recordings.

### Can I edit Vizard clips after the AI makes them?

Yes. Vizard supports transcript changes, clip-boundary adjustments and agent-directed revisions. In BitterClip you select words in the transcript and a real edit happens, cuts follow the transcript's word timings, and every change undoes exactly.

### Does BitterClip make 30 clips automatically like Vizard?

No. Ask BitterClip's agent to find the moments and make a first cut, or pick them yourself. Every clip remembers where it came from, so one click jumps back to that spot in the full recording. If you want a machine to hand you 30 candidates unprompted, Vizard does that job better.

### Do Vizard credits roll over?

Yes. Monthly-plan credits last 60 days; annual-plan credits last 13 months. Unused Creator credits don't transfer when you upgrade to Business.

### Does BitterClip record?

Yes. Every project has a browser recorder for solo takes, and the take drops straight into your edit. On paid plans, Studio records a conversation: your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded on your own track. On Producer, people can also record answers on their own time from one link.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Vizard's docs describe no equivalent; its recorder is a screen recorder for your own screen and mic.

### Can I use BitterClip from ChatGPT or Claude?

Yes. ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench (63 tools) on the AI plan you already pay for, and so can any MCP client. Say "cut the tangent at 14:20" and what comes back is a normal edit you can open, nudge by hand, or undo.

## The full comparison

## The clip that starts half a word late

You have ninety minutes of a good conversation and about three hours of dread. So you upload it, thirty clips come back, and most of them are fine. Then you watch the four you want to post. One starts half a word late. One ends mid-sentence. And now you're in the editor anyway, which is the thing you were paying not to do.

Vizard says so itself. Its own help docs say the AI "will stop in the middle of a sentence" and call it "some glitch in ChatGPT that we cannot fix." From there you can push the boundary out sentence by sentence, put struck-out transcript text back, select the segments by hand, or give Vizard Agent direction for another revision.

BitterClip starts from the assumption that the first cut is a draft, and drafts get changed. Select words in the transcript and a real edit happens. Cuts follow the transcript's word timings, so you cut on the word rather than near it. Something's off, you say what's wrong and fix the cut you have. You went too far, undo takes you back. A review link you sent your co-host plays the exact version you sent, never a later one, for up to two weeks. There's nothing to run again, because nothing got thrown away.

## Your own AI runs the whole editor

Vizard has a real API — submit a long video, pull the clips back out, polish the short ones, though the editing endpoint refuses anything three minutes or longer. It's a pipeline. Video in, clips out. Vizard Agent takes direction too, on Vizard's own site.

BitterClip works the other way around. ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench — trims, camera switches, captions, music cues — and so can BitterClip's own agent in the editor. Type "cut the tangent at 14:20 and tighten the intro" and what comes back is an ordinary edit: open it, nudge it by hand, undo it. The last ten percent of clip work is the annoying part, and that's where asking, in the assistant you already use, pays off.

## Which side you're on

If your output is volume — daily verticals across six platforms, cut from talking-head footage, and you're happy letting the machine choose first — stay on Vizard. It's priced and shaped for exactly that, and Spark 1.0 is good at it, though prompt-based extraction caps at 10 prompts per project and isn't switched on for everyone yet.

If your output is finished recordings — the full episode, the vertical version with captions and timing already carried across, every clip one click from the spot it came from — start with BitterClip's Creator trial: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, card required, cancel anytime. Bring one recording up to two hours, with $5 of AI agent use to analyze it, make a first cut, and keep refining it. Trial exports are watermarked.

Bring one recording you already regret uploading somewhere else. The first almost-right cut you fix instead of redo will tell you which side you're on.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Vizard comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 2, Vizard 4, tie 4.
- **Where the facts come from.** 19 public sources, mostly Vizard’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/vizard.md)

## Sources

- [Vizard homepage](https://vizard.ai/)
- [Vizard pricing](https://vizard.ai/pricing)
- [Vizard Terms of Service](https://vizard.ai/user-service.html)
- [Vizard Help — How to extend and add more content to AI-generated clips](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/8984381-how-to-extend-and-add-more-content-to-ai-generated-clips)
- [Vizard Help — What is Spark 1.0](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/9905409-what-is-spark-1-0)
- [Vizard Help — How credits are used for AI processing](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/12017624-how-credits-are-used-for-ai-processing)
- [Vizard Help — How to upgrade or downgrade your plan](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/10441977-how-to-upgrade-or-downgrade-your-plan)
- [Vizard Help — What does the free plan offer](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/8767572-what-does-the-free-plan-for-vizard-offer)
- [Vizard Help — Vizard and data safety](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/9629134-vizard-and-data-safety)
- [Vizard Help — Can I request a refund](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/8766984-can-i-request-a-refund)
- [Vizard API documentation](https://docs.vizard.ai/llms.txt)
- [Vizard API pricing and limits](https://docs.vizard.ai/docs/pricing.md)
- [Vizard Help — How to connect your social media accounts](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/10367893-how-to-connect-your-social-media-accounts)
- [Vizard mobile apps](https://vizard.ai/app)
- [Vizard Help — Zoom speaker and screen-share detection](https://help.vizard.ai/en/articles/8768908-vizard-cannot-detect-the-screen-and-speaker-in-my-zoom-recordings-how-can-i-get-vizard-to-identify-them-separately)
- [Vizard Help — Editor collection](https://help.vizard.ai/en/collections/8474224-editor)
- [Vizard auto subtitle generator](https://vizard.ai/tools/auto-subtitle-generator-online)
- [Vizard Agent announcement](https://vizard.ai/blog/the-next-shift-in-ai-is-coming-to-video)
- [Vizard screen recorder](https://vizard.ai/tools/screen-recorder)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)
- [BitterClip vs Klap](https://bitterclip.com/compare/klap)
- [BitterClip vs Munch](https://bitterclip.com/compare/munch)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)

---

# BitterClip vs Zoom: Record the Conversation, Not the Call
Source: https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom
Description: Zoom records a view of your call. BitterClip records a separate video of each person and hands you the episode. Where each wins, and how to bring Zoom recordings over.

Canonical HTML page: https://bitterclip.com/compare/zoom

Checked 2026-09-25 against 17 public sources, listed at the end. Updated 2026-09-27.

Zoom records a view of your call. BitterClip records a separate video of each person and hands you the episode. Where each wins, and how to bring Zoom recordings over.

## Short answer

Zoom records the meeting. BitterClip records a separate video of each person and hands you the episode, ready to edit.

| | BitterClip | Zoom |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Choose it if | The call is going to become an episode, clips, or something you send a client. | The meeting itself is the point, or more than two people are on it. |
| Price | Creator: $24/month, includes live Studio. Producer: $99/month, adds async recording for up to 25 people. | Free: meetings end at 40 minutes and record locally only. Pro: $16.99/month ($14.16 a month billed annually, per user). |

Try BitterClip: $1 for your first 7 days: one recording up to 2 hours, watermarked exports.

## What differs

- **A separate video of each person** (favors BitterClip). Zoom saves a view of the call; in active-speaker view, it already chose who's on screen. On paid plans, Studio records you and your guest separately, so you choose.
- **The call arrives as an episode** (favors BitterClip). When the call ends, you have a transcribed episode. Delete words to cut, make the vertical version in one tap, or ask for the edit in ChatGPT or Claude.
- **Everyone already has Zoom** (favors Zoom). A hundred people on the free plan for 40 minutes, webinars, and AI Companion summaries. For team calls and anything bigger than two people, stay with Zoom.

## Job by job

BitterClip better on 7, Zoom better on 1, tie on 3.

| What you're comparing | BitterClip | Zoom | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| How a two-person conversation gets recorded | **Each of you, separately.** Studio on paid plans: you and one guest who joins from a link with no account, each recorded as a separate 720p video, for up to 75 minutes. The picture can follow whoever is talking. | **A view of the call.** Cloud recording saves active-speaker, gallery, or shared-screen views, not a video file per person. | BitterClip |
| Cutting back and forth between people | **You decide, on the word.** Cut to either of you wherever you like, or go side by side or picture-in-picture, and the audio never moves. | **Active speaker decides.** Active-speaker recording switches to whoever Zoom detected speaking, and that choice is baked into the file. | BitterClip |
| Separate audio for each person | **Every track, every time.** Each person's camera and microphone are recorded separately, without a setting to remember. | **An option, if you set it.** Paid cloud plans and desktop local recording can save one M4A per person; phone callers share a file. | Even |
| When a connection wobbles mid-call | **A local copy from each browser.** Each browser records its own 720p copy, uploaded after the call and checked intact; swap it in by hand if the call glitched. | **The glitch is in the file.** Recordings are made from what the call delivered; Zoom's staff say network-damaged recordings can't be restored. | BitterClip |
| Getting your guest in | **A link, no account.** Your guest opens a browser link, checks camera and mic, and joins with nothing to install. | **A link, no account.** Guests join from the app or a browser without an account, though browser join has fewer features. | Even |
| More than two people on the call | **Built for a conversation.** Studio is you and a guest; a panel or a team meeting belongs in a meeting tool. | **A hundred people, free.** Basic hosts 100 people for 40 minutes; Pro runs 30 hours for 100, and Business holds 300. | Zoom |
| Turning the recording into an episode | **It arrives as one.** The conversation lands as a transcribed episode; delete words to cut, and the cut lands on the word. | **Trim sections.** Cut sections out of a cloud recording; AI highlights and chapters come on Pro and up. | BitterClip |
| Making the vertical version | **One tap.** The 9:16 version keeps your captions and timing, cropped or fitted around a focal point. | **Not in Zoom.** Zoom's Meetings and Clips docs don't mention vertical reframing or burned-in captions. | BitterClip |
| Editing from your own ChatGPT or Claude | **The whole editor, 63 tools.** ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run every editing tool on the AI plan you already pay for, without drawing on BitterClip's included agent use. | **Summaries, not edits.** AI Companion writes summaries and next steps and marks highlights (three meetings a month on Basic); it doesn't cut the recording. | BitterClip |
| Collecting recordings on people's own time | **Send one link.** On Producer, one link lets up to 25 people record on their own device, on their own time, with no account. Each answer arrives as its own episode. | **No request link.** Zoom Clips records the signed-in user's own screen and camera. | BitterClip |
| What the monthly bill buys | **The episode, not the meeting.** Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, with 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use; Producer is $99 with 40 hours and $40. | **The meeting, plus storage.** Pro is $16.99 a user monthly ($14.16 billed annually) with 10 GB of cloud storage; the free plan records locally only. | Even |

## What you'd pay

BitterClip: $1 for 7 days, then $24/month. Creator $24/month (10 hours of footage a month; $10 of AI agent use a month; The whole editor for your own ChatGPT, Claude or Codex (63 tools); Live Studio: you and one guest, a separate 720p video of each, up to 75 minutes; Clean exports, files up to 4 GB). Producer $99/month (Everything in Creator; 40 hours of footage a month; $40 of AI agent use a month; Async recording: one link, up to 25 people, no account needed; Priority rendering, files up to 20 GB). The catch: The $1 trial covers one recording up to two hours and $5 of AI agent use, card required, with watermarked exports. Studio and clean exports start on a paid plan.

How BitterClip makes money: From the subscription, by building a good workbench, not by reselling AI. The built-in agent costs what OpenRouter billed for each request plus a flat 15%, which covers OpenRouter's fees, card processing and requests that fail after they're billed. Your own ChatGPT or Claude can run the whole editor on the plan you already pay for. We run the company lean, so the subscription is enough.

Zoom: Pro $16.99/month ($14.16 a month billed annually, per user), including Meetings up to 30 hours; Cloud recording with 10 GB of storage; AI highlights and chapters. The catch: Cloud-recorded camera video is 360p unless the host turns on HD, and cloud recording saves layouts, not a video file per person. Source: https://zoom.us/pricing

## Coming from Zoom

1. Keep Zoom for meetings. Download the recordings you want to finish, or set up Zoom import so new cloud recordings arrive on their own.
2. Drop the files into a BitterClip project. Each becomes a transcribed episode you can search by what was said.
3. Record your next interview in Studio. Your guest joins from a link, and each of you is recorded as a separate video.

[How Zoom import works](https://bitterclip.com/docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording)

The one-minute cut: BitterClip's founder, Michael Ruescher, recorded this conversation over Zoom. The one-minute vertical cut came out of that recording, made in BitterClip. Record in Studio and each person also gets their own video. BitterClip's agent made the first cut; the edit can be revised in plain words or in the transcript, and the 9:16 version is one tap.

## Before you pay for Zoom

From Zoom's own pricing, help, and terms pages.

### Cloud-recorded camera video defaults to 360p

Zoom's recording-resolution article lists 640×360 for cloud-recorded camera video unless the host has turned on the account's HD video setting. 720p needs Pro or above; 1080p needs Business or higher (or Pro with an add-on) and Zoom Support switching it on, plus a fast enough computer on the sending end.

Source: [Zoom support: resolution of recorded video](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0066421)

### Zoom Meetings cloud recording saves layouts, not a video file per person

Cloud recording can save separate files for active speaker, gallery view, and shared screen — one per view, not one per participant. The closest thing Zoom sells is ZoomISO, an open-beta macOS app that comes with the Enhanced Media add-on ($25 a month on top of a paid plan) and records the streams Zoom delivers to that Mac.

Source: [Zoom support: adjusting recording video layouts](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0062314)

### A bad connection stays in the recording

Zoom records what the call delivered, on its servers or on the recording person's computer, never from each guest's own camera. Asked about a glitching, pixelated recording, a Zoom employee on the company's community forum said such recordings are usually caused by network conditions and can't be restored.

Source: [Zoom Community: glitching recording (staff reply)](https://community.zoom.com/meetings-2/whole-zoom-meeting-recording-is-glitching-and-unusable-78401)

### Free meetings end at 40 minutes and never reach the cloud

Meetings hosted on the Basic plan end at 40 minutes, and Basic can only record locally, to a computer. Cloud recording starts on Pro, with 10 GB of storage per license.

Source: [Zoom support: time limits for meetings](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0067966)

## FAQ

### Is Zoom good for recording a podcast?

For a record of the call, it's fine. As raw material for an episode it's a weak start: each recording is a view of the call — active speaker, gallery, or shared screen — with any network glitch baked in, and cloud-recorded camera video is 360p unless the host turns on HD. In active-speaker view, Zoom already decided who is on screen. Paid cloud plans and desktop local recording can add a separate audio file per person, but there's no separate video per person to cut between.

### Does Zoom record each participant separately?

Audio, yes, if you switch it on: paid cloud recording can save one M4A per person, and desktop local recording can too, even on the free plan; phone callers share an audio file. Video, no. Zoom Meetings records views of the call, not people. The one Zoom-owned exception is ZoomISO, an open-beta macOS app sold with the Enhanced Media add-on, which records the streams Zoom delivers to that computer.

### What's the best Zoom alternative for recording interviews?

BitterClip, if the interview is going to become an episode and clips. Your guest joins Studio from a link, each of you is recorded as a separate video, and the conversation arrives as a transcribed episode you cut by deleting words. If you need a big remote panel in 4K, Riverside records more people at once. If the call is a meeting, stay with Zoom.

### Can I bring my Zoom recordings into BitterClip?

Yes. Download them from Zoom and upload the files, and each becomes an episode you can search and cut. Where Zoom import is set up for your account, finished cloud recordings arrive on their own, with the available views gathered into one editable episode. Old calls you'd never re-edit become findable by what was said and who said it.

### Does BitterClip do async recording?

Yes, on Producer ($99/month). Share one link and up to 25 people record themselves in their browser, on their own time, with no account. Each take is recorded on their own device, so a weak connection can't degrade it, and each answer arrives in your project as its own transcribed episode. Zoom's docs describe no request link: Zoom Clips records the signed-in user's own screen and camera.

### Is BitterClip cheaper than Zoom?

They buy different things. Zoom Pro is $16.99 a user monthly ($14.16 billed annually) and buys meetings plus 10 GB of cloud storage. BitterClip Creator is $1 for 7 days, then $24/month, cancel anytime, and buys 10 hours of footage and $10 of AI agent use a month to turn recordings into episodes and clips; Producer is $99/month with 40 hours. Plenty of people keep Zoom for meetings and record the conversations that matter in BitterClip.

## The full comparison

## A Zoom recording is a record of the call

Most interviews, coaching sessions, and founder conversations get recorded in Zoom because the guest already has it. That's a good reason to take the call there. It's a bad reason to edit from what comes out.

What comes out is a view of the call. Zoom's cloud recording saves active speaker, gallery view, or shared screen — separately if you ask, but always a file per *view*, never one per *person*. In active-speaker view, Zoom already chose who's on screen at every moment, and that choice is baked into the pixels. Unless someone turned on the HD setting, cloud-recorded camera video is 360p. And because it's recorded from what the call delivered, a guest's bad wifi is in the file for good. Zoom can save a separate audio file for each person if you switch that on, which helps the sound. It doesn't give you a second camera to cut to.

## Record the conversation instead

BitterClip's Studio, included on every paid plan, is built for the two-person conversation that's going to become an episode. You send your guest a link. They open it in a browser, check their camera and mic, and join — no account, nothing to install. From the moment you press record, each of you is recorded as a separate video. Each browser also records its own 720p copy, uploaded after the call and checked intact. The edit starts from the server recording, and you can swap in a local copy by hand.

When you finish, there's no export-download-upload loop. The conversation arrives in your project as an episode, already transcribed. Delete a sentence in the transcript and the cut lands on the word. Cut to your guest for the answer and back to you for the follow-up, or put you side by side, and the audio never moves. One tap makes the vertical version with captions and timing carried across. ChatGPT, Claude or Codex can run the whole editing workbench on the AI plan you already pay for.

And for the people who can't make a call at all, Producer adds async recording: write a short brief, share one link, and up to 25 people record themselves on their own device, on their own time. Each answer arrives as its own episode.

## Already have a year of Zoom calls?

Keep them. Download the recordings and bring them in, or, where [Zoom import](/docs/getting-started/import-zoom-cloud-recording) is set up for your account, let finished cloud recordings arrive on their own. Every one becomes an episode you can search by what was said, who said it, or what was on screen — and cut into something worth posting. Keep Zoom for meetings. Record the conversations that matter where you're going to finish them.

## How we compared

- **Who wrote it.** The BitterClip team. We sell BitterClip, so this is a vendor’s comparison: every fact about Zoom comes from the public sources listed on this page.
- **How jobs are scored.** Each job goes to the product that does it better, or is a tie when both do it well or the choice comes down to taste. Here: BitterClip 7, Zoom 1, tie 3.
- **Where the facts come from.** 17 public sources, mostly Zoom’s own pricing, help, and legal pages. Prices are in US dollars as listed that day. BitterClip’s side covers what’s live for customers on the plan named.
- **Corrections.** This page is open source. If something is wrong or out of date, edit its file on GitHub and open a pull request. [Edit this page on GitHub](https://github.com/sheetgenius/bitterclip-marketing/blob/main/content/compare/zoom.md)

## Sources

- [Zoom pricing](https://zoom.us/pricing)
- [Zoom support: adjusting recording video layouts](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0062314)
- [Zoom support: cloud recording settings](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0064676)
- [Zoom support: starting a computer recording](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0076922)
- [Zoom support: resolution of recorded video](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0066421)
- [Zoom support: enabling HD video](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0066166)
- [Zoom support: trimming cloud recordings](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0064204)
- [Zoom support: smart recording with AI](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0061101)
- [Zoom support: getting started with Zoom Clips](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0057723)
- [Zoom support: cloud recording storage](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0067670)
- [Zoom support: time limits for meetings](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0067966)
- [Zoom support: participant limits](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0068002)
- [Zoom support: joining without an account](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0059553)
- [Zoom support: Enhanced Media and Liminal apps](https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0085055)
- [ZoomISO v3](https://www.liminalet.com/zoomiso-v3)
- [Zoom Community: individual video recordings (staff reply)](https://community.zoom.com/meetings-2/recording-video-individual-recordings-46415)
- [Zoom Community: glitching recording (staff reply)](https://community.zoom.com/meetings-2/whole-zoom-meeting-recording-is-glitching-and-unusable-78401)

## More comparisons

- [BitterClip vs Riverside](https://bitterclip.com/compare/riverside)
- [BitterClip vs Podcastle](https://bitterclip.com/compare/podcastle)
- [BitterClip vs Descript](https://bitterclip.com/compare/descript)
- [BitterClip vs OpusClip](https://bitterclip.com/compare/opus-clip)
- [BitterClip vs CapCut](https://bitterclip.com/compare/capcut)
- [BitterClip vs Submagic](https://bitterclip.com/compare/submagic)