Descript Pricing Explained (2026): Every Plan, Media Minutes & AI Credits

Descript costs $0 to $50/mo per user in 2026, across a free plan and three paid tiers (Hobbyist, Creator, Business), plus custom Enterprise. Billed annually you pay $16, $24 and $50; billed monthly it's $24, $35 and $65. The wrinkle since late 2025 is that Descript meters two separate things — media minutes and AI credits — so the "right" plan is the one whose allowances match how you work.

Descript pricing at a glance

Here's every plan with annual pricing (the cheaper option) and the headline allowances.

Plan	Price (annual)	Media minutes	AI credits	Export
Free	$0	60 min/mo	100 (one-time)	720p, watermark
Hobbyist	$16/mo	10 hrs/mo	400/mo	1080p
Creator	$24/mo	30 hrs/mo	800/mo	4K
Business	$50/mo	40 hrs/mo	1,500/mo	4K
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	4K+

Monthly billing costs more: Hobbyist $24, Creator $35, Business $65. Annual saves up to 33%, so if you'll use Descript for more than a few months, pay yearly.

Media minutes vs AI credits — how the metering works

This is the part that confuses people, so it's worth being clear. Media minutes are your transcription and editing budget — how much audio and video you can bring into projects each month. Import a 60-minute podcast and you've spent 60 media minutes.

AI credits are separate, and they're spent whenever you use an AI feature: Underlord edits, Overdub voice cloning, Studio Sound cleanup, green-screen, generative fill and so on. Heavy AI users burn credits faster than light ones, and each tier has a hard ceiling. If you mostly do manual text-based cuts you'll rarely touch the credit cap; if you lean on Underlord for everything, credits are the limit you'll hit first, not minutes.

Free plan — good for trying, not publishing

The free plan gives you 60 media minutes a month, a one-time grant of 100 AI credits, transcription in 25 languages with speaker detection, and 720p exports with a watermark. It's a real taste of the workflow — enough to edit a short video by text and try Underlord once or twice.

What stops it being a publishing tool is the watermark, the 720p cap and the one-time (not monthly) credits. Use it to decide whether text-based editing clicks for you, then upgrade.

Hobbyist ($16/mo) — the watermark-free entry

Hobbyist at $16/mo (annual) is mainly about removing the watermark and lifting exports to 1080p. You get 10 hours of media minutes and 400 AI credits a month, plus access to Underlord, Studio Sound and the basic AI toolkit, with limited custom voice cloning.

It suits a hobbyist podcaster or a creator publishing a couple of videos a month at 1080p. If you need 4K or full voice cloning, skip straight to Creator.

Creator ($24/mo) — the plan most people want

Creator at $24/mo (annual) is the one we'd point most creators to. It's the first tier with 4K export, full access to custom voice clones and regenerate, 30 hours of media minutes and 800 AI credits a month, plus AI video generation and unlimited stock media.

For a weekly podcast or an active YouTube channel, those allowances are comfortable, and the jump to 4K and full Overdub is the reason to pay over Hobbyist. This is the plan that turns Descript from "trial" into "daily driver." Our full Descript review covers what those AI tools actually do in practice.

Business ($50/mo) and Enterprise

Business at $50/mo (annual) adds 40 hours of media minutes, 1,500 AI credits, multitrack transcription, Brand Studio, custom avatars from photos, 60+ AI voices, translation with dubbing in 30+ languages and priority support. Seats scale up to 5 (billed per seat). It's aimed at marketing teams and agencies producing localized content at volume.

Enterprise is custom — bespoke media-minute and credit allocations, unlimited seats, SSO/SCIM, advanced security and custom terms. If you're asking whether you need it, you probably don't yet.

Is Descript worth it?

If you edit spoken-word video regularly, yes — comfortably. Text-based editing and Underlord save enough hours that $24/mo pays for itself in the first project or two, and Studio Sound alone can replace a separate audio cleanup tool. The value case is weakest for occasional editors and for visual, music-driven content, where the free plan or a timeline editor makes more sense.

Watch the AI credits if you lean heavily on Underlord and Overdub — that's the ceiling most heavy users hit before media minutes. Compare it against a dedicated clip tool in Descript vs OpusClip, see the full field in our best AI video editors roundup, or weigh cheaper options in our Descript alternatives guide.