Descript pricing at a glance
Descript is a text-based audio and video editor: you edit a recording by editing its transcript. It sells a Free plan, three self-serve plans, Hobbyist, Creator and Business, and a sales-led Enterprise plan. Every Descript price is per person.
| Plan | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Media hours a month | AI credits | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 1 | 100 (one-time) | 720p |
| Hobbyist | $16 | $24 | 10 | 400 a month | 1080p, no watermark |
| Creator | $24 | $35 | 30 | 800 a month | 4K, no watermark |
| Business | $50 | $65 | 40 | 1,500 a month | 4K, no watermark |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Sized to team | Custom | 4K | |
Source: Descript pricing page, monthly and annual tabs and plan comparison, checked October 22, 2026. Prices before tax.
Monthly versus annual
Descript says annual billing saves “up to 35%”. On one seat, a year of Hobbyist costs $192 billed annually against $288 month by month, Creator $288 against $420, and Business $600 against $780 (our arithmetic). Creator scales to a team of 3 and Business to 5, each seat billed separately, so multiply by the number of editors.
Media hours and AI credits
Two numbers limit every Descript plan. Media hours are how much recording you can bring in and transcribe each month per editor: 60 minutes on Free, 600 on Hobbyist, 1,800 on Creator and 2,400 on Business. AI credits pay for AI features such as Underlord (Descript’s AI co-editor), AI Speech, avatars and generated video. The Descript pricing page does not list how many credits each action uses, so how far 400 or 800 credits go is unverified.
Creator and Business can buy top-ups for more media hours and AI credits; the top-up price was not on the pricing page (unverified). Hobbyist and Free do not list top-ups.
The free Descript plan
Free gives 1 media hour a month, 100 AI credits once, 720p export, 5 GB of storage, 2 hours of remote recording and limited access to the AI tools. Watermark-free export is listed as a feature from Hobbyist up, so plan on the free Descript plan for testing, not publishing. For free tiers in AI video tools, see AI video free plans compared.
What changes between plans
- Hobbyist: 1080p export, Underlord, Studio Sound, Remove Filler Words, Create Clips and AI Speech with voice clones, 100 GB storage, 5 hours of remote recording a month.
- Creator: 4K export, full Underlord and 20+ AI tools, AI video generation, unlimited stock media, 1 TB storage, 15 recording hours, files up to 20 GB, 3-hour web exports.
- Business: Brand Studio, translation and dubbing in 30+ languages with proofreading, custom avatars from a photo or text, 2 TB storage, 25 recording hours, priority support with an SLA.
- Enterprise: SSO, SCIM, audit logs, SOC 2 Type II, AI training opt-out and custom terms.
Which Descript plan to choose
- A weekly podcast under 10 hours of raw audio a month: Hobbyist.
- Video creators who need 4K or more than 10 media hours: Creator, the plan Descript marks most popular.
- Teams that translate or need brand controls: Business.
A worked example: a two-person team on Creator billed annually pays $24 × 2 × 12 = $576 a year for 60 media hours a month in total (30 per editor) and 1,600 AI credits a month. The same team on Business pays $1,200 a year and gets 80 media hours, 3,000 credits and Brand Studio. If your monthly raw footage is close to a plan’s limit, size up. Exactly how Descript counts retakes and re-uploads against media hours was not explained on the pricing page (unverified).
If you record remotely and want hosting and live streaming in the same tool, compare Riverside pricing.
Descript against clipping tools
Descript’s Create Clips competes with dedicated AI clippers. If all you need is short clips from long videos, compare the cost per source minute in our AI clipping cost per minute table and Opus Clip pricing. We have not tested Descript ourselves; this page is a documentation check.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Descript cost?
On October 22, 2026 the Descript pricing page listed Hobbyist at $16, Creator at $24 and Business at $50 per person a month billed annually, or $24, $35 and $65 billed monthly. Free is $0 and Enterprise is priced by sales.
Is Descript free?
Yes, there is a Free plan with 1 media hour a month, 100 one-time AI credits, 720p export and limited access to the AI tools. Watermark-free export is listed from Hobbyist up.
What are Descript media hours?
Media hours are the amount of media you can transcribe and work with each month, per editor: 1 hour on Free, 10 on Hobbyist, 30 on Creator and 40 on Business. Creator and Business can buy top-ups.
What are Descript AI credits?
AI credits pay for AI features such as Underlord, AI Speech, avatars and generated video. Free gets 100 once; Hobbyist 400, Creator 800 and Business 1,500 a month per editor. How many credits each feature uses was not listed on the pricing page.
How much do you save with annual Descript billing?
Descript says up to 35%. On the listed prices Hobbyist drops from $24 to $16, Creator from $35 to $24 and Business from $65 to $50 a month.
Sources
Vendor facts on this page come from these public pages, checked October 22, 2026. Prices and plan limits change; confirm them at checkout.