Does Opus Clip have an API?
Yes. The Opus Clip help center publishes an API reference for turning long videos into short clips programmatically. Each submitted video becomes a project you can track, and the API covers creating projects, querying clips, applying brand templates, sharing projects, social posting and scheduling, webhooks and clip edits. Access is plan-gated: the documentation lists Pro (Beta), Max and Business. The pricing page describes Pro’s level as “Limited API Access”.
Access requirements
- A qualifying plan. Pro (API in Beta), Max (sold through Agent Opus, with credits usable on OpusClip) or Business. The pricing page marks Free and Starter without API, MCP or Zapier access.
- An API key. Generated in the dashboard; the overview says your organization’s key is in the lower-left corner once you have access.
- Enough credits. Jobs fail if the balance cannot cover the source length, so check the credits tab before submitting.
- Storage awareness. Projects expire after 30 days by default unless auto-save is enabled.
For contracts, more than 10 seats or high volume, the plans article points organizations to Business via the contact form; API support on Business is handled through a dedicated Slack group.
What the API can do
The endpoint list in the reference, grouped by job:
| Area | Documented operations |
|---|---|
| Projects | Create a project from a video URL; upload a file and create a clip project |
| Clips | Get clips for a project; edit clips (trim, extend, fix caption typos) |
| Branding | List brand templates and apply them to clips |
| Social | List connected social accounts, generate social copy, publish now, schedule, cancel a scheduled post |
| Events | Webhooks for real-time notifications |
| Other | Share a project, censor jobs, source-video transcripts with word timings, collections and collection export, thumbnail generation jobs |
Social posting endpoints have their own rate limits, separate from the core project and clip APIs. Thumbnail jobs are documented as charging 7 credits on success and refunding on failure.
Limits and credit costs
| Credit cost | 1 credit per minute of source video, same as the web app |
|---|---|
| Per-project minimum | 10 credits per API project (web submissions unaffected) |
| Monthly API cap | 900 credits (15 hours) per workspace on Pro Beta and Max; Business per contract |
| When the cap is hit | HTTP 403 with API_MONTHLY_CAP_REACHED; resets on the 1st of the month (UTC) |
| Rate limit | 30 requests per minute per API key (core APIs); 429 when exceeded |
| Concurrency | 4 projects in parallel on Pro Beta and Max; 50 on Business |
| Input size | Up to 10 hours and 30 GB per video |
| Posting to X | 3 credits per post |
Two consequences for design. First, the 10-credit minimum means many short sources cost more through the API than through the web app; batch short clips into longer sources where that makes sense. Second, the 403 on cap is deliberate so agents do not retry in a loop; your pipeline should treat it as “stop until next month”, not as an auth error. A Pro plan’s 300 monthly credits are below the 900-credit API cap, so on a single Pro pack the credit balance, not the cap, is usually the first limit you hit.
MCP server and agent access
Opus Clip runs a hosted MCP server at https://mcp.opus.pro/mcp with OAuth sign-in instead of an API key. It can be added to Cursor, Cline, Claude Code, ChatGPT/Codex and other MCP hosts, or via npx @opusclip/mcp. Any account can complete OAuth and view the tool catalog, but calling a tool requires Pro Beta, Max or Business; otherwise the host gets an upgrade prompt.
The documentation lists 29 tools, including read tools such as listing projects, clips, brand templates, social accounts and scheduled posts, and fetching transcripts. One detail matters for safety: on the self-configured MCP server, posting, scheduling, unscheduling and sharing tools commit directly, while the separate Claude connector returns a confirmation link instead. If you give an agent the MCP server, put a human approval step before anything that publishes.
Zapier and no-code automation
For no-code workflows, Opus Clip has a Zapier integration on Pro and Enterprise. Zaps can create projects from a video URL (clip, caption or transcribe), return clips and transcripts on completion, and trigger when a project finishes. Credits are consumed as in the app, with a cap of 300 credits (5 hours of video) a month on Pro.
An automation workflow to test
This is a proposed architecture based on the documentation, not a tested build:
- Trigger: a new recording lands in storage or a new YouTube upload is detected.
- Submit: create an Opus Clip project from the video URL, after checking credits cover the length (and the 10-credit minimum).
- Wait: receive the webhook instead of polling, which also keeps you under the 30-requests-per-minute limit.
- Review: fetch clips and transcripts, push them to a human review queue. Do not auto-publish the first runs.
- Publish: for approved clips only, generate social copy and schedule the post. Record the schedule ID so a retry cannot double-post.
- Reconcile: list scheduled posts and compare with what went out; alert on 403 cap or 429 concurrency responses.
When we run this, we will report job completion rate, time to webhook, failure recovery and credits charged per accepted clip, as described in our testing protocol.
Alternatives with public APIs
If the plan gate or monthly cap does not fit, these tools also publish API access (vendor pages checked October 11, 2026):
- Vugola — API access on every paid plan and a public MCP repository; our review documents two conflicts to check first.
- Submagic — API and integrations listed on its plans (10 minutes a month on Starter) with extra API minute packs.
- Vizard — API rate limits published for each tier, including Free.
- Klap — API docs and API plans linked from its pricing page.
Compare them on the same unattended job. See Opus Clip alternatives with an API and the automation section of best AI clip makers.
Frequently asked questions
Does Opus Clip have an API?
Yes. Opus Clip documents a REST API for creating clip projects, fetching clips, brand templates, social posting and webhooks. The help center lists API access on Pro (Beta), Max and Business plans.
How much does the Opus Clip API cost?
API jobs use the same credits as the web app, at 1 credit per minute of source video, with a 10-credit minimum per API project. There is no separate per-call fee in the documentation, but Pro Beta and Max are capped at 900 API credits a month.
Is the Opus Clip API free?
No. The Free and Starter plans do not include API access. You need Pro (where the API is labeled Beta), Max or a Business contract, and every job consumes plan credits.
Does Opus Clip have an MCP server?
Yes. Opus Clip documents a hosted MCP server at mcp.opus.pro/mcp with OAuth sign-in, usable from Cursor, Claude Code, Cline and other MCP hosts. Calling its tools requires Pro Beta, Max or Business access.
What happens when I hit the Opus Clip API cap?
According to the documentation, the API returns HTTP 403 with the code API_MONTHLY_CAP_REACHED once 900 credits are used on Pro Beta or Max. Access resumes on the first day of the next month (UTC); the web app keeps working.
Sources
Vendor facts on this page come from these public pages, checked October 11, 2026. Prices and plan limits change; confirm them at checkout.