Descript

Descript is an audio and video editor that made transcript-based editing mainstream: a recording is edited by editing its text, and the audio and video follow. Built for podcasts, interviews, tutorials and talking-head video, it combines recording, transcription, cleanup and editing in one app. In 2026 it also became one of the most agent-ready editors: its Underlord co-editor reached version 2 in January, its API opened in April, and by June Descript MCP was listed in Claude's connector directory and ChatGPT's app marketplace.

Company and Origins

Descript was founded by Andrew Mason, the co-founder of Groupon, who had earlier built the audio-tour app Detour. In September 2019 it raised $15 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Redpoint and acquired Lyrebird, a Montreal voice-synthesis startup, whose technology became Overdub, a feature that let podcasters type new words in their own cloned voice. That early bet on speech AI set the pattern for the product: the transcript is the interface, and AI handles the audio and video underneath.

Products as of October 2026

• Text-based editing. Deleting a sentence from the transcript deletes it from the video; rearranging paragraphs rearranges the cut. Filler-word and silence removal work the same way.
• Underlord. An in-app AI co-editor that takes plain-language requests. Version 2 (January 6, 2026) lets users choose the model that runs it from Claude, Gemini or GPT families.
• Descript API and MCP. The API entered public beta on April 16, 2026, and Descript MCP lets outside agents such as Claude and ChatGPT work in Descript projects (see video editing MCP servers).
• Rooms. Remote recording with up to ten participants, with live captions added in 2026.
• Voice and audio. Studio Sound cleans up voices on paid plans. Since September 2026 Descript has offered ElevenLabs voices, music and sound-effect generation, and in October its AI voice clones moved to ElevenLabs' Eleven v4 model.
• Hand-off. Timeline export to Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro on Creator and Business plans.

Price

Descript prices per user and meters usage. On annual billing, Hobbyist costs $16 a month (10 media hours, 400 AI credits), Creator $24 (30 hours, 800 credits, 4K export) and Business $50 (40 hours, 1,500 credits); monthly billing costs $24, $35 and $65. The free plan is limited to one media hour, 720p and a watermark (prices as of October 2026).

How It Compares

Descript is words-first where traditional editors are picture-first. Premiere and DaVinci Resolve have adopted its central idea, with Premiere's Text panel and Paper Edit and Resolve's text-based timeline and IntelliScript, but they remain timeline editors with far more finishing depth. Descript is faster for content where the words carry the story, easier for non-editors, and further ahead in letting outside agents work in projects. Many teams use both: the story cut in Descript, then export to Premiere for B-roll, graphics, color and mix. Its agent features make it a reference point for agentic video editing. See Descript vs Adobe Premiere and transcript-based editing vs timeline editing, and for the wider field, AI video editing.