Descript Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying
Descript's free plan costs $0 and gives 60 media minutes a month, 100 one-time AI credits, and 720p watermarked exports. Here is what that buys you.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-13T22:21:11+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-13T22:21:11+00:00
Descript Free Plan: What You Actually Get Before Paying
Descript has a real free plan. It costs $0, needs no credit card, and never expires. You get 60 media minutes a month, 100 AI credits that never refill, and exports capped at 720p with a watermark. That is enough to learn the editor and cut a short project. It is not enough to publish a show. This guide lays out every limit, so you can judge the free tier on facts before you pay.
What the Descript free plan includes
The free plan is a working editor, not a demo video. You can record, upload, transcribe, and edit audio and video by editing the transcript. Delete a word in the transcript and the matching audio or video goes with it. That text-based editing is the core of Descript, and it works on the free plan without a time limit.
Here is the full allowance, as listed on Descript's pricing page. Free gives you 60 media minutes a month. It gives you 100 AI credits once, for the life of the account. It gives you 5 GB of cloud storage. It allows one seat and one editor. Files you upload are capped at 1 GB each. Video exports stop at 720p and carry a Descript watermark.
Transcription is included. Descript transcribes in 25 languages on current plans. On current plans, transcription itself is not metered. What counts against your allowance is the media you upload or record. A 45-minute episode uses 45 of your 60 monthly minutes, whether you edit it or not.
The two meters that run out first
Descript prices every plan with two meters. Media minutes measure how much audio or video you process. AI credits pay for the AI features. You need to watch both, because they run out in different ways.
Media minutes reset every month. Upload a one-hour recording and you have used your whole month. Record a one-hour call in Rooms and the session length counts, not the number of people. A still image counts as one second. Once the minutes are gone, you wait for the next month or upgrade.
AI credits do not reset on the free plan. You get 100 at signup, once. They pay for Underlord, the AI co-editor, Studio Sound, Green Screen, Eye Contact, filler-word removal, and generated media. Studio Sound costs about 10 credits per use. Eye Contact costs about 10 credits per use. Filler-word removal and text-based editing cost no credits. That means 100 credits buy roughly ten uses of the paid AI tools, spread across the life of your account. When they are gone, the AI tools stop until you upgrade.
Descript free plan vs the paid plans
The paid plans change three things at once: the meters get bigger, the watermark goes away, and the export quality rises. Prices below are per person, per month, in US dollars, from Descript's pricing page.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Billed annually | Media per month | AI credits | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 60 minutes | 100, one time | 720p, watermarked |
| Hobbyist | $24 | $16 | 10 hours | 400 a month | 1080p, no watermark |
| Creator | $35 | $24 | 30 hours | 800 a month | 4K, no watermark |
| Business | $65 | $50 | 40 hours | 1,500 a month | 4K, no watermark |
Hobbyist is the first plan that removes the watermark. It also raises exports to 1080p and storage to 100 GB. Creator adds 4K export, top-ups for extra media hours and credits, and seats for up to three editors. Business adds seats for up to five editors and 40 media hours. Enterprise is priced by quote.
One gap matters. Hobbyist cannot buy top-ups. If you run out of media hours or credits on Hobbyist, your only fix is to upgrade to Creator. Creator and Business can buy extra hours and credits as one-time top-ups.
What the Descript free plan holds back
Most AI tools show up as "Limited" on the free plan. Underlord, Studio Sound, Green Screen, Eye Contact, and filler-word removal all work, but only until your 100 credits run out. The pricing page does not set a separate cap per tool. Your credit balance is the cap.
Voice clones and dubbing are limited on Free. They are included from Hobbyist. Caption translation into 61 languages and dubbing into 30 languages are limited on Free and included on paid plans. Custom fonts are not available on Free. You cannot create layout packs on Free. Batch export is not included on Free.
The export limit is the hardest wall. A 720p export with a watermark is fine for judging the editor. It is not a file you would publish to a podcast feed or a client. There is no timed trial of the paid tiers listed on the pricing page. The free plan is effectively the trial.
Who the Descript free plan fits
Use this checklist to decide. The free plan fits if most of these are true for you.
- You want to learn text-based editing before spending money.
- You have one short project, under an hour of media.
- You can live with a watermarked 720p export while you test.
- You will use the AI tools a few times, not every day.
- You do not need to publish the result yet.
The free plan does not fit if any of these are true. You publish a weekly show. A single 45-minute episode eats most of the monthly allowance. You need clean, unwatermarked exports. You rely on Studio Sound or Underlord on every edit. You need more than 5 GB of storage or files larger than 1 GB. In those cases, the honest entry point is Hobbyist at $16 a month billed annually, or $24 month to month.
How to make the most of the free plan
Start with a short recording, not a full episode. A ten-minute test clip uses ten minutes and shows you the whole workflow. Save your AI credits for the tools you cannot get elsewhere. Filler-word removal costs no credits, so use it freely. Studio Sound and Eye Contact cost about 10 credits each, so spend them on the clips that matter.
Keep your media short. Trim dead air in another tool before you upload, or record tight from the start. Every minute you upload counts, even the parts you delete later. Check the Usage tab in your account to see both balances. The free account shows 100 lifetime AI credits and 60 media minutes a month.
Students, educators, and non-profits can request a discounted rate through a form on the pricing page. That discount applies to paid plans, not to the free tier, which already costs nothing.
Bottom line
The Descript free plan is a genuine free tier. You get a full transcript editor, 60 media minutes a month, 100 one-time AI credits, and 720p watermarked exports for $0 with no card. The limits are clear: the credits never refill, the watermark stays, and one hour of media is your whole month. If you are learning the editor or cutting a single short project, Free is enough. If you publish regularly or need clean exports, Hobbyist is the real starting point at $16 a month billed annually.