CapCut vs Descript for Video Ads: What a 30-Second Ad Costs

A CapCut clip starts at $3.60, and a Descript avatar runs about $2 to $3

CapCut and Descript both publish plan prices, but neither tells you what one ad comes to. That's the number you need if you're picking an editor to make ads with, so we worked it out for a 30-second ad in each.

We think CapCut is the better editor when your ad starts with the visuals. Its Pro pricing card lists Seedance 2.5 from $0.12 a second in the first month. So a 30-second clip starts at $3.60, though that rate is a promotion.

We think Descript is the better editor when your ad starts with a script. It doesn't publish an avatar rate today, so we priced a 30-second avatar from a February changelog rate and a July test. That came to about $2 to $3 on the Hobbyist plan, billed monthly.

None of the five results we could read for this search gives a dollar price for either one. We read both companies' pages and public ratings on November 4, 2026, and the Novoads side comes from our price list and a render of ours. We didn't test CapCut or Descript for this post. We also sell Novoads, which costs more per ad than either editor's listed rate, and we'll show you that further down.

How each editor works when you're making an ad

Descript works from the words

Descript's homepage calls it "an AI video and audio editor that lets you edit by editing text." You record or upload, it transcribes, and you cut, trim and rearrange the video by changing the transcript. There's also a page pitching it as an "Advertising Video Maker," so ads are a use Descript names itself.

Avatars follow the same script. Descript's help center describes an avatar as "an AI presenter that speaks your script on camera," and you can start one from a text prompt, a photo or the stock gallery. If you're the one on camera, its Eye Contact feature redirects your gaze to the lens, and that uses AI credits too. Our Descript review goes through the rest of the app.

CapCut works from the clip

CapCut's desktop page for Seedance 2.5 says a single generation can run up to 30 seconds, and it lists "marketing creatives, TVC-style ads, short dramas, stylized videos, and branded content" among the things you can make. From there you keep editing the clip on desktop. Its Auto Reframe page says the tool adjusts a video for a square Instagram slot or a vertical TikTok one.

CapCut edits by text as well. A guide dated June 17, 2025, shows a "Transcript-based editing" layout, where deleting text from the transcript deletes that part of the video. So we wouldn't choose between them on that feature alone.

As we read it, the difference is what you'll touch most. An ad with one person talking gets rewritten line by line, and that's how Descript is built to work. An ad made of shots gets recut and reframed, and that's where CapCut's pages put more weight. If you're weighing CapCut against a design tool instead, our CapCut vs Canva post covers that choice.

What each company says about captions

CapCut's own pages disagree on whether you pay for captions, and Descript has an opinion on that too.

• CapCut's AI caption page says the feature "on CapCut Web is free to use without any hidden costs."
• CapCut's Standard vs Pro guide, dated September 23, 2026, says "an advanced AI-powered tool set, including motion tracking and an auto caption generator, is exclusive to Pro users."
• Descript's blog, updated July 29, 2026, says CapCut's 2025 pricing restructure moved auto captions behind a paid tier, though that's a rival's account.
• Descript's help page, dated August 26, 2026, says it "builds captions straight from your script," with the timing and sync handled automatically.

We can't settle CapCut's side from the outside, so check your own plan before you count on its captions.

Watermarks in each app

CapCut's no-watermark guide, dated August 20, 2026, says "you need CapCut Pro for no watermark" when you export from the app, and that many projects end on a short CapCut logo card you can delete by hand. Its eye contact page says that tool downloads "in high resolution without watermarks." Those are two pages about two different steps, so we'd treat the Pro line as the rule for exporting from the editor.

Descript's Free exports carry a watermark in the bottom-right corner and stop at 720p. Hobbyist exports 1080p without one, and Creator goes to 4K.

Filler words

Descript's filler-word help page, changed August 18, 2026, says it "currently detects filler words in English transcripts only." Its changelog for August 5, 2026, says the "um" and "uh" cleanup "now works in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, and Italian, for everyone." Those two don't match, so if your ads aren't in English, try it on a short clip first. Descript's credits page caps Remove Filler Words at 30 credits per file or tool application.

CapCut's filler-word page puts the step inside Auto captions. You switch on an option it spells "Identify filter words," and it highlights the filler words in your transcript.

What you can run as an ad

CapCut's limits here are about its library and its music. These lines come from the materials license a visitor from Spain gets, last updated January 22, 2026.

• Content using only Dual Use materials can run "as promotional, marketing or advertising materials for distribution via other online media."
• "You shouldn't use a Sound for any commercial purpose," and Commercial Sounds are limited to CapCut, TikTok and TikTok for Business unless you get separate permission.
• Those materials can't go in ads for tobacco, pharmaceutical, healthcare, herbal or medical products, including dietary supplements.

That license sends US users to a separate agreement we didn't read. We also found no line in the license, or in CapCut's terms, about an AI clip made from your own prompt. So these limits may not reach that clip, and we can't say either way.

Descript's terms, last updated February 25, 2025, say you own your input and output "to the extent protectable under applicable law." Its media panel help page says other stock content "may be used in most commercial, personal, and editorial projects," and that "GIPHY GIFs and stickers can't be used commercially."

What one 30-second ad costs in each

Prices are as of November 4, 2026, unless a line gives its own date. The sums are our arithmetic, and if credits are new to you, how AI video credits work explains the unit.

CapCut's rate is a first-month promotion

CapCut's pricing page lists Seedance 2.5 from $0.12 a second on Pro and from $0.18 on Ultra, both marked "first month." We didn't find a rate for the months after that on the pricing page, the AI video page, the two Seedance 2.5 pages or the credits help page. CapCut's launch post of August 7, 2026, says Seedance 2.5 is for Pro and Ultra members, billed by the second, and that pricing, credit consumption and discount details can change.

The card doesn't name a resolution for the rate, and we read it as 720p. CapCut's credits help page values one credit at $0.01, which makes the $0.12 rate 12 credits a second. Its AI video page says "Up to 100 seconds" at 720p, and at this rate that's exactly what the US card's 1,200 credits cover. Its Seedance page offers 480p and 720p and marks 1080p "coming soon."

What a plan costs depends on where you are, and CapCut says "Displayed pricing is for reference only." The only card we could read live was the one shown in Spain, so the US row comes from an Internet Archive copy.

Pricing card	Pro a month	Pro a year	Pro credits a month	Ultra a month	Ultra credits a month
Visitor from Spain, November 4	EUR 29.99	EUR 259.99	650	EUR 68	7,483
US copy, November 3	USD 19.99	USD 179.99	1,200	USD 79	8,645

So one 30-second Seedance 2.5 clip comes to several different numbers, depending on how you count it.

How you count it	Our sum	One 30-second clip
Pro's first-month rate	30 x $0.12	$3.60
Ultra's first-month rate	30 x $0.18	$5.40
Share of the US Pro month	360 of 1,200 credits x USD 19.99	$6.00
Share of the US Pro year	360 of 1,200 credits x USD 15.00 a month	$4.50
Share of the Spain Pro month	360 of 650 credits x EUR 29.99	EUR 16.61

The shares use the first-month credit rate, and a month of US Pro gets you 3 of those clips. The card shown in Spain doesn't add up on these numbers. Its 650 credits cover about 54 seconds at that rate, yet the AI video page still says "Up to 100 seconds" to the same visitor. If that line holds, one clip comes to EUR 9.00 of the month. Ultra doesn't add up either. Its first-month rate is 18 credits a second, which would make its 7,483 credits about 415 seconds. Its page says "Up to 235 seconds." CapCut does add that output may vary by model, resolution and region.

The Pro card also lists a cheaper model, Seedance 2.0 Mini, at 480p from $0.007 a second in the first month. That would be $0.21 for 30 seconds, but we didn't find how long one Mini generation can run, so we left it out of the table. CapCut's FAQ says new users can start a 7-day free trial of Pro, with availability that varies by region, platform, billing channel and current offer.

Apple's US store lists in-app items called Standard Monthly at $9.99 and Pro Monthly at $19.99. The web pricing cards show no Standard plan, and the store doesn't say what each item buys. Our CapCut pricing breakdown goes through every plan.

We can't price a CapCut avatar. Its avatar page says credits depend mainly on a video's duration and that it shows you the count before you generate, but it gives no rate.

Descript's avatar, at the two rates we could find

Descript's help center says, "Each time you generate or regenerate, Descript debits AI credits based on your total length of spoken audio, not just the parts where the avatar is visible." That's Descript's own account of its current plans (Hobbyist, Creator and Business), and we haven't measured a debit. Legacy and Sunset plans track usage differently.

It isn't a new rule, either. A copy of the page from September 2025 already based avatar generation on your total spoken audio, counted in avatar minutes instead of credits. And a changelog entry from March 2, 2026, records a fix for a bug that had charged "based on Project length rather than speech length."

Descript's wording gives no rate, and we found none in its help center. The models page says only "Some premium models use more AI Credits than others." So we have two readings, each with its own date and model.

• February 10, 2026, Descript's changelog. Kling v2 at 720p costs "about 67 credits per minute." Kling v2 Pro at 1080p costs about 138. Today's models page calls its avatar models Kling Avatar v2 and Kling Avatar v2 Pro, so February's rates may not be today's. We halved the Kling v2 rate to get 33.5 credits for 30 seconds.
• July 2026, one test on marcandrews.com, on a Free account. The generate dialog priced "an avatar for the same 31-second script at 42 credits," under a Kling Avatar v2 badge. That's one clip, and it ran a second over our 30.

Descript's pricing page opens on annual billing, so the $24 you see first is Creator, and Hobbyist only shows $24 once you switch to monthly. We read these prices in USD from Spain and didn't check what a US visitor sees.

Plan	Billed annually	Billed monthly	AI credits a month
Hobbyist	$16	$24	400
Creator	$24	$35	800
Business	$50	$65	1,500

Those plans and Descript's top-ups give you a price per credit, and from there you can work out the avatar.

How you buy the credits	Per credit	33.5 credits (February)	42 credits (July)
Hobbyist billed monthly	$0.06	$2.01	$2.52
Hobbyist billed annually	$0.04	$1.34	$1.68
Creator billed monthly	about $0.044	$1.47	$1.84
Creator billed annually	$0.03	about $1.01	$1.26
Top-up, 350 for $35.00	$0.10	$3.35	$4.20
Top-up, 1,000 for $80.00	$0.08	$2.68	$3.36
Top-up, 4,000 for $200.00	$0.05	$1.68	$2.10

Top-ups are only available on Creator and Business, and they expire 12 months after purchase. Hobbyist's 400 credits make 11 whole avatars at February's rate and 9 at July's reading. Unused monthly credits don't roll over.

We can't give you a Descript clip price. Its changelog says Generate video defaults to MiniMax H3 Max Turbo on paid plans, and its models table has no row for Seedance 2.5 (Seedance 2.0 arrived on April 16, 2026). Its credits page says "There's no fixed price per action, but your Usage tab shows exactly what each run cost."

What the Descript sums leave out

• The voice. An avatar speaking in an AI voice also uses AI Speech credits, and Descript doesn't publish that rate. In the July test, about 31 seconds of speech cost 3 credits. That brought the clip to 45 credits, or $2.70 on Hobbyist billed monthly.
• Every change you make. The help page says any change to your script, speaker or assigned avatar means the avatar has to be regenerated, and each regeneration debits credits for the spoken length again. A second take at July's reading brings it to 84 credits, or $5.04 on Hobbyist billed monthly. Descript's advice is to "finalize your script and speaker labels before you generate."
• Higher resolution. February's Kling v2 Pro rate makes the same avatar about 69 credits, or $4.14 on the same plan.

That second one matters more for ads than for most video, since you'll change a hook several times while you're testing what holds attention. We think it's the strongest reason to lock the script before you pay for an avatar.

People have raised it on Descript's own board. A post from May 15, 2025, reads, "I wanted to change 1 word in the script and for that, it asked me to generate 100% new avatar of 6 minutes." That request is still marked exploring, and its one staff reply, from May 28, 2025, says "We are actively looking into this." Two Descript blog posts, both updated July 29, 2026, talk about regenerating a section or a segment, and neither mentions credits. We found no changelog entry through October 13, 2026, that says only edited parts get charged.

Where Descript's own pages don't match

Descript's ad-maker page lists Free with "100 AI credits / month" and "Export 720p, watermark-free." Its pricing table gives Free "100 (one-time)" credits and no watermark-free export, and its export help page says Free exports carry a watermark, so we've gone with those two. The Business card lists "Generate custom avatars from photo upload or text," while the comparison table on the same page marks custom avatars as limited on Free and included from Hobbyist up.

What users say

We read these ratings on November 4, 2026, unless a row gives another day. We couldn't read G2 or Capterra live, so Descript's rows there come from archive copies with their own dates, and we couldn't see CapCut's G2 page.

Site	App	Score	Count	When
Trustpilot	CapCut	1.2	1,382 reviews	November 4
Trustpilot	Descript	2.6	292 reviews	November 4
Apple's US App Store	CapCut	4.6	1.1M ratings	November 4
Google Play, US	CapCut	3.5	13.1M reviews	November 4
G2	Descript	4.6	927 reviews	Copy of October 12
Capterra	Descript	4.7	182 reviews	Copy of April 15

Trustpilot is the only site here where we read both apps. There, 88% of CapCut's reviews are one-star, and its profile is unclaimed. Descript's claimed profile is more divided, with 37% at five stars and 43% at one. Descript's own homepage panel shows 837 G2 reviews, fewer than the 927 on G2's October copy, so that panel looks older to us.

The two Trustpilot pages carry the same kind of complaint about credits. A Descript reviewer wrote on September 19, 2026, "I purchased the Creator membership with 800 credits, only to successfully complete 1 video." A CapCut reviewer wrote on November 1, 2026, "Payed a pro subscription, first task I gave it, it asked for more credit as I had apparently used it all." These are single reviews, and we haven't measured either claim.

Where Novoads fits, and why it costs more per ad

Novoads costs more per 30-second ad than either editor's listed rate. A 720p Seedance 2.5 clip of that length is 210 credits in Novoads, or $10.29 on our Plus plan. CapCut's first-month rate for the same model and length is $3.60, so ours is $6.69 more. Even against a US Pro month's share, we're still $4.29 higher. A talking actor at 720p is 200 credits, or $9.80 on Plus. Descript's avatar comes to $2.01 at February's rate, so ours is about five times that.

30 seconds in Novoads	Credits	On Plus ($0.049 a credit)	On Starter ($0.075 a credit)
Seedance 2.5 clip, 480p	90	$4.41	$6.75
Seedance 2.5 clip, 720p	210	$10.29	Over the 200-credit month
Seedance 2.5 clip, 1080p	360	$17.64	Over the 200-credit month
Talking actor, 480p	100	$4.90	$7.50
Talking actor, 720p	200	$9.80	$15.00, the whole month

What you're paying for is the clip or the talking actor in one place, without opening an editor first. A talking actor reads your script in a voice from our catalog, with the voice included, and its price doesn't move between 1 and 60 seconds. Seedance 2.5 also runs at 1080p in Novoads, which CapCut's page still lists as coming soon, and it isn't on Descript's models table at all.

Novoads won't get you out of locking the script, though. A new script means a new take and, at 720p, another 200 credits. And if you've got footage to cut, either editor does more of that than we do, so we'd use one of them for it.

Made in Novoads with Seedance 2.5 · a 20-second running film at 720p from one timestamped prompt · 140 credits at today's price · rendered 2026-09-08

We made that film in Novoads, and neither editor had a part in it. In September we gave Seedance 2.5 one timestamped prompt asking for a 20-second vertical film for a mock running label, and it came back in 7 minutes 12 seconds. It has seven cuts, each within half a second of where the prompt asked for it, and the same kit, shoes and logo in every shot. Those 20 seconds cost 140 credits today. Seedance 2.5 at 720p is 7 credits a second in Novoads, the same rate as the clip in our table. There's no dialogue in it, so it shows the clip side of what we sell and says nothing about the talking actor.

A 30-second Seedance 2.5 clip at 720p doesn't fit in a month of Starter. You'd either add a 100-credit top-up at $12 or drop to 480p, which fits. Top-up credits expire after 90 days. Novoads is paid from the first month, and these are the plans.

Plan	A month	Credits a month	A month, billed annually
Starter	$15	200	Monthly only
Plus	$49	1,000	$39
Ultra	From $129	3,000	$99

Our pricing page with Monthly selected, captured 2026-11-04

The "Up to 5 UGC videos" line on that Starter card counts a standard ad at 40 credits, so it isn't counting takes like the ones in our table. As for using what you make, our pricing FAQ says "All videos generated with Novoads are fully licensed for commercial use." If CapCut is the editor you're weighing us against, our Novoads and CapCut comparison sets the two side by side, and our roundup of AI avatar video generators covers the talking-actor side.

Which editor we'd pick for which ad

• CapCut if your ads are built from shots, you want a clip price you can work out today, and TikTok is where they'll run, since that's where its Commercial Sounds are allowed. Check captions and watermarks on your own plan, and budget for when the first-month rate ends.
• Descript if your ad is one person talking, whether that's you or an avatar, and the script changes more than the shots do. Lock the script before you generate, and read the credit count in the dialog instead of relying on our sums.
• Novoads if you'd rather pay more per ad and get a clip or a talking actor without opening an editor.

Whichever you pick, sign in and read the price on your own account before you plan a month of ads around it, because CapCut's own page says its figures are for reference until you do.