Descript pricing in 2026: every plan and what it costs

Descript plans, side by side

Everything here is from Descript's own pricing page, read on 29 September 2026.

Plan	Monthly	Billed yearly	Media hours a month	Export	AI credits
Free	$0	$0	1 hour	720p	100, one time
Hobbyist	$24	$16 a month	10 hours	1080p, no watermark	400 a month
Creator	$35	$24 a month	30 hours	4K, no watermark	800 a month
Business	$65	$50 a month	40 hours	4K, no watermark	1,500 a month
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	Custom	Custom	Custom

Descript's page has read 2 ways on different loads, with the monthly and yearly prices swapped. This table uses the reading where monthly costs more, which is how the page read on the day it was checked.

A year on each plan

Plan	Paid monthly	Paid yearly	Yearly saving
Hobbyist	$288	$192	$96
Creator	$420	$288	$132
Business	$780	$600	$180

12 times the monthly price against 12 times the yearly-billed monthly price. The yearly figure is charged up front.

Which plan a talking-head creator needs

10 hours a month is a lot of talking. A creator who records a pair of 15-minute videos a week uses about 2 hours of media, so Hobbyist's 10 hours is enough for most solo channels. The number to watch isn't the hours, it's the export: Hobbyist tops out at 1080p, and 4K needs Creator.

If you post to Reels, TikTok and Shorts, 1080p is what those apps deliver anyway. If you post long videos to YouTube and want a 4K master, Creator at $24 a month billed yearly is the cheapest way in.

The free plan is honest about being a trial: 60 minutes and 720p. It's enough to find out whether editing by transcript suits you.

3 questions that pick your plan

Do you need 4K? If yes, the answer is Creator, because Hobbyist stops at 1080p. If you post to phones only, skip this question, since 1080p is what most feeds show.

Do you record more than 10 hours of media in a month? Media hours count what you bring in, including takes you later cut. A creator who films long takes with lots of retakes uses more hours than the finished videos suggest. If you're near the line, Creator's 30 hours is the safer buy.

Do you need brand kits, translation with proofreading or custom avatars? Those sit on Business at $65 a month, or $50 billed yearly. If none of those words mean anything to your workflow, you don't need Business, and paying for it is the most common overspend on a page like this.

What Descript is best at, and what it costs you to use it

Descript is the best of the tools we checked at removing filler words and retakes by editing the transcript. It's built for that. It runs on desktop and web, needs an account, and your video goes to the cloud to be edited.

That's the trade. You get the strongest editor, and you give up a phone-first flow and on-device privacy. If you shoot on an iPhone and want the cut done before the file leaves the phone, that's the gap CutKit fills, at a much lower price and with far fewer features. The [CutKit vs Descript](/blog/cutkit-vs-descript) post walks through where each one wins.

Frequently asked questions

Is Descript free?

Yes, there is a free plan with 60 media minutes a month, 720p export and 100 AI credits that you get once. It's a trial more than a working plan for regular posting.

How much does Descript cost per month?

Hobbyist is $24 a month, Creator $35 and Business $65 when you pay monthly. Paying yearly brings those to $16, $24 and $50 a month.

Which Descript plan exports in 4K?

Creator and Business export in 4K without a watermark. Hobbyist exports at 1080p without a watermark, and Free exports at 720p.

Does Descript remove retakes and filler words?

Yes. Descript's documentation lists filler word removal, retake removal and silence removal through text-based editing. It runs in the cloud and needs an account.

Sources

Read on 29 September 2026. Prices change, so treat them as a snapshot and confirm on the seller's own page before you pay.