Kapwing AI video editor review: free plan offers 30 min/month exports at 720p

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Kapwing is among the best AI video editors today. It allows you to create videos with simple text prompts and generate lively AI characters to build detailed storylines.

Trusted by brands like Google, Dyson, and Spotify and used by thousands of content creators across YouTube, TikTok, and digital marketing platforms, Kapwing has quickly grown to become one of the industry’s favorite video generation and editing software.

In this article, we put Kapwing to the test to see whether its features perform as advertised. Read on to learn about our real-world experience with Kapwing, its best features, and the alternatives worth considering if it doesn’t fit your needs.

Kapwing: Plans and pricing

You can get started with Kapwing through its free-forever plan, which allows up to 30 minutes of video exports per month in 720p resolution, with each video limited to a maximum length of one minute. There’s also a 2GB file upload limit, along with access to editing and AI-powered tools such as auto-subtitling, auto-translation, and text-to-speech, albeit with limited usage caps.

We also like that you get a fair share of collaboration features, such as project link sharing and commenting, allowing you to edit videos collaboratively with your team. However, the free plan is meant primarily for testing the platform rather than full-fledged use.

If you want to get the most out of Kapwing, you’ll have to upgrade to one of its paid plans. Its Pro plan starts at $16 per member per month and offers excellent value for money. The plan supports 4K video exports with unlimited monthly exports and a maximum video length of 120 minutes.

You can check it all out by clicking here .

(Image credit: Kapwing) The AI editing tools also come with higher usage limits. For example, you get up to 1,000 minutes of auto-subtitling and 500 minutes of auto-translation per month. Besides this, the plan adds several premium tools, including video and image background removal, video stabilization, and the ability to add your brand kit and custom fonts to your projects.

Next is the Business plan, designed for teams that need more advanced content creation workflows. Costing $50 per member per month, it includes up to 4,000 minutes of auto-subtitling, 2,000 minutes of auto-translation, 2,000 minutes of Clean Audio per month, and 130 minutes of Lip Sync. The remaining features are largely the same as those in the Pro plan.

Finally, there’s an Enterprise plan for large organizations that need priority support and custom billing. However, you’ll need to contact the Kapwing team directly to obtain a customized quote.

Kapwing: Features

Kapwing packs a good mix of both AI-powered and traditional video editing features. Let’s start with its AI capabilities. Right off the bat, you’ll notice that you can generate AI videos with a simple text prompt. Its video generation interface is pretty similar to that of chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini. You simply enter your prompt and click the Send button. You can also attach media as a reference for the AI engine.

Besides video generation, Kapwing offers several other AI tools. For instance, Translate Video lets you convert the audio in a video from one language to another. There’s also a handy Smart Cut feature, which automatically removes awkward silences from your videos, giving them a more polished finish. You can also generate AI characters, which come in handy if you want to build a consistent storyline or reuse the same character across multiple AI-generated videos.

Kapwing gives you more options when generating AI characters. To get started, click the @ icon in the chat window and select the type of character you want to generate. The available options range from everyday characters like a baby or a cheerleader to more outlandish ones such as a cyborg, Dracula, or a dragon.

You also have the option to choose more than one character type. For instance, you can select both "baby" and "Dracula" if you’re trying to create something unique. Here’s the Baby Dracula character we created using Kapwing.

(Image credit: Future) Apart from this, you’ll find several other options, such as Image to Video, which lets you convert a still image into a short video clip, and Text to Video, where you can enter a full-fledged script and allow Kapwing to generate an AI video for you. There’s also a handy Video Stabilizer tool, which is useful for fixing shaky footage or videos with heavy motion blur.

For longer video formats, Kapwing also supports Video Storyboards, where you can create a timestamped outline of every scene. The more traditional tools include text-to-speech, video dubbing in 40+ languages, resizing videos from one aspect ratio to another, and adding subtitles to videos.

Kapwing: Interface and in use

Almost all of Kapwing’s features are nestled into a central dashboard, with the video editor in the center, a long list of features on the left-hand panel, and an editing panel on the right. You can simply upload your media or drag and drop any video or image you want to edit. After that, you may need to spend a little time exploring the interface to find the exact feature you’re looking for.

For instance, you can access features such as Text, Audio, Subtitles, Transcript, Translate, AI Voice, and more directly from the left-hand panel. There’s also a help function that helps you quickly locate settings you can’t find right away.

(Image credit: Future) The editing experience was pretty smooth. For instance, we tried adding text to an AI-generated image, and the process was seamless. We could easily change the font, color, size, and other formatting options from the panel on the right.

Note that the right-hand panel changes dynamically depending on the tool you’re using. For example, if you select Translate, you’ll see language options appear on the right.

Overall, like any video editing software, Kapwing comes with a slight learning curve. However, in our experience, it was much easier to use than many legacy editing tools. The interface is modern, sleek, and highly responsive. We didn’t experience any system lag or timeouts during our testing.

(Image credit: Future) In addition to the main editing window, there is also a dedicated My Workspace page in Kapwing. Here, you can find all your recent projects at the bottom, along with a dedicated set of tools highlighted on the main page. If you’re using a Business plan, you’ll also see your team folders on the left-hand panel. Similarly, Settings, Brand Kit, and your Media Library are all accessible from the same panel.

Kapwing: How we tested

We tested the free version of Kapwing across multiple accounts to evaluate its AI capabilities more thoroughly. To start, we tried generating an AI video using the following prompt:

“A woman in a red coat walks across a rain-soaked city street at night, neon signs reflecting in the puddles, camera slowly tracking alongside her.”

(Image credit: Future) Kapwing got to work as soon as we hit Send, first generating a summary of the scene we wanted to create. After that, it produced a five-second video within seconds. Although Kapwing indicated that the video would be seven seconds long, the actual output was five seconds.

(Image credit: Future) We then edited the same video using Kapwing’s video editor, experimenting with features such as adding text, audio, and subtitles. Since the free plan is fairly limited, we had to use more than two accounts to fully test its capabilities.

What stood out to us was how quickly Kapwing generated both edits and the source video. Everything was processed quickly, which is a clear advantage.

Kapwing: Alternatives

While Kapwing is a capable AI video generator and editor, it is not the most affordable option out there. For instance, Adobe Firefly costs $8.49 per month when billed annually and comes with features comparable to Kapwing. You get access to popular video models such as Google Veo 3.1 and Runway Gen-4.5, allowing you to create up to 50 and 11 videos, respectively.

Adobe Firefly truly shines with its workflow features, allowing creative teams to brainstorm visual concepts on virtual boards. You can also process thousands of files at once using bulk actions such as removing backgrounds or cropping images. That said, Firefly lags a bit behind when it comes to video editing, as many of its editing features are still in beta.

It's also not ideal for long-form content generation, as most models cap video lengths at three to five seconds. On the bright side, you also get access to Adobe Express Premium and Photoshop with all paid plans.

Veed is another capable competitor, with prices starting at $12 per month, roughly 20% cheaper than Kapwing. It also offers a free plan, which appears to be more generous than Kapwing’s. For instance, you can try features like removing silences, background removal, auto-edits, social media character generation, and voice cloning on Veed’s free plan – most of which are not available on Kapwing’s free tier.

Kapwing: Final verdict

Kapwing is one of the best AI video generation and editing platforms available, with a strong mix of both traditional and AI-powered tools. Not only can you generate AI videos from simple prompts, but you can also transcribe videos, translate them into 40+ languages, create AI characters, and edit videos from a central dashboard.

Kapwing is also easier to use than many other platforms on the market, although there is still a slight learning curve involved. That said, there are plenty of video tutorials and help center articles available to help users get through this phase.

However, Kapwing can be a bit on the expensive side, especially for personal users, which is why you may want to consider alternatives like Adobe Firefly or Veed.

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