OpenShortsOpen source alternatives to the main AI clipping tools
OpenShorts is the only open source, self-hostable tool in this category. Every other tool on this page is a closed-source cloud service.
Cheapest paid entry points as of October 2026: 2short.ai $9.90/month, OpenShorts Cloud $12/month billed monthly, then Submagic $12, Klap $14 and Vizard $14.50 a month on yearly billing, and Opus Clip $15/month. OpenShorts self-hosted is $0 with no cap.
The tools are not interchangeable. Submagic is a caption editor that added clipping, Quso and SendShort are suites where clipping is one feature, and Vizard expects you in a timeline. The individual comparisons below say where each one genuinely wins.
Your first video free up to 60 minutes, then 20 free minutes a month, no credit card. Or self-host it free under MIT.
How these tools actually differ
All of them are described as "AI clipping tools", which hides the fact that they do different jobs. Some take a long video and decide what to cut. Some are caption editors or social suites with clipping bolted on. One is really an editor with an AI first pass. Choosing on price alone is how people end up paying for two tools that each do half the work. If price is the deciding factor, start with what a free AI clip generator actually includes.
Entry pricing and free plans side by side
Pricing checked 2026-10-05 on each vendor's pricing page. Verify on the vendor's site before buying.
| Tool | Cheapest paid plan | Free plan | Finds moments in long video |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenShorts | $0 self-hosted, $12/mo hosted | First video free up to 60 min, then 20 min/month; self-hosted unlimited | Yes |
| Opus Clip | $15/month | 60 credits a month (one credit is one minute of source video), exports up to 1080p with a watermark, no editing, clips must be exported within 3 days | Yes |
| Klap | $14/month billed yearly | One video to try it, no credit card. There is no ongoing free plan. | Yes |
| Vizard | $14.50/month billed yearly ($29 monthly) | 60 credits a month (1 credit = 1 minute uploaded), uploads up to 60 minutes, 720p exports up to 10 minutes with a watermark, 3-day storage, transcript as TXT only | Yes, then you edit |
| Submagic | $12/month billed yearly | No free plan. A trial with no credit card is offered instead. | Yes (Magic Clips), captions-first |
| Vidyo.ai (Quso) | $19/month billed yearly ($29 monthly) | 75 credits a month (one credit is about one minute of video), 720p, data kept 7 days, no scheduling | Yes, plus scheduling |
| 2short.ai | $9.90/month | 30 minutes of AI analysis a month, YouTube links only, no watermark, 1080p | Yes, from links |
| SendShort | $19/month ($15 billed yearly) | No free plan. 3 free videos at sign-up, refund within 24 hours of paying. | From the $29 plan |
What would each one cost you?
The tools that bill by minutes of source video, priced for your own usage. Klap (per clip), Submagic (per video) and SendShort (per short) meter something else and are left out rather than forced onto the same axis.
Cheapest published plan that covers that many minutes, per month. Prices checked 2026-10-05. Self-hosted needs Docker and your own Gemini key, whose free tier covers 1,500 requests a day.
What does OpenShorts cost?
OpenShorts comes in two editions and they are priced very differently, so it is worth being precise. OpenShorts (self-hosted) is free and open source under the MIT licence: Free and open source under MIT. You run it with Docker on your own machine and bring your own API keys. No watermark, no usage cap, no subscription. What it costs you is hardware and time: on a typical CPU an 8-minute video takes 5 to 8 minutes to process. OpenShorts Cloud is the hosted service: The same software with the compute and API keys covered. An NVIDIA GPU clips that same 8-minute video in about 50 seconds. Free plan: the first video is clipped whole up to 60 minutes, then 20 minutes a month, with a watermark and no credit card. Paid plans start at $12/month for 100 minutes with no watermark, up to $59/month.
Common questions
- What is the cheapest AI clip generator?
- OpenShorts self-hosted is free with no cap, but you supply the machine and your own Google Gemini API key. Among hosted products, the cheapest paid entry points as of October 2026 are 2short.ai at $9.90/month, OpenShorts Cloud at $12/month billed monthly, and Submagic ($12) and Klap ($14) on yearly billing.
- Which AI clipping tools are open source?
- OpenShorts is MIT-licensed with full source on GitHub. Opus Clip, Klap, Vizard, Submagic, Quso (formerly Vidyo.ai), 2short.ai and SendShort are all closed-source commercial products.
- Which AI clipping tools have a free plan?
- Opus Clip (60 minutes a month, watermarked), Vizard (60 credits a month, 720p, watermarked), Quso (75 credits a month, 720p), 2short.ai (30 minutes a month, YouTube links only, no watermark), and OpenShorts (first video free up to 60 minutes, then 20 minutes a month, or unlimited self-hosted). Klap gives one free video, SendShort three, and Submagic offers a trial instead of a free plan.