CapCut details checked October 2026 · Updated 2026-10-24
AI Growth Kit vs CapCut
If you only need captions or a 4K export now and then, CapCut's free plan already does it: auto-captions and its AI upscaler cost nothing on CapCut Online, per its own pages. AI Growth Kit is the better buy once you want the exact price before you upload with no sign-in needed to see it, or a 4K file without a subscription — CapCut doesn't publish one fixed Pro price, and its cheapest subscription month still costs more than a single small job on our side.
| AI Growth Kit | CapCut | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Credits, no subscription needed. Packs: $9 for 200, $29 for 750, $59 for 1,800, never expiring. Plans: $19 a month for 600, $49 for 2,000. | Free app plus Standard and Pro subscriptions. CapCut doesn't publish one fixed price: its own help center says it depends on your region, device and current promotions, shown only after you sign in and click Upgrade. |
| Free plan | 20 credits once, at sign-up (10 seconds of captions, 6 of upscaling). No watermark. | The full editor, auto-captions and the AI upscaler all work with no payment, per its own tool pages. Its export guide doesn't cap resolution below 4K; it only flags a possible watermark or bitrate limit at 4K specifically. |
| Auto-captions | 2 credits per second (120 a minute), 20 spoken languages. No editor to fix lines before burn-in. | Free speech-to-text captioning from the video's audio. Its own pages say "multiple languages" and that generated captions can be translated into a target language, without publishing an exact language count. |
| Caption file export | Burned-in MP4 only. | SRT or TXT, separate from the video, on Desktop and Mobile — but only for captions made with Auto Captions, not manually typed text, per its own help pages. Browser (CapCut Online) SRT export is less reliable; its own troubleshooting guide's workaround is exporting TXT first and converting it externally. |
| Caption styling | One default style, no options. | Caption templates and fonts inside the full editor. Which specific styles or effects need Pro isn't broken out on its pricing or help pages. |
| AI video upscaler | AI upscaling to 4K, 3 credits per second (180 a minute). One operation, nothing else. | Free on Desktop and Online, per its own tool page: upscales to 4K with deblur, detail-filling and AI color correction included. |
| Max export resolution | 4K, via the Upscaler. | 4K (2160p) on Desktop (Windows 10+ or macOS Monterey+) and on high-end phones; CapCut Online's 4K needs hardware-accelerated encoding and a stable connection. Many mid-range phones cap at 1080p or 2K. |
| Watermark on 4K | None, including output paid for with the free credits. | Its own export guide: free accounts "may face watermarks or bitrate limits on 4K exports"; CapCut Pro removes that. |
| Beyond captions and upscaling | Nothing — each tool takes one input and returns one file. | A full timeline editor: trim, cut, transitions, effects, templates and a stock media library, per its own site. |
| Rights to your content | No license beyond what's needed to run your job and deliver the file back. | Its own Terms of Service: uploading content grants its operator "a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual and worldwide license to use your User Content." The same section also says "we don't own your User Content." |
Where CapCut is clearly better
CapCut is a full video editor, not a set of single-purpose tools: templates, transitions, effects and a stock media library, with auto-captions and an AI upscaler built in for free. For most one-off clips there's no reason to pay anyone, us included — captioning and 4K enhancement both work without a credit card, per its own pages.
Its captions also do more than ours: a downloadable SRT or TXT file alongside the burned-in export (Desktop and Mobile, for auto-recognized captions), caption templates inside the editor, and translation of the generated captions into another language as text. Our Subtitler only burns one default style into the MP4, with no file to reuse elsewhere.
Where AI Growth Kit is better
One flat, published rate before you upload: 2 credits a second for captions, 3 for upscaling, visible with no account. CapCut doesn't publish one global Pro price at all — its help center says the price depends on your region, device and current promotions, and you only see it after signing in and clicking Upgrade.
No subscription to size or cancel: a $9-$59 pack is a one-time purchase that never expires, and failed jobs are refunded. CapCut's unrestricted, watermark-free 4K needs an active Pro subscription — a recurring charge even for a single clip.
We don't ask for any rights to your content beyond running the job you submit. CapCut's own Terms of Service grant its operator a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use anything you upload, for as long as the Services exist.
What a 60-second clip costs
Our rates as of October 2026: captions cost 2 credits per second (120 a minute), upscaling 3 (180 a minute). Captioning and upscaling the same 60-second clip is 60 × 2 + 60 × 3 = 300 credits — $13.50 in Starter Packs ($9 for 200 credits) or $9.83 at our best rate (the $59 Power Pack, 1,800 credits). CapCut: captioning that clip is free on CapCut Online; reaching unrestricted 4K needs a month of Pro, whose price CapCut doesn't publish on one page — the U.S. Apple App Store currently lists a Pro Monthly Subscription at $19.99.
Ten such clips a month (10 minutes of video, captioned and upscaled): 10 × 120 + 10 × 180 = 3,000 credits. The $49 Pro plan covers 2,000, and the remaining 1,000 cost about $32.78 from a Power Pack (1,000 ÷ 1,800 × $59) — about $81.78 a month on our side. CapCut: the captions are still free; one month of Pro (around $19.99 in the U.S. App Store) covers unrestricted 4K for all ten clips and everything else exported that month, which is cheaper than our total at this volume.
The gap only widens in CapCut's favor with volume, since Pro is a flat monthly price regardless of how many clips you process, while our packs meter every second.
How to decide
Start from whether you need an editor at all, and how many clips you process in a typical month.
- An occasional caption or 4K export, and CapCut's free plan or a Pro subscription both work for you: CapCut.
- You want a downloadable SRT file, caption templates, or any timeline editing: CapCut.
- You want the exact price before you upload, with no account needed to see it: AI Growth Kit.
- More than a couple of 4K exports a month and you don't want a recurring subscription: run the numbers above — past a certain volume CapCut Pro's flat price wins.
Choose CapCut if…
- You want a full video editor — timeline, transitions, templates, effects — not single-purpose tools.
- You caption or upscale occasionally: CapCut's free plan does both at no cost, per its own pages.
- You need a downloadable SRT or TXT caption file, not just a burned-in video.
- You want styled caption templates inside an editor.
- You run enough 4K exports a month that a flat Pro subscription (around $19.99 a month in the U.S.) beats metered credits.
Choose AI Growth Kit if…
- You want one exact, published price before you upload, with no sign-in needed to see it.
- You don't want a subscription: a $9-$59 pack is a one-time purchase that never expires, and failed jobs are refunded.
- You'd rather not grant anyone a standing license to your content beyond the job you submit.
- You also want image or video generation, or video extend from the same balance.
Questions
Is CapCut's auto-caption feature really free?
Yes, per its own tool and help pages — generating auto-captions, editing them, and exporting the video all work with no payment on CapCut Online. CapCut Pro mainly buys unrestricted, watermark-free 4K exports and caption templates; CapCut doesn't publish an exact monthly cap for free auto-captions.
Can CapCut export captions as an SRT file?
Yes, on Desktop and Mobile, for captions made with its Auto Captions feature — select "Caption Export" (not "Video Export") and choose SRT or TXT, per CapCut's own troubleshooting guide. Manually typed text can't be exported this way. Our Subtitler doesn't offer a caption file yet; it only returns an MP4 with captions burned in.
How much does CapCut Pro cost?
CapCut doesn't show one number to everyone — its help center says the price depends on your region, device and current promotions, visible only after you sign in and click Upgrade. The U.S. Apple App Store currently lists a Pro Monthly Subscription at $19.99, a cheaper Standard Monthly Subscription at $9.99, and a $89.99 Yearly option, as of October 2026.
Does CapCut's terms of service claim rights to what I upload?
Its Terms of Service say that submitting content grants ByteDance Pte. Ltd. (defined in the Terms as "the Company") and its affiliates "a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual and worldwide license to use your User Content" to operate, develop and provide the Services. The same section also says "we don't own your User Content" and that this doesn't change who holds the underlying copyright. We don't ask for any license to your content beyond running the job you submit.
Can I use both?
Yes. Edit, template and caption routine clips in CapCut for free; use our Upscaler for a 4K file without a Pro subscription, or when you also want to generate or extend a video from the same account.