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Kapwing is one of the best AI video editors today. You can create videos with simple text prompts, generate lifelike AI characters, and 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 become one of the industry’s favorite video generation and editing software.
In this article, we tested Kapwing to see if its features work as advertised. We’ll discuss our real-world experience with Kapwing, its best features, and alternatives worth considering if it doesn’t suit your needs.
Cupwing: plans and prices
You can get started with Kapwing through a forever free plan. With this plan, you can export up to 30 minutes of video each month at 720p resolution (each video is limited to a maximum of 1 minute in length). There’s also a 2 GB file upload limit, usage caps, and access to editing and AI-powered tools like automatic subtitles, automatic translation, and text-to-speech.
I also like that I can edit videos together with my team, as there are plenty of collaboration features like project link sharing and commenting capabilities. However, the free plan is primarily intended for testing the platform rather than full-fledged use.
If you want to get the most out of Kapwing, you’ll need to upgrade to one of its paid plans. Its Pro plans start at $16 per member per month, making it great value for money. This plan supports 4K video export with unlimited monthly exports and video length up to 120 minutes.
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AI editing tools also come with higher usage limits. For example, you can get up to 1,000 minutes of automatic subtitles and 500 minutes of automatic translation every month. In addition to this, this plan adds some premium tools such as video and image background removal, video stabilization, and the ability to add branding kits and custom fonts to your projects.
Next up is your business plan. It’s designed for teams that require a more advanced content creation workflow. For $50 per month per member, you get up to 4,000 minutes of automatic subtitles, 2,000 minutes of automatic translation, 2,000 minutes of clean audio, and 130 minutes of lip sync per month. The rest of the features are pretty much the same as the Pro plan.
Finally, we have an Enterprise plan for larger organizations that require priority support and custom billing. However, you will need to contact the Kapwing team directly to get a customized quote.
Capwing: Features
Kapwing has a great mix of both AI-powered and traditional video editing features. Let’s start with the AI features. You’ll soon see that you can generate AI videos with simple text prompts. Its video generation interface is very similar to that of chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini. Just fill out the prompts and click the “Send” button. You can also attach media as a reference for the AI engine.
Beyond video generation, Kapwing offers several AI tools. For example, you can use Video Translator to convert audio in a video from one language to another. There’s also a handy Smart Cut feature that automatically removes pesky silence from your videos for a more polished result. You can also generate AI characters. This is useful if you want to build a consistent story or reuse the same character across multiple AI-generated videos.
Kapwing offers more options when generating AI characters. First, click the @ icon in the chat window and select the type of characters you want to generate. The options available range from everyday characters like babies and cheerleaders to quirky ones like cyborgs, Dracula, and dragons.
There is also an option to select multiple character types. For example, if you want to create something unique, you can choose both “Baby” and “Dracula”. This is a Baby Dracula character created using Kapwing.
Apart from this, there are a few other options, including Image to Video, which lets you turn still images into short video clips, and Text to Video, where you can input a full-fledged script and have Kapwing generate an AI video. There’s also a handy video stabilization tool that can help fix shaky footage or videos with large motion blur.
For longer video formats, Kapwing also supports video storyboards, allowing you to create time-stamped outlines of all your scenes. More traditional tools include text-to-speech, dubbing videos in over 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 built into a central dashboard, with a video editor in the middle, a long list of features on the left panel, and an editing panel on the right. Simply upload your media or drag and drop the videos and images you want to edit. After that, you may need to spend some time exploring the interface to find the exact feature you’re looking for.
For example, you can directly access features such as text, audio, subtitles, transcription, translation, and AI voice from the left panel. There’s also a help feature that helps you quickly find missing settings.
The editing process was very smooth. For example, I tried adding text to an AI-generated image and the process was seamless. Easily change font, color, size, and other formatting options from the right panel.
Note that the panel on the right changes dynamically depending on the tool you are using. For example, if you select Translate, you’ll see language options on the right.
Overall, like any video editing software, Kapwing comes with a bit of a learning curve. However, in our experience, it was much easier to use than many traditional editing tools. The interface is modern, sleek, and responsive. There were no system lags or timeouts during testing.
In addition to the main editing window, Kapwing also has a dedicated[マイ ワークスペース]There are also pages. Here you’ll see all your recent projects at the bottom and a dedicated set of tools highlighted on the main page. If you’re on a business plan, you’ll also see team folders in the left panel. Similarly, settings, brand kit, and media library can all be accessed from the same panel.
Kapwing: How did we test it?
To more thoroughly evaluate the AI capabilities, we tested the free version of Kapwing on multiple accounts. First, I tried generating an AI video using the following prompt.
“A woman in a red coat walks down a rain-soaked night street, neon signs reflecting in puddles, and the camera slowly following her side.”
[送信]As soon as I clicked , Kapwing went to work, first generating an outline of the scene I wanted to create. Then, within seconds, a 5-second video was created. Kapwing indicated that the video was 7 seconds long, but the actual output was 5 seconds.
I then used Kapwing’s video editor to edit the same video and experiment with features such as adding text, audio, and subtitles. The free plan is quite limited, so I had to use three or more accounts to fully test its features.
What caught our eye was how quickly Kapwing produced both the edit and the source video. This is a clear advantage as everything was processed quickly.
Kapwing: Alternative
Kapwing is a capable AI video generator and editor, but it’s not the most affordable option. For example, Adobe Firefly costs $8.49 per month when billed annually and comes with features similar to Kapwing. You can access popular video models such as Google Veo 3.1 and Runway Gen-4.5 and create up to 50 and 11 videos respectively.
Adobe Firefly truly shines with its workflow capabilities, allowing creative teams to brainstorm visual concepts on a virtual board. You can also process thousands of files at once using bulk operations like background removal and image cropping. That said, Firefly is a bit behind when it comes to video editing, as many of its editing features are still in beta.
Additionally, most models limit video length to 3-5 seconds, which is not ideal for producing long-form content. On the positive side, all paid plans come with access to Adobe Express Premium and Photoshop.
Veed is another strong competitor, with prices starting at $12 per month, about 20% cheaper than Kapwing. It also offers a free plan, which seems more generous than Kapwing. For example, Veed’s free plan lets you try features like silence removal, background removal, automatic editing, social media character generation, and voice cloning, most of which are not available in Kapwing’s free tier.
Kapwing: Final Verdict
Kapwing is one of the best AI video generation and editing platforms available, with a powerful combination of both traditional and AI-powered tools. Not only can you generate AI videos from simple prompts, you can also transcribe videos, translate them into over 40 languages, create AI characters, and edit videos from a central dashboard.
Kapwing is easier to use than many other platforms on the market, but it still requires a bit of a learning curve. That said, there are plenty of video tutorials and help center articles to help users get through this phase.
However, Kapwing can be a bit pricey, especially for individual users, so you may want to consider alternatives such as Adobe Firefly or Veed.
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