Best AI Podcast Clip Makers in 2026: 8 Tools Compared on Price, Speakers and Episode Length

Podcasts are the easiest long-form content to clip and the hardest to clip well. The easy part: people talk, so there is always a transcript to mine. The hard part is everything around it. Two or three people share the frame, episodes run long, and a lot of shows are still audio-only.

Most "best AI clipper" lists ignore all three. This one is built around them. I checked every price and quota below on the vendor's own pricing or help pages on November 10, 2026. Where a vendor does not state something, the table says so instead of guessing.

Disclosure: I build Katto, one of the eight tools. It is not the right pick for every podcast, and the sections below say when it isn't.

What matters for podcast clips specifically

• Episode length versus the meter. Most tools bill by source minutes or credits, so a 90-minute episode costs nine times a 10-minute video, even if both give you five good clips. Check how many of your episodes fit in a month, not how many minutes the plan advertises.
• Speakers. A clip where the camera stays on the host while the guest delivers the punchline is a dead clip. Look for active-speaker reframing, or split-screen and stacked layouts that keep both faces on screen.
• Audio-only shows. If you don't record video, many clippers simply cannot help you. Only a few turn audio into a vertical video with a background or waveform.
• Maximum source length. Two-hour interviews are common. Some tools cap the source well below that.
• Captions and languages. Nearly all short-form views happen on mute, and caption language support ranges from English-only to 99 languages.

The 8 tools at a glance

Tool	Cheapest paid plan	Monthly	Annual (per month)	Metered by	Max source	Audio-only shows
Katto	Solo	€8.90	€4.90	Videos: 10/mo (Creator: 25/mo)	60 min (Creator: 90 min)	No, video sources only
OpusClip	Starter	$15	None (Pro: $14.50)	Credits: 150/mo (Pro: 300/mo)	10 hr	Not stated
Riverside	Pro	$29	$24	Magic Clips: no credits (15 hr separate-track downloads/mo)	Not stated	Yes (adds a background image)
Descript	Hobbyist	$24	$16	10 media hr + 400 AI credits/mo	Not stated	Not stated
Vizard	Creator	$29	$14.50	Credits: 1 credit = 1 min, from 600/mo	600 min	Not stated
Klap	Basic	$29	$14.50	Clips: 100/mo	3 hr	Not stated
Async (formerly Podcastle)	Essentials	$19.99	$11.99	AI Clips: 45 min of source/mo	2 hr (AI Clips)	Separate podcast video maker
Castmagic	Hobby	$29	$19	30 transcribed hours (library total, not monthly)	10 GB per file	Yes (audiograms)

Katto is priced in euros; the other tools list US dollars. OpusClip's pricing page can show lower prices depending on your country and current promotions: the figures above are its US list prices. Submagic, often listed alongside these, is covered in the FAQ: its Starter plan caps uploads at 2 minutes, which rules out full episodes.

The real test: a weekly 90-minute episode

Four episodes a month at 90 minutes each is 360 minutes of source. Here is what that does to each meter:

• OpusClip Starter (150 credits, which the help centre describes as processing minutes) covers about one and a half episodes. Pro (300/mo) covers three. You need annual Pro (3,600 a year) or a higher plan to clip every episode.
• Vizard Creator (600 credits, 1 credit per minute) covers all four with 240 minutes to spare.
• Async Essentials includes 45 minutes of AI Clips a month: half of one episode.
• Klap Basic counts output clips, not minutes: 100 clips a month, so four episodes leave room for about 25 clips each.
• Katto Creator counts each episode as one video, whatever its length up to 90 minutes: 4 of 25 used. Katto Solo does not fit this show, because it caps sources at 60 minutes.
• Riverside works differently: Magic Clips runs on Riverside recordings and on uploaded files, and does not use credits. You get one automatic set of clips per recording, and Pro adds two more runs.

Run the same arithmetic with your own episode length before you pick. A 30-minute show and a three-hour show point to different tools.

Katto: flat per-episode pricing for video podcasts

Katto takes a YouTube link or an uploaded video and returns scored, captioned 9:16 clips. Each clip gets a score on hook, flow, value and trend, so you only export the ones worth posting.

• Speakers: face tracking on the person in frame, plus split-screen, stacked and 2×2 grid layouts when up to four people share the shot.
• Captions: 99 languages, word-level timing in 41. On Creator, AI dubbing translates a clip into 105 languages (86 of them in beta), voice included.
• Publishing: one-click posting to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon; scheduling on Creator. The same quota also works through an API and an MCP server, so an AI agent can clip episodes for you.
• Price: Solo €8.90/month (€4.90 on annual billing), 10 videos up to 60 minutes. Creator €14.90/month (€11.90 annual), 25 videos up to 90 minutes. Free: 2 videos a month up to 30 minutes, in 720p with a watermark.

Skip it if your show is audio-only (Katto needs a video source) or your episodes run past 90 minutes: Katto cannot clip a section of a longer file, so you would need to trim it first.

OpusClip: the most-known name, metered by credits

OpusClip's podcast page advertises active-speaker detection and a dynamic layout switch, with captions in 20+ languages. It is polished and widely used.

The catch for podcasters is the meter. Starter is $15/month for 150 credits with no annual option; Pro is $29/month or $14.50 on annual billing for 300 a month. Long weekly episodes drain that fast, as the 90-minute test shows. The free plan gives 60 credits a month with a watermark and exports that expire after three days.

Riverside: best for audio-only shows and its own recordings

Riverside is a recording studio first. Magic Clips turns each recording, or a file you upload, into short clips, roughly two per five minutes of content, and ranks them with a score from 70 to 99. It can focus on a chosen speaker, and it is one of the few that handles audio-only recordings, adding a background image. Magic Clips is included on every plan and uses no credits.

Pro is $29/month or $24 on annual billing. Its pricing page currently shows a 14-day trial rather than a free plan. If you record somewhere else and only want clips, you pay for a recording studio you won't use.

Descript: clips inside a full editor

Descript is a transcript-based editor that also makes clips. It detects 8+ speakers and has layout packs, which suits shows that want to polish each clip by hand. Hobbyist is $24/month or $16 on annual billing, with 10 media hours and 400 AI credits; the clip feature draws on those AI credits. Pick it if you want to edit, not just clip.

Vizard: the most minutes for the money

Vizard's Creator plan gives 600 credits a month (one per minute) and accepts sources up to 600 minutes, so it covers long weekly shows comfortably at $14.50/month on annual billing ($29 monthly). Each clip gets a viral score from 0 to 10. Its pricing page does not detail speaker layouts or audio-only support, so test it on a real multi-speaker episode with the free plan (60 credits a month, 720p) first.

Klap: pay per clip, not per minute

Klap counts clips instead of minutes: Basic gives 100 clips a month for $29, or $14.50 on annual billing, with active-speaker reframing and 99+ languages. Sources can run up to 3 hours. The free plan lets you preview and edit one video but not download it.

Async (formerly Podcastle): podcast studio with a small clip allowance

Podcastle now lives at async.com. Essentials ($19.99/month, $11.99 on annual billing) includes AI Clips and AI Reframe, but only 45 minutes of clip source a month (video files from 3 minutes to 2 hours), and subtitles are English-only below the Teams plan. For audio-only episodes, a separate podcast video maker turns audio into clips; Async doesn't state its limits. A good fit for a short English show that already records there; tight for anything longer.

Castmagic: the show-notes tool that also clips

Castmagic is best known for turning episodes into written content: show notes, newsletters, social posts. It also cuts captioned vertical clips in its Studio, with 60+ languages, and turns audio-only episodes into audiograms: a waveform video with your cover art and captions. Hobby is $29/month or $19 on annual billing, but note the quota: 30 transcribed hours as a library total, not a monthly refill. No free plan is listed. Pick it if text content is your main need and clips are a bonus.

Which one should you pick?

• Video podcast, episodes up to 90 minutes, posted every week: Katto Creator (flat per episode) or Vizard (generous minutes).
• Audio-only show: Riverside (clips with a background image) or Castmagic (audiograms).
• Episodes longer than 90 minutes: OpusClip (up to 10 hr), Vizard (600 min) or Klap (3 hr).
• You want to edit each clip by hand: Descript.
• You want show notes and newsletters more than clips: Castmagic.
• You publish in several languages: Katto (captions in 99 languages, dubbing into 105) or Klap (99+ caption languages).

For every clipper we track, not just podcast tools, the AI video clipper pricing table lists 58 tools with their quotas, API and MCP support.

FAQ

Can AI make video clips from an audio-only podcast?

Some tools can. Riverside's Magic Clips handles audio-only recordings by adding a background image, and Castmagic turns audio episodes into captioned audiograms. Most dedicated clippers, Katto included, need a video source.

What about Submagic for podcasts?

Submagic is a caption and short-form editor. Its Starter plan ($19/month, $12 annual) caps uploads at 2 minutes, and its long-video feature, Magic Clips, costs 8 of the 45 monthly credits per run, so about five runs a month. Fine for polishing clips, limited for full episodes.

How many clips should one podcast episode give?

Riverside's rule of thumb is about two clips per five minutes of content, but that is raw output. In practice, a strong hour-long episode yields a handful of clips worth posting. Scoring or ranking helps you skip the rest.

Are these prices final?

No. All were checked on November 10, 2026, and several changed in the previous month: Klap's annual price and maximum length, Submagic's Magic Clips billing, Riverside's free plan, and OpusClip's new country-based pricing. Check the vendor's page before you buy.