Video Clipping API in 2026: OpusClip, Vizard, Klap, Reap, Submagic and Katto Compared

If you run a podcast network, a newsroom or an agency tool, sooner or later you want clips without clicking through a dashboard: send a video URL, get back scored vertical clips with captions, and push them somewhere. That is what a video clipping API does. This guide compares the public APIs of six AI clippers as they stand on 11 November 2026: OpusClip, Vizard, Klap, Reap, Submagic and Katto.

Disclosure: I build Katto. Every competitor fact below comes from that company's own API docs or pricing page, read on 11 November 2026, with US list prices. When a page did not say something, the table says "not stated" instead of guessing. Katto facts come from our own code.

What a clipping API actually needs to do

Most teams need the same five things, in this order:

1. Submit a source: a public URL (YouTube, a CDN link) or a file upload.
2. Know when it is done: polling a status endpoint, or better, a signed webhook.
3. Get the clips: video URLs, titles, timestamps, and ideally a score so you can pick the best ones automatically.
4. Adjust: captions, reframing to 9:16, trimming, re-rendering.
5. Publish to social platforms, or hand the files to your own pipeline.

The differences that matter in practice are not the endpoint names. They are how usage is metered, which plan unlocks the API, the longest source accepted, and rate limits.

The six APIs side by side

Tool	Cheapest way to get API access	How usage is metered	Longest source	Webhooks	Publish via API	MCP server
OpusClip	Pro, $29/month (API listed as Pro beta)	Credits: 1 credit per minute of source, 10-credit minimum per API project; API capped at 900 credits a month on Pro	10 hours	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vizard	Any paid plan ("API access is only available to paid users")	Upload minutes: 1 credit = 1 minute of video	600 minutes	Yes	Yes	Not stated
Klap	Pay as you go, no subscription; $5 of credits when you add a card	$0.44 per input video, $0.32 per generated short, $0.48 per export	3 hours (a docs page says 5)	Not stated	Not stated	Yes
Reap	Creator, $9.99/month billed annually ("Every paid plan includes API, CLI, and MCP access")	Hours of source video: 10 h/month on Creator, 20 h on Studio	3 hours	Yes	Yes (publish and schedule)	Yes
Submagic	Starter, $12/member/month billed yearly	API minutes: 10 min/month on Starter and Pro, 100 on Business, then paid minute packs	Not stated for the API (editor: 2 to 30 min by plan)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Katto	Free plan (1 API key); paid plans up to 10 keys	Videos: same monthly quota as the dashboard (2, 10 or 25 videos)	30 / 60 / 90 minutes by plan	Yes, HMAC-signed	Yes (paid plans)	Yes

Notes on each API

OpusClip

The most complete surface on paper: create a project from a videoUrl, query clips, brand templates, clip editing, social posting and scheduling, webhooks, plus official SDKs and a public OpenAPI file. The help center labels API access as "Pro (Beta)", with a cap of 15 hours (900 credits) of API usage per month per workspace on Pro and Max, 4 projects running at once, and 30 requests per minute per key. If your sources run several hours, the 10-hour limit is the highest in this list.

Vizard

One create endpoint with a lot of switches (aspect ratio, subtitles, headline, emoji, B-roll, silence removal, number of clips), a query endpoint, a webhook, and publishing endpoints. It accepts links from YouTube, Google Drive, Vimeo, Twitch, Loom, Dropbox and more. The documented rate limit for creating projects is tight: 3 per minute and 20 per hour on Creator. Prices did not render as text on the pricing page when we checked, so check them there.

Klap

The only one priced purely per use, with no subscription: a task endpoint turns a URL into shorts (up to 100 per video), then you export the ones you want. Length does not change the input price. Good for spiky volume. The catch is that every generated short and every export is billed, so the bill grows with how many clips you ask for.

Reap

Separate endpoints for clips, captions, reframe, dubbing and transcription, presigned uploads, publishing and scheduling to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and X, and webhooks. Documented limits: 60 reads, 30 writes and 10 project creations per minute per key, 3 concurrent projects on Creator. Sources must be between 2 minutes and 3 hours.

Submagic

Strong on captions and editing, with Magic Clips for long videos, publishing, webhooks and an MCP server. API time is counted in minutes and the included amount is small (10 minutes a month below Business), so most API users will buy minute packs, which start at 250 minutes for $57 a month.

Katto

A REST API at https://katto.tech/api/v1 with a bearer key: submit a URL or an upload, poll the job or receive a webhook, list clips with their virality score (Hook, Flow, Value, Trend), then re-render, add a hook, retitle, translate captions, generate post text, publish or schedule. Webhooks carry an X-Katto-Signature HMAC-SHA256 header over the timestamp and body. Limits: 20 job submissions per minute per key, 60 list reads per minute. The same quota is shared with the web app, the CLI and the MCP server, so the API can never spend more than your plan.

The honest limits: sources are capped at 30, 60 or 90 minutes depending on the plan, publishing needs a paid plan, scheduling needs Creator, and we do not publish official SDKs. If you clip 3-hour streams, OpusClip, Vizard, Klap or Reap will fit better.

A worked example: 20 episodes a month

Say a small podcast network sends 20 episodes a month through an API, each 45 minutes long, and keeps 8 clips per episode. That is 900 minutes (15 hours) of source and 160 clips.

• Klap: 20 inputs x $0.44 = $8.80, 160 shorts x $0.32 = $51.20, 160 exports x $0.48 = $76.80. Total about $136.80 for the month.
• OpusClip: 900 credits needed. Pro includes 300 credits a month and the API cap is 900, so Pro alone does not cover it; extra credits cost more (their price was not stated on the pages we read).
• Vizard: 900 minutes, against Creator's "from 600" monthly credits, so a larger credit tier is needed.
• Reap: 15 hours, more than Creator's 10, so Studio at $29/month billed annually (20 hours).
• Submagic: 900 API minutes. Business includes 100, and a 1,000-minute pack is listed at $150 a month on top of the plan.
• Katto: 20 videos of 45 minutes fit in Creator (25 videos, up to 90 minutes each) at EUR 14.90/month, or EUR 11.90/month billed yearly. Solo (10 videos) would not be enough.

Change the shape and the ranking changes. Ten 3-hour streams a month do not fit Katto at all, and a handful of very short videos may cost less on Klap's per-use pricing than on any subscription.

How to choose

• Long sources (over 90 minutes): OpusClip, Vizard, Klap or Reap.
• Irregular volume, no subscription: Klap.
• Many medium-length videos, predictable bill: a per-video plan like Katto's, where length up to the plan cap does not change the cost.
• Caption-first editing: Submagic.
• You also want agents to drive it: OpusClip, Klap, Reap, Submagic and Katto all document an MCP server. We compared those in video clipping MCP servers in 2026.

For reference, a measured Katto job turned a 20-minute video into 8 clips in about 5 minutes. Treat that as one data point, not a promise: queue load and source length change it.

FAQ

Is there a free video clipping API?

Katto's free plan includes one API key with the free quota (2 videos a month, up to 30 minutes, 720p with a watermark). Klap gives $5 of API credits when you add a card. Vizard says API access is for paid users only.

Can I send a YouTube link instead of uploading a file?

OpusClip, Vizard, Klap, Submagic and Katto document URL submission. Reap's docs describe a presigned upload flow, while its API page also shows a videoUrl example.

How do I know when clips are ready without polling?

Use a webhook. OpusClip, Vizard, Reap, Submagic and Katto document one. Katto signs each call so you can verify it came from us.

Where are Katto's API docs?

At katto.tech/docs/api, with the OpenAPI file at katto.tech/openapi.json. Keys are created in the dashboard under API keys.