Descript pricing: media hours, AI credits and real cost

Descript has a free plan and three self-serve paid plans, priced per editor: Hobbyist at $16 a month, Creator at $24 and Business at $50 on annual billing, or $24, $35 and $65 billed monthly. What you’re really buying is a monthly allowance of media hours (10, 30 or 40 per editor) and AI credits (400, 800 or 1,500), and on Creator and Business you can buy more hours as top-ups at $3 to $5 an hour. Prices in US dollars as of November 2, 2026.

We haven’t used Descript ourselves. The plan prices come from AskGPU’s Descript data, checked October 17, 2026, and they match Descript’s pricing page as read on November 2, 2026. The allowances, top-up prices, refund rules and other limits come from Descript’s pricing page and help center, read the same day. The yearly totals, cost per hour and the worked examples are our own arithmetic from those published numbers.

How much does Descript cost per month?

Every paid price is “per person / month”, which Descript means as per editor seat. The pricing page shows two prices per plan without labelling them, but its “Get started” links select annual billing, the help center’s billing example uses the higher figure as the monthly price, and AskGPU’s data records the lower figure as annual billing.

Plan	Annual billing (per editor, per month)	Monthly billing (per editor)	Media hours per month	AI credits	Editor seats
Free	$0	$0	1 (60 minutes)	100, one time	1
Hobbyist	$16	$24	10	400 a month	1
Creator	$24	$35	30	800 a month	1 to 3
Business	$50	$65	40	1,500 a month	Up to 5
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	“Sized to your team”	Custom	Custom

Over a year, per editor, that works out as:

Plan	12 months on annual billing	12 months on monthly billing	You save with annual	Saving
Hobbyist	$16 × 12 = $192	$24 × 12 = $288	$96	33%
Creator	$24 × 12 = $288	$35 × 12 = $420	$132	31%
Business	$50 × 12 = $600	$65 × 12 = $780	$180	23%

Descript’s page says annual billing means “saving up to 35% over monthly plan.” On the current prices our arithmetic gives 33% at most (Hobbyist), and the saving on Business is closer to a quarter.

Two things about how the bill is built that the pricing table doesn’t make obvious:

• You pay up front for the whole term. Descript’s billing overview says “subscription payments are processed upfront at the beginning of your billing cycle.” On annual Creator that’s a single $288 charge, not $24 a month.
• Plans belong to a Drive, not to you. “Each plan is billed separately,” the help center says, and to edit in someone else’s Drive “you must be added as an Editor under that drive’s plan.” If you own two Drives, you pay for two plans.

Is Descript free? What the free plan includes

Yes, Descript has a free plan, and the pricing page says no card is needed to sign up. Its limits, from the plan comparison table:

Free plan limit	What Descript lists
Media	60 minutes a month
AI credits	100, one time (they don’t renew)
Video export	720p, with a watermark
Web link export	720p, up to 1 hour
Audio export	Unlimited duration
Cloud storage	5 GB
Largest upload	1 GB
Rooms (remote recording)	2 hours
Stock library	First 5 search results
AI speech, voice clones, avatars, Studio Sound, translation	“Limited” (not defined)
Support	Knowledge base and email, no live chat

The free plan works for trying the editor on a short project or editing an audio-only clip, since audio exports aren’t capped. It doesn’t suit regular video publishing: the watermark and 720p cap stay until you pay, and the 100 AI credits are a one-time grant, not a monthly allowance. Descript marks several AI features as “Limited” on Free without saying where the limit is.

What are media hours and AI credits?

These two allowances decide which plan you need, more than any feature does.

Media hours measure the media you bring into Descript. The FAQ says they “track uploaded media files and media recorded in Descript,” whether or not the media is transcribed. The help center adds:

• Uploads and recordings both count, including screen, webcam and microphone recordings and Rooms sessions.
• A Rooms session counts by session length, not per participant: “a 1-hour session with 5 participants uses 60 minutes.”
• Still images count as 1 second each.
• Descript doesn’t say whether deleting a file gives the time back.

AI credits pay for AI features: Underlord (the AI assistant), Studio Sound, Remove Filler Words, Green Screen, Eye Contact, AI speech, avatars, generated video and generated layout packs. Descript publishes only a few exact costs:

• Studio Sound and Remove Filler Words “have a max cost of 30 credits per file/tool application.”
• Each Underlord chat message “still uses a few AI credits”; other Underlord costs vary by model and task.
• Generated media costs depend on its length and the model you pick. The app shows the cost per action, and your Usage tab shows what you spent.

Both allowances reset at each renewal and don’t roll over. With several editors, “each Editor seat adds to the shared drive pool,” so a three-editor Creator Drive gets 90 media hours and 2,400 AI credits a month to share.

What an hour of media costs on each plan

Dividing the plan price by the included hours shows how much each plan charges per hour, if you use the whole allowance:

Plan	Annual billing	Monthly billing
Hobbyist	$16 ÷ 10 h = $1.60 per hour	$24 ÷ 10 h = $2.40 per hour
Creator	$24 ÷ 30 h = $0.80 per hour	$35 ÷ 30 h ≈ $1.17 per hour
Business	$50 ÷ 40 h = $1.25 per hour	$65 ÷ 40 h ≈ $1.63 per hour

Creator is the cheapest way to buy media hours. Business costs more per hour; you pay the difference for team and brand features, not for more media.

How much do Descript top-ups cost?

When an allowance runs out, Creator and Business Drives can buy top-ups. Hobbyist and Free can’t: “Top ups are only available on Creator and Business plans.” The prices, from Descript’s help center:

Top-up	Price	Per unit
5 media hours	$25	$5.00 an hour
20 media hours	$80	$4.00 an hour
50 media hours	$150	$3.00 an hour
350 AI credits	$35	$0.10 a credit
1,000 AI credits	$80	$0.08 a credit
4,000 AI credits	$200	$0.05 a credit

The rules that come with them:

• Top-ups are used only “after your monthly allowance has been exhausted.”
• They’re shared across everyone in the Drive.
• They “expire 12 months after purchase,” so unlike the monthly allowance, an unused top-up carries over until then.
• They’re non-refundable.
• If you downgrade to Free, Descript keeps the balance but you can’t use it until you upgrade again, and the 12-month expiry still runs.

Compare the top-up rates with the plans themselves. On annual Creator, an included hour costs $0.80 and an included AI credit costs $24 ÷ 800 = $0.03. The cheapest top-up hour is $3, almost four times as much, and the cheapest top-up credit is $0.05. Top-ups make sense for an occasional busy month, not as a regular part of the budget.

Worked examples: what Descript costs for real workloads

These use only the published allowances and prices above.

A weekly interview podcast. Four one-hour episodes a month, each recorded in a Rooms session, with Studio Sound and Remove Filler Words run once on each recording.

• Media: 4 sessions × 60 minutes = 240 minutes, or 4 of Hobbyist’s 10 media hours. Rooms bills by session length, so the guest doesn’t double it.
• Rooms: Hobbyist includes 5 Rooms recording hours a month per Drive, so 4 hours fit.
• AI credits: at most 2 tools × 30 credits × 4 episodes = 240 credits, within Hobbyist’s 400.
• Cost: Hobbyist at $16 a month, or $192 a year on annual billing ($288 on monthly).

Add a fifth episode or long extra uploads and you’re close to the Rooms limit. Hobbyist can’t buy top-ups, so the next step is Creator (15 Rooms hours, 30 media hours).

A YouTube creator uploading 25 hours of raw footage a month. Hobbyist’s 10 hours won’t cover it and can’t be topped up. Creator’s 30 hours do, at $24 a month on annual billing ($288 a year), and Creator also adds 4K export, which Hobbyist caps at 1080p.

A heavy month: 45 hours of media on one Creator seat. Creator includes 30 hours, so 15 are missing:

• Three 5-hour top-ups: 3 × $25 = $75, or $5 an hour.
• One 20-hour top-up: $80, with 5 hours left over that stay usable for 12 months.
• Business wouldn’t fix it: 40 hours is still 5 short, at $50 or $65 a month.

That month costs $24 + $75 = $99 on annual Creator, more than four times the plan price. If every month looks like this and a second person edits too, a second Creator seat adds another 30 hours and 800 credits to the shared pool for $24 a month on annual billing, which costs less than any top-up.

A five-person marketing team. Creator stops at three editors, so five editors means Business:

• Annual billing: 5 × $50 × 12 = $3,000 a year, with 200 media hours and 7,500 AI credits a month shared.
• Monthly billing: 5 × $65 × 12 = $3,900 a year.

A three-person team that doesn’t need Business features would pay 3 × $24 × 12 = $864 a year on annual Creator, against 3 × $50 × 12 = $1,800 on annual Business.

Adding an editor mid-cycle. Seats are prorated. Descript’s own example: a Business Drive at $65 a month added a second editor halfway through the cycle and paid $32.50 for the remaining half month, then $130 a month at the next renewal.

What does each plan add beyond hours and credits?

From the pricing page’s comparison table:

Feature	Free	Hobbyist	Creator	Business
Video export	720p, watermark	1080p	4K	4K
Web link export length	1 hour	1 hour	3 hours	3 hours
Batch export	No	No	Yes	Yes
Cloud storage	5 GB	100 GB	1 TB	2 TB
Largest upload	1 GB	10 GB	20 GB	50 GB
Rooms recording hours (per Drive)	2	5 a month	15 a month	25 a month
Rooms producers	None	3	3	10
Stock AI speakers	25+	25+	60+	60+
Translation (captions and dubbing)	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes, plus proofreading
Brand Studio (brand kit)	No	No	No	Yes
Transcription glossary	No	No	No	Yes
Stock library search	First 5 results	First 12 results	Unlimited	Unlimited
Live chat support	No	Yes	Yes	Yes, plus priority support with SLA

Transcription covers 25 languages on every plan, and audio exports have no length limit on any plan.

The step from Hobbyist to Creator is the big one: three times the media hours, twice the AI credits, 4K export, top-ups, batch export, ten times the storage and room for three editors, for $8 more a month on annual billing. Business mainly adds brand controls, translation proofreading, a glossary, more storage and priority support.

Discounts for nonprofits and education

Descript’s help center lists an EDU/NFP plan for “valid charitable status (501(c)(3) or equivalent)” nonprofits and for “students, educators, and administrators at accredited educational institutions”:

• $8 per editor a month on annual billing ($96 a year), or $12 per editor billed monthly ($144 a year).
• Up to 3 editor seats per Drive.
• To apply: create a free account with your school or nonprofit email, add a payment method (you aren’t charged yet), submit the form and wait for approval by email.

The help article doesn’t say which plan’s allowances the EDU/NFP plan carries, so check that in the app before you switch.

What to watch for

• Unused hours and credits are lost each month. If you edit in bursts, a smaller plan plus top-ups (which last 12 months) can cost less than a bigger plan that sits half used. That only works from Creator up.
• Short refund windows. Descript’s refund policy: plan charges are refundable “within 48 hours of the invoice date,” editor seats within 7 days, and top-ups not at all. “Descript doesn’t offer prorated refunds for unused time on your billing cycle.” On annual billing, a change of mind after two days costs the full year.
• Cancelling keeps you on the plan to the end of the term. You cancel in App Settings > Plan > Change plan > Downgrade to Free. You stay on the paid plan until the billing cycle ends, then the Drive drops to Free. Descript says existing projects “will remain accessible,” but features your old plan had stop working, including 1080p and 4K export without a watermark.
• Downgrades wait, upgrades don’t. Upgrades and moves from monthly to annual take effect immediately, with credit for unused time. Downgrades and moves from annual to monthly wait until the end of the cycle.
• Renewal reminders aren’t documented. Descript’s renewal article shows where to find your next billing date (App Settings > subscription tab > Billing cycle) but doesn’t say whether it emails you before an annual renewal. Put the date in your calendar.
• Payment is card only below Enterprise. Hobbyist, Creator and Business are charged automatically to a credit card. Invoices and ACH transfer need Enterprise.
• AI credit costs are mostly unpublished. Apart from the 30-credit cap on Studio Sound and Remove Filler Words, Descript doesn’t list per-feature credit prices. Generated video and avatars can use credits much faster than audio clean-up, so watch the Usage tab in your first month.

Descript or a dedicated voice tool?

Descript is an editor first: you bring recordings in, edit the transcript and export. Its AI speech and voice clones are included on paid plans. If all you need is narration generated from a script, a dedicated text-to-speech tool may cost less. AskGPU’s data lists ElevenLabs Starter at $5 a month on annual billing ($6 monthly) with a commercial license and Instant Voice Cloning; our ElevenLabs pricing guide works out the cost per hour of narration. For voice cloning across tools, see what AI voice cloning costs, and for a full set of tools for a video channel, the faceless YouTube channel cost guide prices Descript alongside ElevenLabs and Runway.

Which Descript plan should you choose?

• You’re trying Descript or editing short audio clips: Free. Audio exports aren’t capped, but video carries a watermark at 720p.
• A solo podcaster with up to about 10 hours of media a month: Hobbyist, $192 a year on annual billing. Check your Rooms use first: 5 hours a month is the limit, and Hobbyist can’t buy more.
• A solo video creator, or anyone needing 4K or more than 10 hours: Creator, $288 a year on annual billing. It has the lowest cost per media hour of any plan and the only path to top-ups below Business.
• Two or three editors: Creator with extra seats, $24 per editor a month on annual billing, with one shared pool.
• Four or five editors, or a team that needs brand kits, translation proofreading or an SLA: Business, $600 per editor a year on annual billing.
• Students, teachers and 501(c)(3) nonprofits: apply for EDU/NFP at $8 per editor a month on annual billing.
• You mostly need generated narration, not editing: compare a voice tool first; see the AI voice hub and the Descript tool page for current plans and alternatives.

Sources

• Descript: Pricing (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Track and understand your media minutes and AI credits (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Top ups (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Refund policy (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Cancel your subscription (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Billing overview (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Plan renewal (read November 2, 2026)
• Descript Help Center: Non-profit and education subscription (read November 2, 2026)
• AskGPU data: Descript and ElevenLabs plans in products.json (checked October 17, 2026)