Descript pricing has five tiers and two meters, and the meters are the part the pricing page makes you work to understand. Every paid plan gives you a monthly pool of media hours and a monthly pool of AI credits. Run out of either and the tool stops doing the thing you paid for, even if the other pool is full.
We edit our own video and podcast audio in Descript, and we're affiliates. This post is the plain version of the Descript pricing page, checked on September 12, 2026. Prices move, so the live page wins if anything here has drifted. For how the editor holds up in real work, read our Descript review.
Every Descript Plan at a Glance
| Plan | Annual, per month | Monthly | Media hours | AI credits | Export | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | 60 minutes | 100, one time | 720p, watermarked | 1 |
| Hobbyist | $16 | $24 | 10 a month | 400 a month | 1080p, no watermark | 1 |
| Creator | $24 | $35 | 30 a month | 800 a month | 4K, no watermark | Up to 3 |
| Business | $50 | $65 | 40 a month | 1,500 a month | 4K, no watermark | Up to 5 |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom | 4K, no watermark | Custom |
Prices are per person per month. Descript's page says annual billing saves up to 35% over monthly, and the math checks out on Hobbyist, where $24 to $16 is a third off. The gap narrows as you go up. Business saves about 23%.
Two things jump out. Hobbyist to Creator is $8 more a month for three times the media hours and double the credits, which is the best step on the ladder. Creator to Business is roughly double the price for 10 more media hours. You shouldn't go to Business for the hours. You go there for the seats, Brand Studio, and dubbing.
What Media Hours and AI Credits Actually Mean
Descript's own definition of media hours is the number of minutes of imported or recorded media processed in Descript, per editor, per month. The FAQ on the pricing page adds the part that matters. Media hours track uploaded files and recordings whether or not you transcribe them. So a two-hour raw interview that you trim to 40 minutes costs you two hours of the meter, and so does the B-roll you dropped in and never used.
AI credits are the second currency. Descript says they track usage of AI features like Underlord, Studio Sound, Green Screen, Eye Contact, and AI-generated media and avatars. What the page doesn't publish is how many credits any one action costs. That's the biggest hole in Descript pricing, because you can't budget a month of Studio Sound passes from the pricing page alone. You find out by watching the meter in the app.
Two pools, two walls. A plan can have 20 media hours left and zero AI credits, and at that point Studio Sound and Underlord stop until the month resets or you buy a top up. Check both meters before you start a long edit.
Every paid plan lists access to top ups for more media hours and AI credits. The free plan doesn't. Top up prices aren't on the pricing page either, so we're not going to guess at them here.
Plan by Plan
Free, $0
Sixty minutes of media a month, 100 AI credits that never refill, 5GB of storage, 720p export with a Descript watermark, and file uploads capped at 1GB. Transcription runs in 25 languages on every plan including this one, which is more than we'd expect on a free tier. No credit card required.
Treat it as a tutorial. An hour of media is one episode's worth of raw audio, and the watermark means you can't publish anything you export. The one-time credits are enough to try Studio Sound and Underlord a handful of times and decide whether text-based editing clicks for you. That's the whole job of the free plan, and it does it well.
Hobbyist, $16 a month billed annually
Ten media hours a month, 400 AI credits a month, 100GB of storage, 1080p export with no watermark, uploads up to 10GB, and one seat. It's the first plan that ships real work. Hobbyist also unlocks Underlord, Studio Sound, filler-word removal, clip creation, and AI speech with 25+ stock voices.
The catch is 10 hours. A weekly audio podcast with an hour of raw tape per episode uses four to five of them before you touch a second project. Add a few screen recordings for clients and you're buying top ups by week three. We started on Hobbyist and moved up because of the hours, not the features.
Creator, $24 a month billed annually
Thirty media hours, 800 AI credits, 1TB of storage, 4K export, uploads up to 20GB and 5K resolution, unlimited royalty-free stock media, video generation with the current AI models, and a team of up to 3 with extra seats billed separately. Web-link exports run up to three hours instead of one.
This is the plan Descript marks as most popular and it's the one we'd point almost everyone at. Thirty hours absorbs raw takes, B-roll, and the occasional long interview without rationing. 4K matters if you publish video podcasts or YouTube. And 800 credits gives you enough room to run Studio Sound on everything and still have Underlord left for cutting clips. It's on Creator that Descript stops feeling metered.
Business, $50 a month billed annually
Forty media hours, 1,500 AI credits, 2TB of storage, uploads up to 50GB, a team of up to 5, Brand Studio for shared templates, translation and dubbing into 30+ languages with a proofread step, custom avatars from a photo or text prompt, 60+ stock AI voices, and priority support with an SLA.
Look at the hours line before you upgrade. Business is roughly double Creator for 10 extra media hours, which isn't a good trade if hours are your problem. It's a good trade if you need five people in one workspace, you localize video into other languages, or a brand team needs locked templates. Those are Business features. More hours on Creator plus a top up is the cheaper fix for a solo editor who's over 30.
Enterprise, custom quote
Custom AI credits and media hours, Brand Studio with company-wide guardrails, opt-out of AI training and custom data retention, SOC 2 Type II, SSO and SCIM, audit logs, a custom MSA, flexible billing including ACH invoicing, and a dedicated customer success manager. If your legal or IT team is asking for those, you're already on this plan. If they aren't, you don't need it.
Monthly vs Annual Billing
Annual billing is where Descript's pricing gets steep for the undecided. Hobbyist is $16 a month on annual and $24 on monthly, so a year costs $192 or $288. Creator is $288 a year on annual against $420 on monthly. Business is $600 against $780. The discount runs 23% to 33% depending on the tier, which is what "up to 35%" works out to in practice.
Our rule is the same one we use for ElevenLabs pricing. Run one month on monthly billing first. A month is long enough to find out whether you'll blow through the media hours, and blowing through them changes which tier you should be on. If you're still editing in Descript at the end of the month and the hours fit, switch to annual and pocket the difference. If your workload swings, stay monthly and eat the premium. Paying for a year of Creator and then discovering you needed Business is worse than the 31% you saved.
The Hidden Gotchas
- Raw media counts, not finished media. Media hours meter what you import or record, whether or not you transcribe or keep it. Heavy shooters burn hours on footage that doesn't make the cut.
- Credits have no published price per action. The pricing page lists monthly allowances but not what Studio Sound or an Underlord edit costs. Budgeting means watching the meter.
- Free-plan credits never refill. The 100 credits are one time. Once they're gone, the AI tools are gone until you pay.
- Seats are billed separately. Creator scales to 3 and Business to 5, but each extra person is another per-person charge, not a free slot.
- Web-link exports are time-capped. One hour on Free and Hobbyist, three hours on Creator and Business. Local file exports and audio exports aren't capped.
- The monthly premium is large. Refusing the annual commitment costs 50% more on Hobbyist and 46% more on Creator.
One more thing that isn't a gotcha so much as a category error. If all you need is accurate transcripts of recordings, Descript is an editor with transcription attached, and you'll pay for the editor. ElevenLabs Scribe does that one job for less, and we broke down why in Descript vs Otter. Our Descript alternatives post covers the rest of the field.
Which Plan to Pick
- Free. A trial. Import an episode, try Studio Sound and Underlord on it, and decide in an afternoon. Don't publish from it.
- Hobbyist, $16. A short weekly audio show, or a marketer who cuts one or two videos a month and wants clean 1080p without a watermark. Watch the 10 hours.
- Creator, $24. The plan for podcasters and for marketers who publish video. 30 hours, 4K, 800 credits, and up to 3 seats. It's the one we run.
- Business, $50. A team of five, a brand template library, or localized video. Buy it for those. Don't buy it for the hours.
For a marketer the decision usually comes down to output. One repurposed webinar a month fits Hobbyist. A weekly YouTube video plus clips for LinkedIn is Creator, because the raw footage eats hours and the clip generation eats credits. For a podcaster it's simpler. Audio-only shows under an hour a week can start on Hobbyist. Anything with video, or a backlog to re-edit, is Creator from day one. If you're weighing Descript against a remote recording tool, our Descript vs Riverside comparison covers where the two overlap.
Verdict
Creator at $24 a month billed annually is the right Descript plan for most people reading this. Thirty media hours is the first allowance that doesn't need rationing, and 4K covers video.
Run one month on monthly billing first. Find out how fast you burn media hours, then commit to annual on the tier that fits.
Treat the free plan as a trial. 60 minutes, a watermark, and 100 credits that never come back. Test on it, then pay before anything ships.