Cutting: the AI editor, your words and the timeline

Make a quick first cut

On Video › Edit, press Make a quick first cut. The speech in your clips is turned into text, then the pauses, filler words (um, uh, matlab) and repeated lines are removed. Turning speech into text is free on the server, about 2 credits a minute of speech with Sarvam, or about 30 credits a minute with ElevenLabs Scribe, once per clip; the button shows the real price.

Talk to the AI editor

In the Full editor on a computer, the AI editor is down the right side, next to the picture and the timeline, and stays in view while you scroll. On a phone or a small screen it is the AI tool on the rail (under the picture and the timeline), or press Ask AI at the top.

Describe what you want: "keep only the part about the new collection", "add captions in Hindi", "make it under 60 seconds". It shows a plan and what it will cost, and waits for your OK before it cuts. After the video is made, tell it what to change.

Small changes are quick: "make the subtitles bigger and yellow", "music a bit quieter" or "when I say 'this is the one', punch in" reuse the cut you have and only redo the subtitles, sound or zoom. A punch-in needs the words said once; if you said them twice, it asks which time.

A new project

In an empty project the chat says Drop your clips and say what you want. Drop your videos on it or press Add clips (the same upload as Media), then write what to make. Make a quick first cut works as soon as a clip is in.

Ask faster: ideas, the mic and +

• Ideas above the box: Make it a Reel, Clean up only, For YouTube and Add music. Pressing one only writes the request in the box; change it if you like, then press Send. Nothing runs until you send, because every chat costs a little.
• All clean-up options, next to the ideas, opens every clean-up switch on its own page (see Clean-up options).
• Mic: press it and talk instead of typing. Your words appear in the box as you speak; press it again to stop, then Send. It uses your browser's own listening (Chrome, Edge and Safari), free.
• +: add more clips from your device. If you send a message right after, it names the clips you just added, so the editor knows which ones are new.

What each step did

While it works, each step shows as a line, like Making the cut · Cut 7.8 s of pauses and 2 filler words. When a run changes the video, the chat ends with a card of it: its thumbnail (once you have made one), length, shape and what's on it (subtitles, music, zooms), with Play, Export and Post. Under AI editor you see what this chat has cost so far.

Earlier chats

New chat starts a fresh conversation and keeps the old one. Press Threads to see the project's earlier chats, newest first, and open one to read it. Earlier chats are read only; Back to current chat returns to the one you are in. Your cut, renders and project notes are the same in every chat.

Turn speech into text

Subtitles and cutting by words need the speech as text. Open Subtitles in the editor: until every clip is done, Spoken words at the top shows what is left and what it costs. Press Turn speech into text. Pick Detailed (paid, understands mixed Hindi and English), Sarvam (paid, best for Tamil or Hindi mixed with English: English words stay in English letters, the rest in its own script) or the free one on the server when it is available. If the free one repeats a phrase over and over, press Try Sarvam. The words are made once per clip and reused for everything after.

Cut by telling the AI

Or tell the AI editor what to cut: "remove the part about prices", "cut the first sentence". It shows the plan before it cuts.

The timeline

The timeline is under the picture. Drag an edge of a clip to trim it, drag a clip to move it, and press Split (or S) to cut it at the playhead. Click a clip to see its settings (speed, colour, steady) in the panel on the left. Every change saves by itself; Undo and Redo are at the top. Press Space to play and pause. The lanes under the clips hold the subtitles, text and music; click one to open its panel. Preview with effects makes a quick video with the effects, colour and subtitles in it.

Click the join between two clips for a transition: Dip to black, Crossfade, Slide, Zoom, Wipe, Whip, Flash, Glitch, Circle, Spin or Blur, in four lengths. Use on every join puts it on all of them. A clip's Speed has two ramps at the playhead: Slow-motion moment (1.2 seconds at half speed) and Fast middle (3 seconds at double speed).

At the bottom of each page, Next shows the step that usually comes after it (clean-up options → Check it → Export), so you always know what to do now.