Descript Free Is 1 Hour a Month, and the Credits Never Return

Descript's free plan costs $0 with no card and includes 60 media minutes a month, 100 AI credits as a one-time grant, 5GB of storage, one seat, transcription in 25 languages and export up to 720p with a watermark. Hobbyist is $16 a month billed yearly and gives 10 media hours, 400 credits a month and watermark-free 1080p.

Descript replaced its old unlimited free tier with metered allowances in September 2025, and the shape of those allowances confuses people because they behave differently.

One refills monthly. The other does not refill at all. Knowing which is which decides whether the free plan is usable for you.

What the free plan actually includes

Prices measured on 22 October 2026. Vendor plan terms, allowances and prices change without notice, so treat every figure on this page as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent fact. Where a number here differs from the vendor's own pricing page, the vendor's page is correct and the figure above is simply older than it.

Transcription quality and speaker detection are not reduced on free. Every plan gets the same engine, which makes free a genuine test of the workflow.

Media minutes are not transcription minutes

This is the detail that catches podcasters. The meter counts every minute of media you record or import, whether or not you ask for a transcript.

An hour-long interview consumes the whole month the moment it is imported, even if you use fifteen seconds of it. Multiple takes and camera angles each count.

Sixty minutes is one podcast episode, one customer interview, or a handful of short social clips. It is not a month of production for anyone publishing regularly.

The 100 credits never come back

AI credits pay for Studio Sound, filler word removal, Underlord and AI speech. On free they are a one-time grant, not a monthly allowance.

The Plan screen describes them as monthly in some surfaces, which is where the confusion comes from. The usage table is the one to trust: 100 credits, consumed once.

Having ten minutes of media left but no credits means the editing tools you came for are unavailable even though the meter says there is room.

The watermark is the immediate problem for video

Every free export carries a Descript watermark at 720p. For audio-only work that is irrelevant. For anything published visually it ends the plan on day one.

Watermark-free export starts at Hobbyist. There is no one-off purchase or credit top-up that removes it.

Where free is genuinely good

Text-based editing is the product, and the free plan demonstrates it completely. Edit the transcript, the audio follows. For anyone who has not used that workflow, one hour is enough to know whether it suits how you think.

It is also a practical tool for a single interview a month that needs cleaning up and a written transcript, where the export is text rather than video.

When it stops being enough

The second interview in a month, or any video deliverable. Hobbyist at $16 is the answer to both, and ElevenLabs covers the voice side separately for anyone doing narration rather than editing.

What to do instead of paying Hobbyist

The Hobbyist tier at $16 a month is the smallest plan that removes the watermark and lifts exports to 1080p. If you only need one of those two things, you are paying for both and could probably avoid the subscription.

The watermark is the only non-negotiable limit. Cropping it out of frame is a terms violation and, more practically, it moves between export configurations so a fixed crop will not survive the next render. If the video is going to be published anywhere, Hobbyist is the honest answer.¹

Media minutes are easier to work around. Because the meter counts everything you import rather than what you use, the practical habit is to cut before you import. Trim an interview in something else, bring in only the section you need, and a 60-minute allowance can cover a surprising number of short pieces. Descript's editing model rewards exactly this: you work on the transcript, so a shorter file is also a shorter transcript and faster to navigate.

If the work is audio rather than video, the 720p cap and the watermark stop mattering. That is the specific case where Descript Free is a complete product rather than a trial. Podcasters who publish audio and only want a text transcript of an episode sit comfortably inside the free tier, because the export they need is text.

If you need a presenter on camera rather than an edited recording, that is a different tool: HeyGen covers avatar video, and its free allowance is metered differently. Descript is for editing footage you already shot, not for generating a performance you did not.

Frequently asked questions

Is Descript free?
Yes. The free plan is permanent, requires no card, and includes 60 media minutes a month.

Do Descript's 100 free AI credits refill?
No. They are a one-time grant. Only media minutes renew monthly.

Does Descript Free watermark exports?
Yes. Free exports are 720p with a watermark. Watermark-free export starts at Hobbyist.

How long can a video be on Descript Free?
There is no length limit as such, but every imported or recorded minute counts against the 60-minute monthly allowance.

Is transcription limited on Descript Free?
No. Free uses the same transcription engine, language support and speaker detection as paid plans.

Plan contents, meter behaviour, credit grant and export limits verified against Descript's pricing page and plan documentation on 22 October 2026.

Sources

1. Descript pricing: www.descript.com/pricing. Used for: Media minutes, the one-time credit grant and export limits.

All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 22 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.