Opus Clip vs Submagic: Two Different Jobs at Similar Prices (2026)
We build a competing tool in the wider category, and it does neither of these jobs. We are not in the comparison below. Prices are as published in July 2026.
These two get compared because they cost about the same and both produce captioned vertical video. They are not substitutes, and buying the wrong one is the expensive mistake here.
What each one costs
Opus Clip
| Plan | Price | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 60/mo | Watermark, no editing, clips expire after 3 days |
| Starter | $15/mo | 150/mo | Monthly billing only |
| Pro | $29/mo, or $14.50/mo annually ($174) | 3,600/year | 2 seats, 6 social connections |
| Business | Custom | Custom | API, priority processing |
Priced per account. Starter includes clipping with a virality score, animated captions in 20+ languages, auto-posting to YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Reels, an editor, filler and silence removal, and watermark removal.
Submagic, billed yearly, per member:
| Plan | Price | Videos | Max length | AI credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $12/member/mo | 15 | 2 min | 3 |
| Pro | $23/member/mo | 40 | 5 min | 6 |
| Business + API | $41/member/mo | 100 | 30 min | 15 |
The annual discount is 41 percent, so monthly billing costs materially more than these figures. Magic Clips, which pulls clips from 10 long videos a month, is a $12 per member per month add-on on every tier. Three free videos to try, no card required.
Starter covers auto captions, free b-rolls and audio, text-based trimming, 1080p, and no watermark. Pro adds Storyblocks assets, AI hook titles, audio cleanup, caption translation, a brand kit, and publishing to TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. Business adds 4K, custom templates, and priority rendering.
The job each one actually does
Submagic finishes video. You already have the clip. Submagic captions it well, trims it by editing the transcript, cleans the audio, and makes it look professional. Its captioning is the best in this category and that is the reason people buy it.
Opus Clip finds the video. You have a long recording and no idea which 40 seconds are worth posting. Opus Clip picks the moments, ranks them, cuts them, captions them, and publishes them.
If you know exactly which clip you want, you want Submagic. If you have three hours and no idea, you want Opus Clip.
The per-member trap
This is the detail that catches teams, and it is worth its own section.
Every Submagic figure is per seat. Opus Clip's are per account, and Pro includes two seats.
| Team size | Submagic Pro | Opus Clip Pro (annual) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $23/mo | $14.50/mo |
| 2 people | $46/mo | $14.50/mo (2 seats included) |
| 3 people | $69/mo | $14.50/mo + whatever a third seat costs |
| 5 people | $115/mo | Business, custom pricing |
At one person Submagic is competitive. At three people it is roughly five times the price. If more than one person touches the video, price this out before you commit to anything.
Two more Submagic details to check first
Length caps by tier. Starter stops at 2 minutes and Pro at 5. Fine for shorts, restrictive the moment you touch anything longer. Opus Clip does not publish an equivalent cap.
Clipping costs extra. Magic Clips is a $12 per member per month add-on. So if you came to Submagic wanting long-video clipping, the real price is Pro plus the add-on, which is $35 per member per month. Opus Clip includes clipping in the base price at $15. That is a meaningful gap, and it is the single clearest case where Opus Clip is simply the better buy.
Head to head
| Opus Clip | Submagic | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Find and cut clips | Caption and finish |
| Priced per | Account | Member |
| Free evaluation | 60 credits/mo | 3 videos |
| Entry | $15/mo | $12/member/mo yearly |
| Clipping included | Yes | $12/member add-on |
| Caption quality | Good | Best in class |
| Video length cap | Not stated | 2 min, 5 min, 30 min by tier |
| Auto-posts | Yes, from $15 | Yes, from Pro |
| Seats included | 2 on Pro | 1, always |
| Editor exports to Premiere/Resolve | Yes, on Pro | No |
| Text-based trimming | No | Yes |
| Audio cleanup | No | Yes, on Pro |
| Affiliate commission | 25%, first year only | 30% for life |
Affiliate rates are as published in August 2026 and only matter if you write about the tool you pick. Submagic pays 30 percent on renewals and upsells with no cutoff, where Opus Clip stops twelve months after the first sale. For reference, ours is 30% recurring for as long as they stay.
How to choose
Buy Submagic if captions and polish are the actual job. You have clips, or you know which parts you want, and you want them to look good. Its captioning is genuinely the strongest here, text-based trimming is a pleasure to use, and at $12 a month for one person it is the cheapest entry on this page. Just price it per head and do not buy the clipping add-on.
Buy Opus Clip if you have long recordings and need something to decide what is worth posting. It includes clipping rather than charging extra for it, the virality score is a real advantage over cutting on silence, and auto-posting from $15 closes the loop that Submagic only closes from Pro.
Buy both if you are serious about it, and plenty of people do. Opus Clip to find and cut, Submagic to finish the ones that matter. At $15 and $12 that combination is $27 a month for one person, which is less than most single tools in the adjacent category.
Buy neither if you do not have footage, which is the case worth stating plainly.
The case where neither applies
Captioning, clipping, trimming, and polish all assume video already exists. If you want a short-form channel and you do not film, none of that solves anything.
We build PassiveShorts for that case: it starts from a topic or a script you wrote, generates the video, burns in the captions, and posts to YouTube and TikTok on the days you pick, from $19 a month per series, priced per series rather than per seat.
The honest boundary: we do not caption your files. If you have video that just needs to look good, Submagic does that better than we ever will, and at $12 a month it is the cheaper answer.
Related comparisons
- Opus Clip Alternatives — clippers and generators, sorted
- Submagic Alternatives — sorted by what job you need done
- Opus Clip vs Klap — cost per clip and who publishes
- Klap vs Vizard.ai — output clips against input minutes