Cheap AI clipping tools in 2026: Reap, Choppity, 2short and what you give up
The cheapest paid AI clipping plans cost about US$ 10 a month in 2026. The sticker price misleads: what matters is what one hour of footage costs and what the cheap plan takes away. I ran the per-hour math for Reap, 2short, Choppity and the best-known entry plans.
Cheap AI clipping tools in 2026: Reap, Choppity, 2short and what you give up
The cheapest paid AI clipping plans cost about US$ 10 a month in September 2026: Reap Creator is US$ 9.99 on annual billing and 2short Lite is US$ 9.90 monthly. The sticker price misleads. What decides it is what one hour of analyzed footage costs and what the cheap plan takes away: hours, publishing, resolution, or how long your project is kept.
I am the CTO of Cut.Pro, which appears here as a reference point under the same criteria as everyone else. Every price below was checked on September 26, 2026 on the official pages.
The right yardstick: cost per hour
Almost every clipping tool charges by the length of video going in, not by the number of clips coming out. So the honest comparison is plan price divided by the hours it analyzes each month. Same logic as in Klap vs OpusClip.
By that measure, a US$ 15 plan covering two and a half hours costs US$ 6 per hour. A US$ 9.99 plan covering 10 hours costs US$ 1. A sixfold difference the sticker price does not show.
The three cheapest
Reap
On Reap's pricing page, Creator is US$ 24 monthly or US$ 9.99 a month on annual (US$ 119.88 up front), with up to 10 hours of clipping and 10 of captions a month, 1080p exports without watermark, up to 2 hours of dubbing and translation, 100+ languages, and publishing to TikTok, Reels, Shorts and LinkedIn. Studio goes to US$ 50, or US$ 29 on annual, with 20 hours and 4K. Every paid plan includes API, CLI and MCP.
The catch: purchased credits expire in 13 months, and the free tier (1 hour a month) exports watermarked 720p with projects expiring after 7 days.
2short.ai
2short is the simplest: Lite at US$ 9.90 with 5 hours of analysis a month, Pro at US$ 19.90 with 15 hours, Premium at US$ 49.90 with 50 hours. All export 1080p without watermark. The free tier gives 30 minutes a month on its plan card (the same page's footer says 15).
The catch: per its own page, it only processes videos with captions, which in practice means YouTube videos. It supports 26 languages, and I found no direct publishing: you download and post.
Choppity
Choppity charges Starter at US$ 20 monthly or US$ 14 on annual, with 3 hours of analysis, 1080p export and 1 social account for scheduling. Creator is US$ 32 or US$ 22.40 with 5 hours and 3 accounts; Team is US$ 48 or US$ 33.60 with unlimited seats.
The catch: the free plan does not export. It gives you 1 hour of analysis to see results, but downloading requires a subscription. And 3 hours a month is thin for anyone clipping streams.
The table, with the best-known entry plans
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Hours/month | Cost per hour (monthly / annual) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reap Creator | US$ 24 | US$ 9.99 | 10 | US$ 2.40 / US$ 1.00 |
| 2short Lite | US$ 9.90 | not listed | 5 | US$ 1.98 |
| 2short Pro | US$ 19.90 | not listed | 15 | US$ 1.33 |
| Choppity Starter | US$ 20 | US$ 14 | 3 | US$ 6.67 / US$ 4.67 |
| OpusClip Starter | US$ 15 | monthly only | 2.5 | US$ 6.00 |
| Klap Basic | US$ 29 | US$ 14 | 5 | US$ 5.80 / US$ 2.80 |
| quso Lite | US$ 29 | US$ 19 (double credits) | 1.7 (3.3 on annual) | US$ 17.40 / US$ 5.70 |
| Cut.Pro Plus | R$69.90 | discounted | 16.7 (today) | R$4.19 (at today's price) |
Sources, all viewed on September 26, 2026: Reap, 2short, Choppity, OpusClip, Klap, quso, Cut.Pro. On quso, 1 credit is roughly 1 minute; on Cut.Pro, 1 credit is 1 analyzed minute, and Plus comes with 1,000 credits a month (its hours and cost per hour in the table are as of September 2026). Cut.Pro bills in Brazilian reais (R$). Cost per hour assumes you use the whole allowance: use half, and each hour costs double.
What the table says
1. Cheap sticker, expensive hour. OpusClip Starter and Choppity Starter have low entry prices and the priciest hours on the list. They are for testing, not volume.
2. Annual billing changes everything, and asks for commitment. Reap drops from US$ 2.40 to US$ 1 per hour on annual, but you pay US$ 119.88 at once. If you are not sure you will clip every month, that money sits idle.
3. Big hours at a mid price exist. 2short Pro (15 hours, US$ 1.33 per hour) and our Plus (16 hours 40 minutes, R$4.19 per hour at today's price) are among the lowest costs per hour on monthly billing, with no annual lock-in. Cut.Pro looks good here, and I flag it because I have a stake: check the math yourself.
Paying from outside the US
Every price here is in US dollars. If your card is in another currency, expect your bank's exchange spread and any foreign transaction fee on top. In Brazil, for example, international card purchases carry a 3.5% IOF tax. The breakdown for one tool is in OpusClip pricing and free plan.
What you give up on a cheap plan
Each tool cuts somewhere different. Check these five before subscribing:
- Hours per month. A 3-hour stream every week needs about 12 hours a month. Choppity Starter (3 h) and OpusClip Starter (2.5 h) do not cover it.
- Direct publishing. 2short does not publish; Choppity schedules to 1 account on Starter; Reap publishes to four networks on Creator.
- Resolution. Most cheap plans stop at 1080p. 4K sits on higher plans, such as Reap Studio and Cut.Pro Pro.
- Project and credit lifetime. Reap credits expire in 13 months; on OpusClip's free plan, clips stop exporting after 3 days.
- Video source. 2short depends on YouTube captions. If you clip Twitch or Kick streams, start with clipping live streams in real time.
Which one, by profile
- You clip one YouTube video a week and want to spend the minimum: 2short Lite.
- You know you will clip all year and can pay up front: Reap Creator annual.
- You want editing plus scheduling before you scale: Choppity Starter, knowing 3 hours runs out fast.
- You clip long streams or podcasts and want many hours without an annual lock-in: 2short Pro or Cut.Pro Plus.
- You just want to try AI clipping without a card: start with the best free clipping tools.
If what you want is a free editor rather than automatic clipping, CapCut clips or a clipping tool shows how far it goes.
The math I would do before subscribing
Add up the hours of video you actually clip each month. Multiply by the cost per hour from the table. Add your own time fixing captions and reframing, at whatever your hour is worth to you. The cheapest plan is the one with the lowest total, and it is almost never the one with the lowest sticker.
Sources: Reap pricing · Reap MCP · 2short.ai pricing · Choppity pricing · OpusClip pricing · Klap pricing · quso.ai pricing · Wise, Brazil IOF on international cards
