Descript Features: Everything You Need to Know Before You Buy

If you're tired of clunky video editors with steep learning curves, Descript is worth a serious look. It's built around one core idea: edit video and audio by editing text. Import your footage, get an automatic transcript, and cut sections just by deleting words. It sounds almost too simple, but it actually works.

I've spent time digging through Descript's full feature set, and there's a lot here - some genuinely useful, some with annoying limitations. Here's the real breakdown of what you're getting.

Text-Based Editing: The Core Feature

This is what makes Descript different from Premiere Pro, Final Cut, or DaVinci Resolve. When you import a video or audio file, Descript automatically transcribes it. Your media becomes a text document. Delete a word, and the corresponding audio/video gets cut. Copy and paste a paragraph, and the media follows.

For podcasters, YouTubers, and anyone who creates talking-head content, this is a massive time saver. You can scan through a transcript in seconds to find the sections you want to keep instead of scrubbing through a timeline.

The transcription supports 25 languages including English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Turkish, and more. It's generally accurate, though you'll still want to review it - occasionally you'll get "site bar" instead of "side bar" and similar errors.

One technique worth knowing: you can use strikethrough instead of deleting content. This keeps material in your script without affecting the final output, which is helpful when you're refining your edit.

The platform also includes multitrack transcripts with dynamic speaker labels. Speaker Detective assists by playing a clip of each speaker so you can properly name them. For interviews and multi-person recordings, this feature is invaluable.

Underlord: The AI Co-Editor

Descript's AI assistant is called Underlord. You can direct it to make edits, ask for feedback on your script, or have it design your video layout. It can write scripts based on prompts, convert boring content into engaging video, and handle tedious batch edits like adding lower thirds to every speaker.

Underlord understands what a good video looks and sounds like. It knows how to do anything possible in Descript, and it can execute entire editing workflows - like generating a rough cut, styling visuals, adding B-roll, and applying AI effects - from a single prompt.

The practical stuff Underlord handles well: centering speakers, bleeping colorful language, generating social clips from longer videos, and applying consistent branding. For repetitive tasks, it saves real time. You can even use it to identify and extract clips for social media, producing formatted snippets for TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube Shorts.

Recent updates have made Underlord faster, less expensive, and more capable across the board. It performs especially well with slide-to-video workflows, time and duration-based editing, and image and video generation. You can choose which AI model powers Underlord - premium models deliver better results but use more AI Credits.

However, some users report that AI editing features work better for short-form content than longer projects. The lack of a historical view of AI revisions makes it harder to track what changes the AI made - problematic when you're collaborating or need to revisit earlier versions. Underlord can sometimes overpromise or make incorrect assumptions, so it works best when treated like a fast, talented collaborator who still needs clear instructions and regular check-ins.

Templates and Layout Packs

Descript has introduced professionally designed layout packs that instantly transform your videos with clean, modern layouts. These pre-designed templates include smart transitions and automated animations that make editing significantly faster.

Layout packs are bundled collections of polished scenes that share the same aesthetic. Each layout defines how a scene looks - including speaker framing, fonts, colors, and media elements. You can apply Descript's gallery layouts with a single click, or remix them to customize fonts and colors to match your brand.

The new layout system includes Smart Transitions (currently in beta) that automatically create smooth animations between scenes. What used to take 15-20 minutes to set up from scratch now happens instantly. This feature is particularly useful for creating professional-looking intros, outros, lower thirds, and multi-camera podcast layouts.

You can also create your own custom layout packs from scratch and save them to your Drive for future use. The Smart Fill feature automatically pulls in relevant content based on the scene, script, speaker label, and media type - saving even more time during the editing process.

Automatic Filler Word Removal

This feature alone justifies Descript for many creators. Click a button and Descript identifies and removes "ums," "uhs," "likes," "you knows," and awkward pauses throughout your recording. What used to take hours of manual editing happens instantly.

The result: you sound significantly more polished without re-recording anything. For podcasters and professional YouTubers, this is a production game-changer. The AI is smart enough to recognize genuine words versus filler sounds - though occasionally you may need to review the results to catch any overzealous cuts.

Studio Sound: AI Audio Enhancement

Recorded in a noisy environment? Forgot to turn off the AC? Studio Sound uses AI to detect and remove background noise while enhancing voice clarity. No expensive microphone or soundproofing required.

Studio Sound is an AI-powered audio effect that reduces background noise, echo, and other distractions to create clearer, more professional audio. It works at the file level and can be adjusted with intensity controls from 1% to 100%, letting you find the perfect balance between noise reduction and natural voice sound.

It works well for most common audio problems, though it won't perform miracles on extremely poor recordings. Think of it as a solid rescue tool, not a replacement for good recording practices. When compared to competitors like Krisp AI or Adobe Speech Enhancer, Studio Sound holds its own - especially when integrated into Descript's full editing workflow.

Studio Sound analyzes your recording and automatically sets enhancement intensity. After initial processing, you can adjust the levels to avoid over-processing, which can introduce artifacts or unnatural-sounding audio. Most users find that dialing back from the default 100% produces the most natural results.

Overdub: Voice Cloning

This is Descript's most distinctive feature. Overdub creates an AI clone of your voice from a recording sample. Once trained, you can fix audio mistakes by simply typing what you meant to say - Descript generates new audio in your cloned voice.

Said a name wrong? Dog barked during recording? Instead of re-recording, type the correction and let Overdub generate it. The AI will even match the tonal characteristics of the surrounding audio.

Setting up Overdub requires recording 10-30 minutes of clear speech. More training data (up to 90 minutes) produces better results. You can now create a voice clone in as little as 60 seconds for quick use cases, or create multiple clones with different tones and emotions.

Important limitation: you can only clone your own voice. Lower-tier plans have a 1,000-word vocabulary limit, which gets restrictive fast if you use technical terms or industry jargon. Pro accounts get unlimited vocabulary.

The platform also includes stock AI voices - 21 new voices with improved usability - for text-to-speech narration when you don't want to use your own voice or create avatar-hosted content.

Eye Contact Correction

Reading a script while recording? Eye Contact uses AI to adjust your gaze so it looks like you were looking at the camera the whole time. Subtle but effective for eliminating that "reading off a teleprompter" look.

This feature has become increasingly popular for educational content, tutorials, and professional presentations where maintaining eye contact with viewers improves engagement and credibility.

Green Screen Replacement

Replace your background without a physical green screen. Descript's AI scrubs out your actual background and lets you substitute whatever you want. Quality varies based on lighting and how clean your original shot is.

The green screen feature works in real-time and doesn't require any special equipment. You can place yourself in any setting you want, making it perfect for creators who don't have access to professional studio setups.

Multicam Editing

If you're working with multiple camera angles or audio tracks - common for interviews, podcasts, and webinars - Descript handles multi-camera setups with synced tracks. You can group files into sequences and switch between angles easily.

The Automatic Multicam feature uses AI to analyze your content and intelligently switch between camera angles based on who's speaking. This eliminates hours of manual multicam editing, especially useful for podcasters recording with multiple video sources.

Automatic Captions and Subtitles

Add captions to your videos with a few clicks. Descript supports translation into 20+ languages, and newer features include lip sync that matches mouth movements to translated audio (this requires AI credits on current plans).

Animated captions are automatically created and can be styled to match your brand. The platform makes adding accessibility features incredibly simple - something that used to require dedicated captioning software or expensive services.

Screen Recording

Built-in screen recording means you don't need separate software for tutorials or demos. Record directly in Descript and edit immediately.

The screen recorder captures both your screen and webcam simultaneously, making it ideal for software tutorials, product demos, online courses, and webinars. You can record with or without audio, and everything is immediately available for text-based editing.

Social Clip Generation

Use AI to identify the most engaging moments from longer videos and repurpose them as clips formatted for different platforms. Descript handles sizing and formatting so you don't have to manually create versions for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram.

Underlord can identify and extract clips from compositions, producing three one-minute clips of "high conflict" or engaging moments in your content. It can also create 30-second clips complete with music, captions, and visual transitions in vertical format optimized for social media.

AI Video Generation

Descript can generate B-roll, whole scenes, avatars, and voice clones. You can create customizable AI avatars to present content while you stay off camera. The platform integrates with models like Veo 3.1 for video generation that includes matching audio.

The AI video maker turns ideas into ready-to-edit videos with generated images and bespoke visuals. You can animate static images, visualize data, and even create entire social videos from scratch. Descript stays up to date with the latest AI models, including access to cutting-edge options like Veo 3.1 for surprisingly realistic video generation with synchronized audio.

Generated video can be mixed seamlessly with your own footage, and everything is edited the same way in Descript - no need to switch tools or workflows just because you used AI-generated elements.

Collaboration Tools

Multiple users can edit, comment, and share feedback in real-time. For teams, this streamlines the review process without needing to export files back and forth.

Projects can be shared with commenting capabilities similar to Google Docs, making it easy for team members to provide feedback without needing full editing access. The collaboration features include version tracking, though AI revisions aren't always clearly marked.

Advanced Audio Effects

Beyond Studio Sound, Descript includes a comprehensive suite of professional audio effects. The platform offers compressor, multiband EQ, parametric EQ, noise gate, de-esser, limiter, reverb, distortion, flanger, delay, high/low shelf EQ, and high/low pass filters.

You can apply effects at both track and clip levels, with ducking for automatic volume adjustments when multiple audio sources overlap. Non-destructive editing means you can always revert changes without losing your original audio.

Remote Recording with Descript Rooms

Descript Rooms lets you record remote interviews and podcasts with multiple participants. The feature captures separate high-quality audio and video tracks for each participant, which automatically sync when you bring them into your project for editing.

This eliminates the need for separate recording software and makes remote collaboration significantly easier for podcast production and video interviews.

What's the Catch?

Descript isn't without frustrations:

Descript Pricing

Descript recently overhauled its pricing model to focus on media minutes and AI credits. Here's the current structure:

Media minutes track uploaded and recorded media files, regardless of whether they're transcribed. AI credits track usage of features like Underlord, Studio Sound, Green Screen, Eye Contact, and AI-generated media. For example, Studio Sound costs approximately 10 credits per use, Eye Contact costs 10 credits per use, and dubbing costs 15 credits per minute.

Education and nonprofit organizations can access the Creator plan at $5/month with limitations on usage hours.

For a deeper dive on costs, check out our Descript pricing breakdown.

Who Is Descript Actually For?

Descript works best for:

It's less ideal for:

How Descript Compares to Alternatives

If you're exploring options, here's how Descript stacks up:

See our best video editing software comparison for more options, or check out free video editing software if you're working with a limited budget.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Descript

Based on user feedback and best practices, here are strategies to maximize your Descript experience:

Monitor your usage closely: Keep an eye on media minutes and AI credits throughout the month. If you're running low, prioritize which AI features provide the most value for your workflow.

Use scenes strategically: Understanding how scenes work is crucial. Use the slash (/) key to create scene breaks in your script, then apply layouts to transform sections quickly.

Start with templates: Don't build everything from scratch. Leverage Underlord's templates for common video types like podcast clips, product demos, or social ads.

Give Underlord detailed prompts: Instead of "cut this down," try "make this a fast-paced highlight reel for TikTok with a humorous tone, that's less than 60 seconds." The more specific your instructions, the better the results.

Create custom layout packs: Once you've designed scenes you like, save them as custom layouts. This builds a library of branded templates you can reuse across projects.

Don't over-process with Studio Sound: The default 100% intensity often sounds unnatural. Dial it back to find the sweet spot where noise is reduced but your voice retains natural characteristics.

The Verdict

Descript genuinely delivers on its core promise: editing video and audio is as easy as editing a document. For creators who spend hours cutting ums and rearranging talking points, that's transformative.

The AI features - especially Overdub voice cloning, automatic filler word removal, and Underlord's intelligent editing assistance - are legitimately useful and hard to find elsewhere. Studio Sound rescues audio that would otherwise require re-recording. The new layout packs and templates make professional-looking videos achievable even for beginners.

The recent pricing changes with media minutes and AI credits are the biggest concern. If you have a workflow with multiple camera angles or heavy AI usage, costs can add up faster than expected. Monitor your usage closely, especially in your first month, to understand your actual consumption patterns.

For most podcasters, YouTubers, and marketing teams producing regular content, Descript is worth trying. The free plan is limited, but it's enough to see if the text-based approach clicks for you. The time saved on editing often justifies the investment, particularly if you're creating spoken-word content consistently.

The platform continues to evolve rapidly, with frequent updates adding new capabilities. Recent improvements to Underlord have made it faster and more cost-effective, suggesting Descript is committed to refining the user experience based on feedback.

Try Descript free and see if it fits your workflow.

Looking for other tools to level up your content? See our guides on best screen recording software and free screen recording software for capturing footage, or explore Canva for quick graphics and thumbnail creation.