How much does Descript cost?

Studio Sound, filler word removal, Green Screen, Eye Contact, AI speech, avatars and Underlord all spend credits. Underlord charges twice: once for its "agent brain" and once for the tool it calls. Descript lists no per-action price. You only see the cost afterward, in your account's Usage tab.

Several users say they burned through Creator's 800 credits on a single project. The safer habit: run an AI tool on a two-minute clip first, check what it cost, then decide whether to run it on the full episode.

Top-ups for hours and credits only exist on Creator and Business. On Hobbyist, an empty allowance locks the features that need it until your next cycle. The only way out is upgrading to Creator, which applies right away with prorated billing.

If you edit a lot of video with AI, size your plan on your busiest month, not your average one. Once you're on Creator, a $35 pack of 350 credits gets you through without changing plans.

Monthly media hours and credits reset at every renewal, and leftovers don't carry over. Top-ups last 12 months and only kick in once the monthly allowance is spent. They're non-refundable, and legacy plans can't buy them.

Buy a top-up the day you need it, never just in case. And the biggest pack only pays off if you use it: 4,000 credits for $200 works out to $0.05 a credit, versus $0.10 on the small pack.

A plan is refundable only if you ask within 48 hours of the invoice date. An added editor seat is refundable within 7 days. Top-ups are never refunded. After that, canceling or downgrading takes effect at the end of the paid term, with no prorated refund for the time left.

In practice: don't buy annual on day one. Start on Free, then pay one month on monthly billing. It costs you $8 to $15 more that month, but you don't lock in a full year on a tool you haven't measured.

The pricing page promises savings of up to 35% for paying yearly. Run the numbers plan by plan and it's less: 33% on Hobbyist ($16 vs $24), 31% on Creator ($24 vs $35) and 23% on Business ($50 vs $65). In dollars, that's $96, $132 and $180 per seat per year.

Switching from monthly to annual happens immediately; going from annual back to monthly waits until the end of the cycle. Start monthly, switch later. You lose nothing.

Descript bills in US dollars everywhere. If you're outside the United States, its fees include no tax of any kind, so VAT or GST gets added at checkout. A business that enters a valid tax ID may qualify for the reverse charge and pay the pre-tax amount.

Add your tax ID before the first payment, not after. And check your card's foreign transaction fee if your account isn't in dollars.

For sessions recorded in Rooms, Descript's remote studio, the rule is clear: a one-hour session with five participants uses 60 media minutes, not 300. For separate tracks you upload yourself, some podcasters report that each file is counted on its own, which the help center doesn't spell out.

Do the cautious math: a 90-minute raw episode in two tracks, four times a month, could approach 13 hours, past Hobbyist's 10. Record in Rooms when you can, and check your meter after the first upload.

Descript started migrating legacy and sunset plans to the current lineup automatically in late 2025, and warns that some prices could go up to match. Those plans can't buy top-ups, and their extra hours used to cost $2 an hour.

If you subscribed before the change, compare your next invoice with the table above. It's a good moment to check whether a smaller plan, or another tool, covers what you actually do.