Captions vs Submagic
Buy Submagic if you edit on a laptop, post on a schedule, and want a countable monthly quota you can plan against. Buy Captions if you shoot and finish on a phone and want the generative extras — AI actors, generated b-roll, generated voiceover — inside the same app. Before you buy Captions, read the line on their own pricing page saying the prices and features shown reflect iOS plans only.
Disclosure: this page is published by Kineo, which is not one of the two tools compared here and does not compete with either on the job they do. There is a short, clearly labelled note about Kineo at the bottom. Everything above it is written as if we had nothing at stake, because on this comparison we do not.
The verdict
Submagic is priced like a subscription; Captions is priced like a phone app
Submagic quotes per member per month with a quota in videos: 15, 40 or 100 a month depending on tier, each with a maximum duration. Captions quotes credit bundles that scale steeply — $24.99, $69.99, $139.99, $279.99 — and its pricing page notes those figures reflect iOS plans. Those are two different purchasing models and they suit different operators.
The Captions free plan has no AI in it
This deserves stating flatly because the product is marketed on its AI. The free tier lists basic editing — trimming, transitions, media assets — and one caption template, with no AI credits and no generative AI features. It is a demo of the editor, not of the thing you are considering paying for.
The Submagic free plan is small but it is real
Three watermarked videos a month, capped at 200MB and 1 minute 30 seconds each, with starter templates and free stock media. Tiny, but you can actually run the workflow you are evaluating end to end, which the Captions free plan does not let you do.
On generative features, Captions is doing more
From the $24.99 Max tier it lists AI actors and digital twins, a chat-based editor, and generative music, voiceover, images, video and b-roll. Submagic’s AI is aimed narrowly at making an existing clip better — hook titles, audio cleanup, silence removal, caption translation. If you want the tool to invent footage rather than fetch it, that is a point for Captions.
Side by side
Every figure below was read off each vendor’s own pricing page on July 26, 2026. Where a tier table did not resolve to readable prices, the cell says so rather than guessing — a wrong competitor price is worse than no price at all.
| Captions | Submagic | |
|---|---|---|
| What it actually is | A mobile-first short-form editor built around captions, AI edit styles, AI actors and generative b-roll. | Takes a short video you already have and makes it look native to the feed — captions, b-roll, sound cleanup. |
| Needs an existing video? | Mostly. You record or upload, then edit — though the generative features on paid tiers can produce footage, voiceover and images. | Yes — you upload a finished video. It styles a clip, it does not create one. |
| Free tier | Free plan: basic editing (trimming, transitions, media assets) and 1 caption template, with no AI credits and no generative AI features at all. | Free plan: $0, 3 videos per month carrying a Submagic watermark, capped at 200MB and 1 minute 30 seconds per video, with starter templates and free stock media. |
| Cheapest paid plan | Max $24.99/month | Starter $19/member/month, or $12/member/month billed yearly |
| Full pricing | Free $0 (no AI credits) · Max $24.99/mo (500 credits/mo, curated AI Edit styles, AI actors and digital twins, chat-based editor, 100+ caption templates, generative music, voiceover, images, video and b-roll) · Scale 1x $69.99/mo (1,400 credits) · Scale 2x $139.99/mo (2,800 credits) · Scale 4x $279.99/mo (5,600 credits) · Enterprise custom. The pricing page states that "Features and prices reflect iOS plans only". | Free $0 (3 videos/mo) · Starter $19/member/mo, or $12/member/mo billed yearly (15 videos/mo up to 2 min each, 3 AI credits, 1080p/30fps, API 10 min/mo) · Pro $39/mo, or $23/mo yearly (40 videos/mo up to 5 min, 6 AI credits, Storyblocks media, AI hook titles, audio cleanup, silence removal, caption translation, 1080p and 2K) · Business + API $69/mo, or $41/mo yearly (100 videos/mo up to 30 min, 15 AI credits, 4K/60fps, API 100 min/mo) · Custom on request. |
| Watermark | Not stated on the pricing page — worth confirming before you commit. | Watermarked on the free plan; removed from Starter up. |
| Aspect ratio | Short-form vertical. | Short-form vertical, taken from the video you upload. |
| Voice / narration | Generative voiceover is available on paid tiers; the free plan has no generative AI. | Your source audio. No AI narration of a written script. |
| Where the visuals come from | Media assets on free; generative b-roll and images from Max up. | Free b-roll and audio on paid plans; the Storyblocks library is added from Pro up. |
| Export & usage limits | Credit-metered per month, from 500 credits on Max to 5,600 on Scale 4x. | 1080p/30fps from Starter, 1080p and 2K from Pro, 4K/60fps on Business. Quota is counted in videos per month, with a maximum duration per video that rises with the tier. |
Sources: Captions pricing · Submagic pricing — both checked on July 26, 2026. Vendors change tiers without notice, so confirm on their site before you pay. If you find something here that is out of date, we would rather fix it than keep the click.
Captions: The pricing page carries the line "All prices displayed in USD. Features and prices reflect iOS plans only," so plans reached from a desktop browser may differ.
Which one you should pick
Pick Captions if…
- Your whole workflow lives on an iPhone and you do not want to move files to a desktop.
- You want generative b-roll, generated voiceover or an AI actor inside the same app as the captions.
- A chat-based editor suits how you work better than a template picker.
- You want 100+ caption templates and curated AI edit styles rather than assembling a look yourself.
- Your usage is high enough that buying credits in bulk at Scale tiers works out better than a per-video quota.
Pick Submagic if…
- You edit in a browser on a laptop and want that to be a first-class path, not a port.
- You want to know exactly how many videos your plan buys — 15, 40 or 100 a month — rather than watching a credit balance.
- You need 4K at 60fps, which is the $69/month Business + API tier, or $41/month yearly.
- You want a free tier you can genuinely test the full workflow on, watermark and all.
- You want annual billing to actually cut the price hard: Starter $19 → $12/member/month, Pro $39 → $23.
The differences that actually matter
The iOS-only pricing disclaimer
The Captions pricing page states, in its own words, "All prices displayed in USD. Features and prices reflect iOS plans only." That is an unusual thing to find on a pricing page and it means the tiers above may not be what you are offered from a desktop browser or on Android. It is not a criticism of the product — it is a reason to verify your own price before you commit, and a reason we are not going to tell you what the non-iOS price is, because we could not verify it.
Watermarks: one is documented, one is not
Submagic states plainly that free-plan videos carry a Submagic watermark and that paid plans from Starter up do not. The Captions pricing page does not state a watermark policy either way in what we could read. For a monetised channel this is not a minor detail — platforms have historically been unkind to clips carrying another app’s branding — so confirm it before you rely on the free tier.
Duration ceilings work differently
Submagic caps the length of each video by tier: 1m30s free, 2 minutes on Starter, 5 on Pro, 30 on Business. Captions meters credits, so length is a function of how fast you burn them rather than a hard per-video wall. If you are strictly making sub-60-second Shorts, Submagic Starter’s 2-minute cap is irrelevant and the 15-videos-a-month quota is the number that will bind.
Neither replaces a source video
Captions can generate elements — b-roll, voiceover, images — but both products are built around a clip you bring, whether recorded or assembled. If your plan is to publish faceless content without filming, neither of these is the front of your pipeline; they are the finishing step for something else.
Frequently asked questions
Is Captions or Submagic cheaper?
Submagic is cheaper at entry: $19/member/month, falling to $12/member/month billed yearly, against Captions Max at $24.99/month. The gap widens on annual billing, which Submagic offers and which is not listed on the Captions pricing page we read. Both verified July 26, 2026 on their own pricing pages.
Is the Captions free plan any good?
It depends entirely on what you wanted from it. It gives basic editing — trimming, transitions, media assets — and one caption template. It explicitly includes no AI credits and no generative AI features, which means the parts of Captions people usually want to test are not in it. If you are evaluating the AI, you will need to pay for Max at $24.99/month to see it.
Which one is better for making YouTube Shorts?
For finishing a Short you already shot, either works and the choice is really desktop versus phone. Submagic is the more predictable purchase if you post on a fixed schedule, because the quota is in whole videos. Captions is the stronger pick if you want to generate elements you did not film. Neither will produce a Short from nothing but a topic.
Does Submagic work on a phone?
Submagic is a browser-based product with a video quota per member and API access on its Starter and Business tiers. Captions is explicit that its published pricing reflects iOS plans. If mobile-first is a hard requirement for you, check current platform support on both sites — that is the axis this decision turns on more than price.
Do either of them add b-roll automatically?
Both do, differently. Submagic lists free b-roll and audio on paid plans and adds Storyblocks content from Pro at $39/month. Captions lists generative b-roll, images and video from Max at $24.99/month — generated rather than sourced from a library. Sourced stock and generated footage fail in different ways, so it is worth testing both on your own niche.
Can I get 4K out of either?
Submagic lists 4K at 60fps on its Business + API tier, $69/month or $41/month billed yearly; lower tiers cap at 1080p or 2K. The Captions pricing page did not state export resolutions in what we could read, so check before buying if 4K is a requirement.
One disclosed third option
Disclosure: this comparison is published by Kineo, which is not one of the two tools above and is not a captioning tool. Kineo sits earlier in the pipeline: it writes, voices, sources footage for and renders a whole 9:16 Short from one typed topic, captions included. If you are choosing between Captions and Submagic you probably already have footage, in which case Kineo is not what you need and either of the two above will serve you better.
Make one free →Up to 3 watermarked Fast videos / 24h · No card · Starter $4.90 first month
Other comparisons
Prices, free-tier terms and limits on this page were verified on July 26, 2026 by reading each vendor’s own published pricing page, linked above. They change. Nothing here is an endorsement by, or affiliation with, Captions or Submagic, and no comparison on this site is paid for or sponsored. Kineo is a product of the same company that publishes this page, which is stated on every comparison whether or not Kineo is one of the tools being judged.