Use case
Add b-roll to video: found and placed for you
You add b-roll by laying short clips over your video while you keep talking. Cutroom finds those clips and plays each one while you talk about what it shows.
In short
- You add b-roll by placing short clips over your video while you talk about what they show. Cutroom can do it for you.
- By hand, you find each clip, put it on the track above your video and trim it, in CapCut or any editor.
- Cutroom searches millions of free Pexels and Pixabay clips with the words you said, so you never open a clip site.
- You can upload your own clips once, and Cutroom uses them first.
- It works on talking videos up to 3 minutes. Your first video is free.
- free stock clips from Pexels and Pixabay, searched for you
- Millions
- the longest video it accepts
- 3 min
- your first video, made within 7 days of sign-up
- Free
How to add b-roll to a video by hand
In any editor with a timeline, like CapCut or Premiere Pro, you repeat the same five steps for every clip.
- In CapCut on a phone, you tap Overlay, pick your clip, then tap Add overlay.
- In CapCut on a computer, you click Import, then Stock materials, and drag the clip above your video.
- Free clips come from your own camera roll, CapCut's stock library, Pexels or Pixabay.
Adding b-roll by hand
Finding each clip and lining it up with your words is the slow part.
Find a clip
In your camera roll, Pexels or Pixabay
Download it or import it
Put it on the track above your video
Trim it so it plays while you talk about it
So it starts and stops with the sentence
Repeat for every clip
How to add b-roll with Cutroom
Cutroom does the finding and the placing for you.
- If you have no clips of your own, Cutroom searches the free library for you.
- If you have uploaded your own clips, it uses yours first.
What happens after you upload
Steps 3 and 4 are the ones you would do by hand in a normal editor.
Upload one video
Up to 3 minutes
It writes down what you said
Timed word by word
It searches for clips that match what you said
Millions of free clips
It places each clip
It plays while you talk about that thing
You export
1080 by 1920, captions burned in
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Where the clips come from
Cutroom takes the phrase you said and finds a clip that matches it.
- The free clips come from Pexels and Pixabay. There are millions of them, and they are free to use.
- You do not type searches or scroll through hundreds of results.
- Finding the clips costs nothing extra. It is part of the edit, which costs 100 credits.
Cutroom searches with the words you said
The phrase you said is used as the search, so you do not have to type one.
Where each clip goes
Each clip plays only while you talk about what it shows.
- If you say "our warehouse in New York", a warehouse clip plays during those five words.
- The clip starts when you start saying the words and ends when you stop.
- You see your words on screen, with each clip marked where it sits.
A warehouse clip on the words "our warehouse in New York"
The warehouse clip starts on "our" and ends on "York".
Using your own footage
Upload your videos and photos once. Cutroom tags what is in each one.
- It tags what is in each clip, like a person, a room or a product, so it can use the right one when you mention it.
- If you say "back in my workshop", you get your own workshop, not a stock one.
- Where you have not filmed anything, the free library fills the gap.
A stock warehouse clip next to your own
If you upload your own clips, Cutroom shows your warehouse instead of a stock one.
Moving or swapping a clip
Drag a clip onto a different phrase. It starts and ends there, and nothing else in the edit moves.
- You can swap a clip for a different one, or search the free library for another.
- You can take a clip out.
- You can move a clip two sentences later.
- Moving, swapping and removing clips is free, and you can undo it.
What else comes with it
Captions and cuts are added at the same time as the b-roll, with nothing to set up.
- Captions come in 40 caption styles, burned into the video and timed to your voice word by word.
- Cutroom adds a transition between clips. There are five to choose from, including a plain cut. Flow, Punch and Native add short sound effects where the picture changes; Straight cut adds none.
- On Punch and Native, the ums and uhs that show up in your transcript are removed and the long pauses between your words are shortened, never in the middle of a word.
- Music is off at first, so you hear your own voice first. One tap turns it on.
One of the 40 caption styles: a coloured box behind the word you are saying
The captions are timed to your voice, word by word.
What it costs
Adding b-roll costs nothing extra. You pay 100 credits for the edit and 20 credits per minute of export.
- A 30-second ad costs 110 credits: 100 for the edit and 10 for the export.
- Every plan, the free one too, has the same editor and the same b-roll library.
- Editing, previewing and searching for clips are free. Exporting an unchanged video again is free too, unless the renderer was updated or your watermark changed.
- Unused credits stay in your account.
Plans
| Plan | Price | Credits | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 600, once | 1 video within 7 days, with a Cutroom mark across the middle |
| Lite | $19.99 a month | 1,250 a month | No mark on your videos, about 10 ads |
| Basic | $39.99 a month | 2,500 a month | About 20 ads, plus avatars and music made from a mood you describe |
| Premium | $79.99 a month | 5,000 a month | Adds animated drawings and product photos made without a photo shoot |
Plan: Free
- Price
- $0
- Credits
- 600, once
- What you get
- 1 video within 7 days, with a Cutroom mark across the middle
Plan: Lite
- Price
- $19.99 a month
- Credits
- 1,250 a month
- What you get
- No mark on your videos, about 10 ads
Plan: Basic
- Price
- $39.99 a month
- Credits
- 2,500 a month
- What you get
- About 20 ads, plus avatars and music made from a mood you describe
Plan: Premium
- Price
- $79.99 a month
- Credits
- 5,000 a month
- What you get
- Adds animated drawings and product photos made without a photo shoot
What it does not do
Cutroom is built for short videos of a person talking.
- It takes uploads up to 3 minutes. It is not for 20-minute videos.
- It does not take landscape videos or videos without sound. Both are refused before any credits are charged.
- It only makes upright 1080 by 1920 video. There is no landscape edit and no 4K.
Questions people ask
- How do I add b-roll to a video automatically?
- Upload your talking video to Cutroom. It writes out what you said, searches for matching clips and puts each one on its words. Then you move or swap any clip by clicking it.
- How do I add b-roll in CapCut?
- By hand. On a phone, tap Overlay, pick a clip and tap Add overlay. On a computer, click Import, then Stock materials. Then you drag and trim each clip so it plays over the right words.
- Where can I find free b-roll?
- On Pexels and Pixabay. Their clips are free to use, and neither asks you to credit them. Cutroom searches both for you inside the editor, so you do not download anything.
- What does it cost to add b-roll?
- Nothing extra. Finding the clips is part of the edit, which costs 100 credits, and the export is 20 credits per minute of video. A 30-second video is 110 credits in total. Your first video is free.
- Can I download it, or is there a paywall at the end?
- You can download it. The free video has a Cutroom mark across the middle; exports on any paid plan have nothing on them. The export price shows on the Export button before you press it.
- Can I cancel myself?
- Yes. Go to Settings, then Billing, and press Cancel subscription. You finish in Stripe's billing portal. Your plan runs to the end of the period you paid for, then stops. There is no fee, and we do not ask why.
- Can I get my money back?
- Yes for your first charge, in full, if you tell us within 7 days that you did not mean to be billed. For later charges, we refund unused time when something went wrong on our side. Credits spent on finished videos are not refunded. A failed export refunds its credits by itself.
Upload something you already filmed and see where the b-roll goes. Your first video is free.