Comparison
InVideo can generate the video. It cannot generate being believed.
Prompt-to-video tools assemble stock, templates and a synthetic read into a watchable file. InVideo does that in about fifteen minutes. What no prompt supplies is a reason to believe the claim. Here is what proof costs, what an ad costs in credits, and how Cutroom finishes one from forty seconds.
- the longest take Cutroom accepts
- 3 min
- per finished minute exported
- 20 CR
- of creatives carry the spend
- 5-8%
Zero footage, a deadline and a script: prompt-to-video is the right answer
Some videos genuinely do not need a person. A listicle, a news explainer, a channel that runs on narration over stock.
For those, a template plus a stock library plus a generated read gets you a watchable file in fifteen minutes with nothing filmed.
It also solves a real staffing problem. One person can publish daily without a camera, a location or a second pair of hands.
It fits a publishing rhythm nobody sustains by filming. Daily output from one person is realistic when no camera is involved.
Here is where the prompt runs out. A paid ad is judged on whether a stranger believes it.
Stock footage carries no proof, and a synthetic narrator attaches nobody to the claim.
Cutroom starts from the person instead. Forty seconds of somebody meaning it goes in. A finished 9:16 MP4 comes out, captions burned in and coverage on the claim.
Generated ads are not badly written. They are generically written.
The output is fine. That is the problem. Fine is the exact register a feed has learned to filter out.
A person holding the product in their own kitchen carries proof, because the kitchen is not a set.
Direct response runs on somebody attaching their name to a claim. Viewers price the absence in.
The tell is rarely the visuals. It is cadence: an even, unhesitating read with no breath in the wrong place.
Every seller in your category has access to the same prompt tool and the same stock library. None of them has the sentence you say on a call.
So the input is the moat, not the render. Forty seconds of someone meaning it is the part that cannot be typed.
There is a measurable version of this. Ads carrying a person tend to hold attention past the third second, which is where cost per result gets decided.
Check that in your own account before believing anyone, including this page.
Two ads, two kinds of evidence
| Prompt and stock | A take you filmed | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first draft | About fifteen minutes | Filming plus one batch |
| Proof the claim is real | None on screen | A person and a place |
| Copyable by a competitor | Same prompt, same library | Not without your face |
| Works with nobody on camera | Yes | No |
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Say it out loud, then mark where the pictures go
Upload one take of up to three minutes. Cutroom transcribes it, drafts the whole cut and returns a 9:16 MP4 with captions burned in.
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands over exactly those words. Swap it, or search millions of free ones if the draft chose badly.
Delete a line and the cut rebuilds around the gap. Change the pace and the machine re-cuts everything, coverage ceiling included.
Emphasise the word your claim turns on so it pops in the captions. Fix a mis-heard word and the text follows.
Write the opening headline or take the drafted one. Turn music on and set how far under the read it sits.
No timeline, no keyframes, no layers. Eleven marks, then an export at 20 credits a minute.
Coverage is capped by pace: 40 percent on chill, 45 on normal, 52 on fast. A person stays on screen for most of the ad.
Trim the opening or the ending. The whole loop is about four minutes from upload to a file you can post.
- Six caption packs, from clean UGC to bold impact
- Coverage capped at 40, 45 or 52 percent so it never becomes stock with narration
- Five entrances for a clip: cut, whip, punch, glitch or sweep
- Batch 100 credits, and a second cut of the same take does not re-batch
Somebody speaks, or nothing happens: the specification in full
In goes one talking-head take of up to three minutes. Out comes a 9:16 MP4 with captions burned in.
There is no text-to-video path. If nobody speaks, there is nothing to transcribe and nothing to cut.
The avatar module is the only route without a camera. A photo plus a voice-over, at 320 and 70 credits a minute. It still needs a face you own.
There is no landscape master and no square placement. One shape, and it is the shape a feed runs.
There is no template library. A season of videos stays consistent through the caption pack you keep.
There is no timeline underneath and nothing of yours is stamped on the export. Those are the facts to plan around, and none of them touches the count, which is next.
Volume that carries proof is what a paid account is actually short of
Winners run at 5 to 8 percent of creatives, per Motion's analysis of 550,000+ Meta ads.
So both routes need volume. The question is whether your volume can carry proof or only carry footage.
A second cut of a take already transcribed costs 20 credits a minute and about four minutes of attention.
That is how a filmed route reaches thirty a month with a person behind every one of them.
A one-minute ad from a fresh take is about 120 credits. Seven days and 300 credits with no card covers two.
Keep the generation tool running the stock-and-narration channel. It wins that volume game outright.
Film two claims this week and put them against your best generated ad on cost per result.
InVideo and Cutroom, row by row
The top two rows go to InVideo, and no camera at all should weigh them heavily. The rest is what a prompt cannot buy.
| InVideo | Cutroom | |
|---|---|---|
| Video from a prompt alone | Text in, video out | Needs a filmed take |
| Templates and every ratio | Large catalogue, any shape | 9:16, six caption packs |
| Pace change re-cuts everything | Rebuild the scene list | Chill, normal or fast |
| Second cut without re-batching | Generate it again | 20 CR a minute |
| Proof a person made the claim | Narration over stock | Your face, your read |
| Footage on the exact phrase | Scene by scene | Highlight, clip lands |
| Cut rebuilds when a line goes | Edit the scene list | Delete, and it recompiles |
Questions people ask
- Can Cutroom make a video with no camera at all?
- Only through the avatar module, which needs a photo you own plus a voice-over. Avatar render is 320 credits a minute, generated voice-over is 70. There is no prompt-to-video route and there is no plan to add one.
- Is stock footage used at all in Cutroom?
- Yes, as coverage over your own words, capped at 40 percent on chill, 45 on normal and 52 on fast. The person talking is always the spine of the ad. Stock is never the whole video.
- What if my ads are working fine with generated video?
- Then keep going and do not switch on principle. Cost per result is the only opinion that counts. This page argues a route, not a rule, and plenty of accounts run both and compare.
- Who should not buy Cutroom?
- Anyone whose whole channel runs on narration over stock and nobody will ever film. Keep generating for that. Bring the ads that have to be believed here, where a person makes the claim.
Everything in an ad is generatable except the reason to believe it. Cutroom cuts that reason into a finished 9:16 file, captions burned in and coverage on the claim.