Descript
Descript records and edits audio and video through a transcript.
Overview
- Transparency
- 7 / 10
- Trust
- 91 / 100
Trains on your data
- Free
- No
- Paid
- No
- Opt-out
- Yes
Incidents
2- mediumErrors in Publishing
- mediumIssues with connecting to Rooms/SquadCast sessions
Assessed SEP 21, 2026 · Checked by hand SEP 21, 2026
SOC 2 Type II and GDPR are asserted, training is opt-in, US storage and deletion are documented, and two vendor-disclosed outages exceeded four hours.
Trust breakdown
91 / 100
Overall trust score
Data and privacy
Trains on your data
No training on user data
Storage regions
Sub-processors
Data retention
We store personal data for as long as necessary to carry out the purposes for which we originally collected it and for other legitimate business purposes, including to meet our legal, regulatory, or other compliance obligations.
Deletion: When you delete a project from Descript, we delete it permanently from our servers within 30 days.
Incidents
2026-04-14
mediumErrors in PublishingDescript Status
2026-04-17
Descript Status
Powered by
Descript primarily uses third-party AI models from Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI. They also use OpenRouter to manage and route requests to these various models and inference providers. While they use open-weight models, they bring their own key to Baseten for dedicated deployment, indicating a level of customization and control over these models.
Integrations and access
Integrations
Available on
Pricing
Hobbyist
$16/month (billed annually) or $24/month (billed monthly)
1 person included, 10 media hours/month, 400 AI credits/month, Export 1080p, watermark-free, Access to Underlord, our AI video co-editor
Creator
$24/month (billed annually) or $35/month (billed monthly)
Scale to a team of 3 (billed separately), 30 media hours/month, 800 AI credits/month, Export 4k, watermark-free, Full access to Underlord, our AI video co-editor and 20+ more AI tools, Generate video with the latest AI models, Unlimited access to royalty-free stock media library, Access to top ups for more media hours and AI credits
Business
$50/month (billed annually) or $65/month (billed monthly)
Scale to a team of 5 (billed separately), 40 media hours/month, 1500 AI credits/month, Team-wide access to Brand Studio, Translate and dub video in 30+ languages with proofread, Generate custom avatars from photo upload or text, Priority support (with SLA), Access to top ups for more media hours and AI credits
Enterprise
Custom
Custom pricing, for teams with more video to make than editors to make it. Includes advanced security and SSO/SCIM, granular brand controls, custom AI credits, custom media minutes, custom legal terms, custom AI controls, flexible licensing model, flexible billing, dedicated CSM, onboarding, priority response.
Prices as listed on SEP 21, 2026; check the vendor's page.
Moat and openness
Moat
- Proprietary Model
- Proprietary Data
- Network Effects
- Switching Costmoderate
- Unique UX
- Distributionstrong
Descript has a moderate moat, primarily driven by its unique text-based editing UX and strong distribution channels, including a large user base and extensive integrations. However, its reliance on third-party foundational models and lack of proprietary data or strong network effects limit its long-term defensibility against competitors with similar feature sets or superior underlying AI.
Openness
- Open model weights
- Published research
- Open source contributions
- Transparency reports
- Public safety evals
Descript demonstrates moderate openness, particularly regarding its AI features and data handling. The company publishes an ethics statement outlining its commitment to responsible AI implementation, including verbal consent verification for AI voice creation and collaboration with the Content Authenticity Initiative. Descript also provides detailed information on its security practices, aligning with SOC 2, GDPR, and CCPA standards, and offers users control over their data, including opt-in choices for AI features and transcription sharing for model improvement. While Descript uses open-source models like Whisper, it does not appear to open-source its own model weights or contribute to open-source projects in a significant, publicly documented way. There is no evidence of public safety evaluations or transparency reports beyond their security and ethics statements.
Timeline
- 2023-08Descript acquired SquadCast, a remote podcast recording platform, to offer an end-to-end workflow encompassing recording, transcription, editing, and publishing within a single platform. SquadCast's capabilities were initially maintained as a standalone service before being progressively integrated into Descript's core product as 'Rooms.'
Company
Descript
- Founded
- 2017
- HQ
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Site
- descript.com
Popularity
3.3M
monthly visits
Notable customers
Descript is a leading AI-native alternative to traditional video editing software, with a strong presence in the design and creative tools market.
Value and ROI
What it should move: Teams spend less time editing recordings and making new clips.
Best fit
It fits marketers and experts who need transcript-based editing.
The catch
Descript processes voices, faces, and transcripts. Teams must review consent, storage, facts, and synthetic changes.
- HubSpot: Uses Descript to edit audio and video and collaborate on podcast production.[1]
- SaaStr: Uses Descript to edit and repurpose recorded video across marketing channels.[2]
In our stacks for
References
- 01HubSpot: how it uses DescriptDescriptVendor-published
- 02SaaStr: how it uses DescriptDescriptVendor-published
- 03Privacy policyDescriptVendor-published
- 04TermsDescriptVendor-published
- 05Trust centerDescriptVendor-published
- 06Pricing pageDescriptVendor-published
- 07Company siteDescriptVendor-published
- 08GDPRDescriptVendor-published
- 09Errors in PublishingDescript StatusIndependent
- 10Issues with connecting to Rooms/SquadCast sessionsDescript StatusIndependent