Cutback
An AI video editing assistant plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro that handles transcription, silence removal, and caption styling without leaving the timeline.
If Premiere Pro is your daily driver, Cutback earns its keep quickly — one-click silence removal, animated captions, and trim-by-transcript are exactly the chores it erases, and Pro at $30/mo (yearly) removes the silence and translation caps that bite working editors. The Lite tier at $8/mo is a cheap way to test the caption and transcript workflow; Basic at $13/mo adds 20 hours of transcription and 3-camera auto-sync. Skip it if you cut in DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut, or if your team needs shared projects and review links — this is a single-editor assistant, not a collaboration suite.
Verified 16d ago · liveness 73/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/cutback
- Professional video editors who cut in Adobe Premiere Pro full-time
- YouTube, podcast, and interview creators working from long transcripts
- Small to medium video production studios
- Freelance editors who want silence removal and caption styling off their plate
- Editors working exclusively in DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro — Cutback is Premiere Pro only
- Teams needing shared projects, review links, or seat collaboration
- Anyone wanting a standalone AI video editor rather than a Premiere plugin
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Skip Cutback if you edit in DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro, or if your team needs shared projects and review links — it's a Premiere Pro plugin built for single editors, not a collaboration suite.
Transcription is metered by the hour: Starter allows 3 hr/mo, Lite 3 hr/mo, and Basic 20 hr/mo — heavy projects can hit the ceiling mid-month before you notice.
Cutback's pricing scales tightly with editing volume: Lite at $8/mo (yearly) suits shortform and small projects, Basic at $13/mo fits daily creators who need 20 hours of transcription and 3-camera multicam, and Pro at $30/mo is the tier heavy professionals want because it removes silence and translation caps. Enterprise is quote-based for organizations needing admin billing and feature customization. It lands cheaper than buying separate transcription plus caption tools for a Premiere editor,
In short
Cutback — An AI video editing assistant plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro that handles transcription, silence removal, and caption styling without leaving the timeline. Best for Professional video editors who cut in Adobe Premiere Pro full-time, YouTube, podcast, and interview creators working from long transcripts, Small to medium video production studios. Free to start; paid plans from $8/mo.
What's new in Cutback
Checked 4 days agoAcross the latest 4 updates: 4 feature updates.
Selects Update Take #4 - Rearranging Clips, 100+ File Support, and Visual Detection
Selects adds clip rearrangement, support for 100+ files, and visual detection for improved editing.
Selects Update Take #3 - Edit According to Script, Smoother Jump Cuts, & More
Selects now edits according to script and delivers smoother jump cuts in this update.
Selects Update Take #1 - Suggest by Theme & Cut Filler Words
Selects introduces theme-based suggestions and automatic filler word removal.
Cutback 2.44.29 – New Caption UI & Smarter Silence Removal
Version 2.44.29 ships a revamped caption interface and improved silence detection.
What people actually say about Cutback — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
72 mentions across 5 sources (Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, Bluesky, Lemmy) · researched Jul 24, 2026.
Average across the 5 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +Automates silence removal and captions directly in Premiere Pro timeline.
- +Color-coded dialogue makes multi-speaker projects much easier to navigate.
- +Multi-cam auto-sync saves hours of manual alignment.
- +Animated captions with translation are polished and customizable.
- +Selects module preps footage before opening your NLE, streamlining rough cuts.
- −Free tier is too limited for real-world evaluation.
- −No support on Reddit, GitHub, or Stack Overflow for troubleshooting.
- −Only works with Adobe Premiere Pro, locking out non-Adobe editors.
- −Community buzz is still very small beyond a few YouTube videos.
- −Performance with very long timelines or large projects isn't well documented.
- • Additional transcription hours cost extra beyond plan limits
- • No lifetime license option; annual billing locks you in
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Cutback? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- AI transcription for captions and transcript-based editing inside Premiere Pro
- Automatic silence removal with one-click undo
- Animated captions with customizable styles
- Trim video based on transcript
- Caption translation (10 uses/mo on Basic, unlimited on Pro)
- Caption import and export in SRT and other formats
- Auto multi-cam sync up to 3 cameras (Basic) or unlimited (Pro)
- Chat-based auto editing from a script
- Revamped caption UI and smarter silence detection (v2.44.29)
- Selects: transcript-based search and navigation
- Selects: support for 100+ files in a project
- Selects: visual detection of on-screen content
- Selects: edit according to script and smoother jump cuts
- Selects: theme-based suggestions
- Selects: automatic filler word removal
About Cutback
Cutback is an AI editing assistant that installs as a plugin inside Adobe Premiere Pro, so you keep cutting in the timeline instead of bouncing to a separate app. It handles the chores that eat editing hours: AI transcription, automatic silence removal with undo, animated captions with customizable styles, caption translation, and trimming video by transcript. Captions import and export in SRT and other formats, and auto multi-cam sync covers up to 3 cameras on Basic or unlimited on Pro. The revamped caption UI and smarter silence detection shipped in version 2.44.29. Selects is the companion footage-prep side of the product: transcript-based search and navigation, automated syncing and organizing, clip rearrangement, support for 100+ files, visual detection, script-based editing, smoother jump cuts, theme-based suggestions, and automatic filler word removal. Cutback builds for Premiere Pro editors and studios rather than as a standalone NLE, and it's an Official Adobe Video Partner and SOC 2 Type II compliant.
Behind the Verdict
Cutback's core pitch is discipline: it doesn't try to be your NLE, it sits inside Premiere Pro and does the four jobs editors hate — transcribing, cutting dead air, captioning, and trimming by script. That focus is why it works. The Premiere Assistant features chain together well: transcribe your footage, jump to any sentence in the timeline, let auto silence removal strip the gaps (with undo, so you can put them back), then apply animated captions in SRT or another format. Caption translation on Basic (10 uses/mo) and Pro (unlimited) is a small feature with outsized value for anyone publishing to non-English audiences. The Selects product extends the same transcript spine into footage-prep: search across 100+ files, visual detection of what's on screen, theme-based suggestions, automatic filler word removal, and script-based editing with smoother jump cuts. For interview-heavy, podcast, and long-form YouTube channels, that combination saves real hours per week. The honest tradeoffs: usage caps are real and tiered — Lite caps transcription at 3 hours and silence removal at 10 uses per month, Basic at 20 hours / 30 uses / 10 translation uses. Heavy daily editors will feel those caps and want Pro. Multi-cam auto-sync is capped at 3 cameras on Basic. The Starter tier is generous enough to try but its 3 hours and 3 silence removals won't survive a real project. Team collaboration is thin — there are no shared projects or review links here, so it's a per-editor tool. And it is Premiere-only: Resolve and Final Cut users get nothing. If you live in Premiere and cut a lot of talking-head or interview footage, Cutback's ROI is straightforward. If you need a collaborative review layer or a standalone AI editor, look elsewhere.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Cutback actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Import a two-hour interview into Premiere Pro, run AI transcription, scan the transcript to mark the best answers, apply auto silence removal with one click, and finish with animated captions exported as SRT.
Outcome: A polished captioned cut without scrubbing for soundbites or hand-typing captions — the transcript becomes the editing surface.
Drop a multicam podcast shoot into Premiere Pro, use auto multi-cam to sync up to 3 angles via waveform, then strip silence and add animated captions with custom styling.
Outcome: Synced multicam podcast cut with clean audio gaps and styled captions, all without leaving the timeline.
Load 100+ raw files into Selects, use visual detection and transcript search to find the strongest takes, apply theme-based suggestions and automatic filler word removal, and generate a rough assembly.
Outcome: A pre-selected assembly ready for a fine cut, with filler words and weak takes already filtered out.
Use Cases
- Transcribe interview footage inside Premiere Pro and jump to key moments via the transcript instead of scrubbing.
- Strip dead air from a podcast recording with one-click silence removal (with undo) before final polish.
- Generate animated captions for social clips and export them in SRT or another caption format.
- Translate captions from English into another language for international audiences on Basic or Pro.
- Auto-sync multiple camera angles from a multicam shoot using waveform alignment (up to 3 cams on Basic).
- Search and prep a large raw-footage library with Selects across 100+ files using visual detection.
- Cut a rough assembly from a written script using Selects' script-based editing and smoother jump cuts.
- Remove filler words automatically with Selects' theme-based suggestions and filler detection.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-10-04
Limitations
- Cutback runs as an AI editing assistant plugin for Adobe Premiere Pro, so it works inside that NLE rather than standalone.
- Usage is capped by tier: Lite allows 3 hours of transcription per month with 10 silence removals, Basic allows 20 hours with 30 silence removals plus 10 caption translations, and Pro removes the silence-removal and translation caps while still limiting transcription to 30 hours per month.
- Features such as auto multi-cam sync are also tier-restricted (up to 3 cameras on Basic).
- Per-account pricing supports multi-device access on Pro only, and the plans are billed monthly or yearly.
as of 2026-09-22
Verification history
We have re-verified Cutback 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Cutback tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Starter
$0/mo
Ideal for
Editors who want to try Cutback on a short project before paying — 3 hours of transcription per month fits a single small video.
What this tier adds
Free entry point: 3 hr/mo transcription, 3 silence removals, animated captions, locked to 1 device and not shareable.
Lite
$8/mo billed yearly ($9/mo monthly)
Ideal for
Shortform and small-project editors who need captions without a heavy transcription load.
What this tier adds
Adds caption import/export, animate clip & AI image edit, and 10 silence uses over Starter — still 3 hr/mo transcription.
Basic
$13/mo billed yearly ($15/mo monthly)
Ideal for
Daily video editing creators and individuals running interview or podcast projects with some multicam.
What this tier adds
Jumps to 20 hr/mo transcription, 30 silence uses, auto multi-cam up to 3 cams, and 10 caption translations over Lite.
Pro
$30/mo billed yearly ($35/mo monthly)
Ideal for
Heavy editing professionals and small teams who can't tolerate metered silence removal or translation.
What this tier adds
Unlimited silence removal and translation, unlimited auto multi-cam, 30 hr/mo transcription, multi-device, corporate cards.
Enterprise
Contact Sales
Ideal for
Organizations that need admin billing, account management, and feature customization across editors.
What this tier adds
All Pro features plus billing to an admin account, account management, and feature customization — contact sales.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Cutback's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Cutback's pricing scales tightly with editing volume: Lite at $8/mo (yearly) suits shortform and small projects, Basic at $13/mo fits daily creators who need 20 hours of transcription and 3-camera multicam, and Pro at $30/mo is the tier heavy professionals want because it removes silence and translation caps. Enterprise is quote-based for organizations needing admin billing and feature customization. It lands cheaper than buying separate transcription plus caption tools for a Premiere editor,
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Cutback — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Install the plugin in Premiere Pro and you're transcribing footage the same session — expect roughly 10–15 minutes for installation and first transcription. Selects takes longer to pay off because it rewards larger footage libraries; count on an afternoon for a first real pass across 100+ files. Caption styling and multicam sync add a bit more time on the first project, but the tools are inside
Switching to or from Cutback
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From manual Premiere captioning: Install Cutback, run AI transcription, and replace hand-typed captions with animated styled captions exported as SRT.
- →From a separate transcription tool: Move transcript workflow into Premiere Pro with Cutback's AI transcription and trim-by-transcript instead of round-tripping files.
- →From a separate silence-cutting tool: Replace manual gap cutting with Cutback's one-click silence removal (with undo) inside the timeline.
- →From manual multicam sync: Use Cutback's auto multi-cam waveform alignment (up to 3 cameras on Basic, unlimited on Pro) instead of syncing by hand.
- ↗To DaVinci Resolve: Cutback is Premiere-only, so a Resolve move means rebuilding caption and silence workflows with Resolve's native tools or a Resolve-specific plugin.
- ↗To Final Cut Pro: No Cutback plugin exists for FCP, so you'd move to FCP's caption tools and separate transcript utilities.
- ↗To a standalone AI editor: Cutback is a Premiere plugin, so leaving the timeline-based workflow means adopting a separate app with its own project format.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Cutback”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Cutback” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Cutback.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Cutback
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Cutback, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Captions
AI video editor that turns raw footage into a fully edited, captioned video in minutes — no timeline required
Descript
Descript is a text-based AI video and audio editor — cut footage by editing the transcript, then let Underlord finish the job.
Gling
Gling is a desktop AI video editor for YouTube creators that strips out silences, filler words, and bad takes before you export to your NLE or straight to MP4.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Cutback vs Landr Mastering
Choosing between LANDR Mastering and Cutback is straightforward: they solve different problems. LANDR is for musicians who want quick, AI-powered audio mastering; Cutback is for video editors using Adobe Premiere Pro who need automated transcription and trimming. If you do both audio and video, each tool offers strong value in its domain, but they serve distinct creative workflows.
Cutback vs Storyfile
StoryFile and Cutback serve entirely different needs: StoryFile creates authentic, interactive AI avatars from filmed interviews for museums and legacy preservation, while Cutback automates video editing tasks for creators. If you need a lifelike digital twin for exhibits or family history, StoryFile is the clear choice. If you edit long-form video and want to speed up transcription, trimming, and captioning, Cutback fits perfectly.
Cutback vs Splice
Splice and Cutback serve entirely different creative workflows: Splice is a must-have for music producers seeking royalty-free samples and rent-to-own plugins, while Cutback is a specialized Premiere Pro assistant for video editors automating transcription and trimming. If you make music, choose Splice; if you edit video in Premiere, choose Cutback. Neither is a substitute for the other.
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