How much does CapCut cost in 2026?
CapCut sells its plans as in-app subscriptions. The rows below are the purchases its US App Store page listed on November 5, 2026, plus the yearly Pro price from CapCut’s own site, next to Wavcut’s plans. App Store prices differ by country and show in local currency at checkout.
| App | Plan | Price (US) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapCut | Free | $0 | Cutting, trimming, merging and splitting; filters, transitions and effects; text, stickers and basic audio |
| CapCut | Standard Monthly | $9.99/month | Listed on the App Store; CapCut’s guide uses “Standard” for the free version |
| CapCut | Pro Monthly | $19.99/month ($179.99/year on CapCut’s site) | AI tools such as the auto caption generator, background remover, motion tracking and noise reduction; premium templates and effects; about 1 TB of cloud storage |
| CapCut | Monthly, Yearly (plan not named) | $7.99/month, $89.99/year | Listed on the App Store without a plan name |
| Wavcut | Free | $0 | Full editor, presets, silence cuts, on-device captions on 3 videos a month; 720p exports clean, higher resolutions watermarked |
| Wavcut | Pro | $9.99/month or $79.99/year | AI captions in 60+ languages (50 min a month), no watermark, 10 GB b-roll sync |
| Wavcut | Max | $19.99/month or $159.99/year | AI captions (200 min a month), no watermark, 50 GB b-roll sync |
The plan names do not line up. On the App Store, Standard is a $9.99 monthly subscription. CapCut’s own Standard vs Pro guide, dated September 23, 2026, uses “Standard” for the free version and puts the auto caption generator, background remover and premium templates under Pro. The App Store also lists a $7.99 monthly and an $89.99 yearly subscription without naming the plan, so check the paywall in your own copy of the app before you pay.
A worked example: five 60-second talking-head videos a week, all captioned, come to about 22 minutes of speech a month. On Wavcut, Pro’s 50 AI caption minutes cover that for $9.99 a month, and Free covers 3 videos a month with on-device captions. If CapCut’s auto captions carry the Pro badge in your app, as its guide describes, the same month costs $19.99.
Why do people look for a CapCut alternative?
Usually it is money. Pro is $19.99 a month on the US App Store, and CapCut’s own guide files the tools short-form creators reach for most, auto captions and background removal, under Pro.
Sometimes it is access. India blocked CapCut in 2020: Inc42 reported it among 47 Chinese apps banned in late July that year, and when we opened its Indian App Store page on November 5, 2026, it returned a 404. In the United States, CapCut went offline on January 18, 2025, together with TikTok, under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, and Apple put it back on the App Store on February 13. It is listed there again, but for almost four weeks new users could not download it.
And for people who post every day, it is time. CapCut is a manual editor, so each cut and each caption is a decision you make on the timeline, and you make it again on the next video.
What is the best free CapCut alternative?
If you want a free manual editor on iPhone, try iMovie first. Apple makes it, it costs nothing, and it splits, trims and arranges clips on a timeline much like CapCut does. Its App Store page lists no automatic captions, so plan on another app for those.
Wavcut is free to start as well. The Free plan includes the full editor, presets and automatic silence cuts, with on-device captions on 3 videos a month. Exports at 720p are clean; higher resolutions carry a watermark until you upgrade. If free 1080p or 4K exports matter more to you than automation, CapCut’s free plan saves up to 8K according to its own guide, and Wavcut Free does not match that.
How is Wavcut different from CapCut?
Wavcut does the first pass for you. A preset holds your aspect ratio, caption style and position, the b-roll collections to pull from and how often, and the auto-edits to run. Add a clip and the pauses are cut on the phone, captions are transcribed in your style, and b-roll from your collections lands over the story. Every cut stays toggleable on a normal timeline, so you review an edit instead of building one.
Your video and the final render stay on the iPhone. On Free, captions use Apple Speech on the phone too. On Pro and Max, only the audio is sent for AI captions in 60+ languages, and your b-roll library syncs to the cloud.
The App Store privacy labels differ as well. CapCut’s lists identifiers under Data Used to Track You; Wavcut’s has no such section. Both list user content under Data Linked to You.
What does CapCut do that Wavcut does not?
Plenty, and it matters if your videos are not talking heads. CapCut runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, has templates, transitions and effects, and its Pro plan adds background removal, motion tracking, noise reduction and about 1 TB of cloud storage. Wavcut is iPhone-only for now (Android is in development) and has no speed control.
For music edits, travel clips or effects-heavy videos, stay with CapCut or move to iMovie. When most of your videos are you talking to the camera, or a voiceover over b-roll, an auto-editor takes over the work you repeat every time. We also compare Wavcut with VN and InShot, two other common CapCut alternatives, on their own pages.