Recut vs Opus Clip
Opus can’t download the video. Recut can.
Opus Clip is the category default — but its own help center and status page admit recurring YouTube upload failures, and the official workaround is “download it yourself.” Recut runs yt-dlp on your machine, so the download just happens. And unlike Opus, it’s a tool your agent can call from MCP, a CLI, or an API.
No “download it yourself”
Opus’s status page and help docs acknowledge YouTube link failures and tell you to download the file manually. Recut runs the download client-side on a residential IP — that step disappears.
Your agent can drive it
Opus is an app you click through. Recut exposes the same engine as an MCP tool, a CLI, and a REST API, so a human or an agent gets identical results headlessly.
No per-source-minute credits
Opus burns one credit per source minute regardless of how many clips you keep. Recut bills only for transcription minutes — editing, AI, and rendering are unlimited.
Side by side
Recut vs Opus Clip
YouTube ingestion
Opus’s own status page admits link failures
MCP server
Public CLI + REST API
AI finds the best moments
Auto captions burned in
Animated b-roll overlays
Transcript-based editing
Cut footage by deleting words
Free tier without a watermark
Credit model
Social scheduler
Pricing
What you pay
Recut bills only for transcription minutes. Editing, AI, and rendering are unlimited.
$0
100 min/mo, no watermark
$0
60 min, watermarked, 3-day expiry
$19/mo
300 min, MCP + CLI + API
$29/mo
300 min, app only
$49/mo
1200 min (20 hr)
Custom
Business tier
Opus Clip pricing verified June 2026. See full Recut pricing.
Where Opus Clip is ahead today
We'd rather you pick the right tool than the loudest one.
- A polished, well-known web app with a built-in social scheduler and team features.
- A large content library and the strongest brand recognition in the category.
- A virality-score model trained on a huge dataset of short-form performance.