A Riverside Magic Clips alternative for recordings made anywhere
Magic Clips finds the highlights of a recording made in Riverside or uploaded into it. If you record on Zoom, StreamYard, a camera or a phone, or Magic Clips is not giving you clips, Burncaps makes ranked, captioned 9:16 clips from the file itself, in your browser, without uploading the video. Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Captions + Clips free for 7 days, no card. Captions + Clips is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Captions is $9.98 a month or $49 once.
- Read 1 Nov 2026
- Any MP4 or MOV recording
- Video never uploaded
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
What Magic Clips does
Riverside is a recording studio in the browser: it records each guest on their own device in high quality, then lets you edit the result. Magic Clips is its AI clip maker. By Riverside's help centre, it finds the highlights of your audio or video recordings, or of files you upload, sets the pace, adds animated captions (and a background picture for audio), and leaves each clip ready to adjust in its editor before you export or share it.
It is on all plans, in a computer browser, the Mac app and the mobile app, and its pricing page says Magic Clips uses no credits. Riverside says it typically identifies two Magic Clips for every five minutes of recorded conversation, each generally 30 to 90 seconds long, and scores each from 70 to 99 against the others in the same batch. Every recording gets one automatic set; Pro, Grow and Webinar can make up to 2 more sets, and Business up to 4 more. Its help centre also describes an AI Clipper agent that can dress clips up with graphics, b-roll and music.
Read on riverside.com/magic-clips, riverside.com/pricing and support.riverside.com (articles updated 15 October to 1 November 2026) on 1 November 2026. Riverside's prices are left out: its pricing page and its own blog showed different prices for the same plan that day. Our Riverside pricing page sets out what each said on 3 November 2026. If its pages have changed since, they are the authority.
Where Magic Clips stops
Only inside Riverside
The recording has to be in a Riverside project: recorded in its studio or uploaded into it. Uploads are counted: its help centre gives 15 hours of external uploads a month on Pro, Grow, Webinar and Mobile Plus, unlimited on Business, and says there is currently no way to see how many upload hours you have used.
What it can read
Its help centre takes files of at most four hours and 25 GB each, in WEBM, MP4 or MPEG. AV1 video and ISO files are not supported, and 10-bit HDR is turned into standard range, which can shift the colours. Clips are made automatically only for content longer than 3 minutes with a transcript, and on the mobile app the session must run longer than 5 minutes.
A fixed number of sets
Each recording gets one automatic set of clips. After that, its Pro, Grow and Webinar plans can make 2 more sets and Business 4 more, and Riverside says deleting clips does not give a set back. It also calls Magic Clips experimental, and says results may vary.
Why Magic Clips may be missing or unavailable
| What you see | The likely reason, from Riverside's help centre | What to try |
|---|---|---|
| No Magic Clips on a recording | The content is 3 minutes or shorter, or has no transcript yet; on the mobile app, the session lasted 5 minutes or less | Wait for the transcript, or record a longer session |
| The recording you want is not in the clips | It sits in another project | Move the recording, or upload the file, into the current project |
| You cannot make another set | One automatic set per recording, then 2 more on Pro, Grow and Webinar or 4 more on Business; deleting clips does not reset the count | Edit the clips you have, or clip the export somewhere else |
| The upload fails or is refused | AV1 video, an ISO file, a file over four hours or 25 GB, or your plan's 15 upload hours for the month are used | Convert to an H.264 MP4, split the file, or wait for the month to turn |
| The clips miss the moments you wanted | Riverside calls Magic Clips experimental, with results that vary | On Pro and Business, set a duration, a speaker and keywords for new clips |
From support.riverside.com, read 1 November 2026. For a fault not listed here, Riverside's own support is the place to ask.
How Burncaps makes clips from a recording made anywhere
Drop the file you already have: a Zoom or Teams recording, a StreamYard or Riverside export, a camera or phone file, in MP4 or MOV, up to three hours and 10 GB. Burncaps reads it in place in your browser, on a computer or a phone, and the video is never uploaded. It hears the words on your device or with our speech service (on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it).
Then it lists the stretches of the talk that start where a thought starts and end where the speaker finished a point, read from the punctuation, the pauses and the fall of the voice. Claude reads the transcript text, never the video or the sound, and ranks them: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen. Each clip is cut to 9:16 on whoever is talking, two people too, with ums and dead air removed, an opening card, captions and the sound at -14 LUFS. You can change any word, the card or the ending before you export one clip or all of them.
| What matters | Burncaps | Riverside Magic Clips |
|---|---|---|
| Where the recording comes from | Any MP4 or MOV file: Zoom, StreamYard, a camera, a phone | Recorded in its studio, or uploaded into a project |
| File limits | A recording of three hours at most, up to 10 GB; no monthly count of hours you bring in | At most four hours and 25 GB a file; 15 upload hours a month on Pro, Grow and Webinar |
| Where the video is processed | In your browser; never uploaded | In its cloud |
| How many clips | About one for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, for every recording | Typically two for every five minutes, in sets: one automatic, then 2 or 4 more by plan |
| How clips are chosen | Stretches that end where the speaker finished a point, ranked, our picks circled, with the reason for each | AI highlights, each scored 70 to 99 against its batch |
| Captions | Animated word by word, 60 caption styles | Animated, adjustable |
| What is counted | No minute meter on Captions + Clips; only our speech service's hours, 20 in any 30 days | No credits for Magic Clips; uploads count against the monthly upload hours |
| Records your guests | No: bring the file | Yes, each on their own device in high quality |
Riverside's figures from its own pages, read 1 November 2026. English on a computer is heard on your own device without a limit; clip finding has a safety limit for any 30 days, as on every plan.
When Riverside is still the right tool
You record remote guests
Riverside records each participant on their own device, so the high-quality tracks do not depend on each guest's internet connection. Burncaps does not record at all: it starts from a file.
You want it all in one place
Recording, editing, clips, b-roll and music through its Clipper agent, and scheduled posts to several platforms, in one account. Burncaps gives you files to post yourself.
Where Burncaps fits
You record on Zoom, StreamYard, a camera or a phone, you want more clips than a set gives, or the footage should not be uploaded. Free gives 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark; Captions + Clips is $29 a month for unlimited clips from every recording, after a free 7-day trial with no card.
Questions, answered plainly
What is Riverside Magic Clips?
Riverside's AI clip maker. It finds the highlights of a recording made in Riverside or a file uploaded into a Riverside project, sets the pace, adds animated captions, and gives each clip a score from 70 to 99 against the others in its batch. Riverside's help centre says it is on all plans, uses no credits, and typically identifies two clips for every five minutes of conversation, each generally 30 to 90 seconds long (read 1 November 2026).
Why is Riverside Magic Clips not working or not showing?
By Riverside's help centre (read 1 November 2026), the usual reasons are: the content is 3 minutes or shorter, or has no transcript yet (on the mobile app the session must be longer than 5 minutes); the recording sits in another project; the recording's sets are used up (one automatic set, then 2 more on Pro, Grow and Webinar or 4 more on Business, and deleting clips does not give a set back); or the upload was refused, for example AV1 video, an ISO file, a file over four hours or 25 GB, or a month's upload hours used. Riverside also calls Magic Clips experimental, with results that vary.
Can I use Magic Clips on a recording I did not make in Riverside?
Yes, by uploading the file into a Riverside project. Its help centre gives 15 hours of external uploads a month on Pro, Grow, Webinar and Mobile Plus and unlimited uploads on Business, with each file at most four hours and 25 GB, in WEBM, MP4 or MPEG (read 1 November 2026). It also says there is currently no way to see how many upload hours you have used.
How many Magic Clips does Riverside make?
Riverside says it typically identifies two Magic Clips for every five minutes of recorded conversation, generally 30 to 90 seconds each. Every recording gets one automatic set; Pro, Grow and Webinar can make up to 2 more sets, 3 in all, and Business up to 4 more, 5 in all (read 1 November 2026).
What is a good alternative to Riverside Magic Clips?
If you record somewhere else, Burncaps takes the file you already have (MP4 or MOV from Zoom, StreamYard, a camera or a phone, up to three hours) and gives back about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, captioned and cut to 9:16 on whoever is talking, in your browser without uploading the video. Free gives 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips; Captions + Clips is $29 a month for unlimited clips, after a free 7-day trial with no card.
Keep reading
OpusClip vs Descript vs Riverside · Podcast clip maker · OpusClip review · Descript pricing · Long video to Shorts · OpusClip alternative · AI clip generator prices compared · AI clip generator free trial · Captions + Clips · AI clipping without credits · Clips for agencies · Riverside pricing
Burncaps facts, checked 1 November 2026
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and gives them back as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips.
Price: free for 2 videos every 30 days, each one recording with its captioned video and up to 3 clips, no mark and no sign-up; then the free 7-day Captions + Clips trial, no card (your email only); then Captions + Clips, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Captions, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Captions paid once is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound goes only to our speech service, on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it. Because the video never reaches us, we cannot keep it or train AI on it, and we train no AI on anything you make.
Files: MP4 or MOV in, MP4 out. Captions on the whole video: up to ten minutes. Clips: up to three hours, on a phone or a computer. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and those files (the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with a plan) and its clips (every one found and shown free, up to 3 exported with each free video, and every one, unlimited, in the trial or with Captions + Clips).
Clips: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen; each cut to 9:16 with ums and dead air removed, an opening card and captions, framed on whoever is talking. Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Captions + Clips export every clip, unlimited.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 59 languages, 60 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: sixteen caption tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.