ShotCut Video Editor

Get started

1. Get the zip. Click Download ZIP above, or Code › Download ZIP on GitHub (or git clone it), and unzip it into a folder you can write to. On Windows, keep the path short, such as Documents\ShotCut: very long paths stop the speech engine from loading.
2. Open the launcher for your system (table below).
3. Wait once. The first start sets up everything ShotCut needs inside its own folder. After that it opens in seconds and works offline.

You don't need to install Node.js, Python or FFmpeg first, and you don't need admin rights. For a desktop icon on Windows, right-click ShotCut.bat and choose Send to › Desktop (create shortcut).

What the first start downloads

Everything goes into a runtime folder inside the app folder: about 1.5 GB, a few minutes on a fast line and longer on a slow one. Internet is needed this once.

• Downloads are checked against their published checksums, and an interrupted download carries on where it stopped when you start the launcher again.
• Nothing is installed system-wide. If the speech parts cannot be set up, ShotCut still opens and tells you; everything except auto captions and AI background removal works.

Captions that follow every word

• Auto captionsPress Transcribe on a clip. Speech recognition runs on your computer and times every single word.
• Spoken-word highlightThe word being said lights up, or the line fills like karaoke, with an optional pop.
• Six presetsClassic, Bold pop, Karaoke, Boxed, Subtitle and Neon. One click, then drag the caption box in the preview to place and size it.
• Fix names onceA glossary such as flora 2 => FLAURA2 corrects a term in every caption.

Captions are built from the words you keep, so they never drift out of sync when you cut. Download them as SRT, WebVTT, styled ASS or plain text, or bring your own .srt and .vtt files.

Edit by deleting text

The transcript is the timeline. Click a word to jump to it, Shift+click to select a stretch, and press Cut: the video and sound go with the words. Remove fillers takes out the ums and ahs, and Remove pauses trims every silence longer than the length you choose.

A full editor, not a toy

• LayersAny number of picture layers over the main track, plus audio tracks for music and voice-over. Picture-in-picture in one click.
• KeyframesAnimate position, size and opacity, with linear, ease and hold curves.
• Effects and transitionsFades, slides, zooms and pops on any picture, and 14 transitions between clips.
• Speed, reverse, flip0.1× slow motion to 10× fast with the pitch kept, play clips backwards with their sound, and mirror any picture.
• Background removalRemove a background with AI (any subject) or with a colour key for green and blue screens.
• Crop and colourCrop with ratio presets, and set brightness, contrast and saturation per clip.

Export for every screen

Preset	Shape
YouTube 1080p or 4K	16:9 landscape
Shorts, Reels, TikTok	9:16 vertical
Instagram square	1:1
Small file	For email and chat

Or pick your own size from 720p to 4K at 24 to 60 fps. ShotCut writes an MP4 with the captions burned in, and uses your graphics card's video encoder (NVIDIA, Intel or AMD) when it can. It opens video, audio, images, GIFs and subtitles: MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, MP3, WAV, M4A, PNG, JPG and more.

Your first captioned video

1. Import media in the top bar, or drop files on the window. Videos go on the main track, pictures on a layer, music on an audio track.
2. In Media, press Transcribe on your video. Captions appear on the caption track when it finishes.
3. Open the Captions tab and pick a preset, such as Bold pop or Karaoke. Drag the caption in the preview to move it; drag a corner to resize the text.
4. Tidy up by text: click a word in the transcript, Shift+click to select more, and press Cut. Try Remove fillers and Remove pauses.
5. Press Export, pick a preset and save the MP4.

Save your work with Ctrl+S. A project is a small .shotcut file that points at your media; it does not copy it.

Go further

• Layers: drag an item above the top layer for a new layer; ▲▼ change the order, and the top layer is in front.
• Keyframes: in the Clip tab, add a keyframe, move the playhead, then move or resize the picture. Pick a curve for the move: linear, ease or hold.
• Crop, Reverse, Flip: select clips (Ctrl+click for several) and use the buttons above the timeline.
• Speed: the slider in the Clip tab goes from 0.1× to 10×, with 1× in the middle.
• Background: in the Clip tab, choose AI (downloads a 43 MB model the first time) or Colour key for a green or blue screen. Restore original undoes it.
• Captions only on some lines: untick All captions, pick captions with Ctrl+click, and style just those.

Keyboard shortcuts

If something goes wrong

• The first start stopped half way. Start the launcher again; it carries on.
• Something stays broken. Start it with --repair, for example ShotCut.bat --repair in a Command Prompt in the app folder, or delete the runtime folder and start again.
• Transcribe fails on Windows. Move the ShotCut folder to a shorter path, such as Documents\ShotCut.
• A video plays slowly in the preview. Formats such as HEVC, MKV and ProRes get a 720p preview copy automatically; the export still uses the original.
• Captions use a different font on macOS or Linux. The font list comes from Windows; pick a font that is installed on your computer.

Update or remove

• Update: if you used git clone, run git pull and start the launcher; it sets up only what changed. With the zip, download the new zip and start it the same way.
• Remove: delete the ShotCut folder, and its settings folder: %APPDATA%\ShotCut on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/ShotCut on macOS, ~/.config/ShotCut on Linux.

Private by design

Your videos never leave your computer. Transcription and background removal run locally, and there is no account, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. ShotCut goes online only to set itself up on the first start, and once to fetch the AI background model when you first use it. Read the ShotCut privacy policy for the full list.

Good to know

• The Windows launcher is tested from a clean PC. The macOS and Linux launchers are new: if one trips, tell us on the wishlist.
• Long videos transcribe and remove backgrounds on the processor, so they take a while. Colour key is much faster than AI.
• Not yet: text titles as their own layer, rotation, LUTs and audio ducking.
• Free and open source under the MIT License. ShotCut is a ThriveLab project and is not related to the Shotcut editor by Meltytech.