Spend less on AI

Cutscript is free. The AI steps run on your own accounts, and those providers charge you. Cutscript shows a price before most paid steps, so the way to spend less is to read that price and to know which steps cost nothing at all. This page is the short version. The full list of prices is in Prices before every paid step.

How the price preview works

Under the message box in the AI chat, a line shows two figures, such as "≈ $0.05 · up to $0.44". The first is a typical cost. The second is the most the step could cost. While Cutscript works it out the line reads "Pricing…", and the tooltip lists each call and its model. If a step could cost more than your limit, the line adds "over your $0.50 limit" and asks for a second click.

Other places show a price first:

• The plan card in Direct my video. Continue carries the price of the plan, and Approve plan carries the most the run may spend.
• Check by image in the clipper, and the Look at the frames too button in a review.
• Enhance voice with a paid engine, in a Confirm the price step.
• The Transcribe… dialog and the New project dialog, which price a transcription for the length of your file. The model list in Settings › AI › Transcription shows each price per hour of audio.

A few steps have no price shown. The Transcribe button in an empty script starts at once with your default model, and so do Transcribe automatically after a recording and creating a project from the home screen. Analyze with AI on a brand kit also has no price line. Check your default in Settings › AI › Transcription, or turn the option off in Settings › Recording.

What costs nothing

Prefer these when they do the job. A request such as "cut this down to the best 60 seconds" is a paid AI step. A clean-up pass with the three tools usually gets most of the way for nothing.

Settings that cap spending

Open Settings › AI › AI director › Behaviour & limits.

• Per message starts at $0.50. A message that could cost more asks for a second click first.
• Per design starts at $4. A graphic that could cost more asks first.
• Per day is Off by default, so there is no daily limit. Choose Limit to set one. It starts at $15, and past it the director waits until tomorrow.

These limits count the AI director's OpenRouter and fal.ai spending. Transcription, voiceover, music and sound effects are charged by their provider and never count here, so watch those by their prices. A card shows Spent today with a breakdown by provider.

The same page has settings that make each design cheaper:

• Richness set to Lean makes no generated pictures. Standard allows up to one a turn, Rich up to two.
• Look rounds is how many times the model looks at its own frames and improves a new design. It starts at 3 and can go down to 1.
• After a change is the same for a change you ask for. It starts at 1 and can be Off.
• Check rounds can be Off, 1 or 2. Each is a paid call.
• Wait at the storyboard set to With pictures, the default, stops before any picture is made, so you see its price first.

Choose where the text runs

Text calls, the AI director's planning and writing, can run on a plan instead of on a per-use key.

• With a ChatGPT plan or a Claude plan, text calls cost nothing extra in Cutscript and do not count toward the limits above. They use up your plan's own allowance.
• Pictures are always priced, on OpenRouter or fal.ai.
• Neither plan can transcribe, and neither makes pictures.

Under Settings › AI › AI director › Model, each model shows its price. A smaller model is cheaper for plain edits. Keep the strongest one for design, where it matters.

See Connect an AI account.

Pictures are off until you choose

The image model starts at None, so no AI picture is made until you pick one in Settings › AI › Images. Design pack graphics and graphics built from type, shapes and charts need none.

Habits that save money

• Approve free parts only in a plan runs the free items and leaves the priced ones out. Judge the result, then ask for what is still missing.
• Leave Auto off while you are testing. With Auto on, the AI applies changes and runs steps up to the price on the Send line without asking.
• Choose before you transcribe. Re-transcribing is another charge. See Get accurate transcripts.
• Change Strength, not engine. After a paid Enhance voice run, a new Strength or Polish re-mixes what you already paid for.
• Use Free checks only in the clipper when the clips look right.

Related

• How AI works in Cutscript
• Prices before every paid step
• Transcription