OpusClip API needs the $29 Pro plan; Sume prices clips by the job

OpusClip puts its Video Editing API behind the Pro plan at $29 a month, while Sume's docs price each job separately: a trimmed clip costs $0.02 and a burned-in caption pass costs $0.20 for a video up to 60 seconds. At $0.22 per captioned clip plus about $0.60 to transcribe a one-hour source, Sume matches a $29 plan at roughly 130 clips a month; below that it is cheaper, above it the flat plan wins.

The question people actually type is whether an AI clipper has an API. OpusClip's pricing page (read 2026-10-03) says the Video Editing API, the Scheduler API and an MCP connector are available on Pro and Business only. This post prices the pipeline you would build instead of that API, and says plainly what OpusClip does that Sume does not.

What OpusClip's page says

As read on 2026-10-03, OpusClip lists four plans. Free gives basic AI clipping with a 3-day export window and a 1080p cap, and captions carry a watermark. Starter is $15 a month with faster processing, watermark-free exports, virality scoring. Pro is $29 a month with the fastest processing, unlimited exports, 100 GB of storage and a team workspace of 2 to 4 users. Business is custom.

Local uploads are listed up to 10 to 30 GB depending on plan, and public MP4 URLs are accepted on Pro and Business. The text read did not list a per-month clip count or minute allowance for the paid plans, so any monthly volume comparison has to treat OpusClip as a flat fee.

What a Sume clip costs

A Sume clip is three small jobs. Video trim cuts a start-to-end range into a new MP4 for $0.02, with a source up to 1800 seconds and an output up to 900 seconds. Video captions burns styled captions for $0.20 per video up to 60 seconds. If you need to find the clip first, video inspect adds a transcript at $0.01 per audio minute on top of its Modal compute with sentence segments you can score yourself.

For a 45-second clip that is $0.02 plus $0.20, or $0.22. For a one-hour source, add $0.60 of transcript across two inspect jobs, since inspect reads sources up to 1800 seconds each. The calculator below turns that into the break-even against a $29 plan.

import math

def per_clip(caption_seconds=45):
    trim = 0.02
    caption = 0.20 * math.ceil(caption_seconds / 60)
    return trim + caption

def break_even(plan_fee=29.0, source_minutes=60):
    transcript = 0.01 * source_minutes
    return math.ceil((plan_fee - transcript) / per_clip())

print("per clip:", per_clip())
print("clips per month to match a $29 plan:", break_even())

Worked examples

A creator who posts 20 clips a month from one weekly hour-long show pays $0.60 for the transcript and 20 times $0.22 on Sume, which is $5.00. The same creator on Pro pays $29. A studio running five shows at 100 clips each pays $3.00 for transcripts and $110 for clips on Sume, against $29 (or whatever Business costs) on the vendor side. The crossover is the 130 clips the script prints for a single one-hour source.

This week's platform change moves the math in one direction. Instagram Reels now run to 3 minutes according to Metricool (read 2026-10-03). A clip longer than 60 seconds needs more than one caption job on Sume, so this post prices a 3-minute Reel captioned end to end as three jobs, $0.60 (the docs state no price above 60 seconds), plus a trim. Long clips lose the per-job advantage faster than short ones.

What Sume does and does not do here

• Sume does not pick clips for you or score virality. You choose start and end times, from a transcript or from your own analytics.
• Sume does not publish or schedule. OpusClip lists a Scheduler API; Sume ends at an MP4 on media.sume.com.
• Sume does take a start, an end and an Idempotency-Key, so a retry with the same key is safe. Poll GET /v1/jobs/:id/status and read the result when it completes.
• Sume bills each job at its listed rate; the trim, caption and inspect docs read for this post mention no monthly fee.

What to do

Count your clips. Under about 130 captioned clips a month, script the trims and caption jobs and pay by the job. Over 130, or if you want virality scoring and scheduling in one place, the $29 plan is the better buy. Either way, keep captioned clips at 60 seconds or less, because that is the line where Sume's caption price stays at $0.20.