Why CentClip Charges Per Usage for Adding Subtitles to Video, Not a Subscription

Every tool for adding subtitles to video that you’ve probably tried charges the same way: a flat fee every month, whether you caption one video or fifty. CentClip charges for what you use instead: 5 cents per minute of video captioned, and nothing else.

Usage-based, not subscription-based

A subscription bets that you’ll use the product consistently enough to justify a fixed monthly cost. That’s a fine bet for tools you open daily. It’s a bad bet for captioning, which most creators do in bursts: a few videos this week, nothing for the next three, then a backlog to clear before a launch. A subscription charges you the same $19-69 in either case. Usage-based pricing charges you for the weeks you actually work, and nothing for the weeks you don’t.

What a subscription actually costs you

Tool	Pricing model	Cost for 40 min/month	Cost in a month you caption nothing
CentClip	Pay-per-minute	$2	$0
VEED	Subscription	~$12-15	~$12-15
Descript	Subscription	~$16	~$16
Kapwing	Subscription	~$16	~$16
Submagic	Subscription	~$16	~$16
Rev (AI captions)	Pay-per-minute	$10	$0

Rev is the useful comparison here, not just the subscription tools: it’s also usage-based, and it’s still 5x CentClip’s rate per minute. Pay-per-use pricing isn’t automatically cheap. CentClip is usage-based and priced low, which is a separate decision from the pricing model itself.

The subscription tools above aren’t overpriced for what they do: several of them bundle a full timeline video editor and team collaboration features, which CentClip deliberately doesn’t try to be. CentClip does have its own caption-specific editor (click a word, fix it, timing stays locked to the audio) and preset caption styles you can save as your own template, so you’re not missing captioning features by choosing it. What you’re skipping is the rest of the bundle: cutting, trimming, multi-clip timelines, shared team workspaces. The comparison only breaks in the subscription tools’ favor if you’re using that part of the bundle enough to justify paying for it every month regardless of volume.

The part we don’t advertise: usage-based pricing is harder to run

A subscription is easier to build a business on. The revenue is predictable months in advance, and you never have to explain to a customer exactly how a charge was calculated. Usage-based pricing gives up both of those things: we only get paid when you caption something, and every charge has to map to a number you can check yourself (a 4-minute video costs 4 credits, always, no fine print). We chose the harder version on purpose, because it’s the only one where the price you pay tracks the value you got that month instead of tracking the calendar.

That’s really the whole argument for usage-based pricing in one sentence: cost should match value received, not time elapsed. A subscription charges you for access whether or not you used it. Usage-based pricing charges you for the thing itself.

How CentClip’s pricing works

• 1 credit = 1 minute of video.
• $10 = 200 credits = 200 minutes.
• 5 minutes free to start — real, clean exports, no watermark.
• Buy credits once; use them whenever. They never expire, so a slow month doesn’t cost you anything you already paid for.