Use case
One request per client video returns up to 20 ranked vertical clips with burned-in captions, titles and post captions, at $0.03 per source minute and $0.02 past 2,000 minutes a month.
Clipping agency API: every client's long videos into ranked, captioned shorts
A podcast episode just under 10 minutes long, with a client brief as the prompt, comes back as 6 ranked clips in under 2 minutes for about $0.29.
All use casesUpdated
What a month of client video costs
The price follows source minutes, not clips or clippers. Past 2,000 minutes in a month, every minute costs $0.02.
| Client video a month | Billed as | Cost | Per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 hours | 600 min at $0.03 | $18 | $0.030 |
| 20 hours | 1,200 min at $0.03 | $36 | $0.030 |
| 80 hours | 2,000 min at $0.03 and 2,800 at $0.02 | $116 | $0.024 |
| 200 hours | 2,000 min at $0.03 and 10,000 at $0.02 | $260 | $0.022 |
| 500 hours | 2,000 min at $0.03 and 28,000 at $0.02 | $620 | $0.021 |
For a source up to 1080p60 and 20 Mb/s, asking for more clips doesn't raise the price. Failed jobs cost nothing. See pricing.
From client upload to posted clip
Make a key per client
In the dashboard, create one named API key per client or clipper team, up to 10 active keys per account. Each key gets its own webhook secret and can be revoked alone, and only the key that started a job can read it back. Limits are shared across the account.
Send each video with the client's brief
Upload the file with
POST /v1/uploadsor send a direct link to it. Put the client's brief inprompt, up to 500 characters, and pick its caption preset. Send anIdempotency-Keyso a retry never starts or bills a second job.Take the webhook
clipsdk POSTs the finished job to your
webhook_url, signed with HMAC-SHA256, and tries 5 times. Check the signature, then hand the clips to that client's queue. Webhooks has the code.Review, then post
Clips come back best first. Post 80 and up as they are, look hard at 50 to 79, skip anything under 50. Copy the files you keep: they expire after 7 days.
The request behind the clip
This is the exact request behind the clip above. It asked for 8 clips and got 6: clipsdk sends fewer when a video has fewer good moments. Only when it finds fewer than 3 does it fill up to 3, and those extra clips score 49 or less.
curl https://api.clipsdk.com/v1/clips \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $CLIPSDK_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"video_url": "https://api.clipsdk.com/f/lib/demo/rocket-ranch-podcast.mp4",
"clips": 8,
"aspect": "9:16",
"reframe": "auto",
"captions": "bold",
"prompt": "moments about landing on Mars and the search for ancient life"
}'One pipeline for every client
Creators, podcasts and brands all go through the same call. What changes per client lives in the request: the caption preset, the aspect ratio, how many clips, how long, and a prompt with the client's brief, like the one in the request above.
Every clip comes back with a title and a post caption with at most 3 hashtags, so a clipper starts from a draft instead of a blank box. The score and its one-line reason tell them which clips need a second look.
Editors who work in Claude Code or Cursor can run the same jobs through clipsdk-mcp, our open-source MCP server, and get the clips saved straight into a project folder.
Staying inside the limits
An account runs 3 jobs at once and 200 a day, with 20 GB of uploads a day, across all its keys. Keep your own queue, send 3 at a time, and when the API answers 429, wait for Retry-After and send again. Keep $5.40 of credit for each job you run at once: until clipsdk has checked a video's length, its job holds up to that much, and a job that finds less than $0.03 free gets 402 INSUFFICIENT_CREDIT.
Once your volume is past that, email us with your numbers and we raise the limits on your account. Limits lists every one.
What a client video costs
You pay $0.03 per source minute, and $0.02 for every minute past 2,000 in a month. The episode above, just under 10 minutes, cost about $0.29 for 6 clips. Eighty hours of client video in a month comes to $116, so you know the cost of a client before you quote them.
New accounts get $1 free, which is 33 minutes, enough to run one real client video before you pay.
Questions, answered
How much does clipsdk cost per client video?
$0.03 per source minute, and $0.02 per minute past 2,000 in a month, every clip included up to 1080p60 and 20 Mb/s. A 10-minute episode costs $0.30, and a 60 minute podcast $1.80.
Can each agency client have its own API key?
Yes, up to 10 active keys per account. Create a named key per client or clipper team in the dashboard. Each key has its own webhook secret and can be revoked without touching the others, and `GET /v1/jobs/{id}` only answers to the key that started the job. Limits are shared across the account.
How many videos can an agency clip a day?
200 jobs a day and 3 at once per account by default, with 20 GB of uploads a day. Over a limit the API answers `429` with `Retry-After`. Email us and we raise the limits for your volume.
Do the clips carry a clipsdk watermark?
No. Clips come back as clean MP4s with captions burned in in one of 3 presets, or no captions at all. Nothing marks them as made by clipsdk.
Keep reading
- Whop clippingClip Content Rewards campaign videos without code: ranked 9:16 clips, captions burned in, no watermark and a post caption for each.
- Turn every podcast episode into a week of shortsUpload a podcast episode and get up to 20 vertical clips, each scored 0 to 100 with a reason, reframed to the speaker and captioned. A 60 minute episode costs ~$1.80.
- clipsdk webhooksclipsdk POSTs job.succeeded or job.failed to your HTTPS URL, signed with HMAC-SHA256. Reply 2xx within 15 s. 5 attempts: right away, then 10 s, 1 min, 5 min and 30 min after each failure.
- clipsdk limitsclipsdk limits per account: 3 jobs at once, 200 jobs and 20 GB of uploads per UTC day. Videos up to 3 hours and 5 GB, 1 to 20 clips of 10 to 90 s, files kept 7 days.
- Best OpusClip alternativesTen OpusClip alternatives ranked on price per minute, free plan, watermark, the links they take and API access.
- Cut every lesson and webinar into teaser clipsUpload a lesson or webinar and get up to 20 ranked teaser clips with minimal captions and SRT files. A 45 minute lesson costs ~$1.35 and a 90 minute webinar ~$2.70.
Sources
- clipsdk API summary (llms.txt), checked 7 November 2026
- clipsdk-mcp on GitHub, checked 7 November 2026
Start free
Your back catalog is full of shorts
Your first $1 is free: 33 minutes of video, every clip included up to 1080p60 and 20 Mb/s.
