BaseCut guide
What the credits mean
Your plan is measured in credits - minutes of footage you point BaseCut at - not in cuts you make.
Last updated: 2026-10-21
The unit is footage, not cuts
Your plan is measured in credits. A credit is one minute of source footage that you point BaseCut at.
It is not a minute of finished video. It is not one cut.
A single interview day is often two to three hours of footage.
Credits and minutes
- 1 credit = 1 minute of source footage.
- Part-minutes are rounded down. 119 seconds of footage costs 1 credit.
- Every new shoot costs at least 1 credit. 20 seconds of footage costs 1 credit, not 0.
- The number of credits is shown on the AI Rough Cut button before you press it.
- The one charge that is not footage:reading a client's website costs 1 credit, and only when you turn that option on. It is added to the number the AI Rough Cut button shows, before you press it.
Re-cutting a loaded shoot is free
BaseCut counts each shoot once.
Change the brief. Change the length. Press AI Rough Cut again. Do it ten times. It costs nothing after the first time.
This holds within the month your credits cover. After your credits reset, the first cut of that shoot counts again, and re-cuts after that are free again.
This is deliberate. The brief is the steering wheel, and you should be able to turn it.
The three plans
| Plan | Per month | Per year | Credits each month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intro | $15 | $150 | 350 credits (about 6 h of footage) |
| Pro | $40 | $400 | 1,250 credits (about 21 h of footage) |
| Studio | $100 | $1,000 | 4,000 credits (about 67 h of footage) |
Every step up is better value. Intro works out at 4.3 cents a credit, Pro at 3.2 cents, and Studio at 2.5 cents, so Studio is 42% cheaper per credit than Intro.
An annual plan is ten months' price for twelve months of service. Two months are free.
You can also buy a top-up pack: 300 extra credits for $18. You buy it from your account page when you want it. It is never billed automatically. Top-up credits are used after your plan's monthly credits, oldest first, and last 12 months from purchase.
What happens when you reach the limit
BaseCut stops. It never bills you for more. There is no overage charge.
You see this message:
You have used 5h 50m of your 5h 50m of source footage on Intro. It resets on 3 October 2026. Upgrade at https://arcenginetools.com/account, or add a top-up at https://arcenginetools.com/account/top-up, to keep cutting now.
The message names three things: how much you used, how much you had, and the day your credits come back.
If you are on a free trial, the message is different:
Your BaseCut trial is used up: 2h 30m of 2h 30m of source footage. Subscribe from $15 a month at https://arcenginetools.com/account to keep cutting.
The free trial is a fixed allowance of 150 credits, and it runs for 14 days. It does not reset. Cancel from your account on this site before day 15 and you pay nothing.
When your credits come back
Your credits reset every month, on the day your billing month turns over. Your account page shows the exact date.
Carrying credits over
Annual plans only.If you do not use all of one month's credits, some of them roll into the next month.
- The most you can carry is half of your monthly allowance.
- It carries one month only. It does not build up.
- So you can never hold more than one and a half months of credits at once.
Monthly plans carry nothing. This is what the annual commitment buys.
Where to see your usage
Go to arcenginetools.com/account. It shows credits used, credits left, and the reset date. That page is the truth. The panel shows one run.
Still stuck
Email support@arcenginetools.com and you get a reply from a person within one business day. Include the diagnostics block from the panel if you can reach it.