The Descript price increase, and who it actually reached

Descript’s 24 September 2025 announcement changed the Free plan, not paid pricing. Free moved to 60 media minutes a month and 100 lifetime AI credits, replacing transcription hours with two meters. Paid subscribers kept their plan and price until auto-migration began on 17 November 2025. Verified 5 September 2026, Creator now costs $24 per person a month billed annually.

What Descript changed about the way it charges

Descript replaced transcription hours with two separate meters. It did not do that to everyone at once.

From transcription hours to two meters

Media minutes count what you upload or record. AI credits count what Descript’s AI tools do. Transcription time is no longer tracked at all, per Descript’s Legacy and Sunset guide, retrieved 5 September 2026.

Three plan states, three different answers

Free accounts moved on 23 September 2025, announced in Descript’s changelog entry the following day — which is why secondary coverage splits between the two dates. Paid subscribers kept their plan and price at that point. Anyone still on Legacy or Sunset moved later, on the schedule in section four.

Descript’s current plan prices and limits

Descript publishes four self-serve tiers plus a custom Enterprise plan, all priced per person.

Annual and monthly rates per person

All figures from Descript’s pricing page, which states annual billing saves up to 35% against monthly, retrieved 5 September 2026.

🗓️ Pricing verified 5 September 2026. Software pricing changes frequently — confirm on the vendor’s site before purchasing.

What each plan includes per seat

Every figure above is per Editor seat, and allowances pool across the drive. Three Creator seats are billed three times over and share one pool. Top-ups are available on Creator and Business only; Hobbyist and Free cannot buy past the cap.

What media minutes and AI credits actually count

The meters count more than most people expect, which is how a bill rises without a price rising.

Media minutes: everything you upload or record

Uploads, recordings, Rooms sessions and screen, webcam or microphone captures all draw down media minutes, per how Descript meters usage, retrieved 5 September 2026. Still images count as one second each. A one-hour Rooms session with five participants uses 60 minutes, not 300.

🔍 Why It Works This Way: The unit changed, not only the number. A transcription hour metered what you chose to transcribe. A media hour meters what you bring in — transcribed or not, kept in the final cut or not.

AI credits: every AI action, including chat

Studio Sound, Green Screen, Eye Contact, filler-word removal, AI speech, avatars, generated video and Underlord all spend credits. Chatting with Underlord spends them even when no tool runs, and Underlord charges for both its own reasoning step and the tool it triggers. Studio Sound and Remove Filler Words are capped at 30 credits per application, verified 5 September 2026.

The rules that cost people money after the switch

Four mechanics turned a plan change into an unexpected charge for some subscribers.

Nothing rolls over

Unused media minutes and AI credits do not carry from one month to the next, verified 5 September 2026. Purchased top-ups do, for twelve months from purchase.

What happened on your renewal date

From 17 November 2025, Legacy and Sunset subscribers were migrated automatically on their following billing date — a monthly plan renewing on the 1st moved on 1 December 2025, an annual plan on its next annual renewal. Descript’s guide states most customers would not see a price change, though some Legacy or Sunset prices could increase to match current pricing. Its September announcement promised at least 30 days’ notice.

The transcription hours that disappeared

⚠️ This Costs You: Transcription hour purchases are non-refundable, and unused hours — including monthly add-ons already paid for — did not carry over at migration. If you prepaid hours before your renewal date, that balance was forfeited, not converted.

What overage costs, then and now

Both worlds sell extra capacity, and the published rates are directly comparable — with one caveat that matters more than the arithmetic.

Bundle prices from Descript’s published top-up rates, retrieved 5 September 2026; effective rates are our division of those figures. AI credits are sold the same way, from $0.10 down to $0.05 per credit — our Descript top-up cost breakdown works through every bundle.

💵 Verified: One Studio Sound pass is capped at 30 credits, so it costs up to $3.00 at the smallest bundle rate and $1.50 at the largest — our calculation from Descript’s Help Center figures, retrieved 5 September 2026.

These rows are not the same unit, and reading them as a flat 2.5× increase overstates it. For the seat prices Descript charged before this, see our Descript price history; for what a full year costs across every tier, see the extra costs behind each Descript pricing tier.

What to check on your own account

Three checks, in order, and the first one decides the other two.

Find out which plan you’re on

Open your App Settings and click the Plan tab; the plan name sits at the top. If it says Legacy or Sunset, the migration schedule above applies to you.

Top up or move tier

Descript’s own guidance is to top up for a temporary spike or a deadline, and to upgrade if you run out consistently or need more seats and storage.

If you want money back or want out

✅ Do This: Refunds are available if you cancel and request within 48 hours of the invoice date, per Descript’s refund policy, retrieved 5 September 2026. Downgrades and cancellations are not prorated and take effect at the end of the billing cycle. Top-up purchases are final.

🧾 Not Tested: We hold no paid Descript drive and none of our accounts carried a Legacy or Sunset plan through migration. We could not observe a migrated invoice, a usage meter at zero, or a top-up purchase. Every figure here comes from Descript’s own public pages on the date shown.

Frequently asked questions

The short version

Descript’s September 2025 change was narrower than most coverage says: Free plans moved, paid plans were warned. The repricing that touched paid subscribers arrived at auto-migration from 17 November 2025. Open your App Settings, read the plan name, then check the two meters against how you actually work.