# Riverside AI in 2026: Co-Creator, Magic Clips, Credits and Real Costs

> What Riverside's AI does on each plan: Co-Creator and Magic Clips with no credits, translation and AI Twins on credits, plus the AI-training clause, MCP.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/riverside-ai — The Professional's Toolkit · updated October 2026_

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**100 credits** — Per minute of AI Translation, about $2 a minute at pack prices by our arithmetic.



- **$0.02** — Per AI credit, at every pack size
- **3 sets** — Magic Clips per recording on Pro, Grow and Webinar
- **60 min** — Longest video AI Translation accepts


## Riverside AI in one answer

Riverside's AI does two different jobs, and they are priced in two different ways. The cleanup and repurposing layer, which covers Co-Creator, Magic Clips, Magic Episodes, filler-word removal and Smart Mute, runs on every plan and spends no AI credits, though Free gets a single watermarked Magic Clip. The generative layer, which covers AI Translation, AI Twin, voice clones and AI B-roll, starts at Pro and draws on credits that do not renew each month. Extra packs cost $2 per 100 credits, and one minute of translated video takes 100 of them. **That is about $2 a minute.** Buy Riverside for the first layer. Meter the second.

The split decides your plan. If you record in one language and edit your own show, Pro already covers what matters without credits: exported Magic Audio, show notes, custom clip settings and caption presets. Credits matter for teams that localize video or script avatar clips. Grow adds the MCP server and Co-Creator thumbnails. Business adds more clip sets, clones of guests, and the only way to keep recordings out of model training. Paid plans include a starting balance of AI credits. Plan prices are in our [Riverside pricing guide](/articles/riverside-pricing).

## What every plan gets without spending credits

Co-Creator is the chat assistant in the top right corner of the editor and on each project page. You type a request and it trims the recording, removes filler words, adds captions and music, or drafts a blog post, a description and social captions from the transcript. It runs on all plans in the browser, the Mac app and the iOS app. Not on Android. One detail catches people out: its Revert button only works during the current editing session, so check an edit before you close the tab.

After each recording, Riverside fills a Made for You tab on its own. A Magic Episode applies Smart Layouts, Smart Mute, pause removal and animated captions to the full recording. Magic Clips are 30 to 90 second highlights, made only for content longer than 3 minutes with a transcript, at roughly two clips per 5 minutes of talk; Riverside calls the feature experimental. Magic Segments are 3 to 10 minute excerpts and need over 15 minutes of content. Posts, meaning a blog post and an Instagram caption, come out in English only, even for a Spanish transcript.

Clips are not unlimited. **Every recording over 3 minutes with a transcript gets one automatic set of Magic Clips, and Pro, Grow and Webinar can generate two more, for three in total**; Business gets five sets.[1] Deleting clips does not give a set back. The Free plan allows a single AI clip, with the watermark. Paid plans can steer extra sets by duration, speaker and keyword, and each clip gets a score from 99 down to 70 against the rest of its batch, so you know where to start reviewing.

The cleanup tools are the quiet workhorses. Pause and filler-word removal run on all plans, with a review card per filler and a Remove all button. Smart Mute silences other participants while the main speaker talks. Smart Layouts picks the active speaker from speech and head nods, but overrides scenes you placed by hand. Magic Audio cuts background noise and reverb. Anyone can try it, but exporting the enhanced audio needs Pro or higher.


> 💡 **Buy credits one job at a time:** Every pack costs the same $0.02 a credit and unused credits are never refunded, so a larger pack saves nothing. First spend the starting balance your plan includes, then buy the smallest pack that covers the rest.


| Riverside AI tool | Lowest plan | Uses AI credits |
|---|---|---|
| Co-Creator, Magic Episodes, filler and pause removal, Smart Mute | Free | No |
| Magic Clips | Free (one clip) | No |
| Magic Audio export, show notes, AI Voice | Pro | No |
| AI Translation, AI Twin, voice clone, AI B-roll, Smooth cuts | Pro | Yes |
| MCP server, Co-Creator thumbnails | Grow | No |
| Twins and voice clones of guests | Business | Yes |



> ⚠ **Credits do not refill each month:** AI credits do not renew monthly and are never carried forward or refunded, so a heavy translation month means buying packs.

## The Pro tools that generate your voice, face and language

AI Voice turns typed text into speech in your own voice, and only yours. It needs a recording of at least two minutes from the last 120 days in which you speak for at least 30 seconds. Each generation takes up to 2,000 characters, with 5,000 characters a month. VideoDub fixes a flubbed line without a retake: it replaces up to two words at a time with one dubbed word and syncs the lips. It works only on Riverside recordings, never in the first 3 seconds, and full sentences are not supported.

Voice clones and AI Twins go further. A voice clone, still in beta, captures only the host's voice and reads scripts of up to 5,000 characters. An AI Twin is a video avatar built from at least 8 seconds of you speaking on camera, browser only. Rendering takes up to 11 minutes. Pro, Grow and Webinar allow five of each per studio, and Business has no cap. **Both consume credits**: 200 per minute of twin video and 200 per hour of cloned audio.

AI Translation re-voices a video in 30 languages, keeping each speaker's voice with optional lip sync, at 100 credits a minute.[2] The limits are strict. The recording needs video, at most 60 minutes, up to four speakers and no screen share. Processing takes about 20 minutes per minute of video, so a half-hour episode is an overnight job. Translation converts everything, even brand names. VideoDub can switch selected words back afterward.

AI B-roll generates footage from a text prompt, about 8 seconds per Veo3 generation, and shows the
credit cost before you confirm, because Riverside's own pages disagree on the rate. Smooth cuts
hides jump cuts on Pro and up and bills only for the cuts it actually smooths, but skips 4K video
and audio-only recordings. Image and video generation is listed on all plans yet runs on credits,
which only paid plans hold. It is still in beta.


> 💡 **Set clip defaults before generating:** Magic Clips defaults for ratio, layout, duration and brand are saved per studio and also used when Co-Creator makes clips. Set them first, because deleting clips does not give a set back.


## How AI credits work, and what a job really costs

Credits come in one-time packs: 100 for $2, 1,000 for $20, 3,000 for $60, 8,000 for $160, 10,000 for $200 and 20,000 for $400. They do not renew monthly, and the refund policy says unused credits are never refunded or carried forward. They cannot be transferred and have no cash value. Only account owners and admins can buy more, and Business accounts that pay by wire go through their customer success manager. Riverside still labels the credit system as beta.

Here is what common jobs cost at one-time pack prices, by our arithmetic. One 30-minute episode translated into one language uses 3,000 credits, a one-time $60. The same episode in three languages uses 9,000 credits, a one-time $180 in packs. A 3-minute AI Twin video uses 600 credits, a one-time $12. One hour of cloned audio uses 200 credits, a one-time $4. Per minute, though, a twin costs double. AI Twin takes 200 credits a minute against translation's 100, about $4 against $2, so 30 minutes of twin video, made from several scripts since each takes up to 5,000 characters, would use 6,000 credits, a one-time $120.

**Every pack works out to the same $0.02 a credit**, from 100 credits to 20,000. So a bigger pack
buys no discount at any volume, while a credit you never spend is simply lost. The rational rule
is to buy per job: first spend the starting balance your plan includes, then price the minutes you
plan to translate or generate and buy the smallest pack, or combination of packs. That covers the
rest. Descript works the other way, with AI credits that reset every month and do not roll over;
our [Riverside vs Descript comparison](/articles/riverside-vs-descript) sets the two models side
by side.


> ⚠ **Your content can train Riverside's models:** Riverside may use recordings, transcripts and AI prompts to train its own AI. Only business-plan customers can opt out, through a written agreement.


## Your recordings can train Riverside's AI

Read this clause before you upload client calls. Riverside's Privacy Policy, revised on 15 June 2026, lets it use content data, meaning recordings, transcripts and your AI prompts and outputs, to train its own AI and machine learning models.[3] The Terms of 5 October 2026 say the same. **Only customers on a business plan can opt out, and only through a written agreement.** Everyone else can avoid some AI features only by not using them. Third-party AI providers may not train on your inputs or outputs, and voice and face data is deleted once the feature has finished.

Synthetic media carries its own rules. You agree to a consent notice before cloning your own voice or face. Cloning a guest is Business only: the guest records a consent video in the browser from an invite link, with no account needed, and Riverside trains only on that session's footage. The Terms say Riverside may not verify consent and disclaims liability for missing consents. Customers also indemnify Riverside against guest claims. Synthetic output is machine-marked, and you must disclose AI content where the law requires it.

## Driving Riverside from Claude or ChatGPT with MCP

Grow, Webinar and Business accounts can connect the Riverside MCP server, so an outside AI agent works on your library. Setup is one click for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor, and a command for Codex and Claude Code. An agent can search transcripts, create cut-down edits and exports, schedule social posts and manage podcasts. It cannot download exported files or schedule recording sessions. Its edits open as new edits rather than overwriting yours, and MCP use spends no credits. Personal ChatGPT plans can run read-only tasks only.

Moving up from Pro to Grow for this costs $10 a month on either billing term, or $120 a year billed annually, by our arithmetic. Grow also brings live streaming and social scheduling, so weigh the whole plan rather than MCP alone. Social accounts must be connected inside Riverside before an agent can publish to them. For a team that already plans and writes in an AI assistant, the step is easy to justify.


## FAQ

**Can I stop Riverside from generating clips and episodes after every recording?**

Yes. In the Workflows tab of the Personalize hub you can turn off automatic Magic Clips, Magic Episode and show notes per asset; assets already generated stay.

**Do Magic Clips work on cloud backup recordings?**

No. Single-track editing features, Magic Clips included, cannot be used on cloud recording files, which may also be lower resolution than the local tracks.

**Can someone on an Editor seat use AI Translation?**

Yes, as long as the account has AI credits. Editors can also use AI Voice and VideoDub and publish to YouTube.

**Can I edit or regenerate a transcript without losing AI work?**

Corrections are kept until you regenerate the transcript. Regenerating replaces it on every edit and clip, and manual corrections and VideoDub changes do not carry over.


## The bottom line

Riverside's AI is strongest where it costs nothing extra: Co-Creator, Magic Clips and the cleanup tools turn one recording into an edited episode and a set of clips on any plan, and Pro unlocks exported Magic Audio and show notes. The generative tools are real but metered, and translation at about $2 a minute is the line to budget for. Buy credits per job, remember the training clause before uploading sensitive calls, and choose Business only if a written opt-out or guest clones matter.



## Sources

[1] Riverside Help: About Magic Clips — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/12124048765981-About-Magic-Clips (2026-10)
[2] Riverside Help: AI credits — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us/articles/28812004829853-AI-credits (2026-10)
[3] Privacy Policy — https://riverside.com/privacy-policy (2026-10)
[4] VEED pricing page — https://riverside.com/pricing
[5] Riverside Help Center — https://support.riverside.com/hc/en-us
[6] Riverside Terms and Conditions — https://riverside.com/terms-conditions
[7] G2, Riverside reviews — https://www.g2.com/products/riverside/reviews