How to Use Clipchamp (Microsoft’s Video Editor) — Full Beginner Guide

To use Clipchamp, open the app from the Start menu or go to app.clipchamp.com and sign in with a personal Microsoft account, click Create a new video, drag your clips onto the timeline, trim and arrange them, then click Export and pick 1080p. That is the whole workflow — and the part most guides bury is that the free plan exports unlimited videos at up to 1080p with no watermark, so for YouTube, social clips, and work presentations, you may never need to pay anything.

I verified every step in this guide against Clipchamp’s official pricing page and Microsoft’s own support documentation, checked on the day of writing. One honest limit: this run had no live signed-in Clipchamp session to click through, so where a menu label or a default comes from Microsoft’s docs rather than my own screen, I say so. The plan limits, export resolutions, and feature lists below are Microsoft’s own words — not a rewrite of another tutorial.

Clipchamp is Microsoft’s built-in video editor, and it is the one most Windows 11 users already have without realizing it. It started as an Australian startup founded in Brisbane in 2013, and by the time Microsoft acquired it in September 2021 it had more than 17 million registered users, according to the company’s own figures reported at the acquisition. Microsoft folded it into Windows 11 and Microsoft 365, and today it is the default answer to “what video editor comes with Windows?” — a browser-based editor that also ships as a Windows app, with a timeline, stock library, screen recorder, and AI tools that used to cost real money elsewhere.

What does Clipchamp’s plan include?

Clipchamp has two tiers, and the line between them is narrower than most editors’. The free plan is genuinely usable for real work — unlimited exports, no watermark, and the AI tools included — while Premium is really about 4K exports, premium stock, and the brand kit. Here is Microsoft’s own comparison, from the pricing page I checked today:

The practical read: if your audience watches on phones and laptops, 1080p is enough and the free plan does the job. Pay only if you genuinely need 4K delivery, premium stock footage, or a brand kit for client work. There is no separate Clipchamp Premium subscription to buy on its own for personal accounts anymore — Premium features come with a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plan. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, you already have Premium; check before paying twice. Work and school accounts follow different rules: Clipchamp Standard is included with selected Microsoft 365 business and education licenses, and full premium AI features there need a Copilot license.

How do I open Clipchamp?

There are three ways in, and they all land in the same editor. Use whichever is fastest for what you are doing:

1. The Windows app: press the Windows key, type Clipchamp, and press Enter. It comes preinstalled on Windows 11, so on most PCs there is nothing to download. If it is missing, install Microsoft Clipchamp from the Microsoft Store.
2. The browser: go to app.clipchamp.com in Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome and sign in with a personal Microsoft account. Microsoft says Clipchamp works fully only in Edge and Chrome — other browsers may load it, but expect missing features.
3. Straight from a video file: right-click any video in File Explorer and choose Edit with Clipchamp, or open a video in the Photos app and choose Create a video. This opens a project with that file already loaded in the library and on the timeline — the fastest route when you already know which clip you want to cut.

Signing in is required even on the free plan — Clipchamp saves your projects to your Microsoft account and backs content up to OneDrive. You can sign in with a personal Microsoft account, or with a Google, Facebook, or other email account if you prefer, but the Microsoft account is the one that unlocks OneDrive backup and sync. One account warning worth knowing: personal and work or school accounts keep separate projects. If you sign in with the wrong account, your videos will simply not be there — switch accounts rather than assuming the project is lost.

How do I make my first video in Clipchamp?

Your first edit takes about ten minutes once your clips are on the PC. The loop is always the same: import, place on the timeline, refine, add text and audio, preview, export.

1. Start a blank project. From the Clipchamp home screen, click Create a new video. Pick the aspect ratio first — 16:9 for YouTube and presentations, 9:16 for TikTok and Reels, 1:1 for a square feed post. Changing it later means re-framing every clip, so decide before you import.
2. Import your media. Click Import media and select your video clips, photos, and audio from your PC, or drag and drop files straight into the media tab. You can also import from OneDrive. Note the recent change: direct imports from Google Drive, Dropbox, and Xbox have been removed for personal accounts, so pull those files onto your PC first.
3. Put clips on the timeline. Drag each clip from the media library down to the timeline at the bottom. The timeline is where the editing happens — everything above it is just a library. Clips snap together end to end, so drag them in the order you want them to play.
4. Trim the rough edges. Click a clip to select it, then drag its left or right edge inward to cut the start or end. Use the split tool (the scissors icon above the timeline, or the S key) to cut a clip in the middle, then delete the part you do not want.
5. Add text and audio. Open the Text tab for titles and lower-thirds, and the Audio tab for music and sound effects. Drag text onto the timeline above your video clip, and music onto the audio track below it.
6. Preview, then export. Press the play button above the timeline to watch the whole thing through once. When it is right, click Export in the top right, choose 1080p, and save the MP4 to your computer or OneDrive.

One habit that saves beginners real time: import everything before you start cutting. Clipchamp processes media as you add it, and hunting for the next clip mid-edit is how a ten-minute video becomes an hour-long session. If you are comparing Clipchamp with other editors before committing to it, my roundup of video editing software with no watermark puts it side by side with the other no-cost options.

How do I trim, split, and arrange clips on the timeline?

The timeline has three kinds of tracks: video tracks on top, audio tracks below, and text or graphics sitting above the video they belong to. A few techniques cover almost all beginner editing:

• Trim: drag a clip’s edge inward. The preview updates live, so trim while watching the frame you want to end on, not the timecode.
• Split: move the playhead (the vertical line) to the cut point, select the clip, and click the scissors icon or press S. Splitting is how you remove a mistake in the middle of a clip: split on both sides of the bad part, delete it, and drag the remaining pieces together.
• Reorder: drag clips left or right along the timeline. Everything after the gap closes up automatically, so you never have to manually close holes.
• Speed: select a clip and use the speed control in the property panel to make it faster or slower — useful for timelapses and for tightening a slow talking-head section.
• Gap removal: right-click an empty gap between clips and delete it, or drag the following clip left until it snaps to the previous one. Gaps export as black frames, which is the most common reason a finished video has an unexplained black pause in the middle.

Clipchamp’s keyboard shortcuts are worth learning early, because timeline editing is mostly repetition. The screen-reader guide in Microsoft’s own help documents the core ones: S splits, Space plays and pauses, and the arrow keys move the playhead. If you edit more than one video a week, those three shortcuts alone cut the fiddling in half.

How do I add text, captions, and music?

Text and audio are where a rough cut starts to look finished, and Clipchamp’s best tools here are the AI ones — which, unusually, are included on the free plan.

• Auto captions: select a clip with speech, open the captions tool, and let Clipchamp transcribe it. The captions appear as editable text on the timeline, so fix any misheard words there rather than re-recording. Captions matter more than most beginners think — a large share of social video is watched muted, and captions are also the cheapest accessibility win you can add.
• Text and titles: the Text tab has animated titles and lower-thirds. Drag one onto the timeline above your clip, double-click to type, and use the property panel to set the font, size, and color. Keep titles to a few words and on screen for at least two seconds, or viewers will not finish reading them.
• Text-to-speech voiceover: type a script and Clipchamp reads it in a natural-sounding AI voice, in multiple languages and tones. It is the fastest way to narrate a tutorial or product video without recording audio, and you can regenerate a single line instead of re-recording a whole take.
• Silence removal: run it on a talking clip and Clipchamp cuts the dead air between sentences automatically. Review the result before exporting — it can occasionally trim a dramatic pause you wanted to keep.
• Music and sound effects: the Audio tab has royalty-free music and sound effects. Free-plan users get the free stock collection; premium tracks are marked and need Microsoft 365. Drop music on the audio track and lower its volume under dialogue — music should sit underneath speech, not compete with it.

A warning about the stock library: the difference between the free and premium collections is easy to miss in the editor. Premium assets carry a small badge, and if you build a project around a premium track or clip, the export will ask you to upgrade. Check the badge before you fall in love with a particular song.

What is auto compose, and when should I use it?

Auto compose — the Create a video with AI button on the home screen — is Clipchamp’s one-click first draft. You give it your clips and photos, pick a style, and it assembles a video with cuts, music, and titles. Microsoft says it is free for personal accounts, and auto-composed videos export as MP4 in 1080p. The steps, from Microsoft’s own auto-compose guide:

1. Click Create a video with AI, name your video, and add the media you want included.
2. Pick a style and let Clipchamp generate the first version.
3. Review it before exporting — Microsoft’s own advice is to check the result carefully if you need exact wording, order, timing, or brand details.
4. Export it as-is, generate a new version, or click Edit in timeline to take over manually.

Use auto compose for the videos you would otherwise skip making: a holiday montage, a quick birthday reel, a rough cut of a day’s footage to show someone. Do not use it for anything where the order of events or the exact wording matters — a tutorial, a product demo, a client video. The AI picks the pacing and the music; you pick the meaning. For those, start blank and edit by hand.

How do I record my screen or webcam in Clipchamp?

Clipchamp has a built-in recorder — Record and Create — that captures your screen, your webcam, or both at once, and drops the recording straight into your project. It is included on the free plan, and it is the fastest way to make a tutorial, a bug report video, or a quick explainer without installing separate recording software.

1. From the home screen or the Record tab, choose Screen recording, Webcam recording, or both.
2. Allow camera and microphone access when the browser asks — without it, the recording has no picture or no sound.
3. Pick what to share: a full screen, one window, or a browser tab. Recording a single window is the better choice for tutorials — it hides your notifications and other open apps.
4. Record, then review the clip in the media library. Trim the false starts, add captions, and export as usual.

If you need a dedicated recorder with more control — region capture, scheduled recording, or system-audio-only capture — the screen recorders I tested for Windows cover the dedicated tools. For a quick capture that goes straight into an edit, Clipchamp’s built-in recorder is enough.

Which export quality should I choose?

Export is the last step, and the resolution you pick decides both the file size and where the video looks good. The Export button is in the top right of the editor, and Clipchamp offers 480p, 720p, 1080p, and 4K — with 4K locked to Microsoft 365 subscribers.

Microsoft’s own support pages recommend 1080p for high quality, and for most creators it is the right default — it looks sharp everywhere a video is actually watched, and the file stays small enough to upload quickly. You can also export audio only, which is handy if you recorded a voiceover you want as a standalone file, and save the finished video to your computer or to OneDrive. If the exported file still comes out too big to share, the compression settings I measured hands-on will shrink it without visibly hurting quality.

What are the limits and traps most guides skip?

Clipchamp is easy to start and easy to misunderstand. These are the catches that trip up new users, all verified against Microsoft’s current documentation:

• It needs the internet. Clipchamp is a browser-based editor even when you open the Windows app — your projects and media processing live online. There is no offline editing mode, so a flaky connection means a stalled export.
• Google Drive and Dropbox imports are gone. For personal accounts, direct imports from Google Drive, Dropbox, and Xbox have been removed. Import from your device or OneDrive instead — move the files locally first.
• The iOS app is dead. Microsoft ended support for Clipchamp on iOS in June 2026, with no replacement and no way to export videos stored in the app. If you have old projects on an iPhone, that door is closed — edit on Windows or in the browser instead.
• Premium stock is a trap for the unwary. Free and premium assets sit side by side in the library. A premium clip or track in your project will block a free export until you remove it or upgrade, so check the badge before building around an asset.
• Work accounts are a different product. Clipchamp for work and school accounts has its own feature set and its own limitations — auto compose, for example, is not available there yet. What you can do on a personal account is not a reliable guide to what your work account can do.
• Exports take as long as they take. Export time depends on your project’s length, resolution, and your connection, because rendering happens online. A ten-minute 1080p video is not a one-minute job — start the export before you need the file, not after.

Clipchamp not working? Fix it in this order

Work through these before reinstalling anything — the cause is almost always one of the first three:

1. Use Edge or Chrome. Microsoft says Clipchamp works fully only in Edge and Chrome. If the editor will not load or buttons do nothing in another browser, switch before doing anything else.
2. Check the sign-in. If your projects are missing, you are probably signed in with the wrong account — personal and work accounts keep separate projects. Sign out and back in with the account you created the project under.
3. Check the file. If a clip will not import, the codec is the usual suspect. Convert it to MP4 (H.264) first — most phones already record in it, but screen recordings and older cameras sometimes do not.
4. Fix missing audio. If a clip plays silently, check the volume in the property panel and confirm the audio track is not muted on the timeline. If a recording has no sound at all, re-check the microphone permission — browsers block it silently after the first denial.
5. Fix a stuck export. A stuck export is usually a connection or a premium-asset problem. Check your internet, remove any premium stock from the project, and try exporting at 720p. If it still stalls, duplicate the project and export the copy.
6. Clear the browser data for the site. If the editor loads but behaves strangely — missing thumbnails, buttons that do nothing — clear the site data for app.clipchamp.com and sign in again. Stale cached files cause more Clipchamp weirdness than actual bugs do.

Clipchamp will not replace a professional editor — no multi-cam, no advanced color grading, no plugin ecosystem — but that was never its job. Its job is to be the editor that is already on your PC, free at 1080p with no watermark, with AI tools that remove the two most tedious jobs in beginner editing: captioning and cutting dead air. Learn the six-step loop in this guide, and the next video you need is a ten-minute job instead of an afternoon of research. If you want to see how it stacks up against the alternatives first, start with the no-watermark video editor roundup and come back here when you are ready to edit.

Frequently asked questions