Submagic vs Captions (by Mirage): Templates or a Full AI Edit

The short answer: Captions still sells under its own name at captions.ai; the company behind it rebranded as Mirage in 2025 and now builds the Captions app, its own video models and the Mirage API (About Mirage). The choice between the two turns on what you start with. If a founder films raw takes on a phone and wants the whole video edited, cuts, b-roll, music and even an AI twin, Captions fits, with Max at $24.99 a month for 500 credits (Captions pricing, checked on 26 October 2026). If a team already records podcasts and webinars and needs a steady run of captioned shorts in one house style, Submagic fits, with Pro at $39 per member a month for 40 videos of up to 5 minutes (Submagic pricing). Choose Submagic if your job is clips from recordings you have. Choose Captions if your job is making the video in the first place.

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Count these first:

1. Edits per month, in credits. Captions charges 10 to 40 credits for each AI Edit project, plus 2 credits per message in its chat editor and 1 per action taken (Captions credits). For example, Max's 500 credits cover 500 / 40 = 12.5, so 12 full AI Edits, at the top of that range. Submagic charges 3 credits per upload with AI captions free, so Pro's 120 credits cover 40 plain uploads (Submagic cost article).
2. The footage you already have. Long recordings suit Submagic's Magic Clips, which take a YouTube link, a file or a public Drive link and return 20+ clips (Magic Clips guide). Raw phone takes suit Captions' AI Edit, which picks a style and cuts scenes, overlays b-roll and adds music to the whole video (Captions).
3. The device the buyer pays on. Captions' pricing page notes that its features and prices reflect iOS plans only (Captions pricing). If the company card is used on the web, read the price at checkout.
4. The figure to read in a month. Views and average watch time per clip on each platform, for four weeks of posts from whichever tool you test.

Need by need

Checked on 26 October 2026 against the Submagic homepage, Submagic pricing, the Captions homepage, Captions pricing, the Captions credits page and About Mirage.

Three ways they differ

Dressing a clip, or producing the video

Submagic takes a clip you already have and dresses it: captions in a template, a hook title, zooms, b-roll, cleaner audio (Submagic). Captions says it skips post-production entirely, turning footage into a fully edited video, and can generate footage when there is none (Captions). A webinar team needs the first. A founder with ten unedited takes and no editor needs the second.

How the credits behave

Captions lets unused credits roll over, capped at 3 times the monthly allowance, and its price list runs from Basic at $9.99 for 200 credits to Frontier 4x at $279.99 for 5,600 (Captions credits). Submagic describes one monthly credit pool per member that uploads and AI features draw from, with top-ups from account settings (cost article); its article does not say unused credits carry over. Generative video on Captions spends fast: Sora 2 is listed at 16 credits and Veo 3.1 at 64 for 4 seconds.

Whose face is in the video

Both now offer AI presenters; Captions builds its pitch around them, with digital twins whose outfits, backgrounds and product inserts change by prompt (Captions). In the EU, Article 50(4) of the AI Act requires whoever publishes a deep fake, generated video resembling a real person, to disclose that it was generated or manipulated (Article 50). A video of your founder's AI twin is worth labelling as generated, every time.

What a year costs

Submagic, per member, from its cost article and pricing page: Starter $19 a month or $144 a year, Pro $39 or $276, Business $69 or $492. Captions, from its pricing page: Max $24.99 a month, Frontier $69.99 a month, Enterprise on request; a yearly plan bills 12 months up front at a discount the page does not quantify. All checked on 26 October 2026. For example, one person on Captions Max for a year on monthly billing pays 12 x $24.99 = $299.88; on Submagic Pro billed yearly, $276.

Letting an assistant read the results

Submagic's MCP server lists prompts for exactly this: "Show my Submagic publishing stats for the last 30 days" and "List my published Submagic projects from the last week with their views" (MCP server docs). Behind them, the publishing stats endpoint returns summary totals with a prior-period comparison and a daily series for the metric you choose (publishing stats API). Each Friday, ask Claude for the week's clips ranked by views, with the topic of each, and a one-paragraph read of what the top three have in common.

The human check: before the ranking steers next week's recordings, a person opens three of the clips in the platforms' own analytics and confirms the numbers match, then decides the topics. The assistant reports; a person chooses. The Captions pages read for this comparison describe the Mirage API but no analytics connector, so on that side the same read happens in each platform's own dashboard.

What happens to the credits when you scale down

Captions' credits page states the default when plans shrink: a downgrade cuts the balance to the new plan's cap at once and forfeits the excess, and on cancellation every remaining credit is forfeited when the billing period ends (Captions credits). The rollover rewards staying on the plan, not using the credits. Spend down before you change tiers.

The free versions first

Captions has a free version with basic tools such as trimming, transitions and some media library assets, plus a one-off 60 to 200 credits (Captions pricing, credits page). Submagic's trial takes 3 short videos and keeps its watermark until you subscribe (trial article). Run one raw phone take through Captions' AI Edit and one cut from last month's webinar through Submagic. Post neither; show both to the person who approves social posts and ask which one they would sign off.

Pick by the job

• Choose Submagic if your job is a steady supply of short captioned clips from podcasts, webinars and interviews you already record, styled the same way and scheduled from one place.
• Choose Captions if your job is turning raw phone footage into finished videos with little editing, or making videos with AI presenters, dubbing and generated scenes.

Submagic's plans and limits are in its glossary entry. Captions has no entry; captions.ai is its own reference. Submagic beside a full transcript editor is in Submagic vs Descript.

FAQ

What happened to Mirage Studio?

Captions says it merged Mirage Studio into Captions; former subscribers log in through Captions online and find their projects and actors there (Captions).

Can Submagic publish to LinkedIn?

Through its API, yes: the publish endpoint posts or schedules an exported project to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook and LinkedIn in one call, once those accounts are connected in the dashboard (Publish Project).

Does a Captions project use credits if it is never exported?

Yes. The credits page says AI usage counts whether or not the project is exported or saved, so treat every experiment as spent (Captions credits).