Clipchamp began as an Australian startup founded in Brisbane in 2013 by Alexander Dreiling, Dave Hewitt, Tobias Raub, and Soeren Balko, four former SAP employees whose original idea, a distributed-computing project, pivoted into browser-based video compression and eventually a full video editor. Microsoft acquired the company in September 2021, when Clipchamp had grown past 14 million users, and folded it into Microsoft 365 as its consumer and small-business video-editing tool.
The editor runs entirely in a browser tab and pairs a drag-and-drop timeline with AI features layered on top: automatic captioning and translation, a text-to-video generator that builds a rough-cut video from a written script, background removal, and a stock-media library. Because it's tied to a Microsoft account, projects and brand kits sync the same way OneDrive files do, and sign-in requires nothing more than an existing personal Microsoft account.
Clipchamp suits casual creators, small businesses, and Microsoft 365 households making social or marketing video without a desktop editing background. Core editing and 1080p HD export are free; the single paid Essentials tier runs $11.99 a month (with a $7.99 first-month promotional rate) for 4K export and premium stock assets, and further premium features come bundled into Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions.
