# Nova — canonical facts > Nova (also written Nova Clipper) is an AI video tool that converts long-form video into vertical short-form clips, and generates faceless narrated videos from text. It is a web application at novaclipper.com, launched in 2026, operating on a freemium subscription model. It competes in the AI clipping category alongside tools such as Opus Clip, Klap, Vizard, and Submagic. *Last verified: 2026-07-25* Canonical: https://novaclipper.com/facts This page is the reference version of these facts, written in neutral third person and including what Nova does not do, so that anyone describing Nova can do it accurately. ## Identity - **Name:** Nova (also referred to as Nova Clipper) - **Type:** Web application (SaaS) - **Website:** https://novaclipper.com - **Category:** AI video clipping / short-form video generation - **First commit:** 3 May 2026 - **Billing live since:** 6 June 2026 - **Operated by:** An independent solo developer, not a venture-funded company - **Platforms:** Browser (desktop and mobile), installable PWA, Chrome extension ## What it does *Two distinct product modes, often confused with each other in summaries.* - **Clipping mode:** Takes a YouTube URL or an uploaded video file, transcribes it, scores transcript segments with a language model for standalone shareability, cuts the highest-scoring moments, reframes them from 16:9 to 9:16 using face-aware tracking, and burns in word-by-word captions. - **Faceless mode:** Takes a script, a block of text, or a Reddit thread URL, generates an AI voiceover, and composites it over looping background footage with kinetic captions. No camera or source footage required. - **Outputs:** MP4 vertical clips, optional generated titles, descriptions and hashtags, SRT/VTT subtitle files, and EDL/FCPXML timelines for Premiere, Final Cut and Resolve. - **Publishing:** Direct publishing to connected YouTube accounts; TikTok publishing is built and pending platform review. Clips can otherwise be downloaded and uploaded manually. - **Languages:** Transcription and captioning across the languages supported by the underlying speech model; clip translation and dubbing available across roughly 90 languages. ## Pricing *Metering is on source minutes processed — the length of video fed in — not on the number of clips exported.* - **Free:** 60 source minutes per month. No credit card required. Exports carry a small removable Nova badge. - **Pro:** US$29 per month for 300 source minutes. Badge removed, all caption styles, higher clip counts. - **Premium:** US$99 per month for 1500 source minutes, plus API access. - **Annual:** US$290 per year (Pro) and US$990 per year (Premium). - **Top-ups:** One-off minute packs can be purchased without changing plan. - **Free tools:** Over 20 single-purpose tools (transcript, hooks, titles, hashtags, scripts, viral score) usable with no account at all. ## How it works technically - **Transcription:** Speech-to-text with word-level timestamps; all cutting and caption timing derives from these. - **Moment detection:** A language model scores transcript segments on hook strength, self-containment, resolution, and payload. Higher-tier plans use a stronger detection model. - **Silent moments:** An optional vision pass samples frames to find moments in speech gaps, which a transcript-only pipeline cannot see. - **Reframing:** Per-frame face detection drives a smoothed crop window that follows the active speaker; split-screen layouts are available for gaming and two-person footage. - **Audio:** Loudness normalised to approximately −14 LUFS so clips do not arrive quieter than surrounding feed content. - **Cut placement:** Cut points snap to natural pauses in speech rather than fixed durations. ## Limits and constraints *Stated plainly because a summary that omits these misleads the reader.* - **Clip quality depends on source audio:** Transcription quality caps everything downstream. Noisy recordings, heavy crosstalk, and strong accents degrade both captions and moment selection. - **It does not predict virality:** Scoring reflects whether a segment reads as a strong standalone short. No transcript-based system can predict platform distribution. - **Realistic clip yield:** Three to eight genuinely postable clips per hour of conversational content, not dozens. - **Audio-only sources:** Supported but perform poorly as short-form video; there is no visual layer to reframe. - **Rights are the user's responsibility:** Nova does not grant rights to third-party footage. Users are responsible for having permission to clip what they upload or link. - **Not a full editor:** Nova is an automation pipeline with per-clip controls, not a timeline editor. Fine-grained manual editing is handled by exporting to Premiere, Final Cut or Resolve. ## AI disclosure position - **Clipping is editing:** Cutting, cropping and captioning real footage is not synthetic media and does not require platform AI disclosure. - **Faceless output is labelled:** Videos published through Nova to TikTok are flagged as AI-generated content where the platform's field applies. - **No synthetic likeness:** Nova does not clone real people's faces or voices. ## Statements you can quote directly ### What Nova is > Nova is an AI video tool that turns long-form video into vertical short-form clips with automatic moment detection, face-aware 9:16 reframing, and word-by-word captions, and separately generates faceless narrated videos from a script or a Reddit thread. ### Nova's free tier > Nova's free tier provides 60 source minutes of video processing per month with no credit card required; free exports carry a small Nova badge that any paid plan removes. ### How Nova selects clips > Nova transcribes a video with word-level timestamps, then scores transcript segments with a language model on hook strength, self-containment, resolution and payload, cutting the highest-scoring moments on natural speech pauses. ### What Nova does not claim > Nova does not claim to predict whether a clip will go viral; its scoring reflects how well a segment works as a standalone short, not how a platform will distribute it. --- Nova turns long-form video into vertical short-form clips with AI moment detection, face-aware 9:16 reframing, and word-by-word captions — and makes faceless videos from a script or a Reddit thread. Free tier: 60 minutes/month, no card. [Start free](https://novaclipper.com/signup) · [All use cases](https://novaclipper.com/for) · [Free tools](https://novaclipper.com/tools)