--- title: 'CapCut Tutorial for Beginners 2025 - Edit Videos for Free' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=-8FYRk_yEJU' video_id: '-8FYRk_yEJU' date: 2026-07-27 duration_sec: 2039 --- # CapCut Tutorial for Beginners 2025 - Edit Videos for Free > Source: [CapCut Tutorial for Beginners 2025 - Edit Videos for Free](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-8FYRk_yEJU) ## Summary This CapCut tutorial for beginners covers everything from downloading the free desktop software to exporting a finished video. The video walks through the interface, basic editing tools, effects, transitions, audio adjustments, and key features like keyframes and auto-subtitles, all tailored for 2025. ### Key Points - **Download and Initial Setup** [00:01] — CapCut is free to download from their website. The desktop version is recommended. First-time users should go to Settings to configure language (e.g., German) and activate hardware acceleration under the Performance tab for smoother editing. For slow PCs, enable proxy mode. - **Interface Overview** [02:42] — The interface has four main areas: top-left media/effects panel, central player, right inspector for adjusting selected clips, and bottom timeline. The timeline shows all elements; press B for cut tool, A for selection tool. - **Importing Media and Basic Editing** [04:25] — Import media via the plus sign or drag-and-drop. Drag clips to the timeline. Use B to cut, A to select and move. Delete key removes clips. Use Ctrl+Z to undo. The playhead controls playback position. - **Removing Silences with AI** [08:46] — For longer recordings, use the Transcript feature to detect pauses. Select 'pauses only' and delete them all at once. This saves time compared to manual cutting. - **Working with Overlays (B-Roll)** [11:10] — Add B-roll by dragging clips above the main track. Layers stack like pictures; topmost covers those below. Audio tracks mix together. Mute or hide tracks using the speaker/eye icons. - **Adding Text and Stickers** [14:47] — Add normal text, text effects, or templates. Drag to timeline and edit in the inspector. Animations and effects are available; free versions are marked. Stickers can be searched and placed similarly. - **Effects and Transitions** [19:58] — Apply effects by dragging onto clips; adjust settings in inspector. Transitions go between clips. Use Ctrl+C/V to copy a transition from one clip to another. Adjust duration with the arrow keys. - **Advanced Clip Features** [22:48] — Stabilization, background removal (green screen chroma key), and masks are available. Keyframes allow animating properties like size and position over time. - **Audio Management and Copyright** [26:00] — CapCut's audio library is only licensed for TikTok. Use Epidemic Sound for safe music on other platforms. Adjust volume levels: voice around -6 dB, background music around -30 dB. Check audio levels with the meter. - **Auto-Subtitles** [30:30] — Generate subtitles by selecting language and clicking 'generate'. Auto-subtitles are a Pro feature; free version may limit export. Apply styles to all subtitles at once. - **Export Settings** [31:38] — Click export. Set resolution, bitrate (recommended or higher), codec (H.264/HEVC), and frame rate. 4K export may be limited in free version. Export as MP4. ### Conclusion CapCut offers a comprehensive, free video editing solution suitable for beginners. With features like AI silence removal, keyframes, and auto-subtitles, it's a powerful tool for content creators, though some advanced features require a Pro subscription. ## Transcript used free software for video editing these days. If you don't want to spend but are looking for software that lets you get started within minutes and get started within minutes and not only show you the basics of CapCut, but we'll also cover other features like effects, music, transitions, and subtitles, so you can get started right away and edit your first video . . You can get Capcut completely free of charge via their website. There you can simply click on "Download for free" and then download the desktop version for your PC. Most importantly, we will focus on the desktop version here. CapCut is also available online and, of course, for smartphones. I often use Capcut there, for example, to simply to simply view. And we'll go through that step by step. Very important, the first thing I would do when starting CapCut for the first time is to starting CapCut for the first time is to Settings again, because here you can see in detail how CapCut is supposed to work. Among other things, you have the option here to specify where your projects are saved. However, it's much more interesting under " General," because there you can set the language. If German wasn't automatically selected for you if you don't want to use Capcut in English. And also incredibly important is the Performance tab, because depending on what kind of hardware you have in your system, you may be then be activated here and gives you the opportunity to have your graphics card speed up your editing. So you do n't cut any faster, but the whole process runs more smoothly and does n't just rely on your CPU. You should activated , then activate. If your PC is a bit slow, I recommend activating the proxy option here. A proxy is simply a video file that you want to edit that video file that you want to edit that so that it is easier to play back and cut. And when you're finished proxy file will be replaced with the original and it will be rendered with the original. It simply makes it run more smoothly if you have a very slow . Save and you can create your first project. . CapCut is then started, and this is what CapCut looks like. You'll end up spending quite a lot of time there. What is each area and what do you do where? First of all, you have the media and effects area here in the top left corner. Here you have the option to import media, i.e., video files from your PC that you want to edit, and you have the option to switch between various other tabs . We are now media. You can access an audio library, use text, use stickers, and insert effects. You can use transitions, create subtitles, use filters, and even an AI avatar. But we will go into each of these areas in great detail. Just so you know, this whole area is there for, well, the main thing of your work. Then you have a player, and that player is displayed here. A player that shows you what's in your timeline . So, your finished video will play at the point where you are currently editing. Let's look at one more detail. On the right you have the Inspector, and the Inspector is always your go-to tool when you're working on certain things. Whether it's an effect that you want to edit further in the settings, or a clip that you've selected and on which you want to change certain options, the inspector will show it to you. If no clip is selected, the inspector shows you how up-to-date your timeline is, i.e., the properties in which you are currently editing your video. And then you have the timeline. The The timeline then shows you all the elements you use for your video. This means that all clips, effects, transitions and music that you have already used in the editing process will be displayed there . There's already plenty of music in Capcard be on the safe side and use music and sound effects for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms without encountering problems, I can definitely recommend Epidemic Sound. In platform when it comes to music and sound effects for your videos, because there you can find over 50,000 tracks and over 200,000 sound effects that you and over 200,000 sound effects that you feature is also quite exciting. Imagine you've found a really cool track and your content. Simply use the Adapt Feature to adjust the atmosphere, for example, and you're ready. But Epidemic Sound offers many more features beyond just a catalog . For example, I often use the " find similar" function when I all the other tracks that are very similar, so I don't waste unnecessary take your content to the next level? Click the link in the video description and save 50% on an Epidemic Sound annual membership. But let's continue with video editing in CapCard. The next thing you your editing process actually begins, is to import media. We already looked at that. Here you can simply click on the plus sign and you can simply click on the plus sign and and then the media will be imported directly into CapCut. You will see the media at the top here, and you can simply click on the media and drag it, for example, to the timeline below and release it. Then the player opens, then the inspector opens, and we see our timeline down here. Okay, now things are really getting started. You can add more media here at any time. You can also create folders by right-clicking if there are too many media files to , you can simply open your Explorer and select the media from somewhere on your system . I'll just grab take this and I'll simply drag and drop it into my project. The entire process is imported automatically. For example, we now have I can access my clips and simply insert them into the timeline . But how does this timeline work? Ultimately, it's relatively simple. The only things you really need to know are two things. You can access the cutting tool by pressing B. Now you see a line here, and I can simply make cuts here . With a few quick clicks, A on the keyboard will take you back to the selection screen, where you can then select and move the clips. That's actually the most important thing you need. Of course, you can also click on and select each of these individual tools. But let me tell you, you'll quickly get the hang of it, simply using A and B on the keyboard to switch between cut and select. Also important in this timeline is your playhead. This is the small pointer at the top; you can click it, hold it down, timeline, and you'll see in the player that your video continues playing. This means your player always shows exactly where you are in the timeline. For example, if you press the spacebar, you play your video; if you press it again, you pause your video. This is the connection between the timeline and the player. Of course, you can also do something else in the timeline now: remove the things you've cut. Simply press the delete key on the keyboard. And just like that, it's removed. You can switch back to B, make cuts, again with the delete key, then if you have pressed A , click on it and remove it. Or, if you want to remove the clip , click on it, right-click, and then simply delete it. And the clip will be deleted. So, relatively simple. click here and, for example, drag it to extend it again and restore what you cut off. If you 've done something wrong, you can always 've done something wrong, you can always . Or you might have a button here to undo your change. A pretty cool feature, which unfortunately if you don't want to remove everything manually, you could, for example, use B to remove all the silent parts, i.e., where the audio does n't register. This can take quite a long time with longer recordings, and there is an AI tool for that: if you go to Transcript here, you can have the whole thing transcribed. Capcut takes a close look to see where the silent sections are and processes them for you, recognizing, for example, the pauses, and you could then select these pauses . For example, if you only select pauses, then select all the pauses in the video, they will be marked here, and then you delete them. Yes, and then there's also the note that it's only for Pro. If you work a lot with Capcut, [music] will probably be one of the features you might last an hour. Believe me, manually deleting that with the Razer tool, i.e., by cutting on B, takes a long time. And here you have it done in just a few seconds. Just a little tip, but you don't need it to be able to edit your video and play it back, it runs super smoothly on my system; that is, no matter how I move my playhead, it runs smoothly. If your computer isn't very fast, it's possible that it won't run as smoothly. And it's important that you have options in the player . First, you can take a look at the aspect ratio here in the player and change it. You are now editing, for example, for a 16:9 video. If you want to cut a 9:1 video , you could click here and change it to a vertical clip. However, it is important that no clip is selected, and you accordingly. So here it has now been changed to 9:16, for example. That means my project is now a 9:16 project, and you would then have to enlarge your clips that they fit the aspect ratio again. But if your smoothly, in addition to changing the aspect ratio, you have the option to click on "Playback Quality" at the bottom of the player, where you can choose between highest quality ( so please play my video in the best quality, I need a lot of processing power) or low quality. However, playback is fast. Your video won't be any worse. quality so you can edit it . The full quality is used for the edges, of course back to 16:9 here, because we want to edit a 16:9 video. Of course, such a you reading something aloud, like I am doing now, or speaking into the camera; the whole thing is really enhanced by the addition of overlays. Then they call it brolle. AOL is your main cut or main recording, and Boll is what you display while you're talking. . I'll just grab a microphone here, click on it, and drag this over. And then you can see what happens. You can work with multiple levels . From here at the bottom of the first level all the way to the top. The layers can be stacked on top of each other an infinite number of times. [music] What happens now? Ultimately, it's like a stack of pictures. If I have a picture underneath and I place another picture over it, I place something else over that, it covers that too. That's basically the principle of tracks in CapCut and in every other editing program. That means I overlay my track and can use the whole thing. This track can of course now be adjusted here in length. I can then move it to where it should be displayed, and then I'm working with Broll. I can do that for video clips, but I can also do that for audio clips, and for that I would simply have to use audio. For example, I'll go back one step here, where I have audio, and drag the audio below my video track, and I'll get another audio track, which I can of course stack on top of each other. Here, one audio track is obscured, not the other; rather, they are mixed together. That means if I have audio here, for example, and audio above it, then it will be mixed together at the edges so that you can hear both at the same time. That's the other principle behind multiple audio tracks. But now I can work with these traces . For example, I can now say that I want to mute such a track. Then I can no longer hear the track and only see it. It is important that before you edge the video later, you unmute your tracks so that they also appear in the edged video . You can do this for video tracks as well. That's what this eye icon is for; if I click on it, the video track is hidden and I can see what's underneath, and then I can show it again. I can can no longer change anything about them. That's quite good want to move it. And I can do even more in the tracks now , because if I go here to the right, I can zoom in, then the whole thing becomes a bit denser for me and I can say, for example, m, there's audio in this clip from the microphone, which I do n't want in the editing later or in the finished video, then I can , I can, for example, simply mute the track, and then the audio will be muted in the entire track . Importantly, if I only use the track for Beeroll Clips, the Beeroll Clips will no longer have any audio. Just so you can also right-click and then extract audio. Unfortunately, can only use it once for free if you don't have a Pro subscription. So, a workaround is to clips, mute the audio there, and then you won't have any more problems. exciting topics, namely when you enhance your video with, for example, text. Here you have the option to do more than simply add text to your video . You can choose between normal text, text effects, and text templates . If you take a completely normal standard text, you simply drag and drop it on, then you will see the text here and, if the text is selected, you can edit the text here on the right . A text. You can then of course adjust the font, alignment, size, and so on. But it gets really exciting when you look at the effects and the templates. With a standard text like this, I can now, for example, standard text like this, I can now, for example, simply insert the whole thing by clicking. I can then of course go to Effects at the top and add an effect to the text. Please be careful that the effect doesn't have a premium look and feel. That means you have to use something that's free if you want to work for free. And you can also go to animation and of course add animations to your text there. Again, please make sure you don't choose the premium version if you don't have a Pro subscription. But there are also plenty of free text effects available here. Simply click and the text will be animated as it appears in the template. Standard text. If the option to simply select the text effects, and that is exactly the same as if I were to place the text on top and then select the effect in the Inspector. Alternatively, I can go to text templates and go to text templates and then simply drag and drop these templates onto my video, and I already have a ready-made template which, when I click on it, can of course be adjusted again in the inspector. For example, another text. If you select want to use repeatedly, you'll find a star icon here. Clicking on the star icon allows you to save it to your [music] favorites. However, it's important to note that you don't actually need a TikTok login to use it. If you want to use such features, you have to register once, e.g. directly with your Google account or your saved and you simply need to search in your favorites for each new project text effects, but also to everything You can of course click on any of your texts here and move them around on the player, and you can also make them smaller, e.g., so that you can then place everything in your video as you want it to be later . And when you play it, your text will only be , I see a line like this. I'll put that aside for now. There you can see a line, and it goes to the first clip, that is, the main clip, I were to move the main clip down here, for example, the text would safety measure to prevent accidentally moving things that might connection can of course be severed. That means if I not be connected to the lower level, then I simply go to this connection on the right, disconnect the connection and the connection is broken and I can move the clips down here without moving the clips above them with the menu, you can do some other cool things that make editing a video easier. You can now, for example, simply zoom in and out using the control key and the mouse wheel. You can also do this with control plus and control minus. And if you now, for example, arrive at the far right of your clip and something has been cut here, then if you now add new clips, you can ensure that these, as you can see, I go to the timeline here and let go . Simply plug it in here. This is achieved with the automatic locking mechanism and also with the magnet. If I now switch off the magnet and pull it further to the right, the clip stays where it was just before . Very cool feature. But let's move on to the other effects, and of course there's not only text, but we also have stickers. Stickers are quite interesting, for example if you want to show certain things in your video . In my case, it would be cool to just use an arrow here . Unfortunately, he's pro. But of course, there are many different walk through many different elements. I could simply search for, e.g., arrow, and then all arrows would be displayed, and of course there are also free ones. If onto my timeline, I can add a sticker that I'm still here, of course – I'm just dragging it over here a bit. This is what the mushroom looks like . Set what should happen by selecting the option marked here on the right . For example, I can turn the Pilsner. That means if I click here now, it will spin the pile. I can make the arrow smaller, and I can also simply with a sticker in my video, I can of course highlight a few more course highlight a few more things, for example, and there are an incredible number of free stickers available. But there are also general effects. If we go into more detail here, effects are things that I can add to my video. That means, for example, I could simply add an effect to this clip of mine. Let's take, for example, this light. I simply place it on my clip and the effect is applied, and you can see what happens to the video . These effects come in all sorts of variations. You can also search for an effect, e.g., a blur effect. You can click on the effect below, delete the effect, and then, for example, delete the effect, and then, for example, . I can use many different effects there. are not premium, like the fog here, and you can of course add them back to your favorites. . And if I click on the effect, for example, on the clip, then the effect... I'm doing that here using this little star. Then I can adjust the effect myself here in the Inspector. This means that each effect brings its own options, depending on what the effect does. And these be adjusted here, e.g., how blurry the image should be with the blur effect. Besides these general effects, there are even more. What definitely makes a video stand out are the transitions from one clip to the next. And up here, that's done with transitions. huge selection of transitions again. I'll just pick something that's free. For example, here's a pull-in or zoom-in, and I'll now select to drag it out onto my timeline and can simply drag it between the clips. I'll scroll up see it better. Here I have my effect now, and if I just play it back here , you can see that the clips zoom in with this transition. Once I have selected the transition, I can directly adjust its size using these arrow keys, thus changing the duration of the transition. also adjust the whole thing [music] to my needs by selecting it here on the right in the inspector. Of course, this effect can be used not only between these two clips. That is, the transition between me and myself. This only really makes sense if you place it, for example, between a broll clip and the main clip. To do this, simply select the clip or effect you want to use. But I can't place it directly on here. In order to go from one clip to the next. A little [music] trick: you lower clip with Ctrl +C, then click here at the top with here again, and then I basically just add the transition to this clip. That means I take the transition, draw it here in between, and I already have a clean transition to my broll. It's also very simple: if I and then have the option to edit the clip in the inspector. We've already learned that. But there are also additional features there. Specifically, I have the option to stabilize my video footage . Unfortunately, it's also available in the pro version now, but if you've recorded something with your phone or handheld with the camera and your clip is shaky, you can and your clip is shaky, you can lots of cool functions here, such as optimizing the quality or and has a bit of noise in it. I can do all of that automatically here. This also includes removing the background. [music] This can be exciting if, for example, I want to cut out Play Me without having a green screen behind me. For that, I can use the automatic removal feature , but only in the Pro version. However, if I have a green screen behind me, I could turn on the chroma key here and thereby cut out what's in the background. What does that look like? Could I use one of my Greenscreen clips for that, for example? I can just put it here somehow, I'll just can take a look. And here I have my green screen, and if it were green screen, I could, as I said, activate the chroma key here and simply click here, hold it down, click again to cut out the green, and everything will be cut out, allowing add that. Also included is a mask. That means I could theoretically use masks or retouching. testing phase. Let's leave out the basics for now. But if you want to make your face prettier and so on, you'll find that there. But what could be quite interesting is if you use keyframes. To do this, go to the video clip and select "easy". And now you can of course change these values, such as the size, which you can adjust here , over time. This is called a keyframe. A keyframe means nothing else. For example, I go to this point in the video, and at this point there should suddenly be a slow zoom. That means I'm now setting a keyframe here for the size and also for the position. means I'll drag the whole thing to the right, and from this moment the zoom should end. Now I'll set another keyframe here for the size and position, and adjust the size and position. That means, for example, all I'm doing here is growing the whole thing up . Maybe postpone it a little. And now this keyframe has now jump back and forth between the keyframes using the arrows and see the change. If I look at how it's animated in between , I can play this and see, oh, there's a zoom. This is keyframing, and you can This is keyframing, and you can set . [music] We now have another track here, and I could, for example, include music in my video. CapCut has an audio library for that, and can click through the whole thing here , where I can go through it, and of course I can simply click on the music , place it underneath and use it. Pretty cool, and there's a lot of it . But there's one All this music and these sound effects are only licensed for TikTok [music]. If you use this music and sound effects for videos that you upload to YouTube or Instagram, you may be would be bad. In the worst case scenario, you'll get a parking ticket, which will cost you money. In a less severe case, perhaps only your channel will be blocked. Theoretically, the YouTube channel could be deleted at some point. You don't want that. What can you do if you use all these things? Please only use this for TikTok. You can click on Copyright and start a review here. This check will tell you whether your video actually uses copyrighted material, such as music. And if that's not the case, then you know, okay, I can use it on TikTok. But CapCut does other platforms. It says it here again : "Your video can be published on TikTok." Super. If you want to be sure of your sound for YouTube, Instagram and other platforms, I can recommend Epidemic Sound again. I use this, linked my YouTube channel there and I know that if I download the music there and add it, it's all safe. I've never had any problems so far. Just to add to that. Before we add to that. Before we export our finished video, there's one more thing you need to consider, and that's the audio. We now have, among other things, video clips with audio. We have music here, and more music, and maybe sound effects, but we do n't even know if the relationship between these audio tracks is right. Maybe I'd like to turn the music down you do it this way so that you can actually see where your audio is going; of course, you can play it and listen to it with headphones. Alternatively, you could click on this small icon here in the player. Then you get a level meter here, an audio meter, where you can see the reading, and when you play your video, the whole thing registers a reading. And now you can start, and it's best to mute everything except your main track, where your voiceover is, i.e., your voice. Play it and see how loud your voiceover is. Isn't it loud enough? If you select all your clips and they all have the same volume, you can then simply go to Audio and adjust the volume there. That means I can now add some DBDs here , play the whole thing back and realize, okay, my audio is loud enough. I would always recommend aiming for somewhere between -6 and a maximum of zero , although that would already exceed taxes. A setting of 6 is actually optimal for the volume of the voice. If you're too loud, you need to be quieter. But you're already clipping it. Is it possible that the audio is still broken? Just to But that goes too far into detail now. Once you've adjusted your audio for your voice, you add the next track and fade out the previous one. Here we have music, for example. How loud should the music be? The music here is very, very loud. It's almost down to -6 decibels. To turn the music down, click on the clip and then turn the music down. Repeat the same process for the next music track. So, what I want to tell you is, go through your audio tracks so you don't have a bad experience afterwards. For example, when I download music from Epidemic Sound, I always adjust it by download music from Epidemic Sound, I always adjust it by adding -30 dB. So, pressing Enter once at -30 dB means I know that when I play the music, it won't be too Now, when I play the whole thing, I see, okay, the music is really just in the background, not too loud, and does n't ruin my video. A very important , please make all tracks visible again. For example, I'm not including the broll track here because I do n't want to include the audio from any broll clip . [music] Everything is displayed, and now I have my finished video. But before I export, there are perhaps one or two things I'd like to use; I'd like to point out that you your video now. If you have edited your video for vertical you might want to add captions, or subtitles, to the video. There are subtitles available; click on them and you can now set the spoken language , e.g., German, and then click on "generate" and Capcut will create subtitles for you. The whole thing then looks like this. I'll give it a try . Once CapCut is finished, you'll find a new track, which is a text track, and all the text will now be visible there. And the texts I can click on each individual text and, for example, edit the spelling mistakes or apply templates. This means that if I select the whole thing, I can, for example, apply different styles to all these texts that I want to use, or templates, animations. But here's the crux of the matter. This is only possible in the Pro version. As soon as I want to export [music] , it no longer works because exporting with this Pro version doesn't version. I still wanted to show it to you. I'll just remove that . That would be another feature, and of course there are also AI features. There is an AI avatar and other AI functions, but as mentioned, these functions, but as mentioned, these . With this, you can already edit some really awesome videos. can use them? To do this, simply click on "export" in the top right corner and you will be taken to the export screen. You can name the video and specify where it will be saved , but more importantly, you can will be exported. The [music] means, what resolution do you want to use for the video's resolution as your source material. For me, that would be source material. For me, that would be 4K, for example. Then at what bitrate? Here you now have low, recommended, and higher options. I always set it to user- rendered exactly the way I want it. An example for YouTube would be that I set a VBR for 4K with a bitrate of 50,000, which is already very high, using the HEVC codec. Depending on the hardware you have installed, there are different codecs. H264 is probably the codec you'll use if you can't use anything else . HEVC is obviously better, or if you have a graphics card that supports AV1 and the platform you want to upload it to also supports AV1, it won't work for short form. There's HVC. Let's make it compatible here. HVC format MP4 and frame rate is 30 FPS for me. If you have edited a video at 60 FPS, you would naturally select 60 FPS. And that was pretty much it . You can also say below, okay, do you want to export the audio separately? Then there would be an extra file. Do you want to export another poison from there? We want to export the entire video, exactly as it is. Then I can click on export here . Additionally, if you have more than 1080p , i.e., UHD in our case 4K, you can only do this once, then you have to is reactivated. export. Your video will now be rendered and exported video will now be rendered and exported for you with your settings, and you're done But if you don't just want to edit videos, but really get started as a content creator , I can recommend my weekly newsletter. It is sent out free of charge every Friday and includes not only news about content creator topics, but also tips and tricks that I like to use. video description, and I'd say see you in the next video. next video. Ciao. Ciao.