7 best AI B-roll generators: footage, stock and editing
Quick answer
For custom AI-generated B-roll, start with Magic Hour. For adding visuals to an existing talking video, compare Submagic, OpusClip, Kapwing, VEED, Vmaker and Gling. The important distinction is whether you need a new video shot, a stock clip or an image automatically placed over narration. Those are different jobs, even when all three are called an “AI B-roll generator.”
Use Magic Hour Text-to-Video when you can describe the missing shot. Use Image-to-Video when you already have the approved starting image. If the visual must prove what a real product does or document an actual event, use authentic footage.
This comparison is published by Magic Hour. Features and pricing were checked against the linked providers on September 10, 2026. Recommendations reflect documented workflows; this is not a controlled comparison of rendering speed, output quality or audience retention.
Magic Hour publishes this guide and includes its own product in the comparison. Treat the recommendations as editorial guidance from a vendor, and verify the linked first-party product details and your own output requirements before choosing a tool.
Best AI B-roll generators at a glance
Tool | Choose it for | What it adds | Main purchase check |
|---|---|---|---|
Creating a shot from a prompt or starting image | Generated video clips to download and edit into your project | Selected model, duration, resolution and credit cost | |
Captioned short-form videos with supporting visuals | Stock B-roll plus separately generated AI images and videos | Video length, credits and standard versus premium assets | |
Turning long recordings into shorter clips | Stock, AI images and AI video B-roll, depending on plan | Starter limits versus Pro; Agent Opus access | |
Transcript-based stock selection with timeline editing | Stock visuals through Smart B-roll; separate generation tools | Shared AI credits, seat cost and export limits | |
Adding contextual visuals to a spoken video | Generated B-roll images, with upload and stock replacement | B-roll entitlement and the selected subscription | |
Adding library assets to an existing video | Stock videos, images and GIFs | Downloads, asset allowances and export quality | |
Combining B-roll with editing speech-led videos | B-roll inside its AI editing workflow | Editing hours and generated-video allowance |
Generate one missing B-roll shot
Describe the subject, setting, composition, motion and duration. Review one accepted shot against the edit before producing the rest of the sequence.
Try Text-to-VideoWhat an AI B-roll generator actually does
B-roll is supporting imagery shown alongside your main footage or narration. A product close-up, a screen recording and a city cutaway can all be B-roll. Its purpose is to help viewers understand the point, show a detail or follow an edit.
There are three useful categories:
- Generate a missing shot: Describe a scene or animate a still image. You get a new clip, but still need to assess it and place it in the edit.
- Find existing footage: Match a transcript to stock-library material. You get recorded visuals, but the selected subject may not be the person, location or product being discussed.
- Place visuals automatically: Add images or clips at points in a spoken video. This can produce a first pass; the timing and meaning still need review.
A tool can cover more than one category. An animated still is also not the same deliverable as a newly generated moving scene. Check the output before buying a plan for a specific shot requirement.
1. Magic Hour: custom shots from text or images
Magic Hour is a practical starting point when you need a particular scene that is missing from your footage: an illustrative cutaway, a stylized background or motion from an approved still. Text-to-Video takes a prompt, lets you select an available aspect ratio, and produces an MP4 to preview and download. Image-to-Video starts with your image instead.
Choose it when: You want to direct the subject, action and camera movement rather than search for an approximately matching stock clip.
Watch for: Generated motion can change details. Inspect faces, hands, packaging and text, particularly when animating a product. Generate the missing shots, then place the accepted clips into your editor; this workflow does not automatically select inserts from a podcast transcript.
Free and paid options: The text-to-video page currently lists three guest generations per day, with 480p watermarked free exports. Model access, duration, resolution and audio support vary. Creator pricing is $19 on monthly billing or $144 billed yearly; paid plans include commercial use. Check the selected model’s cost before generating.
2. Submagic: B-roll within short-form editing
Submagic’s B-roll workflow adds supporting stock visuals to existing videos. It also supports generating AI images and videos from a prompt through its media controls. Describing it as a stock-only tool would miss that option.
Choose it when: Captions, short-form editing and supporting visuals belong in the same workflow.
Watch for: Standard stock, premium stock and generated assets draw on different plan features or allowances. Review the suggested footage rather than assuming a matching keyword means a relevant shot.
Pricing: Starter is $19 per member per month on monthly billing, with 45 credits, described as 15 videos, and a two-minute video limit. Pro is $39 monthly and adds Storyblocks assets. The published video count is not a promise of unlimited AI-generated B-roll; check how your chosen generation uses credits.
3. OpusClip: B-roll while repurposing long recordings
OpusClip combines clipping with a choice of stock or generated B-roll. Its current plan comparison separately lists AI images, stock B-roll and AI video B-roll powered by Agent Opus.
Choose it when: Your starting asset is a podcast, interview, webinar or other long recording, and your first job is selecting shorter excerpts.
Watch for: A clip needs to preserve the speaker’s meaning before extra visuals are added. Check the preceding context, cropped framing and whether the B-roll obscures something the speaker is demonstrating.
Pricing: Starter is listed at $15 per month, with three AI image B-roll clips and three stock B-roll clips per month. Pro is $29 per month and lists 50 AI image B-roll clips per day, unlimited stock B-roll and AI video B-roll access. These are distinct allowances; “unlimited stock” does not mean unlimited generated video.
4. Kapwing: stock matching with a full timeline
Kapwing Smart B-roll analyzes your video’s spoken content and searches stock sources including iStock, Pexels and Pixabay. You can replace, trim, reposition or remove the resulting visuals in its editor. Kapwing also has generative tools, but those are a separate workflow from transcript-based stock selection.
Choose it when: You want a suggested first pass with direct control over the final sequence and a shared editing workspace.
Watch for: Smart B-roll depends on spoken content. For a silent montage, use a shot brief, manual stock selection or the relevant generation tool instead.
Pricing: Pro costs $24 per member on monthly billing, or $16 per member per month billed annually. It lists 1,000 monthly credits, watermark-free exports and up to 4K export. AI features share the credit allowance. The free plan has watermarks and a 720p export limit, so check the final delivery requirement before doing a full edit.
5. VEED: contextual B-roll images over narration
VEED’s B-roll page describes creating custom images from the spoken content and placing them on the timeline with animation. Its help guide also explains replacing a B-roll item with uploaded media or a stock video.
Choose it when: A relevant illustrative image, animated over narration, is enough for the scene, and you want to keep editing within VEED.
Watch for: Do not buy this particular feature assuming every result will be a newly generated moving video. Preview its output type. The help guide requires speech and documents a limited trial, with access varying by plan; check the entitlement shown for your account against current pricing.
6. Vmaker AI: stock assets for existing videos
Vmaker’s AI B-roll tool adds footage, images and GIFs from stock sources. Its documented flow is to upload a video, open Edit with AI, select B-roll Effects and generate the edited result. You can then replace or remove individual assets.
Choose it when: You need supporting library visuals for a marketing explainer or tutorial rather than a newly generated scene.
Watch for: The B-roll stock workflow and the platform’s generative-video features have different inputs and allowances. Check the actual asset license and avoid an unrelated stock image when a product demonstration is required.
Pricing: The USD pricing section lists Starter at $24 monthly or $216 billed yearly, equivalent to $18 per month. It lists ten video downloads per month and 1080p export. Asset and generation allowances also apply; the download count alone does not describe the full production budget.
7. Gling: B-roll alongside speech editing
Gling places B-roll within a broader editing workflow that also includes removing bad takes, silences and filler words. This makes it worth considering when cleaning the spoken recording is as important as adding visuals.
Choose it when: Your project starts with speech-led footage and needs both an editing pass and supporting shots.
Watch for: Check whether you are using edited-media hours or the separate generated-video-from-link allowance. They are not interchangeable measures of finished B-roll duration.
Pricing: Gling Free lists one hour of AI-edited media per month and unlimited watermarked exports. Plus is $20 monthly or $120 billed yearly. Plus includes ten hours of edited media or 300 words of generated video from a link, or a combination of both. Confirm B-roll access on the selected plan before committing to the workflow.
A B-roll brief you can use immediately
Start with a short list of missing visuals, not an instruction to cover every sentence. For a 60-second explanation of how a coffee shop prepares for opening, the brief could be:
Spoken point | Useful visual | Preferred source | Reject it if |
|---|---|---|---|
“We prepare before the first customer arrives.” | Empty counter with morning light | Generated illustration or your own footage | It shows customers already being served |
“Every order is ground fresh.” | The actual grinder and beans | Your own product or process footage | It depicts a different process or machine |
“The room gradually fills with light.” | Slow movement through the empty space | Your own shot, stock or generated atmosphere | Layout or signage conflicts with the real location |
“Here is today’s menu.” | A readable menu close-up | Original photo or screen graphic | AI changes prices, lettering or items |
A quiet neighborhood coffee shop before opening, soft morning light crossing a clean wooden counter, one slow camera push forward, realistic materials, no people, no logos, no readable text. Create a calm illustrative cutaway with no scene change.
This is an example brief, not a tested output. For a real business, use an actual image of the location if the shot needs to represent that specific space. Keep your narration running underneath the insert, then return to the main footage when the speaker’s expression or demonstration matters.
What does a ten-shot B-roll job cost?
Define the deliverable first: ten accepted five-second shots = 50 seconds of final footage. If you budget two generated candidates per shot, that is 100 generated seconds. Two attempts is a planning assumption, not an expected acceptance rate.
For one transparent example, Magic Hour’s text-to-video page publishes a base rate of 24 credits per second. At that rate, 100 generated seconds uses 2,400 credits. Its credit packs cost $10 for 4,000 credits, so this is $6 of that pack’s credit value. You would still purchase the $10 pack, or use credits already in your plan; $6 is not a standalone checkout price. Premium models and different settings can cost more, and a credit pack does not include every subscription benefit.
Stock and automatic-editing tools meter different things: processed minutes, finished exports, stock assets or AI credits. Compare the same ten-shot job, including the subscription or pack you must buy, unused allowance, rejected outputs and time spent replacing unsuitable inserts.
If you need to automate generation, see the image and video API comparison. Keep generation costs separate from your editing, storage and delivery costs.
Questions to ask before publishing
It can clarify a point or make an edit easier to follow. It can also distract from the speaker or make a real claim look untrustworthy. Review whether each insert adds information; then use your own audience-retention data to assess the finished video. A vendor’s virality score is not proof that a particular B-roll choice improved retention.
Check the selected plan’s commercial-use terms and any stock-asset restrictions. Use material you have permission to upload, and review the output for inaccurate product details, recognizable people or branding. Magic Hour’s paid plans include commercial use; its free outputs are for personal, non-commercial use. A plan’s permission does not establish that every possible output is appropriate for an ad.
No. Use a screen recording for a software demonstration, actual footage for a customer testimonial, and an original photo when product accuracy matters. Generate a missing illustrative shot when that is the best fit. A mixed sequence can serve the story without forcing every visual through the same tool.
Pick one missing cutaway from an existing script. Generate it from a text prompt, or animate an approved image. Check the full clip, place it under the relevant line of narration, and decide whether it makes that point clearer before producing the rest.
Runbo Li is the Co-founder and CEO of Magic Hour, where he builds AI video and image tools for content creation. He is a Y Combinator W24 founder and former Data Scientist at Meta, where he worked on 0-1 consumer social products in New Product Experimentation. He writes about AI video generation, AI image creation, creative workflows, and creator tools.
