Known for its simplicity and ready-to-use approach, Windows 11’s built-in video editor, Microsoft Clipchamp, just got a fresh makeover. While some of its new user-friendly features will be available to all users, some are dangled behind a paywall.
Microsoft Clipchamp Is Rolling Out New Content and Styles
If you’ve used the Windows editing platform before, you already know how manyuseful tools that Microsoft Clipchamp offerseditors of all skill levels. Now, the video editor is leveling up, with updates to its stock library, background generation, and style tools.
New Stock Footage
Building off the success of other turnkey,AI-supported apps like CapCut, Clipchamp boasts helpful tools like pre-made templates, text-to-speech, and automatic captions. However, its most enticing feature might just be its content library of stock video, images, and audio. According to theMicrosoft 365 Insider Blog, the content library is now packed with new material:
“Clipchamp is getting a significant update to the stock library, with work users now able to access over 5 million images and 300,000 videos, all copyright-free and suitable for commercial use.”
With mentions of “training videos” and “presentations,” Microsoft seems to be marketing this feature specifically for work-related projects. This makes sense, because if you’re a small business, you don’t want to worry about spending your budget on licensing or filming high-quality content.
That said, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft is making this expanded library available to “customers using a Work account” starting in February 2025.
New Style Tools
Microsoft has also improved the style tools for Clipchamp, such as adding more text styles and shapes. Supposedly, the color picker will also have new functionality, making it easier to find colors consistent with your image or brand kit. Speaking of color control, the platform is also now equipped to generate gradient backgrounds for your videos.
According to Microsoft, Clipchamp now has “more than 120 vector shapes,” which are customizable to meet your video’s needs.
These updated style features are available to both Personal and Work users, per Microsoft.
The Fine Print of Clipchamp Features
As you can see, Clipchamp doesn’t have all of its features up for grabs with its basic version. Like many other free video editing apps, some of the more advanced tools are shrouded in a Premium cloak, meant to entice you with their convenience.
While there are plenty of useful templates in Clipchamp’s free version, particularly for personal use, you probably need to shell out the cash for professional applications. The paid version of Clipchamp will deliver two important things: more premium, copyright-free stock content to use in your videos and higher-resolution output options.
To me, Microsoft Clipchamp is sort of like the “glamping” of video editing software. For many basic applications, why rough it with a classic program like Avid when you could relax into Clipchamp’s user-friendly templates and content libraries?
