CutConvert Edit API

Send one Edit JSON document. Get back a zip with a project for CapCut, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, each ready to open in that editor. Captions and titles stay editable text.

The document format is Edit JSON, version 1. This page covers the hosted API: the call, the answer, the errors and the pricing.

The call

POST https://cutconvert.com/api/edit/export
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer cck_…        (optional)

The body:

{
  "edit": { "cutconvert": "edit/1", "…": "…" },
  "targets": ["capcut", "premiere", "resolve", "finalcut"],
  "media": [{ "id": "silent", "base64": "AAAAIGZ0eXBpc29t…" }]
}

Any other field is an error. The whole body, media included, is at most 25 MB.

premiere is a Premiere Pro XML (.xml), resolve a DaVinci Resolve project (.drp), finalcut an FCPXML (.fcpxml) and capcut a CapCut desktop project folder.

Keys and guests

With a key. Create keys on your account page, under API keys. A key is cck_ and 32 letters and digits. It is shown once, when you create it; we keep only a hash. Send it on each call:

Authorization: Bearer cck_…

An account can hold 10 live keys. Revoke a key on the same page; calls with it then get a 401. All of an account's keys share its exports. A Premiere plugin key (ccp_…) is not an API key and gets a 401.

Without a key. Leave out the Authorization header. Calls without a key get 3 exports a calendar month (UTC) per network: your IP address, or for IPv6 its /64. The address is kept only as a hash keyed with a secret, which can't be turned back into the address.

Try it

request.json: one 10-second clip of a 25 fps file that is known only by name.

{
  "edit": {
    "cutconvert": "edit/1",
    "name": "Edit 09 minimal",
    "timeline": { "fps": 25, "width": 1280, "height": 720 },
    "media": [
      { "id": "silent", "name": "silent-25.mp4", "duration": 30.0, "fps": 25, "width": 1280, "height": 720 }
    ],
    "video": [
      { "clips": [{ "media": "silent", "start": 0, "in": 2, "out": 12 }] }
    ]
  },
  "targets": ["capcut", "premiere", "resolve", "finalcut"]
}

Without a key (the guest allowance):

curl -sS https://cutconvert.com/api/edit/export \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data @request.json \
  -o edit.zip

With a key:

curl -sS https://cutconvert.com/api/edit/export \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CUTCONVERT_API_KEY" \
  --data @request.json \
  -o edit.zip

On an error the answer is JSON, and -o writes it to edit.zip. Add --fail-with-body to make curl exit with an error code too.

To send the media file with the document, save the edit object above as edit.json and put the file's bytes in media. With jq (1.6 or later):

base64 < silent-25.mp4 > silent.b64
jq -n --slurpfile edit edit.json --rawfile b64 silent.b64 \
  '{edit: $edit[0], targets: ["capcut", "premiere"], media: [{id: "silent", base64: $b64}]}' \
  > request.json

The answer

A 200 is a zip:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/zip
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Edit 09 minimal.zip"; filename*=UTF-8''Edit%2009%20minimal.zip
X-Request-Id: 3f0c6d1e-8a4b-4c2e-9d7f-0b1a2c3d4e5f

The zip and its files are named after the document's name, with characters a file name can't hold replaced. Inside, one folder for each target you asked for:

capcut/
  Open in CapCut.txt
  Edit 09 minimal/              the CapCut project folder
    draft_content.json
    draft_info.json
    draft_meta_info.json
    timeline_layout.json
    Timelines/…
  silent-25.mp4                 media you sent, beside Open in CapCut.txt
premiere/
  Edit 09 minimal.xml
resolve/
  Edit 09 minimal.drp
finalcut/
  Edit 09 minimal.fcpxml
report.json

Media you send goes in capcut/, beside Open in CapCut.txt, when CapCut is a target. Otherwise it goes in media/ at the top of the zip. Each file keeps the name the document gives it (media[].name), with characters a file name can't hold replaced, because the editors relink by name. When two files have the same name, or a file has the name of the CapCut project folder or of Open in CapCut.txt, the later one gets a number: name (2).mp4. The CapCut project asks for it by that name, and the other projects' warnings in report.json (edit-api-media-renamed) say which copy is which.

In the CapCut project, media you send has no path. CapCut lists it in its Link media window when the project opens, and you pick it in capcut/, the folder Open in CapCut.txt is in. Leave the media there when you move the project folder. The other three projects keep the document's path for every file.

To open the CapCut project, follow Open in CapCut.txt: quit CapCut, move the project folder into CapCut's projects folder, then open CapCut.

report.json

{
  "cutconvert": "edit-export/1",
  "requestId": "3f0c6d1e-8a4b-4c2e-9d7f-0b1a2c3d4e5f",
  "name": "Edit 09 minimal",
  "targets": {
    "capcut": {
      "files": ["capcut/Open in CapCut.txt", "capcut/Edit 09 minimal/draft_content.json", "…", "capcut/silent-25.mp4"],
      "warnings": []
    },
    "premiere": { "files": ["premiere/Edit 09 minimal.xml"], "warnings": [] },
    "resolve": { "files": ["resolve/Edit 09 minimal.drp"], "warnings": [] },
    "finalcut": {
      "files": ["finalcut/Edit 09 minimal.fcpxml"],
      "warnings": [
        {
          "code": "fcpxml-relink-by-name",
          "message": "1 media item is known only by name, without a file path (silent-25.mp4). It points into a \"CutConvert Offline Media\" folder that does not exist, so Final Cut opens the clips offline with their edits intact; relink them with File > Relink Files."
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "media": [{ "id": "silent", "name": "silent-25.mp4", "file": "capcut/silent-25.mp4" }],
  "export": {
    "charged": "guest",
    "allowance": { "kind": "guest", "month": "2026-10", "limit": 3, "used": 1, "remaining": 2, "resetAt": 1793491200000 }
  }
}

Relinking media sent without a path

A document can name a file with no path. If you also send the file, CapCut finds it in the zip. The other editors open the clips offline, with the edit intact, until you link them to the file. What each editor shows:

Final Cut links a file only when it matches what the project expects: a picture or sound as declared, the frame rate, the timecode range and the number of sound channels. So the facts in media should be the file's own.

When the document's path is where the file is on the editor's computer, nothing needs relinking.

Errors

Every error is JSON with an error sentence. Some add the fields below.

A 402 has upgradeUrl, the pricing page, and allowance, as in report.json. A 429 and a 503 have retryAfter, in seconds. Calls that end in a 400, a 401, a 402, a 408, a 413, a 429 or a 503 are never charged, nor are the 500s that say "Nothing was charged". After any other 500 the export may have been counted: write to [email protected] with the request id if there is one, or the time of the call.

Metering and pricing

One export is one call, whatever the number of targets. Asking for all four editors costs the same as asking for one. Every tier includes all four, CapCut and Resolve too.

Paid exports come in packs, bought on the pricing page or your account page. A pack is a one-off payment, not a subscription.

How a call is counted:

• The month's free exports are used first. A paid export is used only after the free 10.
• A paid export is checked before the projects are written and taken once they are, one per call.
• A call that fails is not charged: an invalid document, a project that couldn't be written, a 413, or a 500 that says "Nothing was charged".
• While a paid call runs, and until its charge goes through, it holds one of your paid exports: other calls can't spend it.
• Your account page shows this month's free exports and your paid balance. Every answer has the same in export.allowance (in report.json, or in the body of a 402).

What we keep

Media you send stays in memory for the call and is dropped with the answer. It is never stored, logged or sent anywhere else. The document is not stored. For each call except a 401 or a 429 we keep a record, as for any conversion on the site: when it ran, which targets, the outcome, the document's name, the output files' names and sizes, the warnings, and for a call that failed, its first error message. With a key, the record names the account; without one, a keyed hash of the network's address.