Quick Verdict
Cardboard is a promising AI-first video editor that genuinely delivers on its core promise of turning raw footage into polished cuts with natural language prompts. The browser-based approach and collaboration features make it especially compelling for marketing teams who need to ship video content fast.
Best For
Growth and marketing teams that need to ship testimonials, ads, and launch videos quickly without agencies
Skip If
You need frame-level precision, advanced VFX, or are a solo creator on a tight budget
What is Cardboard?
Cardboard is a browser-based AI video editor built for growth and marketing teams. Founded in 2025 by Saksham Aggarwal and Ishan Sharma as part of Y Combinator's W26 batch, it emerged from a simple insight: video has become the default distribution channel, but the editing process is still painfully slow—agencies, long timelines, and endless review cycles.
Instead of learning a complex NLE, you upload footage and tell Cardboard what you want in plain English: "make a 60-second testimonial reel" or "create 3 ad variants from this product demo." The AI uses multimodal LLMs to reason over your footage—understanding what's being said, what's happening visually, and how to cut it together into a coherent story.
Powered by WebGPU and WebCodecs, Cardboard runs a full non-linear editor directly in the browser. No downloads, no installations. The vision is to become the Figma of video—collaborative, fast, and accessible. Companies like PostHog, Hyperspell, and Autumn AI are already using it for their video production.
How It Works
Upload Footage
Describe Your Edit
AI Creates Cut
Refine & Export
Key Features
Here's what Cardboard offers and how each feature performs in real-world use:
AI-Powered First Cuts
Upload your raw footage and describe what you want—'30s testimonial reel' or '3 ad variants'—and Cardboard delivers a polished first cut in minutes. The AI reasons over your footage using multimodal LLMs to understand context, emotion, and pacing.
Natural Language Editing
Edit videos by describing what you want changed in plain English. Say 'make the intro more punchy' or 'add a transition here' instead of wrestling with timeline controls. Cardboard maps your intent to complex timeline operations automatically.
Semantic Footage Search
Search your uploaded footage by what happened, not by filename. Type 'customer talking about ROI' or 'product close-up shot' and Cardboard finds the exact clips you need from your media library.
Automated Captions
Generate captions with 99% accuracy in English. Captions are automatically synced to your timeline and fully customizable—style them, position them, and edit them without touching a separate tool.
Browser-Based NLE
A full non-linear editor runs entirely in your browser powered by WebGPU and WebCodecs. No downloads, no installations, no hardware requirements. Think Figma for video—collaborative, fast, and accessible from any machine.
NLE Export Integration
Export your projects directly to Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. If you need to do more advanced editing, you can seamlessly move your timeline to professional desktop tools without starting over.
Real-Time Collaboration
Multiple team members can review, edit, and comment on the same project simultaneously. No more sharing video files over email or waiting for async feedback loops to resolve.
Pros & Cons
After extensive testing, here's our honest assessment:
Pros
- ✓Dramatically faster than traditional editing—first cuts in minutes
- ✓No software installation needed, runs entirely in the browser
- ✓Natural language editing removes the learning curve of traditional NLEs
- ✓Semantic search finds clips by content, not filenames
- ✓Exports to Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve for advanced editing
- ✓Real-time collaboration for team review and iteration
- ✓99% caption accuracy eliminates manual transcription work
Cons
- ✗Starting at $60/mo is expensive for individual creators
- ✗Very new product (YC W26)—still maturing feature set
- ✗Limited to 5 projects/month on the Creator plan
- ✗No mobile app or offline editing capability
- ✗1GB file size limit on Creator plan constrains longer shoots
- ✗No independent third-party reviews yet
Pricing
Cardboard offers three tiers designed for different team sizes. All plans include a 7-day free trial.
Creator
$60/mo billed annually
- Full AI-powered editing
- 5 active projects/month
- Natural language commands
- 1GB max file size
- 100GB cloud storage
- Automated captions
- Unlimited 4K 60fps exports
- Premiere & Resolve export
Pro
$150/mo billed annually
- Everything in Creator
- Unlimited projects
- Priority AI processing
- 5GB max file size
- 1TB cloud storage
- Priority 24/7 support
- Early access to new models
Teams
Custom pricing
- Everything in Pro
- Real-time collaboration
- Advanced project sharing
- SAML & SSO login
- Unlimited cloud storage
- Audit logs & history
- Dedicated account manager
Tip: The Creator plan's 5-project limit and 1GB file size cap can be restrictive for active teams. If you produce more than 5 videos per month, the Pro plan's unlimited projects and 5GB file limit offer much better value.
What Users Say
We gathered early feedback from YC demo day, product communities, and LinkedIn:
★★★★★"We used to spend 2-3 weeks going back and forth with agencies on launch videos. With Cardboard, we had a polished cut in an afternoon that our team could iterate on together."
★★★★★"The natural language editing is impressive. I told it to 'trim the dead air and add captions' and it just did it. No timeline scrubbing, no manual cuts. Felt like the future."
★★★★★"Great for quick social content and ad variants, but when I needed very specific cuts and transitions, I still had to export to Premiere. It's a strong starting point though."
★★★★★"The collaboration features sold us. Our whole marketing team can leave timestamped comments and iterate without sending files back and forth. Saves hours every week."
Who Should Use Cardboard?
Growth & Marketing Teams
If your team produces testimonials, launch videos, ad experiments, and social content consistently, Cardboard eliminates the agency bottleneck and lets you iterate fast in-house.
SaaS Companies & Startups
Perfect for startups that need to ship product demos, customer stories, and launch content quickly without hiring a dedicated video team or working with expensive agencies.
Content Marketers
Marketers who need to repurpose existing footage into multiple formats—social cuts, ads, recaps—will love the ability to request variants with natural language prompts.
Non-Technical Video Creators
If you have great footage but struggle with the learning curve of Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve, Cardboard gives you professional results without the complexity.
Not Ideal For:
- •Professional editors who need frame-level precision and advanced effects
- •Individual creators on tight budgets (starts at $60/mo)
- •Filmmakers working with very large file sizes (4K+ raw footage)
- •Teams that need offline editing capabilities
3 Alternatives to Cardboard
Cardboard isn't the only AI-powered video editing option. Here are three alternatives worth considering:
LazyEditor
Silence & filler removal specialist
AI-focused video editor that specializes in removing silences and filler words automatically. Better if your main pain point is cutting down talking-head content rather than full agentic editing.
Descript
Text-based video editing
Edit video by editing text—the transcript becomes your timeline. More mature product with a larger feature set, but lacks Cardboard's agentic first-cut generation.
Kapwing
Established browser-based editor
Browser-based collaborative video editor with AI features. More established with a broader feature set, but doesn't offer the same agentic 'describe and get a cut' workflow.
Different Problem? Try OutlierKit
Cardboard helps you edit video content faster. But what if you're struggling with what to create in the first place?
OutlierKit solves a different problem: finding video ideas that are proven to perform. While Cardboard speeds up post-production, OutlierKit handles pre-production research—discovering "outlier" videos that perform 3-10x above channel averages and understanding why they work.
Use OutlierKit when you need:
- • Video ideas backed by performance data
- • Competitor analysis and outlier detection
- • Trending topic discovery
- • Audience psychographic insights
Use Cardboard when you need:
- • Fast first cuts from raw footage
- • Natural language video editing
- • Team collaboration on video projects
- • Ad variants and testimonial reels
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cardboard worth it for small teams?
Yes, if your team regularly produces video content. At $60/mo for the Creator plan, it pays for itself if it saves you even a few hours per month compared to traditional editing or agency costs. For teams that ship 2+ videos per week, the time savings are substantial.
How does Cardboard's AI editing actually work?
Cardboard uses multimodal large language models that can 'see' and reason about your footage. You describe what you want in natural language, and the AI maps your intent to timeline operations—cuts, transitions, caption placement, and clip selection. It's like having an assistant editor who understands your creative direction.
Can Cardboard replace Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve?
Not entirely. Cardboard excels at getting you to a strong first cut quickly and handles 80% of editing workflows for marketing content. For complex VFX, color grading, or frame-level precision work, you'll still want a traditional NLE—and Cardboard supports exporting to both Premiere and Resolve for exactly this reason.
Does Cardboard work offline?
No. Cardboard is entirely browser-based and requires an internet connection. All processing happens in the cloud, which means you don't need powerful local hardware but you do need reliable internet.
What video formats does Cardboard support?
Cardboard supports all common video formats including MP4, MOV, and WebM. It can export in up to 4K resolution at 60fps. The Creator plan limits individual file uploads to 1GB, while Pro supports up to 5GB per file.
How does Cardboard compare to Descript?
Descript focuses on text-based editing—you edit the transcript to edit the video. Cardboard takes an agentic approach—you describe what you want and the AI builds the edit. Descript is more mature with a larger feature set, while Cardboard is faster for getting first cuts from raw footage.
Is my footage secure with Cardboard?
Cardboard stores footage in encrypted cloud storage (100GB on Creator, 1TB on Pro). The Teams plan includes SSO, audit logs, and enterprise-grade security features. Your footage is processed in the cloud but you retain full ownership of all content.
Who founded Cardboard?
Cardboard was founded by Saksham Aggarwal and Ishan Sharma, both part of Y Combinator's W26 batch. Saksham previously built AI products at Iterate AI and published research at ACL. Ishan spent 4.5 years at HackerRank building high-performance web applications.
Final Verdict
Cardboard delivers on its core promise: it turns raw footage into polished marketing videos dramatically faster than traditional editing workflows. The natural language editing genuinely works, and the browser-based collaboration makes it practical for teams.
As a YC W26 startup, it's still early—the feature set is maturing, pricing is premium for individual creators, and there's a learning curve in trusting an AI with creative decisions. But for marketing teams drowning in raw footage and agency invoices, Cardboard is worth the trial.
Bottom line: If you need to ship video content fast and your bottleneck is editing, Cardboard deserves a look. If you're struggling with what to create before you shoot, check out OutlierKit for research and ideation instead.
Related Reviews
Ready to grow your YouTube channel?
OutlierKit helps you find winning content strategies with competitor analysis and keyword research.
Try OutlierKit Free