AI video editors that keep your footage on your computer

The short answer

Desktop editors such as DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro edit footage from your own drives, but their AI features differ: Premiere's Media Intelligence search runs locally, while generative features such as Generative Extend use Adobe's cloud. Eddie AI keeps originals on your drive but uploads light working copies (proxies). Endroll indexes, transcribes and renders on your computer and your full footage never leaves your machine; its cloud AI receives transcripts, clip descriptions, the cutting plan and small preview stills. Browser-first tools such as VEED, and Descript, work from uploaded media.

What we compared

• Where the original footage is stored and edited
• Which AI features run on your computer and which use the cloud
• What is sent when a cloud AI feature is used
• Whether the maker documents this on its own pages
• Platform and pricing model

1. Endroll

Best for: People who know what the video should say and want the AI to build the cut from a folder of footage that is never uploaded.

Indexing (speech, faces, shot descriptions), editing and rendering run on your computer, and your full footage never leaves your machine. When you ask for an AI draft or re-cut, the cloud AI receives transcripts, clip descriptions, the cutting plan and small preview stills — not the video files. A pill in the top bar shows whether what you are doing runs on your computer or uses the Endroll cloud.

• Limit: AI drafting and re-cuts need the cloud AI and an internet connection, so transcripts, text descriptions and small preview stills do leave the machine; only indexing, hand editing and rendering are local.
• Limit: Desktop app only: Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer, macOS 13+). No web or mobile editor.
• Runs on: Windows 10/11 (64-bit); Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 13+
• Pricing: Starter €29/month (1,500 credits), Pro €59/month (5,000 credits). Credits pay only for AI work; indexing and hand editing never spend credits. Free trial (14 days, 600 credits, no card) opens in batches from a waitlist.

endroll.ai

2. DaVinci Resolve

Best for: Editors and colorists who want a full desktop editor, with AI tools, working on media from their own drives.

A desktop editor for Mac, Windows and Linux. Its AI tools run on the DaVinci Neural Engine, which Blackmagic describes as “using the latest GPU innovations for AI and deep learning”; they include IntelliScript, which compares a script with the transcribed audio and creates a cut of the scene, and IntelliSearch for finding people, objects and words in dialog. Blackmagic Cloud is there to “host and access your projects and media from anywhere” when you want to share.

• Limit: Blackmagic lists the DaVinci AI Neural Engine as part of DaVinci Resolve Studio, the paid version.
• Limit: Blackmagic's product pages don't say, feature by feature, whether an AI tool ever contacts a server — ask before relying on it for confidential work.
• Runs on: Mac, Windows and Linux
• Pricing: Free version; DaVinci Resolve Studio is a one-time purchase of $295.

blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

3. Adobe Premiere Pro

Best for: Editors already in Premiere who want local AI search and transcription, and can keep the cloud-based generative features for footage that may leave the machine.

Media Intelligence powers the Search panel; Adobe's help pages say its analysis and search run locally on your computer without using the internet, and that Adobe does not train on your footage or searches. Speech to Text works offline once a language pack is installed. Generative Extend is different: it is a Firefly feature that uses generative credits, and Adobe's help pages say it needs an internet connection because it runs on a cloud AI model.

• Limit: Generative features such as Generative Extend run in Adobe's cloud, so check which features a project uses before working on confidential footage.
• Limit: Subscription only: Adobe says Premiere “is available only as a membership”.
• Runs on: Desktop app, plus mobile apps for iPhone and Android
• Pricing: Membership only, monthly or annual commitment; Generative Extend uses generative credits.

adobe.com/products/premiere.html

4. Final Cut Pro

Best for: Mac editors who want machine-learning tools inside a desktop editor that works on their own media.

Apple lists captions created “by analyzing spoken audio”, Transcript Search, Visual Search, Magnetic Mask, Voice Isolation and Enhance Light and Color. Visual Search and Transcript Search require a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 15.6 or later.

• Limit: Apple's page notes that some features require internet access, and doesn't say which AI features run on the Mac — ask Apple if that matters for your footage.
• Limit: Mac and iPad only.
• Runs on: Mac (macOS 15.6 or later) and iPad
• Pricing: One-time purchase of $299.99, or as part of the Apple Creator Studio subscription ($12.99 per month or $129 per year).

apple.com/final-cut-pro

5. Eddie AI

Best for: Editors who want interviews and multicam logged and assembled, and are fine with proxies being uploaded while originals stay on the drive.

The desktop app makes light working copies (proxies) of your footage to upload, and some files upload as they are; originals stay on your drive. Eddie says it “does not move, rename, change or delete your original files”, and exports link back to the originals. Enterprise plans list on-prem in your own cloud.

• Limit: Not for footage that mustn't leave the machine in any form: proxies, and some original files, are uploaded.
• Runs on: Mac and Windows desktop app, web app and an iPhone companion
• Pricing: Pay-as-you-go credit packs, no subscription required (1,000 credits $10 up to 50,000 $350); new accounts get 500 free credits. Optional yearly plan.

heyeddie.ai · Endroll vs Eddie AI

How to choose

Start with the footage, not the feature list. If the material is under an NDA, unreleased or internal, the question is not whether a tool “has AI” but where each AI feature sends its data. A desktop editor can still send frames or clips to a cloud model for one feature and keep everything local for another — Premiere's local Media Intelligence search and its cloud-based Generative Extend sit in the same app.

Tools that work from uploaded media are the contrast. Descript's help centre says it “uses cloud storage, but certain actions still rely on your local disk”, and media is uploaded to it. VEED works in a cloud workspace where uploads land in the workspace asset library. CapCut, when you're signed in, “saves projects to the cloud by default”; desktop projects made without signing in may stay local. That suits many teams; it doesn't suit footage that can't be uploaded.

Know what “local” covers. Endroll keeps the full footage on your machine, but its AI drafting sends transcripts, clip descriptions, the cutting plan and small preview stills to the cloud AI. Eddie AI keeps originals on your drive but uploads proxies. Neither is the same as fully offline, and for some contracts the transcript itself is the confidential part.

Questions to ask any vendor: Which features upload video, audio, frames or transcripts, and to whom? Is anything kept after the job, and for how long? Is customer material used to train models? Does the app work without an internet connection, and what stops working when it does? Where is this written down — a privacy policy or help page you can point a client to?