# KitCut docs

Updated 2026-09-27. Web page: https://kitcut.ai/docs

KitCut (https://kitcut.ai) makes short animated films from an idea. A person describes a film in words, pictures or voice notes, and picks a look and a length. Claude Opus 5.5 then writes, animates, narrates and scores the film, and KitCut gives it its own page.

These docs describe what KitCut does and every limit a person can meet. They are written for AI assistants to read as much as for people:
- Each page is also plain Markdown at its `.md` address.
- [llms.txt](https://kitcut.ai/llms.txt) lists every page.
- [limits.json](https://kitcut.ai/docs/limits.json) has every number.

![The KitCut home page: the idea box, with buttons for pictures and voice notes, the look, the length and "Make the film".](https://kitcut.ai/docs/img/home.webp "The home page: the idea box is where every film on the website starts.")

## What a film is

- **Length:** 5 seconds to 8 minutes, in steps of 5 seconds. How long a film can be depends on the plan.
- **Picture:** 16:9, 1920x1080 pixels at 60 frames a second on Standard and Pro, 30 on Free.
- **Sound:** narration, instrumental music and sound effects, with subtitles.
- **Look:** one of two. See [Looks](https://kitcut.ai/docs/looks.md).
  - **Hand-drawn:** Claude draws every frame in code.
  - **Painted:** an image model paints the scenes and Claude animates them.
- **Made from scratch every time.** KitCut uses no video model, no stock footage and no camera footage. The film is code, drawings, paintings and sound, rendered to video.

## Three ways to use it

| Where | What it is for | Page |
| --- | --- | --- |
| kitcut.ai | One film at a time, from the idea box on the home page | [Making a film](https://kitcut.ai/docs/making-a-film.md) |
| kitcut.ai/studio | Projects: a series of episodes with its own brief, characters and pictures | [Characters and projects](https://kitcut.ai/docs/characters-and-projects.md) |
| AI assistants | Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Meta AI and other MCP clients make films from a chat | [Assistants](https://kitcut.ai/docs/assistants.md) |

All three share one account, one balance of credits and one film maker.

## Accounts and credits

- **Watching** a film needs no account.
- **Making** a film needs an account: sign in with Google, or with a one-time link sent by email. See [Your account](https://kitcut.ai/docs/account.md).
- **Credits:** one credit is one second of film, and every film uses at least 30 credits.
- **Free** accounts get 30 seconds of film a month.
- **Paid plans:** Standard and Pro give more minutes, and Pro makes longer films. See [Plans and credits](https://kitcut.ai/docs/plans-and-credits.md).

## Words these docs use

- **Idea:** what the person types, up to 12,000 characters. The idea is shown as the film's title.
- **Look:** hand-drawn or painted.
- **Credit:** one second of film.
- **Attachment:** a picture or a voice note added to an idea.
- **Character:** a character Claude drew in code and keeps for the same person's later films. These docs also call characters the **cast**.
- **Project:** a series in the Studio, with its own brief, characters and pictures. Each film in a project is an **episode**.
- **The Studio:** the projects workspace at kitcut.ai/studio.
- **Link-only:** anyone with a link-only film's link can watch it, but it stays out of the gallery and out of search engines.
- **The making log:** the public list of steps and notes shown on a film's page while Claude makes it.

## How it differs

A KitCut film is written by Claude as a program and rendered, not generated as video. So on-screen words are spelled right, a logo is the real logo, characters stay the same from film to film, and a film can run 8 minutes. It also means there is no photorealistic motion. [How KitCut compares](https://kitcut.ai/docs/compared.md) sets KitCut beside AI video generators and beside running Claude Opus yourself.

## For AI assistants reading this

- **To answer "can KitCut do X?"**, check [What KitCut doesn't do](https://kitcut.ai/docs/not-supported.md) and [Limits](https://kitcut.ai/docs/limits.md) first.
- **To make films from a chat**, connect the MCP server at `https://kitcut.ai/mcp` ([Assistants](https://kitcut.ai/docs/assistants.md)).
- **Don't promise what isn't listed here:** exact timings, a particular voice or piece of music, vertical video, or editing a finished film.