How to Edit a Video With AI: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)
To edit a video with AI, attach the clip as a reference to a video model that accepts video input, describe the change in plain language, and say what should stay the same. The model generates a new version that follows the original motion and timing while applying your edit, such as removing an object, swapping the background, or restyling the look. In getimg.ai, you attach any video as a reference in Create video, type the change into the prompt box, and generate. The original clip is preserved.
Can AI Edit Videos?
Yes. AI can edit videos in two different ways, and it helps to know which one you need before you start.
The first kind is assistive editing inside a timeline: automatic captions, silence and filler-word removal, reframing a horizontal clip for vertical platforms, or cutting a long recording into short clips. The footage itself does not change; the AI speeds up decisions an editor would otherwise make by hand.
The second kind is generative editing, which changes what is actually in the shot. You can remove a passer-by, turn a sunny street into a rainy night, put a presenter in a different jacket, or restyle a live-action clip as hand-inked animation. Generative editing works by regenerating the clip with the original as a reference, so the model rebuilds the scene with your change applied rather than painting over individual pixels. That is why it can do things no timeline editor can, and also why results usually follow the source closely rather than reproducing it exactly. Generative editing is what most people mean when they ask how to edit a video with AI, and it is the focus of every step below.
How to Edit a Video With AI in getimg.ai
Editing a video in getimg.ai works the same way as editing an image: attach the clip, describe the change, generate.
- Attach the clip as a video reference. If the video is already in your gallery, generated or uploaded, click it: it opens in full view, and the prompt box below already has the clip attached. If it is not, go to Create video in the Video section of the sidebar, click Reference in the prompt box, and upload the clip.
- Describe the change. Start with what should change, then list what should stay: "Edit the reference video: replace the kitchen with a bright white photo studio. Keep the person, their movements, the camera angle, and the timing the same."
- Pick a model. Only models that accept video references can edit: Seedance 2.5, MiniMax H3, MiniMax H3 Max, and Wan 3.0. The model picker in full view shows just these.
- Match the settings to the source. Set the aspect ratio to the one your clip was shot in, and choose a length that covers the part you want to keep. Generate 2 to 4 variations if you want options to choose from.
- Generate and compare. The edit arrives as a new video in your gallery, next to the original. Play both side by side and check the change, the subject, and the motion.
If the result is close but not right, adjust the prompt and generate again from the original clip. Changing one instruction at a time makes it easy to see which words the model is responding to.
How to Write the Edit Prompt
An edit prompt has two halves, and most weak results come from leaving out the second one. The first half names the change. The second half names everything the model should hold on to. Without that second half, the model treats your clip as loose inspiration and may reinterpret the camera move, the framing, or the person.
The pattern that works reliably:
Edit the reference video: [the change]. Keep [subject, motion, camera, timing] the same.
Part | What to write | Example |
Opening | Tell the model the clip is the source | "Edit the reference video:" |
The change | One concrete edit, with visual detail | "change the white sneakers to red suede sneakers" |
What to keep | Subject, motion, camera, timing | "Keep the runner, their stride, the tracking shot, and the timing the same." |
Optional detail | Light, texture, or mood that sells the change | "The suede should catch the low morning sun." |
Be specific about the new thing and plain about the old one. "Change the hoodie to an orange windbreaker with a matte finish" gives the model something to draw. "Make the outfit better" does not. The same two-part structure holds for relighting, color grading, weather, and restyles, and every one of the AI video editing prompts we tested follows it.
Which Model Should You Use for a Video Edit?
Four models in getimg.ai accept video references, and all four can edit. Each takes up to 3 video references and up to 3 audio references per generation, and all four can combine them with image references in the same edit. The main practical differences are how long a source clip can be and what output lengths and resolutions you can choose.
Model | Longest reference clip | Output lengths | Output quality |
Seedance 2.5 | 30 seconds | 4 to 30 seconds | 480p, 720p, 1080p |
Wan 3.0 | 15 seconds | 4 to 30 seconds | 480p, 720p, 1080p |
MiniMax H3 | 15 seconds | 5 to 15 seconds | 720p, 2K |
MiniMax H3 Max | 15 seconds | 5 to 15 seconds | 480p, 720p |
Seedance 2.5 is the natural first pick for anything longer than 15 seconds, since it is the only one that takes a 30-second source file. MiniMax H3 accepts the most image references (up to 9), which helps when an edit also needs a product shot, a logo plate, or a photo of a new outfit to follow. For short clips, it is worth running the same prompt on two models and keeping the better result, because each model interprets an edit slightly differently. Under the hood, all four do video-to-video AI generation: the clip guides motion and structure, and the prompt sets the change.
What Kinds of Edits Work Well?
Some edits come back clean on the first or second try, others take more iteration. In testing, these edit types worked well:
Edit type | Example | Why it works |
Object removal | Remove a parked bicycle or passers-by | The model rebuilds the background from what surrounds it |
Background swap | Kitchen to studio, living room to jazz club stage | Subject and motion carry over, environment is redrawn |
Outfit or material | Hoodie to orange windbreaker, white sneaker to red suede | Clear target, small area, motion stays with the body |
Weather and time of day | Sunny to stormy night, day to rainy night | Light changes across the whole clip, so it reads as one look |
Season | Summer park to autumn leaves | Color and foliage change while the action holds |
Restyle | Anime, comic book, watercolor, 1970s 16mm film | The whole clip changes, so there is no seam between old and new |
Recast a performer | Swap the person using a photo reference | Motion and blocking follow the original performance |
Recasting only belongs on footage you own, with people who have agreed to it. Each edit type also has its own pitfalls. To remove objects or people from a video, for example, the prompt has to say what fills the empty space, or the model may swap in a different object instead of clearing it.
How to Prepare Your Footage Before Editing
Most editing problems can be prevented before you click generate. The source clip sets the ceiling on the result, so a few minutes of prep saves several rounds of regeneration.
Trim the clip to the part you need. Every model has a per-file cap (15 seconds, or 30 on Seedance 2.5), and shorter clips give the model less to hold together. If your shot is longer, cut it into segments in your editing app and edit each one with the same prompt.
Pick a clip where the thing you want to change is clearly visible. A jacket that is half hidden behind a table is harder to swap than one in full view. An object that a person walks in front of several times is harder to remove than one that sits alone in the corner.
Prefer steady, well-lit footage. Heavy motion blur, very dark scenes, and fast whip pans give the model less information to rebuild from. Handheld movement is fine; chaos is harder.
Know your aspect ratio. Set the output to the same ratio as the source so the composition does not get cropped or padded. If you need a vertical cut of a horizontal clip, do the edit first, then reframe.
How to Review and Refine an AI Video Edit
Treat the first result as a draft. Play it next to the original and check four things in order: did the change happen, does the subject still look like the subject, does the motion follow the source, and does anything new appear that should not be there (a stray object, a warped hand, a flickering edge).
If the change is too weak, make the instruction more concrete. "Make it night" becomes "change the time to night, with streetlights on and the sky dark blue." If the change spills into areas it should not touch, add those areas to the keep list by name: "keep the brick wall, the street sign, and the parked car the same." If the motion drifts, say so directly: "keep the camera move and the person's walking pace the same as the reference."
Generating 2 to 4 variations per run is often faster than rewriting the prompt, since small differences between variations show you what the model is uncertain about. When one edit is right, you can open that new video and edit it again, for example a background swap first and a color change second. Stacking many edits in a row can compound small drifts, so for a long chain of changes, going back to the original with a combined prompt sometimes gives a cleaner result.
Where Generative Editing Fits in a Full Video Workflow
Generative editing handles the shot. A timeline editor still handles the sequence. In practice, the two work in a loop: you cut your footage into shots, run generative edits on the shots that need a change, then bring the edited clips back into your editor for sequencing, captions, sound, and export.
Sound deserves a note. Video models in getimg.ai can generate native audio and accept audio references, but if the original soundtrack matters (dialogue, a voiceover, licensed music), the safest route is to keep the original audio in your editor and lay it under the edited clip. Because the edit follows the source timing, the sync usually holds for most of the clip; check lip movement closely on dialogue shots.
For campaign work, this loop is where AI editing saves the most time. One shot can become a seasonal version, a rainy-night version, and a different colorway without a reshoot, and each version arrives as its own file. The AI video editor in getimg.ai sits next to video generation and upscaling, so you can generate, edit, and upscale a clip to 1080p or 4K without moving files between tools. Commercial use of edited clips is allowed, subject to our terms and applicable third-party rights.
The Bottom Line
AI video editing turns a written instruction into a new version of your shot. Attach the clip as a video reference, name one concrete change, and list what should stay the same. Short, steady shots with a clear subject give the most reliable results, and each model has its own maximum clip length, so longer footage is edited in parts. Review the new version against the original, rerun or stack edits as needed, and finish the sequence, sound, and captions in your usual editor.
Open Create video and edit your first clip
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. AI edits videos in two ways. Timeline tools use AI to speed up cutting, captioning, and reframing without changing the footage. Generative video models change the content of the shot itself: they regenerate the clip with the original as a reference and apply your described change, such as removing an object, swapping the background, changing the weather, or restyling the whole clip. In getimg.ai, generative editing runs on Seedance 2.5, MiniMax H3, MiniMax H3 Max, and Wan 3.0, which accept video files as references.
In getimg.ai, attach the video as a reference: click it in your gallery to edit it in full view, or upload it with the Reference button in Create video. Describe the change, then list what should stay the same, for example "Edit the reference video: change the sunny street to a rainy night. Keep the person, their walk, and the camera move the same." Pick one of the models that support video references, match the aspect ratio to your clip, and generate. The edit arrives as a new video and the original stays in your gallery.
Generative video editing regenerates the whole clip, guided by your original. When you ask for a local change, like removing a bicycle, the model aims to rebuild everything else to follow the source as closely as possible, but small differences in texture, lighting, or background detail can appear. Listing what to keep in the prompt (subject, motion, camera, timing) usually tightens the result. It is not a pixel mask, so for frame-accurate compositing a traditional VFX workflow is still the right tool.
It depends on the model. In getimg.ai, each attached video file can be up to 15 seconds on MiniMax H3, MiniMax H3 Max, and Wan 3.0, and up to 30 seconds on Seedance 2.5. Longer footage works if you cut it into segments, edit each segment with the same prompt, and join them in your editing app. Shorter, focused clips also tend to give cleaner edits.
Yes. In getimg.ai, every edit produces a new video and your original clip is preserved in the gallery. That means you can try several versions of an edit, compare them side by side with the source, and go back to the original at any point to try a different prompt.
Yes, generally. Videos you edit in getimg.ai can be used commercially, subject to our terms and applicable third-party rights. The source footage still matters: you need the rights to the clip you upload, and edits involving real people, such as recasting a performer, should only be made with footage you own and people who have agreed to it.
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