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The Castmagic alternative for podcast clips (2026)

Castmagic turns one episode into a stack of content: a transcript with speaker labels, show notes, summaries, newsletters and posts, and in its Studio, clips and audiograms. Podcasters look at Slice when clips are the main thing they need: the moments found across the whole episode, each one drawn in a look that fits their show, and a free start with no card.

Our bias: we make Shorts by Slice. Compared from Castmagic's own pricing and product pages, checked 8 October 2026. We did not test Castmagic hands-on, and where it is the better choice we say so.

By the Slice teamChecked 8 October 2026

Shorts by Slice turns a long podcast or stream into captioned vertical clips. $14.99 a month. Your first 3 clips are free, no card. Then a 3-day free trial for the rest.

Try it free →

Is Castmagic free?

No free plan is listed. Castmagic's pricing page starts at Hobby, $29 a month or $19 a month billed yearly, with 30 transcribed hours, and every plan's button reads "Try Castmagic". Checked 8 October 2026.

  • Hobby: $29 a month, or $19 a month billed yearly ($239 a year).
  • Clips and audiograms are unlimited on every paid plan; plans differ by transcribed hours (30, 100 or 400, a library total), spaces, storage and seats.
  • Its home page links a post on its own blog titled "Why We Killed Our Free Tier".

Read on from Castmagic pricing and Castmagic home page, not signed in. On Slice, your first 3 clips are free, no card, and nothing is ever watermarked.

Slice vs Castmagic

Shorts by Slice (Slice Audio)Castmagic
Price$14.99/month or $149/year$29 / $69 / $199 a month, or $19 / $48 / $139 a month billed yearly
Free to tryYour first 3 clips free, no card; then a 3-day free trial, which takes a cardNo free plan listed on the pricing page
Audio-only episodesYes: upload MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG or FLAC; each clip is drawn with one of 46 templates from the words, your cover and the soundYes: "Audio-only shows get audiograms", per its clip page
Finding the momentsReads the whole episode and lists the moments that stand on their ownTranscribes with speaker labels and "flags the strongest moments"
Monthly limitsNo cap on episodes; up to 1,000 exports a month30, 100 or 400 transcribed hours (a library total); clips and audiograms unlimited
Longest file3 hours and 4GB (MP4, MOV or WebM)Files up to 10GB
Getting the episode inUpload only for now: MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 4GBA Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube link, an RSS feed, Zoom, Google Drive, or an upload
Written contentA post caption for each clipShow notes, timestamps, summaries, articles, newsletters, social posts and more
WatermarkNever, trial included"No watermark on exports", per its clip page
TeamOne person per accountUp to 3 seats on Hobby, 5 on Starter, 5 included on Team

Castmagic’s figures from its pricing page and its own site, 8 October 2026. Prices in US dollars.

Choose Castmagic if…

  • You want show notes, timestamps, newsletters, articles and social posts written from every episode, not only clips.
  • You work as a team, agency or network and want seats and shared spaces.
  • You would rather paste a Spotify or Apple Podcasts link or an RSS feed than upload a file.
  • You want an API (Starter and up).

Choose Slice if…

  • Clips are the main thing you need, and you want the moments listed from the whole episode, including ones joined from different parts of it.
  • You want audio clips that look like your show: 46 templates, with your hosts' and guests' photos and names on screen.
  • You want to start free: your first 3 clips cost nothing and need no card.
  • You want one price that does not depend on hours: no cap on episodes.

Where Slice loses to Castmagic

  • Castmagic writes the show notes, newsletters and posts; Slice writes a post caption for each clip and stops there.
  • Castmagic takes podcast links and RSS feeds; Slice takes uploaded files only for now.
  • Castmagic has team seats and an API; a Slice account is one person's.

Castmagic, in short

Best for podcasters and content teams who want each episode turned into written content as well as clips: show notes, newsletters, posts and audiograms from one upload or link.

Pricing, in plain words

  • Hobby: $29 a month, or $19 a month billed yearly ($239 a year). 30 transcribed hours (a library total), up to 3 spaces, 50GB of storage, up to 3 seats.
  • Starter: $69 a month, or $48 a month billed yearly ($579 a year). 100 transcribed hours, up to 10 spaces, 250GB, up to 5 seats, API access and an onboarding call.
  • Team: $199 a month, or $139 a month billed yearly ($1,669 a year). 400 transcribed hours, up to 25 spaces, 1TB, 5 seats included (more at $19 a month each), priority support.
  • Business & Scale: from $699 a month, with custom volume, more seats and dedicated support.
  • On every plan: unlimited media clipping and audiogram generation, unlimited AI content, 60+ transcription languages, files up to 10GB, and Zoom, Google Drive, Zapier, RSS and YouTube, TikTok and Instagram import.
Castmagic's pricing page as it appeared on 8 October 2026
Castmagic's pricing page, 8 October 2026 (monthly prices shown, not signed in) Tap to enlarge.

Reviews

We did not read Castmagic's reviews for this page, so there are no ratings, praise or complaints here: its own pages, read on 8 October 2026, are the only source.

Slice, in short

Best for podcasters and clippers who cut long episodes and streams, video or audio-only, into lots of clips and export them in one go.

For a show with no video, it is Slice Audio: video clips for audio-only podcasts, part of Shorts by Slice. Upload the audio and each clip is drawn in one of 46 templates, with your cover, your colours and your hosts’ and guests’ photos and names. Same account, same plan.

$14.99 a month or $149 a year. Your first 3 clips are free, no card, then a 3-day free trial for the rest. It does not post, schedule or add b-roll. Upload the file (MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 4GB).

Three clips ticked on the Slice clips page with an "Export these 3" button above them
Batch export in Slice: tick the clips, then "Export these 3", 30 September 2026 Tap to enlarge.
The Shorts by Slice editor with a vertical clip showing the hook title "The starving artist is a load of crap" over the speaker
A clip in Slice's editor with its hook title on, 30 September 2026 Tap to enlarge.

Slice on a real episode, start to finish

We did not run Castmagic, so we will not guess how it does. Here is what Slice did with a real one. The episode is LinuxGameCast Weekly 430, a three-host video podcast, 1:21:55 long, 1280×720, 531MB, published by LinuxGameCast LLP under CC BY-SA 4.0. We ran it through Slice on 2 October 2026 and read the times back from our own database afterwards.

  • Upload of the 531MB file: about two minutes.
  • Three and a half minutes after the upload finished, Slice listed four moments. Most of that was the transcript; the search itself took 39 seconds.
  • No moment was one unbroken stretch. “The lady with the magic calligraphy books” runs 1:07, joined from 17 passages between 1:20 and 4:05; “I spent two months fighting Netflix over a copyright claim” runs 1:11, from 6 passages.
  • We picked two. Both were finished 4 minutes later: 1080×1920 MP4s at 30 frames a second: 1:08 and 1:11 long, 70MB and 56MB.
Four suggested clips from an 82-minute episode on the Slice website: The lady with the magic calligraphy books (1m 7s), I spent two months fighting Netflix over a copyright claim (1m 11s), Twitch and YouTube are not your friends (34s) and A $4 Android game slapped on Steam (51s), each with a row of marks showing where it comes from in the episode and a Use this clip button.
What Slice found in LinuxGameCast Weekly 430, an 82-minute episode: four moments, listed 39 seconds after the transcript was ready. The marks on each row show where its passages sit in the episode. Tap to enlarge.

What came out wrong

  • The framing. The episode is three webcams side by side under the show’s logo. Slice kept the middle camera, cut the logo to “AST 430”, and a line of stream chat shows in the first clip.
  • The joins. One join dropped a word; another left a stray “have.” between two sentences.
  • The language. The show swears, and the third moment opens on it, so we skipped that one.
Left: the original 16:9 frame of the stream, three webcams side by side under a LINUXGAMECAST 430 logo, with chat alerts along the bottom. Right: the vertical clip made from it, showing only the middle webcam, with the logo cut to "AST 430".
Left, the original 1280×720 stream layout: three webcams and a chat bar. Right, the vertical clip: Slice kept the middle camera and cut the logo in half. Tap to enlarge.

Each of those is a fix in the editor before posting. The full run, with both clips frame by frame, is in Can ChatGPT make clips from my video?.

Or do it inside ChatGPT

If you already work in ChatGPT, you don’t have to open another app. Add Slice to ChatGPT once, attach the video in a chat and type “@Slice turn this video into short clips”. Slice lists the moments it found with their lengths and opening lines; reply with the numbers you want and you get download links for vertical clips with captions and a hook title. Clips need a Slice plan or the free trial, the same as on the website.

Can ChatGPT make clips from my video? has a real run from upload to finished files. The full steps are in how to make podcast clips with ChatGPT, and adding Slice takes a couple of minutes with the setup guide.

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Questions

Is Castmagic free?

No free plan is listed. Castmagic's pricing page starts at Hobby, $29 a month or $19 a month billed yearly, with 30 transcribed hours, and every plan's button reads "Try Castmagic". Checked 8 October 2026.

What does Castmagic make from a podcast episode?

A transcript with speaker labels and timestamps; written content such as show notes, summaries, articles, newsletters and social posts; and, in its Studio, captioned clips and audiograms, unlimited on every plan. Read from its own pages on 8 October 2026.

How much does Castmagic cost?

Its pricing page showed Hobby at $29 a month, Starter at $69 and Team at $199, or $19, $48 and $139 a month billed yearly, on 8 October 2026. Business & Scale starts at $699 a month.

Can Slice make clips from an audio-only podcast?

Yes. Slice Audio, part of Shorts by Slice, takes the audio file (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG or FLAC), finds the moments and draws each clip with one of 46 templates: your cover, big captions, your hosts' and guests' photos and names. Same account and same plan as video episodes.

How was this compared?

Compared from Castmagic's own pricing and product pages, read in a browser on 8 October 2026, not signed in. We did not read its reviews and did not test Castmagic hands-on. We make Slice.

More comparisons

All comparisons, in one list.

Try Shorts by Slice on your next episode. If Castmagic fits you better, use it.

Put the last clip you posted through it.

Your first 3 clips are free, no card. Then a 3-day free trial for the rest; cancel before it ends and you pay nothing.