moviepy
by Zulko
MoviePy is a Python library for editing video through code. It handles cuts, joining clips, text titles, overlays and custom effects, and can export to common formats including GIF.
- Stars
- 15.1k
- Licence
- MIT
- Runs on
- Your computer
- Setup
- Moderate
- Language
- Python
- Age
- 4828 days
What you can do with it
- Cut a long video into a short clip and add a text title over it
- Join several clips together or layer them with transparency into one video
- Convert video segments into GIFs or write custom effects in a few lines of Python
Make money with it
A freelancer could offer bulk video-editing or templated short-clip production as a service, using scripts to deliver faster than manual editing.
An idea, not financial advice. Check the licence before charging for anything built on it.
Ways a business could use it
- Automate branded intros, captions and watermarks across many marketing or product videos instead of editing each by hand
- Batch-produce short social clips and GIFs from longer recordings such as webinars or tutorials
Can you use it commercially?
Free to use, change and sell, including in paid products. Keep the copyright notice.
Not legal advice. Read the project's licence file before building a product on it.
Getting it running
Install with `pip install moviepy`, which needs Python 3.9 or later; FFMPEG is required, with options for a custom build described in the docs.
Follow the official instructions in the project README.
Things to check
- Version 2.0 has major breaking changes, so older tutorials and v1 code may not work
- Maintainers say they are short on time and are asking for more help
- Slower than using ffmpeg directly because of heavier data handling
- Requires writing Python code; there is no visual editor
Who's talking about it
- raiscui (gh-trends): GitHub trends — 2026-10-27 Featured in a roundup
Checked 01 Nov 2026. Summary drafted by AI from the project's README.
