To edit videos from Claude, you add a video editor that exposes its features as an MCP connector, sign in once, and then describe the edit in the chat. Claude calls the editor's tools for you: it requests an upload link, waits for the transcript, removes the silences, sets a caption style, exports the file, and, if you ask, schedules the post. Vidpal ships such a connector, and the whole setup is one click in Claude, one command in Claude Code, or one pasted URL in ChatGPT.
This is different from asking a chatbot for editing advice. With a connector, the model has real tools with real side effects, so the conversation ends with an exported MP4 in your account rather than a list of steps to do yourself. The catch is that tools with side effects need guardrails, which is why the rest of this guide spends as much time on what Claude cannot do without asking as on what it can.
This guide explains what MCP is in plain terms, how to connect Vidpal to each client, which tools Claude receives, three worked examples from real workflows, what it costs, and how to disconnect. If you only want the setup, jump to the section on connecting, or use the Vidpal for Claude page, which has the install button. Client-specific walkthroughs live in how to connect Vidpal to ChatGPT and video editing from Claude Code, and if you are choosing between assistants, see Claude vs ChatGPT for video editing.
What MCP Is and Why It Matters for Video
The Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is an open standard from Anthropic that lets an AI assistant call tools hosted by another service. A service publishes a small server that describes its tools, what each one needs as input, and what it returns. The assistant reads that catalog, decides which tool fits the request, calls it, reads the result, and continues. Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, and a growing number of agents speak the protocol, so one server serves all of them.
For video this changes the shape of the work. Editing has always been a sequence of small decisions made in a timeline: find the dead air, cut it, check the captions, pick a style, export, upload, write a caption, schedule. Each step is quick, but there are many of them and they have to happen in order. An assistant with tools can run that sequence from a single sentence, pausing only where a decision needs you, such as approving a script or confirming an export that spends credits.
It also changes where the work happens. If you already plan content, draft scripts, or write captions in Claude, the editor is now in the same window. You can paste an article, ask for a 45-second video about it, review the script, and export, without switching apps. Our guide on how to use ChatGPT for social media content covers the planning side; a connector closes the loop on production.
What Claude Can Do Once Vidpal Is Connected
Vidpal's connector exposes 25 tools grouped around the same features you would click in the dashboard. Upload: create an upload link and check when the file has arrived. AI Editing: create a project from the upload, run the AI editor for overlays and effects, remove silences, remove filler words, add automatic zoom punches, add b-roll, and set the caption style from 75 presets. AI Clips: extract scored short clips from a long recording and list them. Studio: create a video from a prompt, a finished script, or an article URL, read and confirm the script, and list the available voices and caption presets. Export and publishing: render the MP4, check progress, list your videos, list connected social accounts, publish now, schedule for later, check a post's status, and cancel a scheduled post.
Every tool is a thin wrapper over the same code path the dashboard uses. That matters for two reasons. The results are identical, so a caption preset looks the same whether you picked it in the app or asked for it in Claude. And the limits are identical: credits, plan features, rate limits, and ownership checks all apply. Claude cannot open another user's video, exceed your plan, or bypass a credit check, because the tools it calls do not know how to.
Long jobs never block the chat. Exporting, transcribing, and clip extraction can take a few minutes, so those tools return immediately with a status and tell Claude which tool to poll. In practice you see Claude report progress every twenty or thirty seconds until the file is ready, and you can keep talking to it in the meantime.
How to Connect Vidpal to Claude, Claude Code, or ChatGPT
Start with a Vidpal account; the free plan is enough and no card is needed. Then pick your client. In Claude on the web or desktop, open the Vidpal for Claude page and click Add Vidpal to Claude. That opens Claude's Add custom connector dialog with the name and URL already filled in; confirm, and Claude sends you to Vidpal to sign in and approve. If you would rather do it by hand, go to Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, and paste https://app.vidpal.ai/api/mcp as the URL.
In Claude Code, run the command claude mcp add --transport http vidpal https://app.vidpal.ai/api/mcp in your terminal. When Claude Code asks you to authenticate the server (run /mcp if it does not prompt), a browser window opens for the sign-in and consent step; after that the connection persists. In ChatGPT, open Settings, then Connectors, enable developer mode, and add a connector with the same URL. ChatGPT runs the same sign-in flow.
Agents that cannot open a browser, such as a script on a server, use a device-code flow. The agent asks Vidpal for a short code, you approve that code on vidpal.ai while signed in, and the agent receives a token. The exact requests are listed as a copy-paste quickstart in your Vidpal account under Claude and AI agents, next to the connected-apps list.
Whichever client you use, you are signing in with your Vidpal account through OAuth. There is no API key to generate, store, or rotate, and nothing sensitive lands in a config file. Vidpal never receives your Claude or ChatGPT credentials either; the two services only exchange a scoped token that you can revoke.
Example 1: Clean Up a Podcast Clip
Say you have a nine-minute interview clip that needs to become a tidy vertical video. In Claude, with Vidpal connected, write: give me a Vidpal upload link for a clip I want to edit, and once it is uploaded and transcribed, remove the silences and filler words, set the captions to the Mozi style, and export it portrait. Claude calls the upload tool and replies with a link. You drop the file on that page from your computer, or scan the QR code and send it from your phone.
Claude polls until the upload lands, creates an AI Editing project, and waits for transcription. When the project reaches the ready state, it removes the silences, removes the filler words, sets the caption preset, and then pauses: the export tool spends a credit, so Claude asks whether to go ahead. Say yes and it starts the render, reports progress, and finishes with the download link. If you want changes, ask for them in the same chat: switch the captions to Karaoke, add auto zooms, or add b-roll, then export again. Re-exporting an unchanged video is free, and edits after an export cost only the new render.
For the mechanics of what silence and filler removal actually do to a clip, see how to remove silence and filler words automatically.
Example 2: Turn a Webinar into Scheduled Shorts
A one-hour webinar recording is the classic repurposing job. Write: give me a Vidpal upload link for my webinar recording, and once it is uploaded, extract short clips from it, tell me which one scored highest, and schedule that one to Instagram for Friday at 9am. Claude sends the upload link, waits for the file, and starts the clip extraction. That step spends one credit per ten minutes of source and takes a few minutes, so expect a confirmation prompt and then progress updates.
When the clips are ready, Claude lists them with their titles, virality scores, and reasoning, and picks the top one as asked. It exports that clip, then reaches the scheduling step. Scheduling and publishing need two things: a Pro or Business plan, since publishing is a paid feature, and an Instagram account connected in your Vidpal settings. If either is missing, Claude tells you exactly what to set up rather than failing silently. If both are in place, it schedules the post and reports the job id, which you can ask about later with a question like what is the status of the video I scheduled yesterday.
You can be more specific at every step. Ask for the three highest-scoring clips instead of one, ask for a caption rewrite before publishing, or ask for YouTube and TikTok as well. The webinar to clips guide covers what makes a clip perform once it is out.
Example 3: Generate a Video from a Topic
Not every video starts with footage. Write: make a 60-second landscape video in Vidpal about the history of the espresso machine, with AI images, and show me the script first. Claude creates the video, which writes a script and returns it as a draft. It shows you the script and stops. This is the useful pause: you can ask for a stronger hook, a different tone, or a shorter runtime, and Claude edits the request accordingly.
When you are happy, say confirm it. Claude confirms the script, which starts the voiceover and visual generation, then polls until the video is ready for review and asks before exporting. A portrait export costs one credit and a landscape export costs five, which Claude states before you confirm. You can also start from an article: paste a URL and ask for a video about it, and Vidpal writes the script from the page.
If you want a specific voice, ask Claude to list the available voices first and pick one by name. The same goes for caption presets. Both lists are free to read and give Claude the exact identifiers the generation tools expect.
What It Costs
The connector itself is free and available on every plan. The tools spend your normal Vidpal credits exactly as the dashboard would: one credit to upload for AI Editing, one for a portrait export, five for a landscape export, and one credit per ten minutes of source for a clip extraction. Reading anything, such as listing videos, checking status, or fetching a script, is free. Publishing requires Pro or Business, as it does in the app. There is no per-call fee and no separate API pricing; see the pricing page for credit counts per plan.
Two safeguards keep the bill predictable. Every credit-spending or publishing tool is marked as destructive in the catalog with a description that says so, and Claude confirms before calling those tools. And each connection has its own rate limit, so a misbehaving agent cannot run away with your credits in a loop.
Limits, Safety, and How to Disconnect
The connector runs against your account only. Claude cannot see other users' videos, and any id it does not own returns a not-found message rather than data. Uploads are yours: Vidpal validates that every upload URL belongs to the account before creating a project from it. Tools that publish declare whether the content is AI-generated, so AI Editing uploads of your own footage are labeled correctly on the platforms.
To disconnect, open Account in Vidpal and scroll to Connected apps. Every OAuth grant and device session is listed with when it connected and a Disconnect button. Revoking takes effect immediately; the next time Claude tries a tool, it is asked to reconnect. You can also remove the connector from Claude's or ChatGPT's own settings. Nothing in your account is deleted either way.
A few things the connector does not do yet: it does not edit individual overlay beats in the Pro Editor, and it does not change export resolution, which follows your plan. Both are dashboard features today. For everything else, the rule of thumb is that if you can do it in a couple of clicks in Vidpal, you can ask Claude to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Claude edit videos? On its own, no; Claude can only advise. With an MCP connector such as Vidpal's, Claude gains tools that upload, transcribe, cut, caption, export, and publish real videos in your account, so the conversation ends with a finished file.
What is an MCP connector? An MCP connector is a small server that describes a service's tools to an AI assistant using the Model Context Protocol. Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, and other agents read that description and call the tools on your behalf after you sign in.
Is the Vidpal Claude connector free? Yes. It is included on every plan, including Free. The tools spend your regular credits exactly as the dashboard does, and reading status or lists costs nothing. Publishing requires a Pro or Business plan, as in the app.
Does it work with ChatGPT and Claude Code? Yes. The same MCP URL works in Claude on the web and desktop, in Claude Code with one command, and in ChatGPT through its connector settings. Agents without a browser can connect with a device-code flow.
Will Claude spend credits without asking? No. Credit-spending and publishing tools are flagged in the catalog and Claude confirms before calling them. A per-connection rate limit also prevents a runaway loop.
How do I revoke Claude's access to Vidpal? Open Account in Vidpal, scroll to Connected apps, and click Disconnect next to the app or agent. Access ends immediately and nothing in your account is deleted.
Do I need an API key? No. You sign in with your Vidpal account through OAuth inside the connector flow. There is nothing to copy into a config file and nothing to rotate.
