Bowdlerize /ˈbaʊdləˌraɪz/ v. to cut what shouldn't be there. syn. less time video editing, more time creating!

Q: What's the trial limit?

8 real exports. Only basic Whisper models (tiny, base, small). No email, no credit card, no account required.

Download Free Trial Buy — $59

What people say

What Bowdler does?

Edit video like a document. Select text, cut bad takes, remove filler words, mute profanity — all from a single transcript.
Cut dead air with one click. Silero VAD segments silence on the timeline; toggle what to keep. Adjust sensitivity and padding.
Auto-generate subtitles. Generate, fix timing, export as SRT, VTT, FCPXML, or DaVinci Resolve timeline. Everything is local.
Auto-censor. You review every cut. Detect profanity and replace with silence or beep. Built-in lists for 32 languages. Review before export.
Multiple angles edited like a document too. Sync by waveform, LTC, clap/slate, or manual offset. Auto-switch cameras by audio. Simplified editing, with manual override of cameras or audio tracks.

See all features in Docs →

How does Bowdler work?

Drop a file in, pick a mode, edit — then export to your NLE or as a flattened video.

Live Edit, Batch Processing, Custom Profanity Dictionaries, and MCP support (soon) round it all out.

Your videos remain on your computer. Whisper, Parakeet, Silero VAD — all local and offline.

You paid for your Mac. Make it work for you.

So, one Bowdler, five tools, no limits.

Example Final Cut Pro export after silence removal + subtitles in Bowdler

Don’t Rent What You Can Own.

Why pay for a cloud subscription when any 16GB M-series Mac handles it just as well — and faster?

On your Mac

Models: 8 local options (Whisper & Parakeet) — pick fast or precise.

Quality & Speed: WER 3.4–10.6% — matches or beats cloud accuracy. 36 sec to 9.4 min, depending on the model you pick.^*1

Languages: 99+ languages & dialects with Whisper, 25 languages with Parakeet.

Conditions: $59 once, no subscription and no credits, fully offline.

Limitations: None — unlimited processing, any file size, duration or quality.

Updates: Three basic tools at launch. Now a full suite — and still expanding. Every new feature at no extra cost.

In the cloud

Models: Zero configuration — which means zero choice over model or its parameters.

Quality & Speed: WER ~6–13%^*2 — same or worse, with hidden trade-offs. 13-15 min for upload and processing.^*3

Languages: ~25 languages, Latin-alphabet focused. Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Arabic are commonly excluded.

Conditions: $240–720/year, credits-based — the more you use, the more you pay.

Limitations: Monthly processing caps, up to 4K quality.

Updates: New features land as paid add-ons or credit-burners — your base plan never gets richer. You're tied to their priorities.

^*1 Local WER from benchmarks run on a MacBook Air M4, using the same ~25 minute video sample across all models. Full methodology, test samples, and raw results are on GitHub.

^*2 Cloud WER from independent 2026 benchmarks: Tapescribe, Blitzcut, VidNotes.

^*3 Estimated total wall-clock for a ~25 min 1080p video (~3072 MB): upload ~4min at 100 Mbps, proxy generation ~ 2 min, transcription ~ 8 min. Total ~ 13–15 min: Descript Help Center, aiflowchat 2026.

I built Bowdler on my own to avoid spending ten hours in Final Cut Pro instead of two, to keep from uploading my files to the cloud, and to skip paying hundreds of dollars a year. It turned out really well — so well, in fact, that over seven months of building, the project attracted dozens of users from around the world facing the exact same problems. Now, I view the app differently and aim to turn it into the ultimate toolkit for editors. And there is still a lot of work ahead.

After school, I started writing my first (admittedly silly) scripts and websites: this evolved into a real passion for automation and building things myself. It’s hard to describe the satisfaction I get from building all of this from scratch, entirely on my own — from the animations on this very site, to the algorithms powering the processing. But building this alone wasn't always easy.

I cannot express enough gratitude to those who have supported me by purchasing a license and providing incredibly valuable feedback (even when it’s critical, I’m open to all of it!). If you have ideas, criticism, or just want to say hello, I respond within 24–48 hours on weekdays. Thank you!

What people say Verified buyers

From the community

Pricing

$59

Buy — $59 Download Free Trial

Pay once, own forever
All future updates included
1 license key = 1 active Mac; transfer to a new Mac once per 30 days.
14-day refund, no questions asked
Requires Apple Silicon, macOS 14+

What's the trial limit?

8 real exports. Only basic Whisper models (tiny, base, small). No email, no credit card, no account required.

What file formats does it support?

Video: MP4, MOV, M4V, MXF. Audio: MP3, WAV, AAC, M4A, AIFF. Any codec macOS natively supports, including ProRes and even files with embedded timecode. No file size limit.

How much disk space do the AI models need?

Bowdler supports both Whisper and Parakeet. You choose which models to download, keep, or remove at any time. The smallest is 71 MB, the largest is 2,951 MB. Only the models you pick are stored locally.

How long does it take to learn?

I built Bowdler to be simple for everyone — experienced editors, technical users, and beginners alike. No need to dive into technical details; it is already tuned for typical workflows. The interface was designed around familiar patterns you already know.