Does CapCut use your videos for AI? What its terms say in 2026

The Morse teamPublished October 30, 202611 min read

As of October 30, 2026, CapCut's privacy policy says it may use your videos, photos, audio, and the prompts you give its AI tools to "train, test, and improve technology, such as machine learning models and algorithms," and CapCut's US pages name no setting that turns this off. CapCut does say it doesn't own your videos. Its terms still give it a perpetual, worldwide license to them, plus the right to use your username, image, and likeness to credit you, including in sponsored content. The word "voice" isn't in that license, and the likeness line that drew coverage in June 2025 was already in CapCut's April 2024 terms.

We read CapCut's US Terms of Service and US Privacy Policy (both last updated April 15, 2026), its Trust Center privacy page, its post about the terms, and its AI avatar and voice-over pages on capcut.com on October 30, 2026. capcut.com shows US visitors only the US versions, so for everyone else we read the global terms and privacy policy, and the 2024 and 2025 terms, in the Internet Archive's copies. Where something is only alleged, we say so. CapCut gets credit for one specific promise. Its privacy policy says face and body information used for an effect is "deleted and not retained" once the effect is applied.

CapCut's AI and content settings at a glance

Read on October 30, 2026.

Does CapCut use your videos to train AI?

Yes, going by its own privacy policy. CapCut's US privacy policy lists, among its uses of your information, to "train, test, and improve technology, such as machine learning models and algorithms." It says that includes "scanning, analyzing, and reviewing User Content." User Content covers "the photographs, images, audio recordings, and videos you upload." It also covers "prompts, files, and other types of information that you submit to our AI-powered interfaces, as well as the final AI-generated responses." The policy collects "the text of the words spoken in your User Content," for example when you use auto captions.

The policy doesn't say "generative AI," and it doesn't name the models. The US policy names no setting for training, and neither do the US terms. Adobe, by contrast, writes a no-generative-training promise into its binding terms, which we cover in does Adobe train AI on your work. We found no equivalent sentence on the CapCut pages we read.

Europe gets one more route. CapCut's global privacy policy, in the Internet Archive's October 15, 2026 copy, gives the same purpose for the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK: "to train and improve our technology, such as our machine learning models and algorithms." It rests that on "legitimate interests," so people there have a right to object. The policy asks you to "state the grounds of your objection" so CapCut can weigh them against its interests.

Does CapCut own your videos?

No, but it holds a license that doesn't expire. The US terms say "We don't own your User Content." By submitting it, you grant "an unconditional, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual and worldwide license." The license lets CapCut "modify, adapt, reproduce, make derivative works of, display, publish, transmit, distribute and/or store" your content "for the purposes of operating, developing and providing the Services, subject to your Platform settings." It runs to TikTok USDS Joint Venture and its "affiliates, agents, services providers, partners and other connected third parties." Section 15 says the rights in Section 9, where the license sits, "shall survive the termination of these Terms."

The same section says "All User Content will be considered non-confidential," and tells you not to upload anything "that you consider to be confidential." CapCut doesn't say which "Platform settings" limit the license. This isn't legal advice, so read the terms yourself before you edit a client's footage in CapCut.

Can CapCut use your face and voice?

Your face, to credit you as the creator, yes. Your voice isn't named. The US terms grant "a royalty-free fully transferable (including sub-licensable), worldwide license to use your username, image and likeness to identify you as the source of any of your User Content, including for use in sponsored content." By uploading, you also "waive any rights to prior inspection or approval of any marketing, advertising or promotional materials related to such User Content." You waive "rights of publicity" too, to the extent the law allows. Neither sentence uses the word "voice." A recording of your voice is still User Content, as an audio recording, so it falls under the main license.

June 2025 coverage said CapCut's "new terms" let it use "your face, voice, and likeness" in promotional content (Techloy). The likeness sentence is word for word in the version dated April 30, 2024, a year earlier, and the license never mentions voice.

For effects, CapCut's privacy policy says it may detect "the existence and location of a face and other body parts" in your videos. It says "We do not use any face or body information to identify you in your User Content." That wording changed on April 15, 2026. The January 22, 2026 policy also said CapCut does "not share such information with third parties," and listed effects, recommendations, moderation, and ads as the purposes. The April version drops the no-sharing sentence and adds "to improve the Services" to the list.

CapCut also builds reusable versions of your face and voice if you ask it to. Its AI voice-over page says you can "create a personalized AI voice by simply reading a sentence aloud," and pair it with an AI avatar. Its AI avatar page says you can turn "the uploaded video into a talking avatar that can be reused in later content." We found no retention period for a voice sample or an avatar on either page or in the privacy policy.

One lawsuit goes further than the policy. A proposed class action filed on July 28, 2023 in federal court in Illinois, Rodriguez v. ByteDance (No. 1:23-cv-04953), alleges that CapCut collected users' "face geometry scans" and "voiceprints" without the notice Illinois's biometric privacy law requires (complaint). Those claims are allegations, and we found no final ruling on them.

What changed in CapCut's terms in 2025 and 2026?

Less in June 2025 than the coverage said, and the bigger rewrite came on April 15, 2026. CapCut's own post about its terms says it sent a push notification on June 6 and updated the terms on June 12, 2025. The post says that update "did not include any changes to the 'User-generated Content' section." The Internet Archive's copies show one change in that section. The June license added that "you allow us to upload such content to our server."

The license clauses, version by version:

The January 22, 2026 terms kept the June 2025 license and sent US users to separate US terms (archived March 12, 2026). Outside the US, the April 15, 2026 global terms, in the Internet Archive's September 29, 2026 copy, grant the license only "to the Company and its affiliates," without "unconditional" or the list of partners. Their section for the European Union and the UK adds that "the paragraphs under 'User-Generated Content' of Section 10 shall not apply," without saying what applies in their place. If you live there and depend on either reading, ask CapCut in writing.

Who runs CapCut in the US, and where does your data go?

As of October 30, 2026, CapCut's US terms are an agreement with TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC (CapCut). The terms say it works with "BD TikTok USA LLC and its affiliates," which they call TT Commerce & Global Services, "in accordance with applicable laws including the Executive Order 14352." Paid plans in the US, CapCut Pro among them, "will be provided by TT Commerce & Global Services."

The US privacy policy says CapCut shares information with TT Commerce & Global Services "to facilitate a global and interoperable experience," and with "affiliates controlled by, or under common control with, us." It doesn't say in which country your data is stored.

Outside the US, the global policy says Bytedance Pte. Ltd. in Singapore provides and controls CapCut unless a regional section says otherwise, and that "We store the information we collect in secure servers located in Malaysia, Singapore and the United States." For the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK, it relies on standard contractual clauses to move data to group companies and others outside Europe. CapCut's features also call outside AI services: the US terms name Runway, Stable Diffusion, Google, YouTube, FLUX, and Luma, and say their own terms apply when you use them (CapCut). For how other apps handle training, see which AI companies train on your data.

Is editing offline in CapCut safer?

Less than some guides say. A July 26, 2025 post on Larry Jordan's site says that if you edit "without uploading it to their Cloud service, CapCut has no rights to your work" (Larry Jordan). CapCut's privacy policy says it "may collect User Content through pre-uploading at the time of creation, import, or upload, regardless of whether you choose to save or publish." Its examples are "to recommend audio options, generate captions, and provide other personalized recommendations." The license attaches "by submitting User Content via the Services," and CapCut doesn't list which features submit it. Assume anything you caption, run through an AI tool, or start from a template leaves your device.

How do you delete your CapCut data?

Delete the account from the Manage account page, or, in the US, through the webform at capcut.com/us-privacy (CapCut). Once it's gone, the terms say you can't "retrieve any of your account data, or any of the content or information you have uploaded." CapCut's Trust Center says removal starts when you confirm, though "some information may be kept for a short time to meet legal or operational requirements."

The privacy policy sets no fixed period. CapCut keeps information "for as long as necessary to provide the Services," and also when it has "a legitimate business interest to do so (such as improving and developing the Services, and enhancing their safety, security, and stability)" (CapCut). Cloud Space files are deleted "at your request." Deleting your account doesn't end the license, which survives the end of the terms.

How Morse keeps your drafts out of CapCut's license

A CapCut project collects words before it collects footage: the script you paste into a text-to-speech box, the caption you fix after auto captions run, the prompt you type for an AI clip. CapCut's policy counts each of those as User Content, may pre-upload a draft before you save it, and lists training among the uses. Write those words in Morse first, and only the final version you paste into CapCut falls under its license.

A Morse chat is saved in your browser, encrypted, rather than on Morse's servers, and Morse doesn't train AI on your content, sell your data, or show ads (privacy policy). Studio, Morse's image generator, keeps the pictures it makes in that same encrypted browser storage. Keep cutting the footage in your editor, and bring the writing here. Each chat runs in the privacy mode you choose:

• Private, for the script, the hook, and the caption. Every new Morse chat opens in Private. Your draft goes to Grok or to an open-weight model such as GLM, Kimi, or DeepSeek, on hosts bound by Morse's zero data retention agreements to keep none of it. Where a host confirms zero retention on each reply, Morse checks it and refuses a reply that doesn't.
• Anonymous, when you want GPT, Claude, or Gemini to sharpen a line. Morse's proxy takes your account, email, and IP address off the request and sends it from Morse's own account, so the provider reads the line without knowing it's you. That provider may hold it for a limited time for abuse checks, under its own policy, so a script that names a real customer belongs in another mode.
• E2EE, on Pro, for a sponsor's script under embargo. Your browser checks the enclave's hardware attestation itself before sending, and encrypts the message on your device so that one enclave alone can read it. What crosses Morse's servers is ciphertext they can't open. The protection holds as long as the enclave hardware and attestation work as designed. These chats use open-weight models, with no web search or image generation.

Signing out locks the history, and reopening it needs a key kept on your device plus a second one our server issues at sign-in. The browser holds the only copy of your history, so clearing it erases your drafts and Morse has no way to restore them; copy finished scripts into your project folder. With no chats stored on our side, Morse usually has very little to give authorities.

What to do in CapCut today

• Training: in the US there's no setting, so keep footage you don't want analyzed away from CapCut's captions, AI tools, and Cloud Space. In the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, object under the privacy policy's legitimate-interests right.
• Your likeness in sponsored content: the license lets CapCut credit you by name and image, so don't share anything through CapCut you wouldn't want promoted.
• Other people's faces and voices: don't build a custom voice or reusable avatar from anyone who hasn't agreed. The terms make you responsible for "any required publicity clearances or releases" when you use third-party AI tools.
• Leaving: download your data and export your projects, then delete the account under Manage account. The license outlives it.
• Scripts, captions, and prompts: draft them in a Morse chat and paste only the final text into CapCut. For a sponsor's script under embargo, see what end-to-end encryption changes in an AI chat.

Draft your next script in a guest chat from the Morse home page, or make a free account with no card. For a sponsor's script under embargo, E2EE chats are part of the $19-a-month Pro plan.