There are three ways to use AI in Selects. They all do the same editing work, so the choice comes down to what you already pay for, how much setup you want, and how far beyond Selects your workflow reaches.

Every option splits your cost into two parts:

The work always uses Selects credits, on all three options. What changes is who pays for the thinking.

Analyzing your footage covers transcription, topics and subtopics, speaker detection, and visual analysis. Learn more in How AI analysis works in Selects.

The models built into Selects are the quickest way to start, because there is nothing to set up and no second subscription to buy. Open the chat panel and start editing.

Selects uses a mix of models rather than one, and picks the right model for each task as it works. Finding the best cut, reading your footage, and matching a script are different jobs, so they do not all run on the same model.

This is also the most expensive option per edit. Selects reaches those models through paid API access, which costs more per message than a flat monthly plan does.

Best for: editors whose plan has enough monthly credits to cover both chatting and analyzing their footage.

Learn more in Edit with chat.

Bringing your own subscription lets you chat in Selects without spending Selects credits on the conversation. Selects runs the model against your own AI plan instead, so your Selects credits go to analyzing your footage.

Two providers are supported today, and more are being added:

Setup and billing work the same way whichever you connect. Connect more than one and you choose which to chat on each time.

Setup takes about a minute and needs no technical knowledge, and the connection stays until you disconnect it.

A free account will not work on either provider. You need a paid plan.

Best for: editors who already pay for Claude or ChatGPT, and want their Selects credits to go further.

Learn more in Edit with chat.

To connect a subscription, open the model menu in the Selects chat panel and sign in through your browser.

Once connected, that provider's section in the model menu shows a [Models] list you can chat with. Chatting on any of them uses your own plan, so none of them use Selects credits.

To disconnect, click [Disconnect] to the right of that provider's heading in the model menu. That deletes the saved connection, and you would need to sign in again to use it.

Your sign-in is stored encrypted on your own computer. It is never sent to Selects servers, and the model runs on your machine against your own account.

The Selects MCP connects Selects to an AI app you already use, such as Claude, Codex, or OpenClaw. You prompt from that app, and Selects does the editing in the background. Chatting is billed through that provider's plan, and the editing your agent does in Selects does not use Selects credits either, so your Selects credits go to analyzing your footage.

This is the option that reaches beyond Selects. Because your agent can use other tools alongside Selects, one prompt can pull footage from cloud storage, cut the edit in Selects, add captions and motion graphics on export, and publish the result, all without you switching apps.

It also takes the most setup. You do not need to code, but you do need to be comfortable connecting an MCP server in your AI app.

Best for: editors who have already built an editing workflow in their AI app, with their own instructions and guides, and want Selects to carry out the decisions.

Learn more in Connect Selects to your AI agent with the Selects MCP.

You are not locked in. You can switch between all three at any time, and connecting one does not disable the others.

Bringing your own subscription and using the Selects MCP both cost less than using the models built into Selects. In both cases your own AI plan pays for the conversation instead of your Selects credits. The models built into Selects are billed through paid API access, which costs more per message than a flat monthly plan.

Exact savings depend on how you edit, since AI models count tokens differently depending on the task.

Yes. Selects credits cover analyzing your footage, and that happens inside Selects on all three options. Bringing your own subscription or using the MCP only changes who pays for the conversation.

Yes. All three stay available in your account. In the chat panel you can move between the Selects models and any subscription you have connected whenever you like, and the Selects MCP works alongside both.

The models built into Selects need no setup at all. Connecting your own subscription takes about a minute. The Selects MCP takes a few minutes and asks for a little more comfort with connecting tools, though no coding is involved.

No. The editing quality is the same across all three. What changes is which model does the thinking, what it costs you, and how much of your wider workflow you can automate.

If the browser window closed without connecting, or you left it open too long, the attempt stops on its own. For Claude, it times out quietly after two minutes, and the menu still shows the connect option. For ChatGPT, the menu shows [Cancel sign-in] while it waits, so you can click it to start over right away. Otherwise it gives up after five minutes and shows a message that sign-in could not finish. Open the menu and click the connect option again to start over. If your Claude connection expires later on, the error message above the chat input shows [Reconnect Claude]. Click it to connect again. For any other expired connection, click [Disconnect] first, then connect again. If ChatGPT shows no [Disconnect], click [Reuse your ChatGPT subscription] to sign in again.