Is Screen Studio free? No, and here's the free way to get the look.
Screen Studio is a paid Mac app by subscription. You can download it and try the features, but you can't export a video without an active plan. For browser recordings, Screenix for Chrome gives you auto zoom and a smooth cursor for free, with a watermark.
Free to try No account needed $19 once to remove the watermark
The short answer
The short version
Updated November 2026
Screen Studio has no free plan. Its pricing page lists two subscriptions, $29 a month or $9 a month billed yearly, and students and educators get 40% off.
Without a plan you can use the app but not export video files, so the free download works as a demo rather than a free version. It's also macOS only.
Screenix for Chrome is free to record, edit and export, with a small watermark. There is no limit on the number of recordings, their length or your exports.
A $19 one-time license removes the watermark, with every future update included. Screenix records browser tabs only.
Side by side
What you get for free
Feature
Screenix for Chrome
Screen Studio
Free plan
Yes, with a watermark
Export without paying
Limit on recordings or length
None
Export blocked without a plan
Platforms
Chrome on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook
macOS 13.1 or later
What it records
Browser tabs, following tab switches
Full screen, windows, iPhone
Auto zoom and smooth cursor
Camera bubble
Transcript editing and captions
Paid price
$19 once
$29/month or $108/year
Screen Studio pricing and export policy from screen.studio, checked on November 2, 2026. Screen Studio removed its one-time license for new customers in October 2025.
What free means at Screen Studio
A download you can try, not a plan you can use
Screen Studio's download page says that without an active plan you can use every feature except exporting video files. That's a fair way to let people evaluate the app, but it means a recording you make for free stays inside the app. Every plan is a subscription, and the one-time license that used to exist was removed for new customers in October 2025.
If you're on Windows, Linux or a Chromebook, the question is moot: there is no Screen Studio for those platforms, free or paid.
What free means at Screenix
Record, edit and export, as much as you like
Screenix for Chrome's free tier is the full product with a small watermark on the export. Record as many tabs as you want, for as long as you want, in Instant mode or Studio mode, and export MP4 or WebM up to 4K at 120 fps. No account is needed to record, and nothing is uploaded: the video is encoded in your browser.
If the watermark bothers you, $19 once removes it in your browser and includes every future update. There's no subscription. Share links are the one thing that needs a Screenix yearly or team plan.
Auto zoom on clicks, editable on the timeline in Studio mode
Smooth redrawn cursor with click effects and 16 themes
Camera bubble you can place and resize after recording
Background, padding and browser frame
The trade-off
Tabs only
Screenix for Chrome records the tab in front of you and follows you between tabs in the same window. It doesn't record desktop apps, the terminal or other windows. For web apps, websites, SaaS demos and bug reports that's usually everything you need. For a full-screen Mac recording, Screen Studio or another desktop app is the right tool, and on Linux the Screenix desktop app records the whole screen.
What you get
Every detail of a good demo, handled for you.
Auto zoom
Zooms that follow your clicks
Screenix zooms in on every click and pans with the cursor, so viewers see what you did without squinting. Keep the automatic zooms or move, resize and add your own on the timeline.
Screenix records the page without your system cursor, then draws a crisp macOS-style one in its place, with spring smoothing, click bumps, motion blur and a soft fade when you stop moving. 16 cursor themes, all adjustable.
Open a link, jump to another tab or reload the page. Screenix keeps recording whichever tab is in front in the same window, so a whole flow fits in one take.
Screenix for Chrome records the tab in front of you, so it can draw a perfect cursor over pure page pixels.
Records browser tabs
Screenix captures the page in the tab you're on, at full quality, without your system cursor.
Follows you between tabs
Switch tabs, open links or reload in the same window and the recording keeps going in one take.
Tab audio from the first tab
Your mic and camera record throughout. Page sound comes from the tab you started on.
Not your whole screen
It doesn't capture your desktop, other apps or other windows. On Linux, the Screenix desktop app does.
FAQ
You have questions. We have answers.
No. Screen Studio has no free plan. You can download it and use the features, but exporting a video needs an active subscription.
Its site doesn't advertise a trial. The download works without a plan for everything except exporting, which is the same thing in practice: you can try it, but you can't take a video out of it without paying.
$29 a month, or $9 a month billed yearly, which is $108 a year. Students and educators get 40% off. There is no one-time purchase for new customers.
For browser recordings, Screenix for Chrome: free with a watermark, unlimited recordings and exports, auto zoom and a smooth cursor. $19 once removes the watermark. It records browser tabs only.
No. Length, number of recordings and export resolution are the same on the free tier as with a license. The only difference is the watermark.
Yes, in Chrome on macOS, with the same free tier. For full-screen Mac recording with transcript editing, Screen Studio is still the better tool.
