Short answer: Girato's free tier has no limit on how long you record or export, on Windows, Mac or in the browser, with the full editor, automatic zooms and 1080p exports. The trade is a small Made with Girato badge on free exports; 3 exports a month, of any length, have none. OBS Studio and OpenScreen are also free with no time limit, and so are Cap (personal use only) and Silk (Mac only). Loom's free plan stops at 5 minutes a video, and Clipchamp's recorder at 30 minutes a recording.
How the free plans compare
| Tool | Length on the free plan | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Girato | No limit | A badge on free exports after 3 clean ones a month; 1080p |
| OBS Studio | No limit | No editor: zooms and cuts are done by hand in another app |
| OpenScreen | No usage caps | Desktop only; its Windows installer is not code-signed |
| Loom Starter | 5 minutes a video | 25 videos, 720p |
| Clipchamp | 30 minutes a recording | Split longer sessions into several recordings |
| Cap | No limit on local recordings; share links up to 5 minutes | Personal use only; commercial use needs the $58 one-time Desktop licence (or $29 a year) |
| Silk | No limit | Mac only; chapters in the file and burned-in captions need the $69 licence (3 Macs, 12 months of updates) |
Decided?Start free in your browser or get lifetime, $99 once
Checked 29 Oct 2026 on each product's own pricing or support pages.
What "free" usually hides
- Time caps that cut a tutorial off mid-sentence.
- Resolution caps, such as 720p, that look soft on a laptop screen.
- Trial clocks: everything for a week, then a paywall.
- Cloud strings: free, but your footage lives on someone else's server.
Recording a long session in Girato
- Use the desktop app for long recordings: it records your clicks and keystrokes and places the zooms for you.
- Record in one take; cut the pauses afterwards on the timeline.
- Turn on captions and let Girato build chapters from the transcript, so viewers can jump straight to the part they need.
- Export an MP4. Long exports take a while because everything renders on your own computer, with nothing uploaded.
Record as long as you need
- The full editor is free
- No time limit and no account