Overview

FrameQuery is a video-footage search and review tool for teams working with sizable archives, from post-production and documentary crews to marketing and broadcast groups. Its strongest case is finding moments across indexed footage and handing them into an editing or review workflow; teams should weigh cloud-based analysis and monthly indexing-hour limits before choosing a plan.

Key features

Search and indexing

FrameQuery indexes scene context, objects, faces, voices and speech, with speaker-separated transcripts. That makes it more useful than filename or metadata search when the task is finding a particular line, person or visual element. Searching an indexed collection runs locally, works offline and carries no per-query charge. The Free plan is limited to metadata search, however; face, voice and AI-tag search depend on indexed video, and the Free plan has no monthly indexing hours.

Media and storage workflows

Support for more than 50 video formats, including R3D, BRAW, ProRes, H.264, H.265, MKV and MXF, gives teams room to work across common delivery and camera formats. Ingest can come from local folders, S3, SMB, Dropbox or Google Drive; sharing and backup can use Drive, Dropbox or NAS. This breadth suits mixed archives, though the volume a team can index each month depends on its paid tier.

Editing and review

Search results can move into Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Avid and other NLE workflows through FCPXML, Premiere XML, EDL and LosslessCut formats. The web review page adds frame-accurate comments, drawing annotations, approval workflows and side-by-side version comparison. These tools make FrameQuery relevant beyond solo archive search, particularly when reviewers need to mark and approve specific frames.

Privacy and cloud analysis

Original footage is read from the user's storage, but selected frames and extracted audio are sent to cloud services for visual analysis and transcription. Face and voice recognition run on-device, require explicit consent, and keep biometric embeddings out of shared indexes. Production connections use HTTPS, face and voice templates are encrypted on-device, and FrameQuery says it does not use footage to train its own AI models. Teams that cannot send selected media or audio to cloud services should look elsewhere.

API status

The API is not available yet and live requests are disabled. Its planned documentation describes a 20 GB upload maximum, a 12-hour video-duration maximum per job and batches of up to 100 clips, but those limits do not make it a usable integration today. Teams seeking programmatic indexing should not choose FrameQuery on the expectation of immediate API access.

Pricing

FrameQuery is freemium, with paid plans from $19/mo. The Free plan is free and includes metadata search, local/Drive/NAS sharing and backup, but no monthly indexing hours. It is useful for managing metadata and sharing an archive, not for unlocking AI search without indexed video.

Starter costs 19.00 USD per month, monthly billing only, and includes 10 hrs video/mo, full AI analysis, local index/search, and Drive or NAS sharing. It is the entry point for individuals or small teams with a modest indexing workload. It does not include cloud-hosted sharing or the collaboration and review features included in Pro and Max.

Pro costs 45.00 USD per month, billed $540/yr, with two months' savings. It raises the allowance to 50 hrs video/mo and adds cloud-hosted sharing, 100 GB cloud proxy storage, collaboration and review. This is the more fitting tier for teams that need review workflows and a larger monthly volume.

Max costs 190.00 USD per month, billed $2280/yr, with two months' savings. It includes 300 hrs video/mo, cloud-hosted sharing, 600 GB cloud proxy storage, collaboration and review. The higher allowance and storage target heavier workloads; teams that do not need that capacity may find Pro the more proportionate choice.

Studio has custom pricing and is described for 300+ hrs video, with unlimited video hours, one-time archive processing, dedicated onboarding and priority support. Developer API also has custom pricing, billed per request on a usage-based basis, for REST API access, programmatic indexing and webhook notifications; the API is not yet available. A Studio entry mentions both 300+ hours and unlimited hours, so prospective buyers should confirm how that allowance applies to their workload.

Platforms

FrameQuery supports macOS, Windows and the web, with an API platform listed for its planned API offering. That combination accommodates local work and browser-based review, while API access remains unavailable for now.

Who it's for

FrameQuery is best suited to production and post-production teams, documentary filmmakers, marketing teams, corporate video groups, and news or broadcast users who need to locate content across indexed footage and move results into editing or review. It is a weaker fit for anyone needing extensive free indexing, an immediately usable API, or a workflow that keeps selected frames and audio entirely out of cloud services.

Pros and cons

Pros: Local, offline search without per-query costs makes repeated archive searches practical after indexing.
Pros: More than 50 formats, several storage sources and multiple editing interchange formats support varied production pipelines.
Pros: Frame-accurate comments, drawing annotations, approvals and version comparison support team review.
Cons: The Free plan has no indexing hours, so AI-based discovery requires a paid tier.
Cons: Starter's 10 monthly indexing hours and lack of cloud-hosted sharing, collaboration and review may constrain growing teams.
Cons: Selected frames and extracted audio go to cloud services for analysis, which may not meet every media-handling policy.
Cons: The API is not yet available, despite a custom-priced Developer API offering.

Alternatives

For a lighter production-planning and review workflow, DISKO offers a free 2 GB cloud plan with screenwriting, shot-list tools and review links; its listed Pro plan is 12.00 USD per month at a founders rate locked for an unspecified term. Choose it when those tools matter more than FrameQuery's footage indexing and AI search.

ViSearch is an alternative for teams considering a usage-based search service: its free tier processes up to 20 minutes, and its Basic plan charges 0.09 USD per minute for full-text search and AI features. It also supports self-hosted deployment, which may suit teams prioritizing that option.

Cinestar is a free, open-source Linux and macOS option; its local AI services require Ollama. It is worth considering when an open-source core matters more than FrameQuery's hosted review workflow and broad storage integrations.

Danbi is an API-focused alternative with a free recording trial: the first two hours per email are free, with per-recording limits of 90 minutes and 2 GB. Consider it when the recording-oriented API workflow is the priority.

Deepgrip targets teams willing to pay more for a higher stated monthly volume: Starter is 399.00 USD per month, billed $4,788/year, and includes 200 indexed hours, 450 searches and five seats, with over-limit searches at $0.01 each. Its listed capacity and seat count may suit teams that need those specific allowances, while FrameQuery starts at a lower price.

Moment Search is a free macOS and Windows option for a small, local archive: its Starter tier is free forever for one footage source and up to 25 indexed videos, with visual and speech search, clip export and on-device processing without cloud. Choose it when avoiding cloud processing is more important than FrameQuery's review tools and larger monthly indexing tiers.

Twelve Labs offers a free API and web tier with 600 minutes of video, 90-day index access, up to 10 hours per index, 100 videos per index and five concurrent indexing tasks. It is a relevant alternative for readers comparing API-oriented video indexing.

QMedia is free, open-source software under the MIT license.

Browse more options in AI Video Search Tools and Video Annotation Software.

Verdict

FrameQuery is a strong fit for video teams that need to find dialogue and visual details across archives, then carry those results into editing and collaborative review. Its offline, no-per-query search and broad workflow support are compelling; the main trade-offs are cloud-sent analysis media, finite indexing allowances on paid tiers and an API that is not yet live. Choose it when those limits work for your archive and review process; look elsewhere if cloud analysis is unacceptable or API access is essential now.

	Cinestar	FrameQuery
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Paid from	Free	$19/mo
Platforms	Linux, macOS	api, macOS, Web, Windows
Visual search	Yes
Audio search	Yes
Multimodal search	Yes
Free plan		Yes
Paid from		19 /mo
Frame-accurate marking		Yes
Drawing annotations		Yes
Review workflow		Yes

Cinestar vs FrameQuery

Cinestar

FrameQuery