Built by
Jacob Geeslin
Filmmaker, editor, founder of Cut Time
As a filmmaker and editor, I built Cut Time because there weren't any time trackers built specifically for creative applications. All I've ever wanted was to see the objective amount of time I spend on each individual project file, but not a single app on the market could do it. They only logged the application window itself and none of them were built for freelance creatives in post production. So I took matters into my own hands.
Since building this for myself, I've been able to narrow down just how much my hour is worth and figure out which clients were sapping my time and energy and which ones kept me engaged. To me that data has been absolutely life changing.
If we're all going to spend thousands of hours honing our craft and grinding out projects, we may as well have some real data to show for it!
What Cut Time is for
Cut Time is a DaVinci Resolve time tracker, a Premiere Pro time tracker, an After Effects time tracker, and a Final Cut Pro time tracker— all in one quiet little menu bar app. It doesn't need plugins, it doesn't need timers, and it doesn't need you to remember anything.
For individual editors it's free forever — giving you per-project hours, an earnings tracker to figure out what your rate should actually be, and a dashboard that makes your work visible to yourself. For post-production studios, Cut Time gives owners a real view into how editors spend their time across every client project, which clients are actually profitable, and where the hours quietly disappear.
Principles
No surveillance. No screen recording. No keylogging.
Cut Time only reads the name of the project you have open. It doesn't touch your footage, timeline, media pool, or any file on your machine. Your work is yours.
Zero effort on your end.
If you have to remember to start a timer, you'll forget. Cut Time works whether you think about it or not. Open your editing software, keep editing, data builds.
Built by an editor, for editors.
Everything about Cut Time — detection logic, project naming, idle thresholds, the dashboard — was shaped by sitting in Resolve and Premiere day after day and asking “what would I actually want to know?”
Independent and bootstrapped.
No venture capital, no pivot pressure. Cut Time gets better because editors pay for it, not because we need to hit a growth target by Q3.
Where to go next
- → See pricing — free for individuals, 30-day trial for studios
- → See a sample studio dashboard — what Cut Time looks like populated
- → FAQ — data privacy, idle detection, what studios can and can't see
- → Download the tracker — macOS and Windows