Overview

FrameQuery is a video-indexing and review tool for teams that need to find moments across large footage libraries and carry them into post-production. It is best suited to production and marketing teams, documentary filmmakers, and news or broadcast workflows that can use AI-assisted indexing alongside frame-accurate review. Its strongest case is offline, no-per-query-cost search after indexing; the trade-offs are metered indexing on paid plans and cloud analysis of selected material.

Key features

Search built around indexed footage

Indexing analyzes scene context, objects, faces, voices, and speech, with speaker-separated transcripts. That makes archives searchable by more than metadata, but the Free plan has no indexing hours: its search is limited to metadata, while face, voice, and AI-tag search require indexed video. After indexing, searches run locally and work offline without a per-query charge, a useful distinction for teams that expect repeated searches or need to work without a connection.

Formats, storage, and editing handoff

Support for more than 50 formats, including R3D, BRAW, ProRes, H.264, H.265, MKV, and MXF, gives FrameQuery relevance to mixed production archives. It can ingest local folders, S3, SMB, Dropbox, and Google Drive, and supports sharing or backup through Drive, Dropbox, and NAS. 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. These connections make it more than a search box, though they do not remove the need to budget indexing time.

Review and privacy

The web review page combines frame-accurate comments, drawing annotations, approval workflows, and side-by-side version comparison. That is a practical fit for teams coordinating review around specific moments. Face and voice recognition run on-device with explicit consent, and biometric embeddings are excluded from shared indexes. However, selected frames and extracted audio are sent to cloud services for visual analysis and transcription, even though original footage is read from the user's storage. Production connections use HTTPS, templates are encrypted on-device, and FrameQuery says footage is not used to train its own AI models. Organizations with strict media-handling requirements should weigh the cloud-processing step before choosing it.

API status

The Developer API is a custom-priced plan, but the API is not available yet and live requests are disabled. Its planned limits—20 GB maximum upload, 12-hour maximum video per job, and 100 clips per batch—do not make it a current option for teams that need working programmatic access.

Pricing

The Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free and includes metadata search, local/Drive/NAS sharing and backup, but no monthly indexing hours. It is useful for evaluating archive organization and sharing, not for unlocking face, voice, or AI-tag search without indexed footage.

Starter costs 19.00 USD per month, with monthly billing only. Its 10 hours of video per month, full AI analysis, local index/search, and Drive or NAS sharing suit an individual or small workflow with modest indexing needs. Pro costs 45.00 USD per month, billed $540/yr, with 50 hours per month, cloud-hosted sharing, 100 GB of cloud proxy storage, collaboration, and review; it is the more complete fit for teams that need shared review as well as indexing. Max costs 190.00 USD per month, billed $2280/yr, and raises the allowance to 300 hours per month and cloud proxy storage to 600 GB while retaining cloud sharing, collaboration, and review. Its higher ceiling is relevant to heavier monthly workloads, but it remains a defined quota.

Studio has custom pricing and includes 300+ hours, unlimited video hours, one-time archive processing, dedicated onboarding, and priority support, making it the tier for larger archives or higher-volume operations. Developer API is also custom-priced on a pay-per-request, usage-based basis, with REST API access, programmatic indexing, and webhook notifications planned; it is not usable while requests remain disabled. The main compromise on cheaper plans is either no indexing at all on Free or fewer monthly indexing hours and less hosted collaboration capacity on Starter.

Platforms

FrameQuery is offered for macOS, Windows, and the web. API is also named as a platform, but the API is not currently available.

Who it's for

FrameQuery makes the most sense for production, post-production, marketing, documentary, corporate video, and news or broadcast teams that need searchable archives plus a review path into editing. It is less suitable for users who need a free allowance of AI indexing, cannot send selected frames and audio to cloud services, or need an operational API today.

Pros and cons

Pro: Local offline search with no per-query cost keeps repeated archive searches practical after indexing.
Pro: Broad format and storage support, plus exports for major editing workflows, helps bridge archive search and post-production.
Pro: Frame-accurate comments, annotations, approvals, and version comparison bring review into the same workflow.
Con: Free includes no indexing hours, so its richer search depends on a paid plan.
Con: AI analysis sends selected frames and extracted audio to cloud services, a meaningful constraint for sensitive productions.
Con: API access is described as planned rather than available, limiting teams seeking current automation.

Alternatives

AI Video Search Tools is a useful broader comparison for readers still choosing an archive-search approach. Video Annotation Software is the more relevant category to compare when review markup is the primary need.

Twelve Labs is worth considering for API- and web-oriented use: its Free plan includes 600 minutes of video, 90-day index access, up to 10 hours per index, 100 videos per index, and five concurrent indexing tasks. ViSearch may fit a pay-per-processing approach, with a free allowance of up to 20 minutes and a Basic rate of 0.09 USD per once, billed $0.09/min. Vivu offers a Free plan with 20 indexing minutes per month and 50 search credits, making it an option for a smaller monthly allowance. DISKO is a macOS-and-web alternative whose free tier includes 2 GB, screenwriting and shot-list tools, and review links.

MomentSearch is another option for readers comparing video-search tools. Deepgrip may suit buyers willing to start at 399.00 USD per month for 200 indexed hours, 450 searches, five seats, and a stated overage charge of $0.01/search. Video Moment Finder is an alternative for readers considering an open-source project under the AGPLv3 license. Cutsio offers a web-based paid alternative: its Pro plan costs 59.00 USD per month and includes two users, 300 indexed minutes per month, and 30 storage hours.

Verdict

Choose FrameQuery if your team needs to search a substantial video archive locally after indexing and wants review and editing handoff in the same workflow. Its breadth across formats, storage, and post-production makes that combination compelling for active production teams. Look elsewhere if free AI indexing, entirely local analysis, or an API available now is essential.

	FrameQuery	Sift Video
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$19/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, macOS, Web, Windows	Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Paid from	19 /mo	—
Visual search	—	Yes
Audio search	—	Yes
Multimodal search	—	Yes
API access	—	Yes

FrameQuery vs Sift Video

FrameQuery

Sift Video