Stock media

Free Pexels footage and photos without leaving the editor — browse the Stock tab, or let the agent fetch and place B-roll for you.

Get free, commercially-usable footage and photos without leaving the editor. There are two ways in: browse the Stock tab yourself, or ask the agent — it can search, import, and place stock in one step.

Ask the agent (fastest)

"Add three clips of city timelapse footage to the timeline."

"Find calm ocean b-roll and overlay it while I talk about focus."

"Import some abstract tech backgrounds to the bin — don't place them yet."

"Add B-roll that matches what I'm saying in the intro."

What the agent actually does

When the agent searches stock, it decides where the results land:

Mode	What happens	Use for
Straight to the timeline (default)	Results go sequentially onto the main track	Backgrounds, montage building blocks, filler shots
Into the media bin only	Results import to the media bin without touching the timeline	B-roll overlays — the agent then places them at exact transcript moments

The bin flow is the one to know: "overlay stock B-roll while I mention X" makes the agent pull the stock into your media bin without placing it, then overlay each clip at the matching spoken moment. See Insert B-roll for the full flow.

Browse the Stock tab manually

Open a project.
Click Stock in the left asset panel.
Search for a visual idea, object, place, or mood.

Example searches: city night, fitness workout, laptop typing, coffee shop, product background.

Photos or videos

Use videos for B-roll and motion backgrounds.
Use photos for still backgrounds, cutaways, thumbnails, and graphic compositions.

Add results to the project

Enter a search term and browse thumbnails; scroll to load more.
Click Add on a result (or drag it into the project).
Wait for the download and import — the asset appears in the Media bin like any other file.
Drag it to the timeline.

Import only what you're likely to use — media is stored in browser storage, and dozens of unused clips add up.

Use stock as B-roll

Keep your main talking-head or demo clip on the main track.
Find stock that matches the spoken moment.
Place it on an overlay track above the relevant section and trim it to the sentence.
Mute or lower the stock clip's audio if it has any.

Or skip all of that and delegate it — see the agent prompts above and Insert B-roll.

Use stock as a background

Add a stock video or photo to the main track.
Layer text, graphics, or voiceover above it.
Blur or darken the background if text needs contrast; keep motion subtle behind text.

Configuration

Stock search is powered by Pexels and requires a PEXELS_API_KEY in the editor app environment. Without it, the Stock tab and the agent's stock search degrade gracefully — you'll see an unavailable message or empty results, and everything else keeps working.

Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
No stock results	Try a simpler, more concrete search term
Stock tab unavailable	Pexels isn't configured in this deployment
Import is slow	Large video assets take longer to download and process
B-roll has audio	Mute or lower the stock clip's audio
Too many assets in the bin	Remove unused stock from the Media tab