How to Auto-Cut a Montage to the Beat in CapCut

Use CapCut's beat detection and auto-cut features to snap your clips to the rhythm of a music track.

7 minIntermediate

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A montage that lands its cuts on the beat feels professional and watchable. CapCut can detect the beats in a song and place markers on the timeline, so you know exactly where to cut. The Auto-cut and template paths take this even further by assembling clips to the rhythm for you.

What you need

CapCut desktop or mobile, signed in
A music track with a clear, steady beat
Several short clips or photos to montage

Step 1: Add the music track

Open the Audio tab and add a track from the library or import your own. Drag it onto the audio track so it starts at the beginning of the timeline.

Step 2: Turn on beat detection

Select the music clip, open its options, and enable Beats (sometimes Auto beats). CapCut analyzes the song and drops yellow beat markers along the track.

CapCut - Beat markers

Timeline

-----------------------------------------------

A1 |~~~~ music ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|

. . . . . . . . (beats)

Yellow dots mark each detected beat under the music track.

Step 3: Cut clips to the markers

Move the playhead to each beat marker and split or trim your clips so their cut points land on the dots. The markers snap, so dragging a clip edge near a beat clicks it into place.

CapCut - Snapping a cut to a beat

Drag clip edge ->| . (snaps to beat marker)

^ playhead at 0:04.2

Split here: [ S ] trim: [ <- | -> ]

Step 4: Let Auto-cut try first

For a fast draft, drop all your clips in and use the Auto-cut option (or a beat-synced template) to have CapCut arrange them to the beats automatically. Then go back and swap any clip that landed in the wrong spot.

Cut on the downbeat

Not every beat needs a cut. Pick the strongest beats (usually every two or four) for your hardest cuts, and use the smaller beats for subtle moves like a zoom or a flash.

Step 5: Add transitions and export

Place quick transitions on the beat cuts to smooth them, keep the durations short so the energy holds, then export at 1080p.

Result: a pile of travel clips becomes a tight montage where every cut snaps to the music, the kind of edit that feels deliberately timed because it is.