A Twelve Labs alternative when you want an app, not an API

	TwelveLabs	MediaFind
What it is	Developer API and models	Desktop app
Who uses it	Developers building video products	People searching their own media
Where processing happens	TwelveLabs' cloud or Amazon Bedrock	On your computer
Price	Free 600 min; indexing $2.50/hr, search $4/1,000 queries; Enterprise custom	Free (10 files); Pro $24.99/mo after a $9.99 first month, or $107.88/yr
Setup	Code against REST API or Python/Node.js SDKs	Install the app; models download once
Scale	Up to 10,000 hours per index on Developer	One computer's library
Search	Natural language across video, via API	Meaning, visuals, on-screen text, speakers; faces and logos with Pro
Editor hand-off	Build it yourself	FCPXML and EDL (Pro)

The short version

TwelveLabs offers video foundation models, called Marengo for search and embeddings and Pegasus for generating text about video, through REST APIs, Python and Node.js SDKs, an MCP server and a web playground. Developers upload video to an index, then call Search, Analyze or Embed endpoints. The models are also available on Amazon Bedrock. Its customers are organizations with video at scale: media, sports, advertising and the public sector.

MediaFind is an end-user app. You point it at a folder on your computer, it transcribes and indexes everything locally, and you search by typing a description. There is no code to write, no per-hour charge and no upload. It is aimed at one person or a small shop with their own library, not at a company building a product.

Build or buy: the real question

If you are building something, such as a search feature inside your media platform, an ad-matching pipeline or an archive tool for thousands of users, you want an API. You control the interface, the data model and the scale, and you pay for what you process. The cost is engineering time: ingest pipelines, index management, a front end, and monitoring.

If you just need to find things in your own footage, building on an API is a lot of work for a problem an app already solves. The question to ask is whether the search is the product you ship, or a tool you use on the way to shipping something else.

When TwelveLabs is the better choice

• You are building a product. APIs, SDKs and embeddings let you put video search inside your own software.
• Scale beyond one computer. Its Developer plan allows up to 10,000 hours and 100,000 videos per index, and Enterprise is unlimited.
• Cloud infrastructure you already use. Marengo and Pegasus are available through Amazon Bedrock, and TwelveLabs says its stack can be deployed where you want.
• Video-level text generation. The Analyze API produces summaries and answers to prompts about a video.
• A security program. TwelveLabs states it is SOC 2 Type II certified.

When MediaFind is the better choice

Pick MediaFind when the library is yours and you want to search it today. Install the Mac app, add a folder, and search by what was said, what was shown, text on screen, speaker, music, sound events and more, with every result linking to a timestamp. Faces and brand logos are available with Pro. Editors can send selects to Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro as an FCPXML or EDL timeline, also with Pro. The guide to finding b-roll by description shows what that looks like day to day.

It also keeps footage off other people's servers. Everything runs on your machine and works offline once the models are downloaded. If you want an AI assistant to use your library, MediaFind connects to Claude, Claude Code or Cursor over MCP from Settings, and only the results the assistant asks for leave the app.

Trade-offs to keep in mind

A desktop app is bounded by the computer it runs on. Indexing a very large archive takes time, the library lives on one machine, and colleagues cannot open it from a browser. MediaFind has no hosted API for your customers to call. TwelveLabs, for its part, needs developers to turn it into something usable, and the video has to be uploaded to its service or processed in your cloud account.

Pricing

As of September 27, 2026, TwelveLabs' pricing page lists a Free plan with 600 minutes of indexing, index access for 90 days and up to 100 videos per index. The Developer plan is pay as you go: $2.50 per hour of video indexed, $0.09 per hour a month for embedding infrastructure, $4 per 1,000 search queries, and Analyze at $1.75 per hour of input video plus $7.50 per million output tokens. Enterprise is priced by contract. Check current pricing before you commit.

MediaFind's plans are in the table above. They cover one person's library on their own computer, so the two are not priced for the same job.

Sources

Checked 2026-09-27 on each company's own site. Prices and features change, so check the current pages before you decide.

• TwelveLabs pricing
• TwelveLabs home page
• TwelveLabs developer docs
• TwelveLabs on Amazon Bedrock

Frequently asked questions

Is TwelveLabs a desktop app?

No. It is a developer platform with APIs, SDKs and a web playground for testing. To use it on a library you would build or buy an application on top of it.

Can I build my own product on MediaFind?

MediaFind is designed as an app for your own library. AI agents such as Claude, Claude Code and Cursor can search it over MCP, but it is not a hosted API for serving your customers.

Does MediaFind upload my footage to search it?

No. Transcription, indexing and search run on your computer, and it works offline after the models download.

Which is cheaper?

They are priced for different jobs. TwelveLabs charges per hour indexed and per query; MediaFind is a flat subscription for one person, with a free plan for up to 10 files.