How to Do Green Screen on CapCut: Step-by-Step Guide [2025]

The green screen is one of the most legendary effects in video editing. Learning how to do green screen on CapCut, a free video-editing app, is simple. What video editors of the past had to spend weeks achieving, you can do in minutes!

CapCut offers a free app for Mac and Windows computers. It’s a versatile, easy-to-use video editor with plenty of features. That includes chroma keying, which is the technical term for green screen.

Actually, CapCut for desktop offers multiple methods for achieving a green screen effect, some of which don’t involve chroma keying. We’ll get to those later.

To chroma key in CapCut for desktop, do the following:

1. Before you do any green screen editing in CapCut, you have to download the app.
   Download CapCut
2. Create a new project or open an existing one.
3. Import your green screen footage. You can do this by dragging and dropping it into CapCut from your files. Alternatively, click the Import button in CapCut and upload your green screen video.
4. Also import the video that will replace the green background you are going to remove. Alternatively, use one of CapCut’s stock videos.
5. Position each clip on the timeline. The green screen clip should be on the upper track, above the clip that will become the background.
6. Select the green screen clip by clicking on it. Then open the Video tab, which should be located in the top right of your CapCut window. Open the Cutout tab.
7. Click the checkmark next to Chroma key. This will activate the chroma key tool. Your cursor should indicate that the dropper is active. 
8. Think of this tool like a sampler. Click on the green part of your green screen clip. CapCut will automatically remove everything similar to that color in your green screen video.
9. Adjust the parameters, called Strength and Shadow, until you achieve your desired green screen effect.

That’s it! You can use the chroma key effect with colors other than green. Blue is a popular choice. The only things that matter are that the background color is uniform, well and evenly lit, and not present anywhere else in the video. If your character is wearing a green shirt and you remove the green background, the shirt will also be removed.

Of course, that’s not ideal. What if you don’t want to use a colored background? Or want to achieve a green screen effect, but don’t have a green screen, or forgot to use it while filming?

These and other reasons are why CapCut also offers a cutout tool. Using this tool, you can literally “cut out” subjects from a video. That removes the background, allowing you to replace it with whatever you want. 

First, follow all the same steps as above. Instead of clicking Chroma key, check the box next to Auto cutout. CapCut will then automatically remove the background of your video.

Sometimes, CapCut might not be able to remove the background. What then? Fortunately, the software also offers a custom cutout tool. In the Cutout tab, check the box next to Custom removal. The custom cutout tool has three options. There’s a smart brush, smart eraser, and basic eraser. If you’re using CapCut’s free version, the basic eraser is all you’ll have access to. All of these tools have the same basic premise. With the brush, you highlight what you want to keep. The erasers are for deleting anything you want to remove.

If you want to learn how to do a green screen effect on CapCut without downloading any software, try the free online editor. You can find it on CapCut’s website.

Follow these steps:

1. After navigating to the website and creating an account, or logging into an existing account, you’re ready to get started.
   Go to CapCut
2. Create a new project or open an existing one.
3. Import your videos by dragging and dropping them into your project, or by clicking the Upload button. As before, make sure your green screen clip is on the upper track on the timeline, above the clip that will become your background.
4. Once you’ve imported and positioned your video clips, you can add the green screen effect. Click on the green screen clip on the timeline to select it. Some options should appear on the right side of your CapCut window. 
5. Click on the Smart tools option. You’ll be presented with two options: Auto removal and Chroma key.
6. Activate Chroma key to enable the manual green screen tool. As before, click on the green part of your green screen clip to tell CapCut which color to remove. It should then automatically remove all instances of that color, eliminating the green background.
7. Alternatively, activate the Auto removal option. CapCut will automatically detect and remove the background of the video clip.

CapCut’s mobile app is a fantastic tool for busy people who want to edit videos on the move. It’s also great for anyone creating content for social media. You can record videos, edit them, and upload them to social media, all without leaving your phone. It doesn’t get much more convenient than that!

Then, follow these steps to learn how to use a green screen on CapCut:

1. You’ll need to download the CapCut mobile app first – it’s available for iPhones and Android devices. Once you’ve done that, open it.
   Download CapCut for iOS
   Download CapCut for Android
2. Start a new project or open an existing one.
3. Select the video you want to use for the background. Remember, you’re adding the background video here, not the green screen clip.
4. Tap on the Overlay option, which should be located at the bottom of your screen.
5. Select your green screen clip. This should upload it to CapCut as an overlay, over the background video.
6. Tap on Remove BG, which should be in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen. You can scroll through the various tools. If you don’t see it at all, try tapping the Edit button.
7. You should be presented with three options.
   - Auto removal works as described above. CapCut will delete the background for you
   - Custom removal gives you an eraser tool to manually remove the background.
   - Chroma key works as above. Tap Color picker, then tap on the colored background of your green screen clip. You can adjust the Intensity option to fine-tune the chroma key effect.
8. Tap the checkmark in the bottom-right of your screen to confirm your edits.

CapCut is fantastic, but what if you want to explore another option? There are plenty of great free video editors out there. One excellent choice is Movavi Video Editor. 

Movavi Video Editor is packed with advanced editing tools. You can do all the basics, like cutting and trimming, and much more. AI-powered tools, for example, can automatically perform complex edits for you in seconds.

Plus, you’ll have access to hundreds of filters, titles, overlays, and transitions to jazz up your videos. And, of course, the ability to do a green screen effect.

CapCut offers you the ability to achieve an iconic video-editing effect. With a green screen effect, you can create videos for TikTok and YouTube with your own backdrop, even adding a personal logo. What once took filmmakers hours can be done in seconds, and on a phone, too! That said, there are other options out there, like Movavi Video Editor, should you want to try another option.