Splainin is a whiteboard‑style animation tool for explaining ideas clearly. You can combine text, images, videos, webcam, screenshots, sketches, arrows, highlights, voice, AI narration, and more to create animated videos, GIFs, and still images. Splainin handles the animation for you and can hand‑draw any image you add to the canvas — not just SVGs — using natural pen‑draw reveal and other explainer‑style effects.

No — you don’t have to create a full explainer. You can export a single scene or even a single frame as an image without building a full animation. Splainin is lightweight, fast, and easy to use. Whether you’re annotating a screenshot or creating a multi‑scene explainer, Splainin has you covered.

Splainin is Windows desktop software for Windows 10 and later. The download also includes the separate Splainin Capture application. No internet connection is required for their core workflows.

No. Splainin licenses are one-time purchases. The app itself does not require a monthly subscription. Paid licenses include 12 months of included updates from purchase. Renewal after that is optional, and your latest eligible version remains yours for life.

There is one download, which installs Splainin and the included Splainin Capture app. The Free version includes all core tools but applies a watermark to exports and limits recording times. Upgrading to an Individual & Team license (Standard or Creator options) or a Creator Pro license unlocks watermark-free MP4 exports, premium bundled plugins, and access to the plugin marketplace (where optional add-ons are sold separately).

Yes. Drop in any image — from your computer, browser, screenshots, or wherever — and Splainin can hand‑draw it in a natural pen‑reveal style. Anything you place on the canvas can be animated: text, images, screenshots, arrows, highlights, shapes, and your own drawings. You control the sequence and timing, and Splainin handles the animation.

Yes — you can duplicate scenes, reuse elements, and build your own templates.

Yes — Splainin can generate AI-ready Markdown that works with almost any AI tool (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, etc.) to create project templates or project outlines tailored to your needs.
You choose the topic, and Splainin produces a clean Markdown prompt that your preferred AI can use to generate a structured outline. Splainin can then turn that outline into a project instantly, complete with text, narration, image placeholders, and annotations to help you finish the project quickly.

Yes — Splainin can generate images without leaving your project.
Connect your own Google Gemini or OpenAI API key, select one or more annotated image placeholders, and generate, review, and import the results directly in Splainin. Installed AI Image plugins can add other supported providers.

The Image Splitter lets you carve an image into separate, movable pieces. You draw a polygon around any part of an image, and Splainin turns that section into its own asset you can animate independently.
It’s perfect for animating exploded diagrams, turning a single collage into an entire library of assets, assembling and animating paper-doll templates, breaking down UI screenshots, creating reveal effects, and building stop-motion-style sequences.

Yes — Splainin is designed to be turnkey. You can drop in your outline, script, or AI-generated Markdown, and Splainin instantly builds a structured project with scenes, text, narration, image placeholders, and annotations.
From there, you can customize anything you want — or export immediately if the auto-layout already fits your needs.

Yes — Splainin is great for annotating screenshots. You can import any screenshot, add arrows, highlights, text, shapes, and drawings, and then export the annotated image.

Yes — Splainin includes a simple sketch tool for drawing freehand lines, stick figures, arrows, highlights, accents, and other quick annotations.
It’s designed for fast markup, storytelling, and clarifying ideas on the canvas, and even for quick screenshot annotations.

Free-tier exports include a small "Made with Splainin" watermark.

Splainin gives you full flexibility. You can plug in a microphone to record your own natural voiceover directly inside the app, or instantly use our built-in integration with Microsoft's AI voice server (which is completely free). Want to use your own premium voice models? Splainin also includes plugins, allowing you to easily connect your own API keys for premium providers like ElevenLabs and others. You have total freedom to go human, automated, or a mix of both!

Yes — core project editing, playback, and export work offline. Internet access is required for license activation, plugin downloads, web browsing, and optional provider-based features such as AI image generation, AI narration, and automatic translation.

No — Splainin does not store your project files or imported assets in its cloud.
Your projects, screenshots, diagrams, photos, UI captures, and other imported assets remain on your machine. When you choose a provider-based AI feature, Splainin sends only the content needed for that request to your selected provider—for example, an image prompt for generation, text for narration, or project text for translation.

You’ll need internet to:

• activate your license
• generate AI images in-app
• use cloud TTS engines
• translate projects automatically
• download plugins
• build your asset library from the web

Your project files and imported asset library remain stored locally.

Splainin doesn’t include prepackaged assets because it’s built around your own visuals — your screenshots, diagrams, photos, UI captures, and brand elements. Instead of shipping a generic clipart library, Splainin makes it incredibly seamless to capture assets from anywhere and drop them straight into your project. You can pull images from the web, generate them with your favorite AI, or import your own folders as asset libraries.

Yes — download the free version and build a complete video. The free tier is not a time-limited trial; you can use it indefinitely. Upgrade when you're ready for watermark-free exports, premium plugins, and AI voice workflows.

Immediately after purchase you'll receive your license key by email. Open Splainin, go to Settings → About, and enter the key. Your paid features activate instantly in the same installed app — no reinstall or separate download required.

Choose our Individual & Team tier if you need coverage for a single machine (Standard) or up to 3 devices (Creator). Choose Creator Pro if you are equipping a small studio, lab, or department up to 10 devices. For larger businesses, campus-wide deployments, or entire school districts, contact us for custom organization-wide licensing.

Splainin exports MP4 video, WebM video, animated GIFs, and still images. You can export in any aspect ratio you configure — 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 21:9, 4:5, and other preset and custom sizes. The same project can be re-exported in different ratios for different platforms.

Free-tier users can export WebM, GIFs, and still images (with a small "Made with Splainin" watermark). MP4 export is available on paid plans and removes the watermark.