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For those who don’t know the tool: Vegas Pro is Boris FX’s video editing platform, combining timeline editing with colour, audio, titles and effects. The 2027 release concentrates on the work around the cut: interpreting mixed camera sources, isolating subjects, generating captions and delivering files without turning the export folder into an archaeological site.
Vegas Pro 2027 rebuilds its internal colour management, puts more of the GPU to work and adds AI Quick Mask, revised captions and event-level compositing. You can also export AVC and HEVC 4:2:2 on supported hardware, deliver higher-resolution audio and let render tokens name the files. The software still cannot explain why revision 19 exists, but at least it can label the evidence.
Mixed cameras, fewer manual transforms
Drop correctly tagged Log, HDR and SDR footage into the project and Vegas reads the source colour metadata, interprets the media and converts it into the project’s colour-managed workspace during playback. The GPU handles those conversions. You can override colour primaries, transfer characteristics and colour range when a file arrives with missing or incorrect metadata. Automation appreciates accurate paperwork, even when the camera department does not.
For example, you can drop tagged Sony S-Log3 footage onto the timeline and let Vegas assign the transform. If Panasonic V-Log arrives with the wrong tags, open Media Properties and select Panasonic V-Gamut primaries and the V-Log transfer characteristic. Select several files in Project Media to apply the correction together, including their existing timeline uses. One correction, several clips, no compulsory pilgrimage through every event.
You get a consistent starting point for grading, rather than an automatic creative shot match. If you need a transform outside the available list, such as Leica L-Log, load an appropriate manufacturer LUT to convert the footage to Rec.709. The redesigned Media Properties dialogue gives you colour settings and technical metadata in one place. You can copy that information into a shot list, project document or email with one click, should anyone request numbers rather than a screenshot of another screenshot.
For an SDR job, start in Rec.709 and choose an export template with the required output settings; most templates default to 8-bit Rec.709. For HDR delivery, switch the project pipeline from 8-bit full range to 32-bit full range, choose an HDR output template, set the appropriate output colour transformation and select 10-bit HEVC encoding. Project processing precision and encoded output bit depth remain separate choices. To judge the HDR result, use an HDR-capable display with the correct view transform. A project setting cannot promote an SDR monitor by administrative decree. I wish it could.
GPU delivery, with specific hardware boundaries
Vegas passes DirectX textures to the encoder to reduce CPU involvement during export and improve GPU utilisation on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel systems. With NVIDIA Blackwell or Intel Panther Lake hardware, you can use the new hardware-accelerated AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 4:2:2 encoding. Check that hardware requirement separately from the broader GPU encoding improvements. You can also bring Nikon ZR R3D footage in natively and use the updated Final Cut XML workflow. ARM support remains on the “coming soon” side of the fence.
AI Quick Mask: point, propagate, inspect
With AI Quick Mask, you can isolate people and objects using the Mask ML and Matte Assist ML technology from the Boris FX family. Analyse a frame, place positive selection points on the subject and propagate the mask forwards, backwards or both ways from the current frame. Boris FX claims an average 20-fold speed increase over Smart Mask 2.0. A welcome claim, provided nobody mistakes it for permission to skip checking the matte.
For the moving runner in the example, you would place points on the head, hands and feet, then track in both directions. If fingers emerge from a sleeve and escape the selection, analyse that frame, add the missing points and propagate again. Choose soft or hard edges, use Video Matting V2 for refinement across neighbouring frames, and expand or contract the matte to fit the subject. Fingers retain their traditional role as tiny saboteurs, but you have somewhere practical to intervene.
You can restrict an effect to the subject by placing it before AI Quick Mask in the chain and enabling Apply Effects to Matte. Invert the matte to treat the background instead. Place a grading effect afterwards to adjust the combined image. The order gives you selective treatment and a finishing pass in the same chain, without asking the entire shot to participate in one person’s colour adjustment.
Speech, captions and the cost of regenerating
You can transcribe dialogue offline with the GPU-accelerated Whisper-based engine. Select the dialogue events, filter the transcription list to that selection and choose a language or let Vegas detect it. Smaller models favour speed; larger models can improve accuracy. Vegas downloads each model on first use and reuses it afterwards. Once the model is available, transcription stays offline. Your interview doesn’t need a cloud excursion just to find where the commas belong.
Correct the transcript, switch to the subtitle view and generate a Subtitles from Speech track. You can set alignment, font, size, foreground and background colours, line length and one- or two-line layouts. No, you still shouldn’t use Comic Sans.
Enable automatic highlighting to give the currently spoken word its own style. Vegas Titles & Text also adds character-level foreground and background colour, right-to-left text and expanded Unicode and multilingual support. You can make every word demand attention. Whether every word deserves it remains an editorial decision.
Open the generated titles in Vegas Text and Titles to adjust individual word keyframes, or extend an event to keep a caption on screen longer. Finish the broad transcript and layout changes first: regenerating all subtitles replaces the events, so you must repeat individual timing and formatting tweaks. Otherwise, your lovingly adjusted word gets the same treatment as a temporary file. Technically consistent, emotionally unhelpful.
Speech-to-text requires any of the Vegas Pro subscriptions. For AI narration, connect a separate ElevenLabs account and access its voice library from your Vegas project. The integration requires a Vegas Pro subscription and includes no ElevenLabs usage credits. The voice comes with a separate meter, even if the button lives in the editor.
Composite FX gives an event a second input
You can give compatible native effects and OFX plug-ins a second image input directly on a Video Event. Choose the effect from the Compositors folder and look for the circular indicator in the effect chain. Keep the background on the track below and configure the effect on the foreground event. You still have two sources, but you can spare the timeline a small civil-engineering project.
For example, you can place a graphic behind foreground objects with AI Z-Depth. As an ordinary Event FX on the graphic, it analyses the graphic itself. As Composite FX, it can read the underlying footage, derive a depth map and use that map to occlude the graphic. Move across a cut in the background and the secondary input follows the next event. You can change the background without manually introducing the effect to its new surroundings.
With Continuum BCC+Primatte Studio, you can feed the background into Light Wrap, spill correction and Color Link. The effect samples the actual image and adapts when its colours change, helping the keyed foreground sit in the shot. Choose a plug-in that supports the secondary input; installing an effect does not automatically grant it a second pair of eyes.
Exports with names a human can use
From now on, you can build render filenames from typed text and context-menu tokens. Choose date and time, video properties, audio properties or project information, then check the live preview. Available values include resolution, frame rate, HDR mode, audio mode, sample rate, bitrate, project name and render-template title. Put the delivery information in the filename before somebody has to infer it from “newest_use_this_one_fanl_v2”.
Add a counter and Vegas checks the destination for an existing numbered file before advancing to the next number. Use a padded counter to keep revisions aligned, and edit date tokens for different year lengths, month formats and separators. You can still type a filename manually, but a reusable template can handle the project, resolution, date and revision for you.
Audio and the three editions
You can export PCM or AAC audio in MP4 and MOV alongside AVC/H.264 or HEVC/H.265 video. Expanded options include 24-bit PCM, sample rates up to 192 kHz, and up to 32 audio channels. Check the required codec and container combination before treating those maxima as one universally available preset.
Plus and Ultimate give you Acid Pro for loop-based music work, with nearly 1,000 loops, one-shots and songs, more than 1,100 editable MIDI parts, more than 90 instrument patches and a library of over 800 foundational loops and sounds. Ultimate also includes Sound Forge Plus with Melodyne 5 Essential, Vandal, VariVerb II and 3D Reverb. You can take the audio further without expecting the video timeline to develop a second career as a recording studio.
Pricing and availability
The release is today, 22 October 2026 for Vegas Pro, Plus and Ultimate editions. All three offer monthly and annual subscriptions, Upgrade & Support plans and perpetual licences. This release adds a perpetual licence option for Ultimate. Prices below are the dollar amounts supplied by Boris FX; tax treatment is depending on where you are.
| Licence | Vegas Pro | Plus | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | $17.95 | $24.95 | $39.95 |
| Annual subscription | $99.95 | $149.95 | $199.95 |
| Upgrade & Support, starting at | $143.95 | $199.95 | $249.95 |
| Perpetual licence | $219.95 | $299.95 | $499.95 |
If you already have a Vegas Pro subscription or Upgrade & Support plan, you receive the 2027 release from the Hub. Check the official product comparison and pricing page for edition details or just download the trial.
Before moving a live job, try representative camera tags, colour transforms, third-party compositors and required exports on a project copy. Proofread the captions before their final manual polish and check your hardware against the encoding feature you actually need. Then let the software handle some administration. It has spent quite enough time supervising us doing it.
| Product | Vegas Pro 2027 |
| Developer | Boris FX |
| Editions | Vegas Pro, Vegas Pro Plus, Vegas Pro Ultimate |
| Licensing | Monthly and annual subscriptions, Upgrade & Support plans, perpetual licences |
| Starting prices | $17.95 monthly; $99.95 annually; $219.95 perpetual Trial version here. |
| Release announcement | 22 October 2026 |
| Official information | What’s new |
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Article details
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- Bela Beier
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- 1,666