Best free After Effects plugins (2026)

As of 25 September 2026, these After Effects plugins cost nothing on their official pages: Saber for effects, Flexile (our own extension, free during its beta) for easing, text, transitions and audio, FXAA for anti-aliasing, FX Console for applying effects from the keyboard, Duik Ángela and Squash & Stretch Free for rigging and animation, PX-Kinetype for kinetic type and Bodymovin for Lottie export. Kease, Animation Composer, Motion Bro, AEJuice, Spotlight FX and Transition Master 2 have free versions with paid upgrades or packs.

Disclosure: we make Flexile, and its entry is marked as ours. We have not tested these plugins side by side, so the list is grouped by job, not ranked. Prices, versions and limits come from each vendor’s official page, aescripts listing or GitHub README, read on 25 September 2026, in US dollars before tax.

In this list

Free effects plugin
Flexile (our product)
Free anti-aliasing plugin
Free workflow plugin
Free rigging, animation and easing plugins
Free text animation plugin
Free Lottie export
Preset libraries with a free tier
Plugins often listed as free but paid
Free plugins in client work
Which to install first

Free effects plugin: Saber

Video Copilot’s Saber makes energy beams, lightsabers, lasers, portals, neon and electric effects, with 50 presets. It can also trace text and mask outlines.

Price (as of September 2026): free.
Works with: Windows and Mac. The March 2016 release page states no minimum After Effects version.

Flexile: free during beta (our product)

The one entry here that we make is Flexile, our own After Effects plugin, one panel for easing, text animation, transitions, quick tools and audio. During the beta it is free for everybody with an account, with every feature unlocked and no card. It stays free until paid plans launch. We will announce the date and the prices in advance on the pricing page and by email, and nothing is charged automatically.

Easing: one curve on every selected keyframe at once, 26 presets, Peak and Smart modes.
Text: 15 effects, In, Out or keyframed, by characters, words or lines.
Transitions: 100+ free transitions, previewed in the panel.
Quick tools: 12 built-in tools such as Null & Parent, Overshoot and Bounce, plus your own tools.
Audio: beat keyframes per frequency band and subtitles from speech or lyrics, processed on your computer.
AI apps: a built-in MCP server lets Claude Desktop, Cursor or the ChatGPT desktop app use these features, except transitions.

What to weigh: Flexile runs only in After Effects, needs an account, and is under active development. The paid preset tiers below list thousands of assets, and Flexile has 100+ transitions.

Free anti-aliasing plugin: FXAA

FXAA, from Plugin Everything, is anti-aliasing as an effect. The aescripts listing: “Industry standard anti-aliasing. Now in AE, free.”

Price (as of September 2026): $0.00 on aescripts.
Works with: CS6 to After Effects 2025, per the compatibility list. Version 1.1 is from May 2022.

Free workflow plugin: FX Console

FX Console, also from Video Copilot, opens a search box from the keyboard, so you apply effects and presets without digging through menus. It adds FX shortcuts, overrides and snapshot export.

Price (as of September 2026): free.
Works with: After Effects CC and above, not CS6. The 1.0.7 notes mention After Effects 2026.

Free rigging, animation and easing plugins

Duik Ángela (RxLaboratory)

Duik is a rigging and animation toolkit: IK, bones, controllers, automations such as wiggle, spring and wheel, and camera tools. It is open source under GPL-3.0. Some lists still use the outdated name Duik Bassel.

Price (as of September 2026): free, open source.
Works with: Windows and Mac. The latest Duik release on GitHub is 17.1.21, from 18 February 2026. No minimum After Effects version is stated.

Squash & Stretch Free (mamoworld)

Squash & Stretch Free V2 is a behaviour-based animation assistant that writes editable keyframes, with 40 behaviours in the free version.

Price (as of September 2026): $0.00 on aescripts.
Works with: After Effects CC 2015 to 2026. Version 2.0.005 is from 4 May 2026.

Kease free version (Davide Boscolo)

Kease is an easing tool with a preset library and a graph editor. The free version applies standard easing presets and copies and pastes easing or values separately. Pro adds multi-keyframe curves for overshoot, bounce and elastic moves.

Price (as of September 2026): free version, Pro $40. One installer covers both.
Works with: After Effects 2021 to 2026. Version 2.3.1 is from 14 August 2026.

Free text animation plugin: PX-Kinetype

Pixflow’s PX-Kinetype puts 64 kinetic typography elements in one plugin, with In and Out transitions, loop templates and controls for speed, timing and transparency.

Price (as of September 2026): free.
Works with: After Effects 2021 and above, on Mac and Windows. A Pixflow licence covers up to five systems.

Free Lottie export: Bodymovin

Bodymovin exports After Effects animations as JSON that Lottie plays on the web, iOS and Android. It is open source under the MIT licence.

Price (as of September 2026): free, open source.
Install: from aescripts, Adobe Exchange or a ZXP file, then turn on Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network (Windows: Edit > Preferences > Scripting & Expressions, macOS: After Effects > Settings > Scripting & Expressions).

Preset libraries with a free tier

These panels cost nothing to install, and you pay for more assets or preset packs. For library sizes and prices side by side, see our alternatives to Animation Composer.

Animation Composer (Mister Horse)

The free plan of Animation Composer has over 1,000 assets and four free tools: Keyframe Wingman for easing, Keyframe Actions, Anchor Point Mover and Transition Shifter.

Price (as of September 2026): free plan. The paid plan, with over 6,000 assets, is $19.90 a month or $198 a year (Mister Horse pricing).
Works with: After Effects 2025 and newer, Apple silicon Macs included.

Motion Bro

The Motion Bro plugin is free for After Effects and Premiere Pro. Its packs are one-time purchases for unlimited projects.

Price (as of September 2026): free plugin. Packs cost extra, for example the Essential Motion Bro Transitions Bundle at $59 personal or $118 commercial.
Works with: After Effects 2021 or newer (2022 or newer recommended) and Premiere Pro 2022 or newer, per the Motion Bro technical requirements.

AEJuice

AEJuice Pack Manager is a free plugin that installs and previews AEJuice tools. A free account unlocks 35 free products and 10 courses with over 2,000 assets, including the Starter Pack. AI tools such as Auto Captions get 10 free minutes a month.

Price (as of September 2026): free, with a free account and no card.
Works with: Mac and Windows, in 16 editors including After Effects and Premiere Pro.

Spotlight FX

In Spotlight FX you double-click a transition, text or effect to add it to the timeline. The free plan, “free forever with limited options”, includes 90 of 3,454 assets and 5 of 57 plugins.

Price (as of September 2026): free plan. The subscription is $144 every 12 months.
Works with: Premiere Pro and After Effects. No minimum version is stated.

Transition Master 2 Basic (ilumy design, reduxFX)

Transition Master 2 Basic adds transitions in After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Nuke. Basic is limited to 5 free preset packs or packs exported from the Pro version.

Price (as of September 2026): Basic $0.00, Transition Master 2 Pro $89.
Works with: Windows and macOS. The compatibility table lists After Effects up to 2023.

Which plugins are often listed as free but paid?

These are often assumed to be free, but as of 25 September 2026 their official pages show a price, a name-your-own-price listing or no download. A trial does not count as free.

Deep Glow 2 (Plugin Everything): $99.95, with a free trial. Version 1 cost $49.95.
Motion Tools Pro (Motion Design School): $40 on aescripts, with a free trial.
Newton 4 (Motion Boutique): $249.99 one-time. The trial is fully functional but exports only 25 frames.
MoBar 2 (Motion Ape): aescripts says the product is no longer available.
Mt. Mograph Motion: part of the Motion Studio subscription, $13 per seat a month, or $11 per seat a month billed yearly ($132 a year), with a 7-day trial.
EaseCopy and Ease and Wizz: name your own price on aescripts, with suggested prices of $15 and $24.99. Individuals can pay any amount for Ease and Wizz, and businesses and teams must pay the suggested price.

Can you use free plugins in client work?

Check each licence before a paid job. What the official pages and our own FAQ say:

Animation Composer: the free version may be used commercially in the same scope as the paid versions.
Flexile: “The free period has no commercial restriction.”
AEJuice Starter Pack: “Single user, unlimited videos, unlimited clients” (Starter Pack page). We could not confirm the terms for AEJuice’s other free tools.
Ease and Wizz: businesses and teams must pay the suggested price.
Duik and Bodymovin: their GPL-3.0 and MIT licences are published on GitHub.

Which free plugins should you install first?

You want effects: Saber for light and energy, FXAA for anti-aliasing.
You animate most things yourself: Kease for easing presets, Flexile for easing, text, tools and audio in one panel, or Squash & Stretch Free for behaviour-based animation.
You want speed: FX Console, to apply effects from the keyboard.
You rig characters: Duik Ángela.
You want ready-made transitions and titles: a free tier from Animation Composer, AEJuice or Spotlight FX. Motion Bro’s panel is free, but its preset packs are paid. Projects made with Animation Composer or Motion Bro open without the plugin.
You animate for apps or websites: Bodymovin.

Check the supported After Effects versions on each official page before you install.

Try Flexile

Flexile supports After Effects 2025 or newer on macOS and Windows and is free during beta. Subtitles need a Mac (Intel Macs need AVX2) or a 64-bit Intel or AMD Windows PC with SSE4.2 and the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime, so not Windows on ARM. Beat keyframes run wherever Flexile runs. Seats, from the pricing FAQ: “Two computers, but only one person may use the account.”