--- title: "How to search media by content in DaVinci Resolve 21 with AI IntelliSearch" author: "Cutsio Team" date: "2026-05-15" lastmod: "2026-05-15" category: "DaVinci Resolve Advanced Workflows" excerpt: "DaVinci Resolve 21 AI IntelliSearch lets you search media by objects, faces, and spoken keywords using natural language. This guide covers how to use it, its limitations, and how to extend search across your full library." tags: ["DaVinci Resolve 21","IntelliSearch","AI Search","Media Management","Video Search","DaVinci Resolve"] --- ## How do you search media by content in DaVinci Resolve 21? DaVinci Resolve 21 introduces AI IntelliSearch, a tool that analyzes your media pool and lets you search for specific objects, people, keywords in dialog, and individual faces using plain language queries. To use it, open the Media page, select the IntelliSearch panel, type a description like "person walking on beach" or "close-up of car," and IntelliSearch surfaces matching clips from your project's media pool instantly. ![AI IntelliSearch](https://images.blackmagicdesign.com/images/products/davinciresolve/whatsnew/ai/intellisearch@2x.jpg?_v=1775106164) IntelliSearch represents a major leap forward for media management inside DaVinci Resolve. Instead of manually binning clips by content or relying on folder names and file metadata, you can now describe what you are looking for in natural language and let the AI find it. The tool analyzes both visual content — objects, scenes, people, actions — and spoken dialog, creating a unified search index for everything in your project's media pool. ## How does AI IntelliSearch work in DaVinci Resolve 21? IntelliSearch uses DaVinci Resolve's Neural Engine to analyze every clip in your project. It processes visual elements frame by frame, identifying objects, faces, locations, and actions. It also transcribes spoken audio and makes the text searchable alongside the visual data. When you type a query, the engine compares it against both the visual and audio indexes and returns matching clips ranked by relevance. The feature is accessed from the Media page. Click the IntelliSearch icon in the toolbar or navigate to the Media Pool and locate the search bar. Type your query — it can be a visual description like "red car driving on highway," a person's name if you have labeled faces, a spoken keyword like "budget forecast," or a combination. Results appear as whole clips in the Media Pool. You can then drag them directly onto the timeline or organize them into bins. IntelliSearch also supports face recognition. When it detects faces in your footage, you can label individuals and search for them by name across the project. This is particularly useful for documentary interviews, corporate talking-head videos, and narrative films where you need to find every clip featuring a specific person. ## What are the limitations of IntelliSearch in DaVinci Resolve 21? IntelliSearch works within the currently open project only. It does not search across other projects, external drives, or archived footage. The index is built per project and is not shared between projects. This means that if you are a video professional managing hundreds of projects across multiple clients, years of footage, and terabytes of archived material, IntelliSearch alone cannot help you find content outside the project you have open. Each project requires separate analysis, and there is no global search across your entire production library. The other limitation is time. IntelliSearch needs to analyze and index the media in your project before it can return results. For large projects with hundreds of clips, this indexing process takes time. The index persists while the project is open but may need to be rebuilt if you clear the cache or move the project to a different system. ## How does Cutsio Visual Intelligence extend search beyond a single project? For editors who need to search across their entire video library — multiple projects, external drives, cloud storage, and archived footage — Cutsio's Visual Intelligence fills the gap that IntelliSearch cannot cover. Cutsio's Visual Intelligence analyzes the visual content of every frame alongside audio, creating a unified search index for any moment across your entire library. Unlike IntelliSearch which is scoped to one project, Cutsio indexes every video you upload regardless of project boundaries. You can search using the same natural language queries — "sunset time-lapse," "interview about funding," "close-up of product packaging" — and get results from across your entire archive. | Search capability | DaVinci Resolve 21 IntelliSearch | Cutsio Visual Intelligence | |---|---|---| | Scope | Single project | Entire library, all projects | | Search by objects | Yes | Yes | | Search by faces | Yes (labeled) | Yes | | Search by dialog | Yes | Yes | | Image-based search | No | Yes — upload a reference image | | Collection-scoped search | No | Yes | | Thumbnail preview of results | Clip-level | Frame-level with timestamps | | Export to NLE | Manual drag | EDL/XML export with clip names | Cutsio also supports image-based search. Upload a reference image — a logo, a product shot, a specific scene — and Cutsio finds every video in your library that contains similar visual content. This is not possible with IntelliSearch alone. ## How does Visual Intelligence work across collections and archives in Cutsio? When you upload videos to Cutsio, each video is automatically indexed for visual content, speech, and audio. You can organize videos into collections — by project, client, shoot day, or any criteria — and search within specific collections for more targeted results. The search index is per-user and completely isolated, so your data stays private. Search results in Cutsio include visual thumbnails, start and end times, and result counts. Click any result to preview the exact moment in the video. From there, you can highlight the segment and export an EDL or XML that brings the clip into DaVinci Resolve with proper timecode and clip name mapping. For editors working across multiple Resolve projects, this means you can search your entire library in Cutsio, find the clips you need regardless of which project they were originally associated with, and export them directly into a new Resolve timeline.
Cutsio

Search across every project, not just one

IntelliSearch is great for finding clips inside an open project. Cutsio Visual Intelligence searches your entire library — all projects, all drives, all archives — and exports directly to Resolve via EDL or XML.

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## How do you build a complete search workflow using IntelliSearch and Cutsio together? The most effective search workflow uses both tools in sequence. IntelliSearch handles the within-project search once your timeline is open in Resolve. Cutsio handles the cross-library search before you even open a project. Start in Cutsio. Upload your raw footage from every camera, every shoot day, and every project. Cutsio indexes everything with Visual Intelligence — visual content, speech, audio — and makes it searchable across your entire library. When a new project comes in, search your existing library in Cutsio to find existing footage that might be relevant. Use image search to find shots that match a reference image from the new project. Export the clips you need as an EDL or XML. Open DaVinci Resolve, create a new project, and import the timeline. Resolve links the edits to your original camera files on your local drive. Now use IntelliSearch within the project to organize the imported clips, find specific moments within the project's media pool, and label faces for quick access during the edit. ## FAQ ### Does IntelliSearch work with the free version of DaVinci Resolve 21? IntelliSearch is available in DaVinci Resolve 21 Studio. The free version does not include the Neural Engine features required for AI-powered search. ### Can IntelliSearch search across multiple projects at once? No. IntelliSearch is scoped to the currently open project. For cross-project search, use Cutsio Visual Intelligence which indexes video across your entire library. ### How long does IntelliSearch take to index a project? Indexing time depends on the number of clips and their duration. A project with 50 clips averaging 10 minutes each typically takes a few minutes to index on a modern system with GPU acceleration. ### Does IntelliSearch support multiple languages for dialog search? Yes. IntelliSearch supports multiple languages for speech transcription and search. The supported languages align with DaVinci Resolve's transcription capabilities. ### Can I export IntelliSearch results to another project? IntelliSearch results are limited to the current project. To move clips between projects, you need to export the media or use a cross-library search tool like Cutsio.

Search every frame across every project

Cutsio Visual Intelligence indexes your entire video library for visual content, speech, and audio. Find any moment across all your projects and export directly to DaVinci Resolve with EDL or XML.

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