How to Add LUTs in CapCut: Step-by-Step Guide

LUTs (Look-Up Tables) apply a predefined color grade in one step, instead of manually adjusting brightness, contrast, shadows, and saturation individually — a cinematic LUT can give footage a movie-like tone, a warm LUT enhances skin tones, a cool LUT creates a moodier feel.

One clarification worth making upfront: direct .cube LUT import is a CapCut Desktop feature — it’s not confirmed to require a specific paid tier, so don’t assume you need a subscription just to try it. If you hit a genuine paywall on your version, that’s worth confirming against your current account status rather than assuming it’s universal.

Why Use LUTs

• Faster professional-looking grading — one click instead of manually tuning several settings.
• Consistency across multiple projects, useful if you’re building a recognizable visual style.
• Cross-platform, though with meaningfully different capabilities between desktop and mobile (see below).

Adding LUTs on CapCut Desktop

1. Open CapCut on PC and import your video to the timeline.
2. Click Adjust above the timeline to open color grading controls.
3. Import a custom LUT file (.cube format) — browse to your LUT folder and select the one you want. It applies immediately to the selected clip.
4. Fine-tune after applying — a LUT is a starting point, not a finished grade. Adjust exposure, saturation, and contrast afterward to match your specific footage rather than leaving the LUT at its default strength.

Adding LUT-Style Looks on Mobile

CapCut’s mobile app doesn’t support direct .cube LUT import — this is a genuine platform limitation, not a bug or a hidden setting.

1. Open your project on mobile → tap Adjust at the bottom.
2. Use Filters or manual adjustments to approximate a LUT-style look.
3. If you specifically need a real LUT’s exact look on mobile, you’d need to convert it to a filter format using a third-party tool first — this is a genuine workaround, not something CapCut mobile does natively, so treat it as an extra step rather than a built-in feature.

Getting the Most Out of LUTs

• Shoot in a flat/log color profile if your camera supports it — LUTs are specifically designed to work with this kind of flat, low-contrast source footage, and applying one to already-graded standard footage produces a much weaker or less predictable result.
• Pair LUTs with other techniques — transitions for cinematic pacing, overlays for music-video style, or green screen work for cleaner VFX compositing.

Common Issues

LUT won’t load. Confirm it’s genuinely in .cube format — other LUT file formats aren’t supported.

Colors look off or barely change anything. This is very often a source footage issue, not a LUT problem — check whether your footage was shot flat/log (LUTs are built for this) versus already color-graded or shot in a standard profile (where a LUT’s effect will be much subtler or look wrong).

LUT import not available on mobile. This is a genuine platform limitation as covered above — use filters/manual adjustment, or the third-party conversion workaround, rather than searching for a hidden mobile LUT-import feature that doesn’t currently exist.