Auto zoom in Premiere Pro: 3 methods.

A locked-off shot of someone facing the camera gets tiring fast. A small zoom on a strong word, a number or a punchline brings attention back. Editors call it a punch in.

A zoom has a second, more technical use: it hides a jump cut. When you cut out a breath, the image jumps. If the next shot is slightly tighter, the jump becomes a rhythm choice.

Keep it subtle. A zoom of about 105 to 120% is visible without being noticed. The more you zoom, the softer the image gets on 1080p footage: shoot in 4K if you want some room.

Select the clip, open the Effect Controls panel, expand Motion, then click the stopwatch next to Scale. Set a first keyframe at 100%, move forward a few frames, and set Scale to 110 or 115%.

For a smooth move, right-click the keyframes and choose a temporal interpolation: Ease In or Ease Out. To zoom on an off-center face, move the Anchor Point too.

It's the most precise method, and the slowest: on a ten-minute clip with lots of zooms, you're looking at tens of minutes.

Create an adjustment layer (File, New, Adjustment Layer), place it above the clips you want to zoom, and apply the Transform effect to it. Do the Scale keyframes on that layer: it zooms everything below.

The upside: your original clip isn't touched. One zoom, one layer: you can delete a bad zoom without affecting the rest. Careful: an adjustment layer also scales any titles and captions below it, so place it under them if you want them to stay fixed.

Several plugins pick the moments for you. Checked on their sites on October 19, 2026:

AutoCut (AutoZoom): your choice of triggers (cuts, emotions, speech, AI detection of meaning), three styles (Jump Cut, Smooth, Snap In), and settings for speed, zoom range, anchor point and intensity. Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, 14-day trial.

FireCut: automatic zooms in the Pro and Max plans of its Premiere plugin. PremiereCopilot (Auto Zoom): zooms placed as adjustment clips on V2 or V3, with a free tier on a daily quota. Submagic also has an Auto-Zoom, but in its web app.

For the details on each tool, see Rushly vs AutoCut and vs FireCut.

Rushly transcribes your voice word by word, then rules spot the moments that deserve a zoom: a number, a superlative, a call to action, a list, a contrast, a punchline. It isn't an AI guessing: the text decides, and the same rules give the same result.

The zooms are placed as Premiere adjustment layers (Transform effect, Scale keyframes) on “Zooms · Rushly” tracks at the top of your timeline. Your clips are never modified. One button removes every Rushly zoom in one click, and redoing the zooms replaces the previous ones.

You get two settings. Frequency: Less (only the strongest openings and punchlines), Normal (about one zoom every 3 seconds), More. Zoom point: Center, or Face, a fixed point placed at face height.

Zooms works on your selection, on the In/Out range, or on the whole sequence if nothing is selected. It uses 1 credit per 2 minutes of video, shown before you start, and gives your credits back if nothing is placed. It's included in every plan, Free plan too.

Rushly Zooms has no face detection: “Face” is a fixed point, not tracking. It also has no setting for intensity, duration or curve, and no styles to pick from. If you want that level of control, AutoCut's AutoZoom has more to offer.

Like any adjustment layer sitting at the top of the stack, a Rushly zoom also scales the titles and captions below it. And Rushly only runs in Premiere Pro: no DaVinci Resolve.