Anyone who has managed a creative team's media library knows the pain: terabytes of footage scattered across drives, dropbox folders, and someone's laptop, and no fast way to find the one clip you need. Shade (shade.inc) is built to fix exactly that — an AI-powered media asset management platform that consolidates storage, search, review, and archiving into one system of record for video and creative teams.
Two features make it more than a fancy folder: neural search that finds footage by face, spoken words, or scene described in plain English, and ShadeFS, a streaming layer that lets editors work against the cloud library without downloading files first. Fresh off a $14M raise, it's a young but well-funded product. Here's the read.
Bottom line: A genuinely time-saving asset manager for video-heavy teams — the AI search and cloud streaming are the real draw, and the Growth price is reasonable for what it does.
Best for: Creative, post-production, agency, and brand video teams drowning in footage.
Price: Growth $20/seat/mo (annual) with 500GB/seat; Enterprise custom (avg contract $10k–$15k/yr).
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What Shade does that a shared drive can't
The headline feature is AI search. Shade processes footage on ingest, so you can find a specific soundbite, a person's face, or a scene ("drone shot of the coastline at sunset") through a natural-language query instead of scrubbing timelines. For a team with a large back catalog, that alone can turn an hour of hunting into a ten-second search — the kind of time saving that pays for the tool on its own.
The second is ShadeFS, a block-level streaming engine that makes large files editable the moment they upload, without round-tripping through local copies. Editors work directly against the cloud library, which kills the "download the 40GB file first" tax that slows every remote video workflow. Add review-and-approval, automated metadata, and archiving, and you have a single home for the whole media lifecycle rather than a pile of disconnected tools.
Shade pricing in 2026
| Plan | Best for | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Growth | Small & mid creative teams | $20/seat/mo (annual) | 500GB active storage/seat, unlimited AI indexing, unlimited drives |
| Enterprise | Larger teams & orgs | Custom | 1TB/seat, unlimited seats, SSO/SAML, SCIM, dedicated account manager |
Growth is $20/seat/month on annual billing ($25 monthly), which is fair for what you get. Enterprise is custom; Shade reports a typical customer contract around $10,000–$15,000/year for a 10-user, 25TB setup, so heavier storage needs move you up quickly. On security, Shade is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA compliant — enough to satisfy most brand and enterprise procurement reviews, which matters for a young vendor.
Pros
- AI search by face, transcript, or scene saves real time
- ShadeFS cloud streaming eliminates local-download waits
- One system for storage, review, metadata, and archiving
- Reasonable Growth pricing at $20/seat/mo
- Strong security posture (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA)
Cons
- Per-seat storage caps push heavier users to Enterprise
- Optimized for video — overkill for light asset needs
- Young company; roadmap and longevity still unproven
- Migrating an existing library takes real effort
- Enterprise pricing is custom and undisclosed
Who should use Shade?
If you run a video-heavy creative team — agency, brand studio, post house, sports or media org — and you're losing time to scattered footage and slow file transfers, Shade's search and streaming are a genuine upgrade over a shared drive or generic cloud storage. If your assets are light or mostly static images, it's more platform than you need. As a young company it's worth confirming the roadmap fits your workflow, but the core product solves a real, expensive problem well.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Shade?
Shade is an AI-powered media asset management platform for creative and video teams. It consolidates storage, AI search, file streaming, review and approval, automated metadata, and archiving into one system. Its standout features are neural search — finding footage by face, transcript, or plain-English scene description — and ShadeFS, which lets editors work against the cloud library without local downloads.
How much does Shade cost?
Shade's Growth plan is $20 per seat per month billed annually, or $25 billed monthly, and includes 500GB of active storage per seat with unlimited AI indexing. Enterprise pricing is custom and adds 1TB per seat, SSO, and a dedicated account manager; Shade reports typical enterprise contracts around $10,000 to $15,000 per year for a 10-user, 25TB setup.
Who is Shade for?
Shade is built for video-heavy creative teams — agencies, brand and in-house studios, post-production houses, and sports or media organizations — that manage large libraries of footage and need fast search and cloud-based editing. It's less suited to teams whose assets are light or mostly static images.
Is Shade secure?
Yes. Shade is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and HIPAA compliant, which covers the security and privacy requirements most enterprise and brand procurement teams look for. Enterprise plans also add SSO/SAML and SCIM for identity management.