How to Put Captions on a Video (Automatically, in Minutes)

Captions have gone from a nice-to-have to a default. Most viewers watch at least part of the time on mute, captioned videos hold attention longer, and on-screen text makes your content accessible to everyone. But typing subtitles and lining them up by hand is tedious. Here is the fastest way to put accurate captions on any video and export a finished file you can post anywhere.

Step 1 — Upload your video

Upload the MP4 straight from your phone or editor. Nothing to install — it all runs in the browser. Vertical 9:16, square 1:1 and widescreen 16:9 clips are detected automatically, so the editor sets itself up for the format you are working in.

Step 2 — Auto-transcribe the speech

The audio is transcribed word by word with precise timings. Word-level timing is what lets each word appear exactly as it is spoken, instead of dropping a whole sentence on screen at once.

Step 3 — Style the captions

Pick a preset and adjust the font, size, color, highlight, outline and shadow. Drag the captions anywhere in the frame so they sit clear of any platform UI. If a word came out wrong, fix it in the editor before you export.

Step 4 — Export a finished MP4

Render the video with the captions burned in. Because the text becomes part of the picture, it displays identically on TikTok, Reels, Shorts, YouTube, LinkedIn or anywhere else — no separate subtitle file needed.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between burned-in and soft captions?

Soft captions (an SRT or VTT track) can be toggled on and off and are great for long-form video and SEO. Burned-in captions are baked into the picture, so they always show, look exactly as you styled them, and survive re-uploads and cross-posting. For short-form social video, burned-in is usually what you want.

Can I caption a video in any language?

Yes — the transcription supports a wide range of languages, and you can correct any wording in the editor before rendering so the captions match your speech exactly.