How to add captions to videos: TikTok, Reels, Shorts and MP4

Captions make your video readable with the sound off and accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers. Every major platform now has a free way to add them: TikTok and Instagram can generate captions from your audio, and YouTube does it automatically after upload. This guide shows the built-in method on each platform, how to caption any MP4 in a desktop editor, and how to choose between burned-in captions and a caption file like SRT.

Captions, subtitles, open and closed: the quick version

People use these words loosely. Here is what each one means in practice:

For short-form video, burned-in captions are the norm because they look the same on every app. For long-form YouTube videos, a closed caption track is the better default. You can also do both.

How to add captions on TikTok

TikTok's caption tool transcribes the speech in your video and places it on screen. TikTok introduced it as auto captions: you choose it on the editing page after you record or upload a video, and you can edit the text once it's generated.

1. Record or upload your video and go to the editing screen.
2. Open the captions option in the editing tools. Labels and icon positions change between app versions, so look for "Captions".
3. Wait for TikTok to transcribe the audio.
4. Review the text and fix any misheard words, names or slang.
5. Finish editing and post.

Check the captions before you post rather than after. Put any other on-screen text where it won't cover the captions, and keep both away from the bottom of the frame, where the post caption and buttons sit.

How to add captions to Instagram Reels

Instagram gives you three different tools. They do different things.

Automatic closed captions (a toggle)

Instagram can generate closed captions for your reel with speech recognition. They show at the bottom of the reel, and viewers can turn them off. Instagram's help page on closed captions for reels gives these steps for a new reel:

1. Tap Create, then Reel, and select a video from your camera roll.
2. Tap Next until you reach the sharing screen.
3. Tap More options.
4. Turn on Enable closed captions. You can also turn on Translate closed captions.

For a reel you've already posted, open it from your profile, tap the options menu, tap Edit, then More options, and use the same toggles.

The Captions sticker (burned-in look)

For captions that look like part of the design, use the Captions sticker. Instagram's stickers help page says it automatically transcribes your video's audio. You can change the color and font, and tap a word to correct it. Open the sticker tray while editing your reel and pick Captions.

Captions in the Edits app

Instagram's Edits app has a fuller caption tool. According to Instagram's help page for Edits, you open a project, tap Captions, choose the spoken language, pick a style, set transcription options such as punctuation and title case, then tap Generate Captions. Afterwards you can edit the text, change the style, opacity and position, or switch to bilingual captions.

How to add captions on YouTube (including Shorts)

Automatic captions

YouTube uses speech recognition to create automatic captions for long-form videos and Shorts in many languages. You don't have to do anything to turn them on, but they aren't instant: processing time depends on the audio. YouTube recommends reviewing them. To edit:

1. In YouTube Studio, select Subtitles from the left menu.
2. Click the video.
3. Next to the subtitles you want to change, click More.
4. Correct anything that was transcribed wrong, then save.

Uploading your own caption file

If you already have accurate captions, upload them. In YouTube Studio's Subtitles section, click ADD LANGUAGE, then ADD under Subtitles, and choose one of three options described on Add subtitles and captions:

• Upload file: pick "With timing" for an SRT or VTT file, or "Without timing" for a plain transcript.
• Auto-sync: paste or upload the transcript and YouTube sets the timings.
• Type manually: type captions while the video plays.

YouTube's list of supported caption files includes SRT and WebVTT. Keep SRT files simple: basic SRT is supported, and styling markup in SRT isn't recognized. If you need to switch formats or shift all the timings, the free subtitle converter does SRT to VTT and back.

Captions on Shorts made from long videos

If you make a Short with YouTube Studio's Create clip or Short tool, YouTube's clips and Shorts help page says auto captions are added where available, and you can restyle or remove them from the preview. More on that workflow in our guide to turning YouTube videos into Shorts.

How to add captions to any MP4

If you post the same video on several platforms, caption it once in an editor and burn the captions in. Then it looks the same everywhere.

Premiere Pro

Adobe's guide to creating captions in Premiere:

1. Transcribe your media (turn on Automatic Transcription when importing, or transcribe later).
2. Switch to Window > Workspaces > Captions and Graphics.
3. Choose Captions > Create captions from transcript.
4. In the dialog, set the preset, style, maximum characters per line, duration and whether to use one or two lines.
5. Click Create captions, then review and style them.

Adobe says you can export captions burned into the video or as an .srt sidecar file. It also suggests adding captions near the end of your edit, since deleting caption segments means recreating them by hand.

DaVinci Resolve

Resolve's edit page has subtitle tracks and can import SRT files. Generating subtitles automatically from audio is listed as a Studio (paid) feature in Blackmagic's feature comparison. In the free version, you can import an SRT you made elsewhere.

CapCut and other mobile editors

CapCut and most mobile editors have an auto captions feature: you pick the spoken language, generate, then correct and style the text. Menu names differ between the phone, desktop and web versions, so check the current labels in your app.

From a script

If your video is scripted, you can skip speech recognition. Paste your script into the free caption generator to get an SRT or VTT file with an animated preview, then import it into your editor or upload it to YouTube.

Burned-in captions vs SRT: which is better?

Neither is better everywhere. Choose by where the video will live:

A common setup: burned-in animated captions for the social clip, plus an SRT for the YouTube upload of the full episode.

How to translate subtitles into another language

• YouTube: In Studio's Subtitles section, click ADD LANGUAGE, choose the language and add subtitles by uploading a translated file or typing them. YouTube also lets you translate your title and description from the same place.
• Instagram Reels: Turn on Translate closed captions when you share, as described above. In the Edits app, captions have a Bilingual option.
• Any video: Translate the text of your SRT file and keep the timestamps unchanged. Read the translated version against the video, because translated lines are often longer and may need splitting.

If your video is in a language other than English, captioning it in that language first gives you a clean base for translation. See our pages on captioning in Spanish and other languages.

How accurate are auto captions?

It varies with the audio. YouTube's automatic captioning page names the usual causes of errors: mispronunciations, accents, dialects and background noise. It also lists reasons captions may not appear at all: poor sound, long silence at the start, overlapping speakers or more than one language at once. Before you publish, check these words first:

• names of people, brands and places;
• numbers, prices and dates;
• jargon, slang and acronyms;
• anything said over music or crosstalk.

Better audio in means better captions out. A close microphone and a quiet room help more than any setting.

Making captions easy to read

• Two lines at most, and short lines. Break at natural pauses, not mid-phrase.
• High contrast. White or yellow text with a dark outline or shadow reads on most backgrounds.
• Stay in the safe zone. Keep captions above the bottom area where platform text and buttons sit. Our guide to vertical video safe zones shows where that is.
• Highlight sparingly. One emphasized word per line draws the eye. Five do not.
• Don't let captions lag. Check sync at the start, middle and end. The video length calculator can estimate whether your text is readable at its speaking pace.

Common mistakes

• Publishing auto captions unchecked. One wrong name undermines the whole video.
• Captions covered by the platform interface. Preview on a phone before posting.
• Two caption layers at once. Burned-in captions plus a platform's closed captions on the same reel means the same words appear twice. Pick one per platform.
• Styled SRT files. Basic SRT is the safe choice; YouTube doesn't recognize styling markup in SRT files.
• Captioning before the edit is final. Every cut afterwards shifts the timing.

Start with the free tool on the platform you post to most. Once you're captioning the same clips for several platforms, move to one workflow in an editor so you only fix each mistake once.