How to Auto Caption a Video with AI

Generate accurate, styled captions from your video's audio so clips stay watchable with the sound off.

8 minBeginner

Most short-form video is watched on mute, so captions are not optional. AI transcription turns your audio into timed captions in seconds, leaving you to fix names and style the text. This guide takes a raw clip to captioned export.

What you need

A video editor with AI caption or auto-transcribe
A clip with clear spoken audio
About 8 minutes

Step 1: Run auto-transcribe

Drop the clip on the timeline and trigger the caption tool. It detects the language, transcribes the audio, and lays timed caption clips under your video.

Editor - generate captions

Captions > Generate

Language: English (auto-detected)

Style: single word, bold

Transcribing audio... done (0:42)

Captions added to timeline

The tool transcribes the audio into timed caption clips.

Step 2: Proofread the transcript

AI nails common words but trips on names, jargon, and brands. Open the caption editor and read the full transcript, fixing the few words it got wrong.

Step 3: Style for readability

Pick a font size and position that survive a small phone screen. High contrast and a subtle outline keep text legible over any background.

Keep lines short

One or two words on screen at a time reads faster than full sentences and matches the pace people expect from short video. Let the captions pop in sync with speech.

Step 4: Export with captions burned in

For social platforms, burn the captions into the video so they always show. Keep a separate subtitle file too if you also publish where viewers can toggle captions.

Result: your clip is watchable on mute, more accessible, and ready for every feed that rewards captioned video.