If you already edit in CapCut, use its captions. They sit on the timeline next to everything else, and the style templates are good. Below: the steps on phone and desktop, how to clean the captions up, what's free, and what to check when CapCut auto captions are not working. The steps follow CapCut's own help articles. CapCut renames buttons between versions, so if a label on your screen is a little different, look for the closest match.
How to add CapCut captions on your phone
This is the flow in the CapCut app on iPhone and Android:
- Start a new project and import your video.
- Tap Text in the bottom toolbar, then Auto captions. Some builds put a Captions button directly in the bottom menu instead.
- Pick the audio source and the spoken language.
- Wait while CapCut processes the audio. The captions appear as a new track under your video.
- Play the video with sound and check it before you export.
Choosing the language yourself, instead of trusting a default, is the single setting that saves the most trouble later.
On CapCut desktop and CapCut Online
On the Windows and Mac app, go to Text and choose Auto captions, pick the language and the audio track, then click Recognize. In CapCut Online (the browser version at capcut.com) it's the same path: Text, Auto captions, choose the language, Generate. CapCut notes that its web speech recognition works best in Chrome or Edge.
Desktop is the better place for anything longer than a minute or two. The timeline is wider, splitting a caption is a keyboard shortcut
(Ctrl+B on Windows, Cmd+B on Mac) and reading 40 lines of captions on a laptop screen beats scrolling them on a
phone.
Editing and styling your captions
Automatic captions are a first draft. Names, brand terms and numbers are where they slip most. According to CapCut's guide to fixing inaccurate auto captions, the fixes work like this on every platform:
- Select a caption on the timeline and open Edit captions (on desktop, double-click the block or right-click it). Click any line and retype it. Edits save as you go.
- If one caption is too long, put the playhead at a natural pause and split it with the scissors icon or the shortcut above.
- If most of the track is wrong, delete it, mute the music and effects so only the voice is audible, and run auto captions again.
For the look, use the Style tab after editing so every line matches: font, color, stroke, background and position. CapCut also has ready-made caption templates, including the kind of highlighted, word-at-a-time look you see on TikTok. We cover how that style works, and how to make it without CapCut, in our guide to word-by-word captions.
Are CapCut auto captions free?
It depends on your account, and CapCut's own pages don't agree with each other. Its Standard vs Pro comparison (dated August 2026) lists the auto caption generator among the tools reserved for Pro, while some of its tool pages still describe auto captions as free. Many caption templates and fonts also carry a Pro badge, and CapCut says its prices vary by region and platform.
The quickest way to find out is to try it. If the caption panel generates captions and lets you export without an upgrade prompt, it's free for you. If you see a Pro badge or a paywall when you tap Generate or Export, it isn't. At the time of writing (October 2026), that's the only answer that holds for every reader, so we won't quote a plan table that may not match your screen.
CapCut auto captions not working? Check these first
CapCut's troubleshooting article names the usual causes. Here they are in the order we'd check them:
| Symptom | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Captions are gibberish or empty | Wrong language selected | Delete the track, pick the language actually spoken, generate again |
| Only a few lines, or none at all | No audio, muted clip, very quiet voice | Check the clip isn't muted, raise the voice volume, make sure you chose the right audio source |
| Words missing in busy sections | Music or noise over the voice | Mute music and effects, generate, then unmute |
| Stuck processing or fails halfway | Slow or unstable connection | Switch networks and retry; the processing often runs in the cloud |
| Button missing or crashes | Old app version | Update CapCut from your app store or the desktop updater |
| Upgrade prompt appears | The feature or template is Pro on your account | Use a free caption style, or caption the video elsewhere |
Availability is the other one. CapCut isn't offered in every country (India has blocked it since 2020, for example). If the app or site won't load where you are, no setting inside it will fix captions.
If you've been through the table and still get nothing, CapCut's help center tells you to contact its support team.
When a browser tool is simpler
CapCut is a full editor, and that's the reason to use it: cuts, music, effects and captions in one project. But sometimes you only need captions on a video that's already finished. That's when our auto captions tool is less work:
- The video is done. You don't want to import it into an editor just to add text and export it again.
- You can't or won't install an app, or CapCut isn't available where you are.
- You don't want an account, for example on a shared or work computer. Ours has none, and there's no watermark.
- You already have an SRT or VTT. Drop it in together with the video and the tool skips transcription.
- You need a subtitle file, not only a burned-in video. Our subtitle generator exports SRT and VTT as well as MP4.
How it works: you open the video in your browser, which pulls out a small audio track and sends only that for transcription. The video itself never uploads. You fix any line, pick one of four styles (Karaoke, Classic, Boxed or Bold pop) and your browser renders the MP4. For TikTok, raise the position slider or use Bold pop so the captions clear the app's buttons; our page on adding captions on TikTok has the details.
Where CapCut is better: it has far more caption templates and animations than our four presets, the captions live inside a real editing timeline, and the whole job happens in one phone app. We don't do translation, speaker labels or emoji effects. If you need those, stay in CapCut.