Video caption generator
Canva Captions Alternative
Canva has auto captions, and on its own pages they are free: the add-subtitles page, read on 30 October 2026, says you can add subtitles "for free, as often as you need", and the only Canva Pro mention is applying your brand font in one click. Captions are one panel inside Canva's video editor (Text, Dynamic text, Captions, Generate captions). Its help centre lists 57 spoken languages, more than 20 style packs, three caption animations, and an MP4 download capped at 30 minutes and 1080p on the Free plan, or 2 hours and 4K on Pro at US$144 a year. CapsAI is narrower. It does one job, captions on a video you upload, with 37 fixed styles that carry their own motion, a word and timing editor, 11 spoken languages including Hinglish and ten Indian languages, and packs paid once at $4, $9 or $19 (₹49, ₹99, ₹299 in India; €4, €9, €19 in the euro area). This page puts the two side by side using Canva's pages and says where Canva is the better choice.
Start with 3 free minutes. Watermark-free export comes with every paid pack.
Upload Video
For best results, upload a video with clear speech. You can review and edit the captions after generation.
Drag and drop video or
MP4 or MOV, any aspect ratio.
English subtitle example: This is a preview of the subtitle design Please transcribe to get your video
What the captions look like
Design tutorial voice-over
Drop the logo in the corner, then lock the layer.
Tommy Soft (free) keeps a soft rounded look that reads like a Canva template, with the spoken word highlighted as it is said.
Product teaser
Three colours. One price. Launching Friday.
Pop Out (Pro, any pack) pushes each word up as it is spoken, the kind of motion a Canva style pack would need a Snake or Highlight animation to approximate.
Hinglish explainer
Canva mein captions free hain, par Hinglish option nahi hai.
Choose Hinglish as the spoken language and the line comes out in Roman script with the English words kept. Canva's 57-language list has Hindi but no Hinglish entry.
Number-heavy update
We went from 40 to 1,200 followers in six weeks.
Counter (Pro) counts the figure up on screen. Type numbers as digits so the style has something to animate, and check them before export.
Canva captions and CapsAI on 30 October 2026
- Built for
- CapsAI: Captions only: upload a clip, correct the words, pick a style, export
- Canva: A design suite. Captions are one panel of its video editor, next to templates, Brand Kit, stock media and scheduling
- Where captions come from
- CapsAI: Speech recognition on the uploaded MP4 or MOV, in the spoken language you choose
- Canva: ASR captions generated from Text > Dynamic text > Captions; Canva detects the spoken language by default and can translate into 100+ languages
- Caption styles and animation
- CapsAI: 37 fixed styles, 8 free and 29 with any pack; word-by-word, karaoke and pop styles with motion built in; Emoji Sync
- Canva: More than 20 style packs (font, colour, animation), offered in six locales; animations Reveal, Highlight and Snake, "gradually rolling out"; the feature page adds bounce, skate, wiggle and custom motion paths
- Editing words and timing
- CapsAI: Every word editable; start and end times typed in seconds
- Canva: Select a caption segment and type; drag the start and end edges on a dedicated timeline layer; toolbar for font, colour, size and effects
- Languages
- CapsAI: 11 spoken languages: English, Hinglish, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Punjabi. No translation
- Canva: 57 spoken languages listed in its help centre, including Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu; no Hinglish, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati or Punjabi. Translation into 100+ languages
- Free start
- CapsAI: 3 free caption minutes on a new account
- Canva: Captions are "completely free" per its subtitles page; the Free plan is US$0 with 5GB of storage
- Price
- CapsAI: Packs of 20, 60 or 180 minutes for $4, $9 or $19 (₹49 / ₹99 / ₹299; €4 / €9 / €19), paid once, no renewal
- Canva: Canva Pro US$144 a year for one person; Business US$250 a year per person. Captions are not listed as a plan feature; Pro buys brand fonts, premium media, 100GB and longer exports
- Export
- CapsAI: One MP4 with captions burned in; 1080p on Starter, up to 4K on Creator and Pro; watermark-free with every paid pack
- Canva: MP4 at 480p, 720p, 1080p or 4K (4K on desktop only); captions are not embedded in image or PDF downloads; no SRT or VTT mentioned on the pages read
- File limits
- CapsAI: One MP4 or MOV up to 10 minutes; 500 MB per file free, 10 GB with a pack
- Canva: Uploads up to 1 GB in MOV, MP4, MPEG, MKV, WEBM or GIF; 4K uploads downscaled to 1080p; MP4 download up to 30 minutes at 1080p on Free, 2 hours at 4K on Pro
- Extras
- CapsAI: AI Sound Effects placed on caption words; Smart-Clips for recordings up to 120 minutes; nothing else, no trimming or music
- Canva: Full video editing, 3.6M+ templates on Pro, Brand Kits, stock photos and audio, social scheduling, Magic AI tools, desktop and mobile apps
Canva figures come from its auto-caption and add-subtitles feature pages, its pricing page in US dollars, and four help-centre articles (generate and animate captions, edit and manage captions, upload formats and requirements, downloading as video), all read through a text render on 30 October 2026 because canva.com answers direct fetches with HTTP 403. None of the help articles shows an updated date. CapsAI figures come from capsai.co the same day.
What you get
- 37 caption styles with motion already built in, so you choose a look instead of animating a text box
- Hinglish and ten Indian languages as spoken-language options, five of which Canva's list does not include
- Every word editable and timing typed in seconds, with no timeline layers to manage
- Packs from $4 (₹49 in India, €4 in the euro area), paid once, rather than a US$144 yearly plan for Pro styling and 4K
- Up to 4K export on Creator and Pro, where Canva Free tops out at 1080p and 30 minutes
Where it helps
- Creators who film a Reel or Short on their phone and only need captions, not a design editor
- Hinglish, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati or Punjabi speakers whose language is missing from Canva's 57
- Anyone who wants a word-by-word or karaoke style without building the animation in Canva
- People on Canva Free who want 4K output from a short clip without a yearly plan
How it works
How it works
Step 1
Check what you need from Canva first
If your video is a Canva design with templates, brand fonts and stock clips, keep captioning it in Canva: open the clip, go to Text, Dynamic text, Captions, choose a style pack and select Generate captions. Its help centre says the design must be a video or social media type, the media must contain speech, and on desktop the upload must finish first.
Step 2
Decide whether captions are the whole job
When the clip is already edited and you only want captions on it, a captions-only tool saves the editor steps. CapsAI accepts one MP4 or MOV up to 10 minutes and 500 MB on a free account (10 GB with a pack), so trim longer pieces first. There is no app; it runs in Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android and any desktop browser.
Step 3
Upload and pick the spoken language
Sign in with Google or an email code, upload the file and choose the language spoken: English, Hinglish or one of nine Indian languages. Canva detects the language automatically by default and lets you override it; CapsAI asks you up front, which avoids the wrong-language draft that fills Canva troubleshooting threads.
Step 4
Fix the words and timing
Read the draft and correct names, product terms and numbers. Each word is editable, and the start and end of any caption can be typed in seconds. In Canva you would select the segment on the timeline and drag its edges; here you type the figure.
Step 5
Choose a style and export the MP4
Pick one of 37 styles; 8 are free and the other 29 open with any pack. Export one MP4 with the captions burned in, 1080p on Starter and up to 4K on Creator and Pro, and upload it wherever it is going. Projects are kept 1 day on free minutes and 3, 7 or 15 days by pack, so download promptly.
Choose your spoken language
What to do next
Related tools
Questions
Does Canva have auto captions, and are they free?
Yes on both counts, according to Canva's own pages on 30 October 2026. The add-subtitles page says you can add subtitles "for free, as often as you need" and calls the feature "completely free"; the only Pro mention is applying your brand font in one click. The help article on generating captions names no plan at all. What the Free plan does limit is the download: MP4 up to 30 minutes at 1080p, against 2 hours at 4K on Pro.
How do I turn on captions in Canva?
Open the video in the editor, select Text on the side panel, then Dynamic text, then Captions, choose a style pack and select Generate captions. You can also search Apps for Captions or select the clip and pick Captions from the toolbar. Canva detects the spoken language by default; set it yourself if the draft comes back in the wrong language. These are Editable Captions, which download with the MP4; the Accessibility toggle makes view-only captions that cannot be edited or downloaded.
Which languages does Canva caption?
Its help centre lists 57 spoken languages, including English, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu, and the feature pages say captions can be translated into more than 100 languages. The list has no Hinglish, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati or Punjabi. CapsAI captions 11 spoken languages, all of those included, with no translation.
Why is CapsAI worth paying for when Canva captions are free?
Only if the differences matter to you. CapsAI gives you 37 fixed caption styles with the motion built in, word-level edits with timing typed in seconds, Hinglish and the Indian languages Canva lacks, and 4K export on a $9 or $19 pack paid once, where Canva charges US$144 a year for Pro to lift its 30-minute 1080p cap. If you are happy with Canva's style packs and 1080p, stay with Canva.
What does Canva do that CapsAI cannot?
A great deal. Canva is a full design and video editor with templates, Brand Kits, stock photos, video and audio, scheduling and translation into 100+ languages. It accepts uploads up to 1 GB in six formats and exports MP4s up to 2 hours on Pro. CapsAI has no trimming, no music, no templates, no translation and a 10-minute limit per video. It captions the clip you bring and nothing more.
Can I export an SRT from Canva or CapsAI?
Neither tool's pages describe one. Canva's help centre says designs with captions download as an MP4 and that captions are not embedded in image or PDF formats; no SRT or VTT download is mentioned anywhere we read. CapsAI exports one MP4 with the captions burned in and has no SRT, VTT or TXT download.
How do Canva caption styles compare with CapsAI styles?
Canva offers more than 20 curated style packs that bundle font, colour and animation, available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian and German, plus Reveal, Highlight and Snake animations and manual effects such as bounce, skate, wiggle and custom motion paths. CapsAI has 37 styles with fixed fonts and movement: 8 free, including Beast and Poppins Italic, and 29 with any pack, including Counter, Neue Black, Pop Out and Tommy. You cannot change a CapsAI font or build a new animation.
What are the file limits on each?
Canva accepts MOV, MP4, MPEG, MKV, WEBM and GIF uploads up to 1 GB, downscales 4K uploads to 1080p, and caps MP4 downloads at 30 minutes and 1080p on Free or 2 hours and 4K on Pro. CapsAI takes one MP4 or MOV up to 10 minutes, 500 MB on a free account and 10 GB with a pack, and exports 1080p on Starter and up to 4K on Creator and Pro.
How much does Canva Pro cost compared with a CapsAI pack?
Canva's US pricing page shows Pro at US$144 a year for one person and Business at US$250 a year per person; a monthly toggle promises savings of 16% or more on yearly billing but the monthly figure did not render. CapsAI packs are $4 for 20 minutes, $9 for 60 and $19 for 180 (₹49, ₹99, ₹299 in India; €4, €9, €19 in the euro area), paid once with nothing to cancel.
What Canva's captions do, from Canva's pages
Canva describes its captions as "computer-generated transcriptions produced using Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology" that also "decipher certain sounds" in the clip. They live in the Captions panel under Dynamic text, generate from the detected or chosen spoken language, and arrive on a dedicated timeline layer where you can select a segment, type corrections, drag its edges to change duration, and restyle it with the toolbar. More than 20 style packs set font, colour and animation together, and the Reveal, Highlight and Snake animations are, in Canva's words, gradually rolling out. The finished design downloads as an MP4.
The limits that bite are not caption limits but plan limits. Uploads stop at 1 GB. On the Free plan an MP4 download runs to 30 minutes at 1920x1080; Pro, Teams, Nonprofits and Education accounts get 2 hours at 3840x2160, with 4K on desktop only. Change the quality from the default on a Free account and Canva shows an upgrade prompt. Canva also has a second, unrelated caption feature under Accessibility that is view-only, which is where many "captions not working" reports begin.
Where CapsAI differs
CapsAI removes the editor. You upload a finished MP4 or MOV, choose the spoken language, read the draft, and pick one of 37 styles whose fonts and motion are fixed. Word-by-word styles such as Ice, Color Blend and Across and karaoke styles such as Pop Out, Tommy and Neue Black carry their timing-driven movement without any animation work; Emoji Sync and AI Sound Effects sit on caption words. Timing is typed as seconds rather than dragged. The output is a single MP4 with captions burned in, 1080p on Starter and up to 4K on Creator and Pro.
Language is the other gap. Canva's 57 spoken languages include Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu, but not Hinglish, Bengali, Telugu, Gujarati or Punjabi. CapsAI covers all 11 as spoken-language options and writes Hinglish in Roman script. CapsAI's English has been used most on Indian English; for other accents, run your own clip through the 3 free minutes and read the draft. There is no translation in CapsAI, so if you need French subtitles on an English clip, Canva's 100+ translation targets are the tool for that.
Who should stay with Canva
If your video starts as a Canva design, stay. Templates, Brand Kit fonts, stock media, scheduling, translation and the ability to export a 2-hour MP4 on Pro are all things CapsAI does not have, and Canva's captions cost nothing extra on any plan. The case for CapsAI is a phone-shot clip under 10 minutes that needs a strong moving caption style, a language Canva lacks, or 4K output without a US$144 yearly plan: a pack of $4, $9 or $19 (₹49, ₹99, ₹299; €4, €9, €19) covers it and never renews.
Learn more