CapCut's own pages disagree. Its auto caption generator page, read through a proxy render on 18 October 2026 and again on 19 October, calls CapCut "an all-around, free auto-captioning application", describes its speech-to-text as free of charge and says "No credit card required". But CapCut's help article What's the Difference Between CapCut Standard and CapCut Pro Subscription, dated 2 April 2026 and read through the same proxy on 19 October 2026, lists auto captions under Pro: "Advanced AI tools such as camera tracking, auto captions, AI avatars, and AI-generated content". CapCut Pro is listed at USD 19.99 a month or USD 179.99 a year on the pricing page. So captions may work in the free editor, but CapCut's help center counts them as a Pro tool, and an export is the only way to see which applies to your project.
One access note before the detail. CapCut has been blocked in India since 2020, and its website answers HTTP 451 from Indian connections, which is why every capcut.com fact in this post is labelled as read via a proxy render. If you are outside India, the app and site work normally and none of that applies to you.
What CapCut's own pages say (proxy render, 18 and 19 October 2026)
| Question | CapCut's page | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Are auto captions free? | The tool page says yes: "free auto-captioning application", speech-to-text "free of charge", "No credit card required" | Auto caption generator page |
| Are auto captions a Pro feature? | Listed under Pro's "Advanced AI tools", with camera tracking, AI avatars and AI-generated content | Help article "Standard vs Pro", dated 2 April 2026, read 19 October |
| Which languages? | "multiple languages"; detects the spoken language; can translate captions | Auto caption generator and add-subtitles pages |
| Accuracy? | "almost perfect accuracy", CapCut's own claim, with advice to review names, terms and timing | Auto caption generator page |
| Export resolution? | "download the footage in your chosen resolution"; no list of resolutions | Auto caption generator page |
| Video length limit? | Not mentioned | Both pages |
| Watermark? | Not mentioned | Both pages and the pricing page |
| What does Pro cost? | USD 19.99 a month or USD 179.99 a year; "Displayed pricing is for reference only" | Pricing page |
| What does Pro add? | 1,200 monthly AI credits, AI features, all premium templates, 1 TB of storage | Pricing page |
The add-subtitles page adds that the tool "supports multiple languages" and adapts to accents, and that you "Select your preferred resolution, quality, and file format settings" at export. Neither tool page has an FAQ.
What the App Store listing says (read directly, 18 October 2026)
Apple's App Store listing for CapCut is reachable without a proxy and adds detail the website leaves out. The description reads "Auto captions: automate speech recognition and subtitles in videos", and the export line says the editor "supports 4K 60fps exports and smart HDR". The listing shows 4.6 stars from 1.1 million ratings.
The listing's language entry is "English and 20 more": Arabic, Filipino, French, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese. That is the App Store's list of app languages; the listing does not say whether it is also the list of caption languages. Hindi is not on it. Urdu is.
Its in-app purchase list names a Standard Monthly Subscription at $9.99, a Pro Monthly Subscription at $19.99, a Yearly Subscription at $89.99 and a Monthly Subscription at $7.99, with some entries repeated. The website's USD 19.99 a month matches the Pro Monthly line; the $89.99 yearly figure does not match the website's USD 179.99, which may reflect regional or promotional pricing. Trust the price shown at checkout.
CapCut Pro: what it costs and what it is for
On the pricing page render, Pro is USD 19.99 a month or USD 179.99 a year, with the caveat that displayed pricing is for reference and final pricing appears after sign-in. Pro adds 1,200 monthly AI credits, access to AI features, all premium templates, 1 TB of storage and AI video generation priced per second of output.
The pricing page and the two tool pages do not list auto captions as a Pro feature, but CapCut's help center does. Its Standard vs Pro article, dated 2 April 2026 and read through a proxy render on 19 October 2026, gives Standard "Essential AI tools like noise reduction, loudness adjustment, and basic effects" and lists auto captions among Pro's advanced AI tools, with camera tracking, AI avatars and AI-generated content. A second help article, dated 3 April 2026, says that when a Standard subscriber is asked to join Pro, the feature they used, "such as auto captions", usually includes Pro-only functionality, and that the check happens at export. CapCut does not say which caption functions are Pro-only, so test with an export: if CapCut asks for Pro, the captions in that project are behind the paywall.
Users have reported the paywall since mid-2024. In our count of 161 Reddit threads about subtitle tools, 21 include a post saying CapCut's auto captions had become paid or limited, the earliest in our sample from August 2024; subtitle generators on Reddit has the counts.
The watermark and the ending clip
CapCut's tool pages, pricing page and App Store listing say nothing about a watermark, and the watermark help pages we tried on 18 October returned 404 through the proxy. So we cannot quote CapCut on this.
What creators report, and have reported for years, is that CapCut appends a short CapCut ending clip to exports by default, which can be deleted from the timeline before export, and that some Pro-marked templates and effects add a watermark or block export on the free plan. Treat both as creator reports rather than CapCut statements, and check your own export: scrub to the final second and look at anything you added from a template. For a comparison of how other editors handle this, the free AI subtitle generator with no watermark post reads ten vendors' pages on the same question.
Languages: "multiple" is the only number CapCut gives
CapCut's pages say "multiple languages" and describe language detection plus translation. The App Store list of 21 app languages is the only enumerated list we found, and it does not say it is the caption list. If you caption Hindi, Tamil, Telugu or Hinglish speech, you have no CapCut page to confirm support in advance; test a clip. Our Indian language subtitle support comparison covers which tools name which languages.
Where CapCut falls short for a captions-only job
CapCut is a video editor with captions as one feature, and that shapes the experience.
- The learning curve is an editor's. Tracks, timeline, keyframes and templates are all in front of you when all you wanted was captions on a clip.
- Export settings are yours to get right. Resolution, codec and frame rate are chosen at export, and the default is not always your source.
- Per-word control is template-bound. Caption styling follows the template system; editing an individual word's timing takes more taps than in a caption-first tool.
- The India block. If you or your team are in India, CapCut is not an option at all.
- Account and data. CapCut's cloud features, storage and AI run through your CapCut account; read its terms if that matters to your clients.
None of these is a flaw if you wanted an editor. They are friction if you did not.
The alternative when you only need captions
A browser caption tool skips the editor. CapsAI accepts an MP4 or MOV of up to 10 minutes, transcribes it in one of 11 spoken languages (English, Hinglish, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada and Punjabi), lets you fix every word and timing, and exports one MP4 with the captions burned in, at 1080p on Starter and up to 4K on Creator and Pro. There are 37 caption styles to choose from, shown on the caption styles page.
A new account gets 3 free minutes to start. After that, packs are paid once, from $4 (₹49 in India, €4 in the euro area) for 20 minutes, $9 for 60 and $19 for 180, and watermark-free export comes with every paid pack. Nothing renews.
What CapsAI does not do: no SRT or VTT file, no translation, no video editing beyond captions, no app, nothing over 10 minutes. CapCut does all of those. If your clip needs a cut, a transition or a translated caption track, CapCut is the better tool; whether its captions cost you anything depends on whether your export asks for Pro.
Quick comparison
| CapCut (proxy render and App Store, 18 and 19 October 2026) | CapsAI | |
|---|---|---|
| Auto captions free? | Tool page says free; help center (2 April 2026) lists them under Pro | 3 free minutes to start, then packs from $4 |
| Paid tier | Pro, USD 19.99 a month or USD 179.99 a year: AI credits, templates, storage and, per its help center, auto captions | Packs paid once: $4, $9, $19 |
| Languages | "multiple"; App Store lists 21 app languages without Hindi | 11 spoken languages including Hindi and Hinglish |
| Translation | Yes | No |
| Subtitle file | Editor feature; not described on the pages read | No, burned-in MP4 only |
| Export | Chosen resolution; App Store says up to 4K 60fps | 1080p on Starter, up to 4K on Creator and Pro |
| Watermark | Not stated by CapCut; creators report an ending clip | Watermark-free export comes with every paid pack |
| Runs on | iOS, Android, desktop apps and browser | Phone and desktop browsers |
| Available in India | No, HTTP 451 | Yes |
What to do next
If you already edit in CapCut and are outside India, try its auto captions and export a test clip: a Pro prompt at export means the captions in that project need Pro, and the last second shows whether an ending clip was added. If you only need captions on a short clip, or you are in India, upload one to the auto caption generator or the TikTok caption generator, read the draft against the audio, and pay once for a pack if the 3 free minutes convince you. The pricing page shows the packs in your currency.
