Captions and subtitles look the same on screen: timed text that shows what is being said. The difference is who the text is for, and which English you speak. In American English, captions are written for people who can't hear the audio, so they include sounds such as [door slams] and say who is talking. Subtitles usually mean the dialogue translated for people who can hear but don't know the language. In British English, "subtitles" covers both, and the BBC calls the version for deaf viewers subtitles too.
So, are captions the same as subtitles? Same format, different job. A transcript is the third relative: the same words as a document with no timing, read beside the video rather than on it.
The same moment, written four ways
Picture a clip where a door slams off camera and someone says "Wait, did you hear that?" Here is how each kind of text handles it:
- Caption (American usage, or SDH in the UK): "[door slams]" on its own line, then "Wait, did you hear that?", with the speaker's name in brackets if they are off screen.
- Subtitle (American usage): only the words, often translated for viewers who speak another language. The door is left out because the viewer can hear it.
- Transcript: a paragraph in a document, such as "Speaker 1: Wait, did you hear that?", with no timing, or a timestamp every few lines.
- Creator caption on a Reel or Short: "WAIT, DID YOU HEAR THAT?" in large type, two or three words at a time, burned into the picture. The door usually goes missing here too.
Captions vs subtitles vs transcripts: the table
The definitions below follow the W3C's captions guidance, the FCC and Netflix's help center, as read on 19 October 2026.
| Feature | Captions | Subtitles | Transcript |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it contains | Speech plus sound cues and speaker names | Speech only, often translated | Speech as plain text, sometimes with speaker names |
| Written mainly for | Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers, and anyone watching muted | Viewers who can hear but don't know the language | Readers, searchers and people who want to skim |
| Language | Same as the audio | Usually another language in the US; either in the UK | Same as the audio |
| Timed to the video | Yes | Yes | No |
| Can the viewer turn it off | Yes if closed; no if burned in | Yes if closed; no if burned in | It is not on the video |
| Usual form | A track in the player, or text in the picture | A track in the player, or text in the picture | A document, web page or side panel |
Two things in that table trip people up. First, "captions" and "subtitles" describe what the text is for, not how it is delivered. Either can be a separate track the viewer switches on (closed) or text drawn into the picture (open, or burned in). That second split has its own guide: open vs closed captions. Second, a transcript is not a caption file. It has no timing, so a player can't show it in sync with the speech, which is why YouTube shows transcripts in a separate panel. Our post on YouTube transcripts vs YouTube captions covers that difference.
US vs UK usage
The W3C's accessibility guidance (updated 17 September 2024) says it directly: the two terms "are used for the same thing in different regions of the world". It adds that they are sometimes told apart as intralingual subtitles (same language) and interlingual subtitles (translated).
In the United States, the legal and broadcast word is "captions". The FCC's consumer guide, last reviewed on 27 January 2021, says closed captioning "displays the audio portion of a television program as text on the TV screen", and its quality rules expect captions to carry background noises and other sounds as well as words. American viewers use "subtitles" mostly for translations: the English text on a Korean drama.
In the United Kingdom, "subtitles" is both the everyday and the industry word. The BBC's Subtitle Guidelines (version 1.2.5, March 2026) say subtitles are "primarily intended to serve viewers with loss of hearing", and describe them as closed subtitles, also known as closed captions. A British viewer who says "I always watch with subtitles on" usually means same-language text, which an American would call captions.
A practical rule when you write:
- For a US audience, or anything about accessibility law: say "captions" for same-language text and "subtitles" for translations.
- For a UK, Irish or broadcast-industry audience: "subtitles" is fine for both, and "subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing" (SDH) when you mean the version with sound cues.
- For a global audience of creators: say "captions" for words burned into short-form video, and explain the term once, because a reader in London and a reader in Chicago may picture different things.
Which one each platform shows
Streaming services and players mix the two words, which is where most of the confusion comes from. As read on 19 October 2026:
- Netflix uses both. Its accessibility page defines subtitles as dialogue turned into text, and closed captions as dialogue plus a description of sounds. Titles with the sound-cue version carry an SDH badge, and since 24 April 2025 Netflix has been adding a dialogue-only "English" option next to "English (CC)", starting with new titles and, it said, all new Netflix originals.
- YouTube puts a CC button on the player, calls the settings menu "Subtitles/CC", and its help page talks about "captions (subtitles)" as one feature. Tracks made by speech recognition are labeled "(auto-generated)".
- Apple's TV app labels titles CC for closed captions and SDH for subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.
- The BBC calls all of it subtitles, in line with everyday British usage.
- TikTok and Instagram use "caption" for two things: the text you write under a post and the words on the video. Our post on TikTok captions vs subtitles untangles that.
What each menu label includes, from "English" to "English (CC)", "SDH" and "Forced", is covered in English vs English CC vs SDH subtitles.
What creators mean by "captions"
On short-form video, "captions" almost always means words drawn into the picture: the bold text in the middle of a Reel or Short that changes as the person talks. Technically these are open captions, and three things follow from that:
- They show on every app and device, including where the platform's own captions are off or missing.
- Nobody can turn them off, resize them or translate them in the player.
- They usually leave out sound cues, so in the strict American sense they are subtitles: dialogue only.
The last point matters if accessibility matters to your audience. A Reel with burned-in dialogue is far better than nothing for a deaf viewer, but it is not a full caption track. If a sound carries meaning, such as a laugh, a doorbell or music that changes the mood, type it in brackets yourself. The guide to captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences covers the conventions.
The captions that platforms generate for you are the closed kind: the viewer can switch them off, and their quality depends on speech recognition. That is a separate topic, covered in what are auto captions.
Which do you need?
- Words on screen for people scrolling with the sound off: burned-in captions. They survive reposting and don't depend on anyone's settings.
- Accessibility on YouTube, a course platform or a website: a closed caption track with sound cues, so viewers can switch it on and off. You can burn captions into the Shorts and clips you cut from the same video.
- Another language: subtitles in the translation sense. That is translating, which is a different job from captioning.
- Searchable text, quotes or show notes: a transcript.
Where CapsAI fits
CapsAI makes one of these: open captions in the language spoken. You upload an MP4 or MOV, choose the spoken language (English plus 10 Indian languages), fix any words and timings in the browser editor, pick a style, and download one MP4 with the captions burned in. It does not produce a closed-caption track, an SRT or VTT file, a translation or a transcript document. If you need a switchable caption file for YouTube, use YouTube's own tools or a file-based captioner; if you need text in the picture that looks the same on every app, that is the job CapsAI does.
What to do next
Work out which job you have: same-language text in the picture, a switchable track, a translation or a document. For the first, upload a short clip on the add captions to video page and read the draft. New accounts get 3 free minutes, packs start from $4 (₹49 in India, €4 in the euro area), and watermark-free export comes with every paid pack.
