iMovie has no auto captions. As of 19 October 2026, neither iMovie for Mac (version 10.4.5) nor iMovie for iPhone lists a speech-to-text or caption feature in Apple's user guides or App Store descriptions. What iMovie has is titles: text you type and place over a clip. So subtitling an iMovie project means one of three things: type the lines as titles, transcribe in another Apple app, or caption the exported video in a browser and bring it back.
Here are the three ways, with the real steps from Apple's guides for the first two and the browser handoff for the third.
Does iMovie have auto captions?
No. Apple's iMovie guides cover adding, styling and timing titles, and both App Store listings talk about title styles, but nothing transcribes speech, and the guides describe no way to import or export a subtitle file. Titles you add are part of the picture when you export, like burned-in captions.
Apple's quick transcription option on iPhone used to be Clips, with Live Titles. Apple's support note on Clips says Clips "will no longer be available for download for new users as of October 10, 2025"; people who already had it can still redownload it and use it on iOS 26 or earlier. If you still have Clips, our iPhone and Android captions guide covers Live Titles.
| Method | Works on | Writes the text for you | Cost (19 Oct 2026) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iMovie titles | Mac, iPhone, iPad | No, you type each line | Free | Titles burned into the export |
| Final Cut Pro Generate Captions | Mac with Apple silicon | Yes, U.S. English only | $299.99 once, or Apple Creator Studio from $12.99 a month | Captions or subtitles, file or burned in |
| Browser caption tool (CapsAI) | Any phone or desktop browser | Yes, English plus 10 Indian languages | 3 free minutes, then from $4 paid once | One MP4 with captions burned in |
Before you start: write the lines once
Typing straight into title boxes is slow and error-prone. Watch the video once and type what's said into a note, one subtitle per line, breaking long sentences in two. Then each title is a copy and paste, and you spend the iMovie time on placement and timing instead of spelling.
Method 1: titles as subtitles on Mac
From Apple's Add titles in iMovie on Mac and Modify titles pages:
- Open your movie in the timeline and select Titles above the browser.
- Pick a plain style. Many titles animate, and Apple notes you can't change the font in some theme and animated titles, so a simple, non-animated style is the easiest to read and edit.
- Put the playhead where the first line is spoken and double-click the title, or drag it above the clip.
- Double-click the placeholder text in the viewer and type the line.
- Use the font controls above the viewer for font, size, color and alignment. The B, I and O buttons set bold, italic and outline; outline helps white text stay readable on bright footage.
- Click Apply.
- Set how long it stays: drag either edge of the title bar, or click the Clip Information button and type a Duration.
- Repeat for every line, keeping the same style and size so the subtitles look consistent.
Watch the placement rule. If you drop a title in the first or last third of a clip, iMovie fits it to that third; drop it in the middle and it spans the whole clip. With snapping on, edges also jump to clip boundaries, so turn snapping off from the View menu when you need a title to start mid-clip.
Method 1 on iPhone
On iPhone, from Apple's Add titles to a movie in iMovie on iPhone:
- Open the project, tap a clip in the timeline, then tap the Titles button and pick a style.
- Tap the sample title in the viewer, tap Edit, type the line, and tap Done.
- Use the Font and Color buttons, then Style > Lower Third to move the text toward the bottom. Under More, turn on Text Shadow for contrast and Full Clip Duration if the line should stay for the whole clip.
The catch on iPhone: a title belongs to a clip. To change the line mid-shot, split the clip where the next sentence starts: tap the clip, tap the Actions button, then Split, or swipe down over the playhead. Apple's own clip arranging guide says you split a clip to "add different titles to each section". For a 30-second clip that's a handful of splits. For a five-minute talk it's a long evening.
Make title subtitles easy to read
Titles were designed for opening cards and lower thirds, not for following speech, so a few habits help:
- Keep each title short. One sentence, or half of a long one, on no more than two lines. Our guides to subtitle line length and when to split into two lines give working limits.
- Leave it up long enough to read. Start the title as the words begin and end it just after they finish, not on the next cut.
- Add contrast. White text with the outline button on Mac, or Text Shadow on iPhone, holds up over bright skies and white walls.
- Mind vertical video. Platform buttons and captions sit at the bottom of the screen, so place titles a little higher than you would on a TV-style video.
Method 2: a transcription route on a Mac
With Clips gone for new users, Apple's transcription tool is Final Cut Pro. Its Generate Captions command transcribes speech into captions or animated subtitles, but Apple says it needs a Mac with Apple silicon and works in U.S. English only. Final Cut Pro is $299.99 once on the Mac App Store, or part of Apple Creator Studio at $12.99 a month or $129 a year after a one-month free trial. Export your finished movie from iMovie and caption it there; our Final Cut Pro auto captions guide has the steps. It's the right step up if you'll caption every week and record in American English.
Method 3: caption the exported video in your browser and bring it back
This route writes the captions for you without a new app, and it works from the same iPhone you edit on:
- Export from iMovie. On Mac, choose File > Share > File and pick the resolution. On iPhone, tap Share > Share Video, set the resolution under Options, then tap Save Video.
- Open CapsAI in Safari or any browser and sign in with Google or an email code. 3 free minutes to start. Files up to 500 MB, or 10 GB with a pack. Videos up to 10 minutes each.
- Upload the MP4 or MOV. iPhone videos are often HEVC .MOV files; they upload as they are, though some browsers can't preview HEVC. Our MP4 vs MOV guide explains why.
- Pick the spoken language. CapsAI handles English plus 10 Indian languages and doesn't detect the language for you.
- Read the draft and fix it. Correct words, adjust start and end times, and choose 1 to 4 words per caption.
- Pick a style and export. 8 of the 37 styles are free; the other 29 come with any paid pack, from $4 (₹49 in India, €4 in the euro area). You get one MP4 with the captions burned in, 1080p on Starter and up to 4K on Creator and Pro.
- Bring it back or post it. Save the MP4 to Photos and it shows up in iMovie's media browser on iPhone; on iPhone you can also tap Add Media, then Files. Then add music or an end card around it, or post it as is.
Do the cutting first. The caption editor has no trim, crop or resize, and the export keeps your video's shape, so a vertical iMovie export comes back vertical. Once captions are burned in, trimming in iMovie cuts the words with the picture. There is also no SRT download: the MP4 is the deliverable, and projects are kept for a limited time (1 day on the free plan, 3 to 15 days with a pack), so download it straight away.
When iMovie isn't the right place
If you only need to watch a video with a subtitle file you already have, iMovie won't load it. Our guide to subtitles in QuickTime Player covers playing and embedding SRT files on a Mac. If you have an SRT and want it burned into the picture, that's a job for a dedicated burner, not iMovie's titles.
What to do next
A short clip with a few lines: type them as titles in iMovie. Weekly videos in American English on an Apple silicon Mac: try Final Cut Pro's Generate Captions. Anything else, or straight from your iPhone: export the movie and run it through the MOV caption generator, then bring the captioned MP4 back into iMovie or post it.
