Video caption generator
Video to Captions: What Goes In, What Comes Out
Video to captions, in plain terms: you upload one video file, CapsAI turns the speech into timed captions, you correct them, and you download the result. What comes out depends on the route you take. In the web editor it is one MP4 with the captions burned into the picture, readable on any player with the sound off. Through the CapsAI connector in Claude you can also ask for the transcript as an SRT file, the format YouTube suggests to anyone new to caption files. There is no TXT or VTT download and no translation: captions are written in the language spoken. The input is an MP4 or MOV of up to 10 minutes, including an iPhone's HEVC .MOV as recorded. Links cannot be pasted in, so a YouTube video has to be a file on your device first. A new account starts with 3 free minutes, and packs after that are paid once, from $4 (€4 in the euro area, ₹49 in India).
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
Founder update recorded on a Mac for LinkedIn
We shipped invoicing this week, and the mobile view is next.
Web editor route: Sapphire, the default style, burned into the MP4 so the update reads in a muted feed. No file to attach.
YouTube tutorial that also needs a CC track
Open the settings panel, then switch the export to 4K.
Claude route: a burned-in MP4 for the Short, plus an SRT from get_transcript for the long video.
iPhone vlog, an HEVC .MOV straight from Photos
Honestly, the view from the top was worth the four-hour climb.
Uploads as recorded with no conversion; Pop Out, in every paid pack, lights each word as it is said.
Course lesson for a player on your own website
Before we start the lab, check that every sample is labelled.
SRT from the connector, then the free SRT to VTT converter makes a .vtt for an HTML5 video track.
What you have, what you get, and where it works
- An MP4 or MOV of up to 10 minutes, in the web editor
- What you get: One MP4 with the captions burned in, edited by you first. 1080p on Starter, up to 4K on Creator and Pro
- Where it works: Any player: Reels, TikTok, Shorts, LinkedIn, X, WhatsApp, your website, a TV. Nothing to switch on
- The same file, captioned through the CapsAI connector in Claude
- What you get: The captioned MP4, plus the transcript as an SRT file from get_transcript
- Where it works: YouTube Studio (Upload file, then With timing) and any editor or platform that imports SRT
- That SRT, run through the free SRT to VTT converter
- What you get: A WebVTT (.vtt) file, converted in your browser
- Where it works: HTML5 video players on your own site; YouTube Help also lists WebVTT as an advanced format
- An iPhone HEVC .MOV straight from Photos
- What you get: Accepted as recorded, no conversion; the same outputs as the rows above
- Where it works: The same places as the rows above
- A YouTube, Google Drive or Dropbox link
- What you get: Nothing: links are not imported
- Where it works: Download the file first; for your own YouTube video, Studio, Content, then Download
- An audio file, an existing SRT, or a video over 10 minutes
- What you get: Not accepted for captioning
- Where it works: Upload the video itself; trim a long recording, or cut it with Smart-Clips
- A need for a TXT transcript or translated captions
- What you get: Not offered: no TXT download and no translation
- Where it works: Captions stay in the spoken language; an SRT from Claude can be stripped to plain text with the SRT to TXT converter
YouTube formats and Studio steps quoted from YouTube Help, read 4 November 2026. CapsAI outputs as of the same date.
What you get
- Every output named up front: a captioned MP4 from the editor, an SRT only through Claude
- Burned-in captions that look identical on Reels, TikTok, Shorts, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and a website, with no CC button involved
- Phone recordings, an iPhone HEVC .MOV included, accepted as recorded in any browser
- Each word and each timing editable before anything is rendered into the picture
- Minutes paid once in packs with no subscription, and watermark-free export with every paid pack
Where it helps
- Turning a finished edit into a captioned upload for a vertical feed that plays muted
- YouTube creators who want burned-in captions on the Short and an SRT on the long video
- Webinar excerpts and product demos that people can follow without sound
- Course creators who need a caption file for their own player and a captioned cut for social
How it works
How it works
Step 1
Have the video as a file
An MP4 or MOV of up to 10 minutes: 500 MB on a free account, 10 GB with a pack. Phone recordings work as they are. Links cannot be pasted in, so download or export the file first.
Step 2
Upload it and confirm the language
Sign in with Google or an email code, then drag the file onto the page or pick it from Photos or the gallery. English is preselected; choose another of the 11 spoken languages if the video uses one. Captions are written in that language and never translated.
Step 3
Read the draft against the audio
Every word can be retyped, and every start or end time can be typed as a number of seconds. Names, product terms and figures are where a draft most often needs a change.
Step 4
Choose the look and export the MP4
Pick one of 37 styles (8 are free), set the size and position, and export. The download is one MP4 with the captions in the picture, 1080p on Starter and up to 4K on Creator and Pro.
Step 5
Need an SRT as well? Ask Claude
Add CapsAI to Claude as a custom connector, ask it to caption the video, then ask for the transcript. The get_transcript tool returns it as SRT subtitles to save as a .srt file.
Choose your spoken language
What to do next
Related tools
Questions
How do I convert a video to captions for free?
Create a CapsAI account and use its 3 free minutes: upload an MP4 or MOV, correct the draft, choose one of the 8 free styles and export the captioned MP4. After that, minutes come in packs paid once: Starter 20 minutes $4, Creator 60 minutes $9, Pro 180 minutes $19 (€4, €9 and €19 in the euro area; ₹49, ₹99 and ₹299 in India). Nothing renews.
Can I get an SRT file from my video?
Yes, by one route only. The web editor exports an MP4 with the captions burned in and has no SRT download. If you connect CapsAI to Claude, Claude can caption the video and then call get_transcript, which returns the transcript as SRT subtitles. Save that text as a .srt file, read it through, and upload it wherever SRT is accepted, YouTube Studio included.
Is there a VTT or TXT download?
No. CapsAI does not produce VTT or TXT files by either route. If you already have the SRT from Claude, our free converters change it inside your browser: SRT to VTT for a website player, and SRT to TXT to strip out the timestamps and cue numbers.
Can I paste a YouTube link instead of uploading?
No. CapsAI takes a file, not a link. For your own video, download it in YouTube Studio (Content, the video's menu, Download), or better, use the original export from your camera or editor, which is sharper. For someone else's video, you need the owner's file and permission.
Should I burn the captions in or use a caption file?
Burn them in when the clip goes to a feed that is often watched on mute, or to a player you do not control. Use a caption file when viewers should be able to switch captions off, when a platform or an accessibility rule asks for one, or when you may need to fix a typo after publishing. Many YouTube creators do both.
Which video files can I upload?
MP4 or MOV, one file per upload, up to 10 minutes per video. iPhones set to High Efficiency record HEVC .MOV files, and those upload as recorded. A free account takes files up to 500 MB; a pack raises that to 10 GB. There is no audio-only upload, no SRT import and no batch upload.
Will it translate my video into captions in another language?
No. Captions come out in the language spoken: English, or one of 10 Indian languages (Hinglish, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada and Punjabi), chosen per video. 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 before you commit.
Can CapsAI caption a live stream or a meeting as it happens?
No. It captions recorded video files only. During a live stream or call, the platform's own live captions are the route. To keep captions on the recording afterwards, export it as an MP4 or MOV and upload that file here.
Three outputs, stated plainly
Many video to caption converter pages promise "captions" without saying in what form they arrive. Here is the complete list for CapsAI. From the web editor: one MP4, with the captions burned into the frames after you have read and fixed the draft. Through the CapsAI connector in Claude: the same captioned MP4, plus the transcript as an SRT file from the get_transcript tool. The CapsAI MCP page lists every tool the server exposes. That is the whole menu.
What is not on it: no VTT, TXT or Word download, no transcript export from the editor, no translated captions, and no switchable caption track tucked inside the MP4. If you need one of those formats and already hold an SRT, the SRT to VTT converter and the SRT to TXT converter run in your browser without uploading the file, and the post on SRT vs VTT vs TXT explains which one a given platform wants.
Open or closed captions: which one the job needs
Open captions are drawn into the picture. They show on every player, in the font and colour you chose, with nothing for the viewer to turn on, and they cannot be hidden or edited once exported. Closed captions live in a separate file or track. The viewer decides whether to see them, the player decides how they look, and the owner can correct a typo after publishing without uploading the video again.
Short vertical feeds lean towards open captions. Reels, TikTok and Shorts are often scrolled with the sound off, the hook has to read in the first second, and a styled caption is part of how the clip looks. YouTube's long-form player, course platforms and anything with an accessibility requirement lean towards a file, because the viewer controls it. For a YouTube channel the usual answer is both: burn captions into the Short and upload an SRT to the long video. The burned-in vs closed captions post takes the comparison further.
Which caption files YouTube accepts
YouTube Help's page on supported subtitle and closed caption files, read 4 November 2026, lists five basic formats, SubRip (.srt), SubViewer (.sbv or .sub), MPsub (.mpsub), LRC (.lrc) and Videotron Lambda (.cap), and five advanced ones, SAMI (.smi or .sami), RealText (.rt), WebVTT (.vtt), TTML (.ttml) and DFXP (.dfxp or .ttml). It suggests that anyone new to caption files "may want to use SubRip (.srt) or SubViewer (.sbv)", and says basic files must be plain UTF-8, with no style markup recognised.
So the SRT that Claude hands back is the format YouTube points beginners to. The "Add subtitles & captions" help page describes three ways in, Upload file, Auto-sync and Type manually; choose Upload file, then With timing, because an SRT carries its own timestamps. Fonts and colours do not travel in a basic caption file, so when the look matters, that is the job of the burned-in MP4.
The input side: what counts as a video file
CapsAI takes one MP4 or MOV per upload, up to 10 minutes long. Phones are the usual source: an iPhone set to High Efficiency records HEVC .MOV, which uploads as recorded with no conversion step, and Android phones save MP4. Files can be up to 500 MB on a free account and 10 GB with a pack.
A "YouTube video to captions" search usually starts with a link, which CapsAI does not accept. If the video is yours, YouTube Help says Studio lets you download it as 720p or 360p, up to five times a day per video, so the original export is the better source when you still have it. If it belongs to someone else, you need their file and their permission; the guide to adding subtitles to someone else's YouTube video sets out the options. Recordings over 10 minutes go through Smart-Clips, which cuts up to 120 minutes into scored 9:16 clips.
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