Most Shorts are watched quickly, often without sound at first, so captions that follow the speech word by word keep people on the screen. The style is made by showing one or two words at a time, large and usually centred, with the current word highlighted.
This tool transcribes your clip in your browser, lets you choose a design, colours, font and animation, and records a new MP4 with the captions drawn on it.
Animated captions for Shorts: what to know
Placement for Shorts
The centre of the frame is the safest place, because the bottom of a vertical video is covered by the title, channel name and buttons. Use the position control to move captions up or down.
Make the video vertical first
If your clip is horizontal, run it through the Shorts maker first so the captions are sized for a 9:16 frame.
Timing
Word timing comes from the speech model and is good on clear speech. Fast talking or music can make a word appear slightly early or late, so check the preview and fix any line that looks off.
How to use
- Add your video or audio. Drop an MP4, MOV, WebM, MP3 or WAV file into the tool. Files up to about 10 minutes work best.
- Pick a language and a speed. Leave the language on auto-detect or choose yours. The page shows an estimated wait for each model size, measured on your device after the first run.
- Fix any words. Read through the generated lines and correct names, brands and jargon. If you only change spelling, the word timing stays exact.
- Export or burn in. Download an SRT or VTT to upload in YouTube Studio, or choose a caption style and create a new MP4 with the captions drawn onto it.
Limits and good to know
- Works best on clips up to about 10 minutes. Longer files use a lot of memory on phones.
- The first run downloads the speech model once, then your browser keeps it.
- Burning captions in records the video in real time, so keep the tab open and visible until it finishes.
FAQ
Do the animated styles work in an SRT file?
No. A subtitle file is plain text with timing. Animations are drawn into the video when you burn the captions in.
Will there be a watermark?
No. The video is created in your browser and carries no watermark.
Can I use Hindi or other languages?
Yes. The bundled font supports Devanagari, so Hindi captions display correctly, and other scripts use a font from your device.
Is the caption generator free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limit.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The speech model runs in your browser on your own device.
Which file does YouTube want?
Download the SRT or VTT and upload it under Subtitles in YouTube Studio. Both are accepted.