The shortlist
5 things that do it.
A video editor from Bytedance with an auto caption tool that turns speech into styled subtitles.
- Free
- CapCut's caption page says speech can be converted to text free of charge; the app is free with in-app purchases (UK App Store).
- Paid
- from £10.99 per month (Standard, UK App Store)
- Best at
- Auto captions inside a full phone and desktop editor, with styles, fonts and animation you can change.
- The catch
- CapCut's page does not say which caption features stay free; the UK App Store lists paid subscriptions.
- ios
- android
- mac
- windows
- web
YouTube's speech recognition, which creates captions for videos uploaded to YouTube.
- Free
- YouTube's help page does not state a price.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Free of extra tools if the video is going on YouTube anyway, in dozens of languages, editable in YouTube Studio.
- The catch
- Only for videos on YouTube, and YouTube says captions may not generate for long videos, poor sound or overlapping speakers.
- web
A browser video editor with an AI subtitler, subtitle translation and dubbing.
- Free
- $0 Free plan: 10 credits, auto subtitling up to 10 minutes, auto translating up to 5 minutes, watermarked 720p exports up to 4 minutes (Kapwing pricing).
- Paid
- from $16 per member per month (Pro, billed annually)
- Best at
- Trying auto subtitles free in the browser, with subtitle translation into over 60 languages (up to 5 minutes free, 500 minutes a month on Pro).
- The catch
- Free exports carry a Kapwing watermark, are 720p and up to 4 minutes long, and auto subtitling is capped at 10 minutes.
- web
A video and podcast editor you edit through the transcript, as a Mac or Windows app or in the browser, with automatic animated captions.
- Free
- $0 Free plan with 60 media minutes a month; dynamic captions are listed as unlimited on every plan (Descript pricing).
- Paid
- from $16 per person per month (Hobbyist, billed annually)
- Best at
- Captions as part of transcript editing, with caption styles you can customise and caption translation into 61 languages.
- The catch
- The free plan includes 60 media minutes a month and 720p export, and its pricing table shows watermark free export only on paid plans.
- mac
- windows
- web
A browser video editor with auto subtitles, subtitle translation and subtitle file downloads.
- Free
- VEED's pricing page says start for free; free plan videos are watermarked.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Unlimited subtitle generation on paid plans (fair use 50 hours a month), with .srt, .vtt and .txt export listed.
- The catch
- Videos made on the free plan carry a watermark in the corner, and translation minutes count against your plan's allowance.
- web
How they compare
Which one suits you, and why.
If your video is going on YouTube anyway
YouTube's automatic captions are the route with no extra tool. YouTube uses speech recognition to create captions for uploaded videos and Shorts, in dozens of languages, and you can review and edit them in YouTube Studio. There is nothing else to sign up for.
The cost is flexibility. These captions only exist for videos on YouTube, so if the video is going anywhere else they are no help. YouTube also says captions may not generate if the video is too long, has poor sound, starts with a long silence or has overlapping speakers, and live stream captions are English only. The help page does not state a price, so we have not listed one.
If you edit on your phone
CapCut is a video editor from Bytedance with auto captions built into the app, and you can change the text style, font, colour, effects and motion. If you already cut clips on your phone, captions become one more step in the same editor. CapCut's caption page lists Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and the web. The UK App Store lists it as free with in-app purchases, and CapCut's caption page says speech can be converted to text free of charge.
The catch is that the caption page does not say which caption features stay free, and the App Store lists paid subscriptions: Standard at £10.99 a month, Pro at £21.99 a month, and a yearly option at £99.99. You could start free and find part of the workflow sits behind a subscription.
If you want to try it free in a browser
Kapwing is a browser video editor with an AI subtitler, subtitle translation and dubbing. Its $0 plan gives you 10 credits and auto subtitling up to 10 minutes, with nothing to install, so you can see the results before spending anything.
What you give up is the finish. Free exports carry a Kapwing watermark, come out at 720p and run to 4 minutes at most. Pro is $16 per member per month billed annually, or $24 billed monthly, and lifts auto subtitling to 1,000 minutes a month. Subtitles can be translated into over 60 languages, with up to 5 minutes of that on the free plan.
If you also edit by transcript
Descript works differently. It is a video and podcast editor where you edit the video by editing a document, and the captions come along with the transcript. Dynamic captions are listed as unlimited on every plan, the caption styles can be customised, and captions can be translated into 61 languages. If you cut podcasts or talking head videos by reading the words, it fits that way of working.
The free plan includes 60 media minutes a month and 720p export, and its pricing table shows watermark free export only on paid plans. It runs as a desktop app for Mac and Windows, needing macOS 14 or Windows 11 and newer, or in a Chromium browser such as Chrome or Edge. Hobbyist is $16 per person per month billed annually, or $24 billed monthly, with 10 media hours.
When paying is worth it
The free plans are limited in similar ways. Kapwing's free exports are watermarked 720p up to 4 minutes, Descript's free plan has 60 media minutes a month at 720p with a watermark, and VEED watermarks free videos too.
VEED, a browser editor with auto subtitles and subtitle translation, lists unlimited subtitle generation on paid plans (fair use 50 hours a month) and subtitle downloads as .srt, .vtt and .txt files, which matters if you need a file rather than captions burned into the picture. Its translation minutes count against your plan's allowance. Its prices did not load for us, so check them on VEED's own page.
Pay when you need watermark free exports or longer videos. For a quick test on a short clip, a free plan may be enough.
What to watch for
The catches worth knowing first.
Read the captions back before you publish. YouTube says automatic captions might misrepresent speech because of mispronunciations, accents, dialects or background noise, and that you should always review them. That warning comes from the people who make the tool.
They might not appear at all. A video that is too long, has poor sound, starts with a long silence or has overlapping speakers can stop YouTube generating captions, and live streams get English only.
With CapCut the concern is cost. Its caption page does not say which features are free, and the App Store lists paid subscriptions, so do not assume the whole caption workflow is free.
The same shortlist, as a table
| Thing | Free tier | Paid from | Platforms | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapCut | CapCut's caption page says speech can be converted to text free of charge; the app is free with in-app purchases (UK App Store). | £10.99 per month (Standard, UK App Store) | ios, android, mac, windows, web | CapCut's page does not say which caption features stay free; the UK App Store lists paid subscriptions. |
| YouTube automatic captions | YouTube's help page does not state a price. | not checked | web | Only for videos on YouTube, and YouTube says captions may not generate for long videos, poor sound or overlapping speakers. |
| Kapwing | $0 Free plan: 10 credits, auto subtitling up to 10 minutes, auto translating up to 5 minutes, watermarked 720p exports up to 4 minutes (Kapwing pricing). | $16 per member per month (Pro, billed annually) | web | Free exports carry a Kapwing watermark, are 720p and up to 4 minutes long, and auto subtitling is capped at 10 minutes. |
| Descript | $0 Free plan with 60 media minutes a month; dynamic captions are listed as unlimited on every plan (Descript pricing). | $16 per person per month (Hobbyist, billed annually) | mac, windows, web | The free plan includes 60 media minutes a month and 720p export, and its pricing table shows watermark free export only on paid plans. |
| VEED | VEED's pricing page says start for free; free plan videos are watermarked. | not checked | web | Videos made on the free plan carry a watermark in the corner, and translation minutes count against your plan's allowance. |
How we checked
What we read, and what we haven't tested yet.
On 2026-10-02 we read CapCut's auto caption page and UK App Store listing, YouTube's help page on automatic captioning, the Kapwing, Descript and VEED pricing pages and Descript's download page and its help page on Descript for web. VEED's prices did not load for us. Nothing was tested hands-on, so we cannot say how accurate any of them will be with your voice or your audio.
If none of these fit
The manual way.
If the video is going on YouTube, its automatic captions can be corrected in YouTube Studio under Subtitles. For short vertical clips, Submagic is built for animated captions, from $19 a month on its Starter plan (2 minute videos, 15 a month). Where accuracy matters, YouTube encourages professional captions first.