Add captions to a video
Transcribe your video's speech, or open an SRT or VTT file, and burn the captions in word by word, in the 5 styles Clyper's clips use. It comes out vertical, 1080 × 1920, ready for TikTok, Reels and Shorts. Free, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded.
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An example: 8 seconds of IMPAULSIVE
Your video
MP4, MOV or WebM, or drop one on the phone. It's made on your device: nothing is uploaded.
1080 × 1920 MP4 with the captions burned in, no watermark. Free.
How to add captions to a video
- Choose your video, or drop it on the phone.
- Add the captions: transcribe the video's speech, open an SRT or VTT file, paste one in, or pause on each line and type it.
- Pick a style, and crop the video to fill the screen or fit it whole.
- Choose the part, up to 5 minutes, and add the captions. Then download your 1080 × 1920 MP4.
The 5 styles
- PopThree words at a time. The spoken word turns blue with a quick pop.
- KaraokeThe whole line stays up and fills with yellow as each word is said.
- HighlightThe spoken word gets a bright yellow highlight.
- One wordOne big word at a time, popping in as it's said.
- PlainCalm subtitles in sentence case on a soft dark band, no animation.
They're drawn by the same caption builder and renderer as the clips Clyper makes, in the same fonts, so what you see in the preview is what you get. More on choosing one in how to caption short videos.
SRT and VTT files
A captions file is plain text: each line of captions has its times and its words. Most video editors and transcription tools export SRT (SubRip) or VTT (WebVTT), and in YouTube Studio you can download the subtitles of your own videos: open Subtitles, choose the video, then Options and Download subtitles.
A file times whole lines, not words, so the tool shares each line's time among its words by their length. It's close for most speech; for exact word timing, the captions need to come from the audio itself. That's how Clyper's animated captions are made: each word is timed to the moment it's said.
Captions the apps won't cover
The captions sit about two-thirds of the way down the frame, where TikTok's, Reels' and Shorts' buttons and text don't reach. If you add other text yourself, check it against the apps' buttons with the safe zone checker.
Questions
How do I add captions to a video?
Choose your video and press Transcribe the video, or open its SRT or VTT file, or type the lines in. Pick a caption style, crop or fit the video to 9:16, and add the captions. You get a 1080 × 1920 MP4 with the captions burned in.
What's an SRT file?
A plain text file of captions: each line has a number, a start and end time (00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,000) and the words. VTT files are much the same. Most editors and transcription tools can export one, and YouTube Studio lets you download the subtitles of your own videos.
Can I add captions without a file?
Yes. Pause where a line starts, choose Add a line, and type the words; adjust its times in the text if you need to. The tool keeps the lines in order.
Why do the words light up one at a time?
That's the style short videos use: a few words on screen, the one being said highlighted. A captions file only times whole lines, so the tool shares each line's time out among its words. For timing to the exact word, Clyper transcribes the video itself.
Is my video uploaded? Is there a watermark?
Neither. The captions are drawn and the video is made in your browser, on your device, and it comes out with no watermark.
Can it write the captions for me?
Yes: Transcribe the video turns its speech into captions, on your device, with a speech recognition model your browser downloads once (about 76 MB). Read them through and fix any word. For whole videos, Clyper goes further from a YouTube link: it finds the best moments and makes up to 30 vertical clips, each captioned word by word.
Captions without the captions file
Paste a YouTube link. Clyper transcribes it, finds the best moments, frames them vertically and captions every word, timed to the voice: up to 30 clips, ready to post.
Guides
- Making clipsHow to add subtitles to a video (free)How to make subtitles automatically or by hand, fix them, and add them to YouTube, TikTok, Reels or an editor, as a file or burned in.7 min read
- Making clipsHow to caption short videos so people keep watchingWhy every clip needs captions, the styles that hold attention, and where to put them so the apps don't cover them.4 min read
- Making clipsWhat is an SRT file? SRT and VTT subtitles explainedWhat's inside an SRT file, how WebVTT differs, which to use where, and when a clip needs its captions burned in instead.6 min read
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