Add Captions to a TikTok Video

TikTok's layout and where words get hidden

Open any TikTok and look at what sits on top of the video. A rail of buttons runs down the right side: the creator's profile picture, likes, comments, saves, shares and the spinning sound disc at the bottom. Across the lower part of the screen is the caption bar, holding the username, the post's description (which expands when tapped), and the sound name. The top has the Following and For You tabs, search, and sometimes a Live entry. TikTok redesigns these pieces from time to time and they land in slightly different places on different phones, so read any pixel template as a rough guide.

That leaves an open area roughly from the top third to just below the centre, and slightly left of the middle. It's where viewers' eyes already rest and where your captions are safest. Text pushed against the bottom edge or the right side will sooner or later disappear behind the interface for somebody.

TikTok's own captions or captions in the picture

TikTok offers several built-in ways to put words on a video, and they behave differently from text that is part of the file.

Auto captions

Generated by TikTok from the speech when you post, editable before publishing in the languages TikTok supports. Viewers can hide them, and TikTok positions and styles them itself.

Text and sticker tools

Typed by hand in TikTok's editor, with the app's fonts and highlight styles and its own timing controls. Fine for a few words, slow for a whole talking clip.

Burned-in captions from this editor

Part of the picture before upload. Your font, size and position, identical on every phone, and still there when the clip is downloaded, stitched or reposted elsewhere. They can't be turned off or edited after posting.

Pick by what you need. If you burn captions in, leave TikTok's auto captions off for that post, otherwise viewers can end up with two transcripts of the same sentence on screen. Neither route is right for everyone; plenty of creators use TikTok's captions for quick posts and burned ones for anything they will also publish on Shorts or Reels.

How to caption a TikTok before you upload

1. Open the editor on this page and choose the clip from your computer (MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM or MKV). The Social Media preset is already selected under Style.
2. Get the words: keep "Write the subtitles automatically with AI" switched on, or switch it off and import an SRT or VTT file, or press Enter at the playhead to type.
3. Play the clip and correct the text while it plays. Pay attention to usernames, brand names and slang, which speech recognition often mishears.
4. Tick "Show safe area", then scrub to the busiest shots and confirm each caption stays clear of the rail and the description.
5. Click Render video, start it from the "Ready to render" summary, keep the tab open, then click Download video.
6. Move the MP4 to your phone and post it, or upload it from TikTok's website on the same computer.

The download keeps your clip's resolution, frame rate and orientation; a 1080×1920 recording comes back at 1080×1920, without a watermark.

Writing for the first two seconds

TikTok viewers decide fast, so the first caption does more work than any other. A few practical points:

• If the hook is spoken, make sure the first caption appears with the first word. AI captions start on the first spoken word of each phrase, so the timing is usually right, but check that the opening line isn't split awkwardly.
• If the clip opens silently with a visual, you can add a hand-typed title line at 0:00 by placing the playhead at the start and pressing Enter, then type the hook.
• Keep the first line short. A six-word hook in big type reads in a glance; a 30-character sentence asks for attention you haven't earned yet.
• Spell numbers as digits. "3 mistakes" is faster to read than "three mistakes" at TikTok speed.

For the bold, boxed or outlined look that people associate with the app, the TikTok caption style guide goes through the Social Media and Creator presets in detail and is honest about the limits: lines here are static, with no word-by-word highlighting or pop-in motion.

Placing captions around the rail

The Position controls are Top, Middle and Bottom, plus a "Nudge up / down" slider that moves the block from its anchor. Social Media starts on Middle with a small downward nudge, so captions sit just under the centre. Creator does the same, slightly lower. Choosing a different anchor resets the nudge to zero, so pick the anchor first and nudge second.

• Avoid Bottom for TikTok. Even with the safe-area margin, the bottom anchor lands close to where the description and sound name sit, and a long description covers more when expanded.
• Keep alignment centred or left. Right-aligned text runs straight into the button rail.
• Narrow the block if needed. Social Media and Creator start at 80 on the Max line width slider (the other presets use 90). Bringing it lower makes lines wrap sooner and keeps both ends away from the rail.
• Raise the size before you lower it. Size scales with the frame's shorter side, so on vertical video it tracks the width; big text is the point on a phone.
• Move rather than shrink when text meets a face. A nudge of a few steps usually clears a chin or a product shot.

The subtitle safe area page explains how the guide's margins change with the frame's shape.

Horizontal clips and other shapes

The editor does not crop or reframe. A 16:9 clip renders as 16:9, and TikTok will show it letterboxed inside a vertical screen, where captions sitting in the picture end up small. If the clip should fill the phone, reframe it to 9:16 in a video editor before you caption it. Square clips are labelled 1:1 by the safe-area guide and work the same way; just expect black bars above and below on TikTok.

Captions for other languages and other apps

TikTok audiences cross borders, and the "Subtitle language" option can transcribe and translate in one pass into any of the 21 supported languages, including Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese and Arabic. Review translations with a fluent speaker if the clip matters; machine translation misses tone and wordplay. For a dubbed version instead of subtitles, AI dubbing replaces the voice.

Because burned captions are part of the file, the same MP4 also works on YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, whose overlays are similar but not identical. Check the placement once for each before cross-posting. If you also need the captions as a file, for example to import into CapCut, use Export SRT before closing the editor, or generate one from the speech with the subtitle generator.

About the subtitle editor on this page

Opens

MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV videos your browser can decode

Subtitles from

AI (from the speech, optionally translated into one of 21 languages), an SRT or VTT file, or typing them in

You download

An MP4 with the subtitles drawn into the picture at the original resolution and frame rate, plus SRT and VTT files

Cost

Editing, styling, rendering and SRT/VTT export are free, with no account and no watermark. AI subtitles cost 1 credit per minute (5-credit minimum per video); signing in with Google gives 100 free credits and accounts get 10 free credits a day

Privacy

The video never leaves your device and is rendered in your browser. Only for AI subtitles is the audio sent, over HTTPS, and it is deleted within 30 minutes of delivery

Rendering needs

Chrome or Edge 94+, Safari 16.4+, or Firefox 130+ on a computer. Editing and SRT/VTT export work in any current browser