Add subtitles to a video and burn them in
FinalCap is a chat-to-edit AI video editor. Open a video, type "Generate captions for this video", and it transcribes the speech, writes the subtitles and burns (hardcodes) them into the frames. To get a separate subtitle file instead, ask for SRT or VTT only. The video stays unchanged.
Opens FinalCap with "Generate captions for this video" ready in the chat box. Editing your own video needs a Google sign-in and a FinalCap subscription, and nothing runs until you press Send. The sample clip needs neither; it is an animated short with music and no dialogue or vocals, so use it to see how chat editing works rather than to test captions.
How to do it in 3 steps
Open your video
Sign in with Google and open a video file from your computer. It opens in the browser editor.
Ask for captions in plain English
Type one of these prompts, or your own wording:
- Generate captions for this video
- Add yellow captions at the top of the video
- Generate captions but don't burn them in, I just want the SRT file
Check and download
Play the result in the editor, then download the captioned video. The SRT file is offered as a download too.
What you can control
- Burned-in (hardcoded) captions, or soft subtitles only (SRT and VTT files, video unchanged).
- Three caption styles: default, white text on a black box, or yellow text.
- Bottom or top of the frame.
- Spoken language auto-detected, or name it in the prompt ("the audio is in French").
- Captioning again replaces the earlier captions instead of stacking a second set on top.
What runs on your device, and what goes to our server
- FinalCap transcribes speech on your device. A speech-recognition model downloads once and runs in your browser (WebGPU or WebAssembly), so the audio is not uploaded for this step.
- Your chat prompts are sent to FinalCap's server, where the AI decides which edit to run.
- The captions are burned in with FFmpeg in your browser. If your browser can't do that step, FinalCap asks before uploading the video to burn them on the server; say no and you get the subtitle files instead.
- Translating the captions (see the translation guide) sends the caption text to the server.
Details: FinalCap privacy policy.
FAQ
Can I get an SRT file instead of burned-in subtitles?
Yes. Say you don't want them burned in ("just the SRT file") and FinalCap returns SRT and VTT subtitle files and leaves the video as it was. When it does burn them in, the SRT is offered as a download as well.
Which languages can it caption?
The speech model detects the spoken language automatically. If detection picks the wrong one, name the language in your prompt.
Can I upload my own SRT file and burn it in?
Not today. FinalCap creates the captions from the video's audio; it does not import existing subtitle files.
Do I need to install anything?
No. FinalCap runs in a desktop browser. The first time you caption a video the speech model downloads, which takes a moment; after that it is cached.
Does it work on photos or audio-only files?
No. Captions are for videos with speech. For songs, use lyric captions instead.