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Caption Burn-In Tool

Burn subtitles into your video — upload an MP4 and an SRT or VTT file and download a video with open captions baked in.

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Add Captions to Video

Drop your video here or click to browse

MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV or AVI

Max: 1 video, 100MB, 5 minutes — sign up free for 200MB and 10 minutes
No subtitle file yet? Generate one with the Auto Subtitle Generator.

Open captions, burned in permanently.

Need to make the subtitle file first? Use Auto Subtitle Generator or Video Transcription. Messy SRT? Clean it with the SRT Validator. Need a smaller file afterwards? Try Compress Video to Size.

Captioned Video

Upload a video and a subtitle file, then download an MP4 with the captions baked in

About Caption Burn-In Tool

Open captions vs closed captions

Open captions are burned into the video frames — they are part of the picture, always visible, and cannot be switched off. Closed captions are stored as a separate track or sidecar file (like an SRT or VTT) that the viewer can toggle on and off. This tool produces open, burned-in captions.

Use burned-in captions when you need the words to show no matter where the video plays — social feeds, embedded players, downloads, kiosks, or any platform that ignores or strips separate caption tracks. Use closed captions (keep your SRT/VTT alongside the original) when the destination supports them, such as a dedicated video host where viewers expect a toggle. Many producers ship both: the soft file for platforms that read it, and a burned-in version for everywhere else.

The workflow: make the SRT, then burn it

  1. Get a subtitle file. If you already have an .srt or .vtt, you are ready. If not, generate one first with our Auto Subtitle Generator or Video Transcription tool, or write it by hand.
  2. Clean it up (optional). If the timing or numbering looks off, run it through our SRT Validator.
  3. Burn it in here. Upload the video and the subtitle file, choose a caption size, and download an MP4 with the captions baked in.

Supported inputs and output

Bring an SRT (SubRip) or WebVTT subtitle file and a video in MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM, MKV or AVI. The output is always an H.264/AAC MP4 — the format that plays everywhere — with the captions rendered into the picture.

Burned-in captions are permanent

Because the captions become part of the image, they cannot be edited or removed afterwards. Keep your original video file so you can re-caption it later if the script changes.

Why captions matter

About 85% of social video is watched on mute, so on-screen captions are what hold a silent viewer's attention. Captions also make your content accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and to anyone watching in a noisy or sound-sensitive environment — and burned-in captions guarantee that accessibility travels with the file wherever it goes.

How to use the Caption Burn-In Tool

  1. Choose your video, up to 100MB and 5 minutes signed out.

  2. Add the matching .srt or .vtt subtitle file and pick a caption size.

  3. Burn it and download the MP4 with the captions permanently in frame. No subtitle file yet? Make one with the Auto Subtitle Generator.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add subtitles to a video?

Upload your video and an .srt or .vtt subtitle file, choose a caption size, and click Add Captions. The tool re-encodes the video with the captions burned permanently into the picture and gives you back an MP4 to download — no software to install and no watermark.

What's the difference between burned-in and closed captions?

Burned-in (open) captions are rendered into the video frames, so they are always visible and cannot be turned off. Closed captions live in a separate track or file that the viewer can toggle. This tool produces open, burned-in captions — ideal for social platforms and anywhere a separate caption file might be ignored or stripped.

What subtitle formats can I use?

You can upload SRT (SubRip, .srt) or WebVTT (.vtt) subtitle files. The tool normalizes common quirks — BOM markers, Windows line endings, comma-or-dot millisecond separators and broken numbering — automatically before burning them in.

I don't have a subtitle file — what do I do?

Generate one first. Our Auto Subtitle Generator creates timed captions from any video, and Video Transcription turns a video into text you can export as SRT or VTT. Once you have the file, come back here to burn it in.

What's the maximum file size and length?

Without an account you can caption a video up to 100MB and 5 minutes. A free account raises that to 200MB and 10 minutes. Captioning runs while you wait, so these limits keep the encode fast.

Can I change the caption font size?

Yes. Choose Small, Medium or Large before you burn. All three render clean white captions with a black outline, centred near the bottom of the frame so they stay readable over any footage.

Auto Subtitle Generator No subtitle file yet? Generate timed SRT/VTT captions from any video with AI. Video Transcription Turn a video into text and export it as an SRT or VTT to burn in here. SRT Validator Clean up subtitle numbering, timing and overlaps before you burn them in.

More Transcription & Captions tools

Audio Transcription Transcribe audio to accurate text with word-level timestamps — export as TXT, SRT, VTT or JSON. Podcast Show Notes Generator Turn a podcast or video transcript into publish-ready show notes — summary, chapters, title ideas and a description.

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