How to add subtitles in Clipchamp: automatic, free and editable

Subtitles are no longer a detail: many people watch video with the sound off, on the bus, at work, in line. Without subtitles, they scroll right past. The good news is that learning how to add subtitles in Clipchamp takes five minutes, because it generates them from the speech in your video, for free.

The steps are: import the video, turn on auto captions, pick the language, fix mistakes and adjust the style. Let's go through each one.

Before you start: the video needs speech

Clipchamp's auto captions recognize voice. A video with only music will not generate captions. If the audio is very quiet or noisy, the transcription makes more mistakes, so record in a quiet place, close to the phone.

How to add subtitles in Clipchamp, step by step

1. Import the video

Open Clipchamp, create a project and import your video with the import media button. Then drag the video onto the timeline.

2. Turn on auto captions

Click the captions icon on the video preview, or open the Captions tab in the property panel on the right and turn on auto captions.

3. Choose the language and transcribe

In the window that opens, choose the spoken language and, if you want, check the filter for offensive language. Click Transcribe media. In a short while, the captions appear on the video, and the full transcript shows up in the Captions tab, with the timing of each segment.

4. Fix the mistakes

No automatic transcription is perfect. Names, brands and slang often come out wrong. In the Captions tab, double-click a word to rewrite it. Read everything once before exporting: subtitles with typos look careless.

How to make subtitles look good

Click the caption text on the preview to open the formatting options:

• Font: choose a readable one. You can even upload your brand font.
• Color: white is the recommended color for readability, ideally with an outline or shadow so it does not disappear on light backgrounds.
• Position: choose where the captions sit. On vertical videos for Reels, avoid the very bottom, where the profile name and description appear.
• Fine-tuning: line height, letter spacing, outline and shadow.

Download the subtitles as a file

If you publish on YouTube, you can download the transcript as an SRT file with the download button in the Captions tab and upload it with the video. YouTube then shows the subtitles as a player option, and the text also helps people find the video in search.

How to hide or remove subtitles

The Captions tab has two options: hide captions on the video, which keeps the transcript but does not show it on screen, and turn off auto captions, which removes everything.

If the subtitles do not appear

• Reload the Clipchamp browser tab, or close and reopen the app.
• Remove the video from the timeline, add it again and try once more.
• If the original file is not MP4, export the project without captions, import the resulting MP4 and try captioning that new version.
• Check whether a browser extension or firewall is blocking the connection.

Subtitles are just the beginning

With subtitles sorted, the next step is giving your video rhythm: cuts, music, transitions and a strong opening. If you are unsure what the program offers without paying, see whether Clipchamp is free. And in the Clipchamp course I show all of this in practice, from cutting to exporting, including AI voiceover and AI video creation. The lessons are in Portuguese, with automatic Portuguese captions, so watch the free preview first.

Frequently asked questions