CapCut auto captions on PC: what's free, what's Pro, and fixes

How do I add auto captions in CapCut on PC?

Put the clip on the timeline, open Text in the top menu bar, pick Auto captions in the sidebar, set the source language and click Create. That is the full path in CapCut's own subtitle guide for the desktop app on PC.

1. Open CapCut desktop and start a New Project.
2. Click Import and bring in your footage.
3. Drag the footage onto the timeline. Captions come from the clip on the timeline, so the clip with the voice on it has to be there, not just imported.
4. Go to the Text tab in the top menu bar.
5. Select Auto captions in the sidebar.
6. Set the source language of the audio. This is the language spoken in the clip. Translation is a separate step (see below).
7. Click Create.

Read the captions against the audio before you style them. Check names, brands and slang first. If you style first and correct later, you do the work twice.

If you cut pauses before you caption, our guide to AutoCut and removing silences in CapCut desktop covers that step. For the bold, word-by-word look, see Alex Hormozi style captions in Premiere and CapCut.

Are CapCut auto captions free, or do they need Pro?

CapCut's own pages don't settle it for desktop. We checked them on 3 November 2026. The CapCut Web caption page says the feature is free with no hidden costs. The desktop page offers a free download but shows no plan prices, no Pro price and no list of Pro-only tools.

So a search like "auto captions no longer free capcut" can't be answered either way from CapCut's published pages. We found no page saying desktop auto captions moved behind Pro. We also found none saying they are free on desktop. CapCut's menu links to a Pricing page, but its text wasn't part of what we could check.

What to do in practice:

• Run the steps above. If CapCut shows an upgrade prompt when you click Create, that prompt is the current answer for your account. The price it shows is the one that applies.
• If desktop asks you to pay, try the same clip in CapCut Online, where CapCut says the caption feature is free.
• If you'd rather caption outside CapCut, our roundup of auto caption generators covers other tools.

How do I export CapCut captions as an SRT file?

CapCut says its automatic subtitle generator can export a standalone SRT file, on desktop and online. Use it when the captions need to go to YouTube, a client or another editing app.

To export the video itself, CapCut gives these steps:

1. Click the blue Export button in the top right corner.
2. Adjust the title, resolution and codec.
3. Make sure Video exporting is checked.
4. Click Export again to save the file to your drive.

CapCut's guide confirms the separate SRT export. The page we checked doesn't say where that option sits in the export dialog.

An SRT is plain timed text: the words and their in and out times. It doesn't carry CapCut's fonts, boxes or animation, so plan to restyle in whatever app opens it. In After Effects on Windows, the mouzeclick workspace's Motion lab has an SRT importer with a Subtitle editor. Our guide to importing subtitles into After Effects covers the manual route as well.

Why are CapCut auto captions not working?

CapCut doesn't publish a troubleshooting list for auto captions on the pages we checked. So work through its own steps in order: your system, the clip, the source language, the plan prompt, then the export settings.

When nothing above helps

Send the details to CapCut. Its desktop page gives [email protected] for feedback. Include your system and version, the clip's spoken language, the source language you set and what happened after Create.

Then test whether the problem follows the clip or the computer. CapCut says projects in your Space can be opened from different devices. Try the same project on a second machine, or run the clip through CapCut Online in a browser.

Caption trouble on the Adobe side has its own causes. If you also edit in Premiere, see Premiere Pro captions not working.

Can CapCut translate auto captions into another language?

Yes. CapCut says generated captions can be translated automatically into another language. Make the captions in the spoken language first, check them, then translate. That way a mistake in the original doesn't get copied into the second language.

The pages we checked don't list the supported languages or language pairs for auto captions. Test your pair on a short clip before you commit a long edit.

How do auto captions work in CapCut Online?

CapCut Online runs in a web browser and needs no separate editor install. CapCut's caption page says the caption feature there is free. The flow matches desktop: upload, put the media on the timeline, generate captions, export.

1. Sign up or sign in and launch your workspace.
2. Upload media from the computer, Cloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, or by QR code.
3. Drag the media onto the editing timeline. Trim, crop or split clips as needed, then generate captions.
4. Set the file name and resolution. Advanced Settings holds quality, frame rate and format.
5. Hit Export to download the video or share it.

Two more points from CapCut's online editor page. Your work sits in a free cloud storage plan, which you can upgrade for larger files. CapCut also says the online editor lets you make a video without a watermark, for commercial or personal use.

Online is the quickest fallback when desktop shows a prompt you don't want to pay for. It also helps when your computer is below CapCut desktop's system floor.

Where mouzeclick fits (we make it)

mouzeclick doesn't write captions inside CapCut, and it has no CapCut panel. We make mouzeclick, so read this section as ours. In CapCut it handles the work around the captions: the clicks and keys you repeat while you fix and style them, put on the mouse you already own.

• Per-app buttons. It uses up to five standard buttons plus scroll and tilt. Each can do one thing in CapCut and another in your browser, and they switch the moment you change windows. Each button has eleven slots: tap, hold and move in four directions, a chord with another button, or hold and scroll.
• The Options wheel. Press F8 (or Ctrl + right click, or a side button) and up to 48 favourites for CapCut appear on three rings of 12, 16 and 20. A favourite can be a key, a macro, typed text or a launch. Recent betas add ready-made wheels for Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop and CapCut. A wheel you have already set up is never changed.
• Macros. Chain keys, clicks, waits and typed text. If you retype the same brand name or handle in every caption fix, let a macro type it.
• Shortcut library. The 309 built-in shortcuts, 23 of them for CapCut, are the Windows library. On a Mac, don't count on CapCut library entries. Record the CapCut shortcut you want as your own hotkey instead.

The Tool wheel works only in Premiere Pro and After Effects, so it isn't part of a CapCut setup.

Platforms, plainly: the mouse app, the wheels and gestures run on Windows 10 and 11 and on macOS 12 or newer. That macOS floor is higher than CapCut's own 10.14. Apple hasn't notarized the Mac app yet, so macOS asks you to allow it the first time; our Mac install guide has the four steps. mouzeclick needs an internet connection while it runs.

CapCut's own keys are on our CapCut keyboard shortcuts page, and the home page shows the three wheels. Everything is in one plan: $25 a month, $249 a year, or $499 once for one of the first 100 lifetime keys. It starts with a 3-day trial and no card (see pricing).

What changes if you move caption work to Premiere Pro?

In Premiere Pro, mouzeclick Studio's Captions tab makes captions on your computer, written by Whisper, the open speech model. It is Windows only. The Mac app doesn't include Studio captions, Retakes or the workspaces.

• Three models: Fast 60 MB, Accurate 190 MB and Best 574 MB, each downloaded once. After that, your audio never leaves the machine.
• 47 languages plus automatic detection, with Translate to English.
• Fix words before they land. Click a caption to jump to it and double-click to correct it. Unsure words are underlined. There is Replace all, and Remember this fix carries a correction into every new transcript.
• Output goes to Premiere's own caption track (Subtitles, Short, Social or Word by word), editable in Premiere. Or pick Styled on the video: 289 looks in 27 families, drawn as pictures timed to the words, so Premiere needs none of the fonts.
• Hinglish: Studio › Captions › Language › Hinglish (Roman letters), one spelling per word, with English words never changed. See Hinglish captions in Premiere Pro.
• Save as .srt.

Already have an SRT from CapCut? On Windows, the Premiere Pro workspace's Caption studio has Import SRT, plus a Subtitle Editor that writes a new .srt. The workspaces page lists every section.

Where CapCut is the better pick: you caption on a Mac, you already edit in CapCut, or you want free captions in a browser through CapCut Web. It also fits better if you need captions translated into a language other than English, because Studio captions offer Translate to English. For the full Adobe-side comparison, read auto captions in Premiere Pro, see every Studio tool in the Studio feature library, or weigh the editors in Premiere Pro vs CapCut.

Questions people ask

Sources

Checked on 2026-11-03. Prices and features change: each link goes to the maker's own page.

1. CapCut: desktop video editor (system requirements, free download, features, feedback email), checked 3 Nov 2026
2. CapCut: add subtitles to video (desktop steps, export, SRT, translation), checked 3 Nov 2026
3. CapCut: AI caption generator (CapCut Web captions free), checked 3 Nov 2026
4. CapCut: online video editor (steps, cloud storage, watermark, no install), checked 3 Nov 2026
5. CapCut home page (product line, "No credit card required"), checked 3 Nov 2026

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