How to
How to add subtitles in Premiere Pro.
Transcribe the sequence, create captions from the transcript, then choose burn-in or sidecar on export. Plus the part Premiere is genuinely bad at.
In Premiere Pro, open Window > Text, go to the Captions tab, transcribe the sequence, then use Create captions from transcript. On export, the Captions section offers burn-in, a sidecar subtitle file, or an embedded caption track.
Premiere’s captioning has been properly good since speech-to-text moved into the Text panel: you transcribe the sequence, turn the transcript into a caption track, and choose at export whether the captions are burned into the picture, written to a sidecar file, or embedded as a caption track.
It is the right tool when the video is already being cut in Premiere and the captions need to be broadcast-conventional. It is the wrong tool the moment you want captions that move — which is most of short-form.
Window › Text › Captions
The Text panel is where all of it lives. Make sure the sequence you want captioned is the active one in the Timeline before you start.
Transcribe the sequence
Run speech-to-text on the sequence, setting the spoken language first. Premiere transcribes what is on the timeline, not the source clip.
Create captions from transcript
This turns the transcript into an actual caption track with cue boundaries you can adjust — lines, timings and splits are all editable afterwards.
Choose the output at export
In Export, the Captions section offers burn-in, a sidecar file, or an embedded track. Burn-in is a render setting, not a caption-track setting.
The settings that decide whether it works
Premiere gives you a lot of control, which means a lot of places to leave a default in the wrong position.
- Language before transcription
- Set the spoken language in the transcribe dialog. Re-transcribing after the fact wastes the whole pass.
- The right sequence is active
- Premiere transcribes the active sequence. With several open it is easy to caption a version you are not exporting.
- Caption preset vs caption style
- Cue length and line count come from the caption preset; the look comes from the caption track’s style. They are separate, and people edit the wrong one.
- Burn-in lives in Export
- Burning captions in is chosen in the Captions section of the export settings. It is not a property of the caption track itself.
What Premiere will not do
Premiere’s captions are a broadcast caption system, and they are excellent at being one: two lines, conventional timing, standards-compliant sidecar files, a caption track a broadcaster will accept. If that is the deliverable, stop reading — Premiere is the correct answer.
What it does not do is per-word motion. Making the Hormozi look in Premiere means animating text layers by hand, one keyframe per word, and re-timing every one of them when the edit changes. It is achievable and it is why that job exists as a freelance category. The same is true of anything where the type is the composition rather than a line along the bottom.
The pragmatic split most editors land on: cut in Premiere, export the finished video, caption the short-form cuts here with word-level timing and 242 styles, and use Premiere’s own captions for the long-form deliverable that needs a compliant sidecar. The SRT download here imports straight back into Premiere if you would rather keep the caption track and just borrow the transcription.
How it works
Cut in Premiere as normal
Export the finished video without captions when the edit is locked.
Caption the short-form cuts here
Word-level timing, 242 styles, per-word colour and placement. The file is never uploaded.
Or take just the SRT
Free unlimited SRT downloads import straight back into Premiere as a caption track if you only want the transcription.
Common questions
How do I add subtitles in Premiere Pro?
Open Window > Text and go to the Captions tab with the correct sequence active in the Timeline. Transcribe the sequence, setting the spoken language first, then use Create captions from transcript to turn it into a caption track. Adjust cue timings and line breaks in the track, and choose burn-in, sidecar or embedded output in the Captions section of the export settings.
How do I burn captions into the video in Premiere?
Burn-in is chosen at export, not on the caption track. In the export settings, the Captions section offers burning captions into the picture, writing a sidecar subtitle file, or embedding a caption track. It is a render setting, which is why looking for it on the track itself is a common dead end.
Can Premiere do word-by-word animated captions?
Not without doing it by hand. Premiere’s caption system is a broadcast one — two lines, conventional timing, compliant sidecar files — and per-word motion means animating text layers with keyframes, then re-timing them whenever the edit changes. That is why the Hormozi-style caption pass exists as a freelance job at all.
Can I import an SRT into Premiere?
Yes — an SRT imports as a caption track. If you want the transcription and timing from here but would rather keep captioning inside Premiere, download the SRT (free and unlimited on every plan) and import it.
