YouTube Shorts
Auto captions for YouTube Shorts that keep people watching.
Burned-in captions with word-perfect timing — or SRT/VTT files if you’d rather use YouTube’s own player captions.
To add captions to a YouTube Short automatically, run the video through a caption generator that transcribes the audio and burns the styled text into the picture before you upload. LumaCaption does this without uploading your video file, and can also hand you an SRT for YouTube’s own caption track from the same transcript.
Shorts live or die on retention, and the Shorts shelf autoplays with sound that viewers often never turn on. On-screen captions keep the story readable from the first frame — and unlike YouTube’s CC toggle, burned-in captions can’t be switched off or drawn in a style you didn’t choose.
LumaCaption writes and times your captions automatically, then renders them into the video in a look you pick from 240+ styles. Prefer YouTube’s native captions for search indexing? Export a clean SRT or VTT file from the same transcript — both options come from one upload.
Burned-in or SRT — your call
Render styled captions into the video for Shorts, or download SRT/VTT/TXT for YouTube’s caption track. Both are included, even on free.
Retention-first timing
Word-by-word display keeps reading pace locked to speaking pace, so viewers stay in sync with your delivery.
Beyond Shorts
Paid plans caption videos up to 90 minutes — full YouTube videos, podcasts and webinars, not just clips.
4K export
Creator and Pro plans export up to 4K, so captioning never costs you resolution on a big screen.
YouTube’s automatic captions vs burned-in captions
YouTube generates automatic captions for Shorts on its own, and for accessibility that is genuinely useful — they are searchable, translatable and free. They are also off by default for most viewers, drawn in YouTube’s own style, positioned where YouTube decides, and absent entirely from the first moments while the player works them out. As a retention device on a silent autoplay feed, they do nothing.
Burned-in captions are the opposite trade. They cannot be switched off, they appear on frame one, they look like your channel rather than like YouTube, and they survive being reposted to Reels or TikTok. What they cannot do is get indexed — YouTube reads a caption track, not pixels.
The reason to do both is that they are not competing. Burn the styled captions in for the viewer, and attach the SRT for the algorithm and for anyone who needs a real caption track.
Where to put captions so the Shorts UI does not cover them
This is the mistake that costs the most and gets noticed the least, because it is invisible in every editor and obvious on a phone. The Shorts player stacks the title, the channel name and the description over the bottom of the frame, and the like, comment, share and sound controls run up the right-hand side. Captions placed at the classic subtitle position — bottom centre — sit directly underneath that stack.
Keep captions inside the middle band of the frame, roughly between 20% and 65% of the height, and clear of the right-hand column. LumaCaption lets you drag the caption block anywhere and shows the preview at the real aspect ratio, so you can check it against where the UI will land before you commit to a burned-in export.
Getting it right the first time
A burned-in caption is permanent, and re-uploading a Short means losing whatever views it already had. Three checks before export are worth more than any amount of fixing afterwards.
- Read the proper nouns
- Transcription gets ordinary words right and names wrong. Scan for people, brands and product names — everything else can usually stand.
- Watch it muted on a phone
- Not on the laptop you edited on. Caption size that reads comfortably at desk distance is often too small at arm’s length.
- Check the busiest frame
- Judge contrast on the brightest, most cluttered shot in the clip rather than the opening one.
Two ways to caption a Short
| Burned-in (LumaCaption) | YouTube auto-captions | |
|---|---|---|
| Visible by default | Yes, from frame one | No — viewer must switch CC on |
| Styling and animation | 242 styles, word-level timing | YouTube’s default only |
| Indexed by YouTube search | No | Yes |
| Survives repost to Reels or TikTok | Yes | No |
| You control position | Yes | No |
Both come out of one transcript here — export the burned-in MP4 and download the SRT to attach in YouTube Studio.
How it works
Upload your Short
Or a full-length video — the same flow captions both.
Review the transcript
Every word is editable and retimable. Star a word to make it the highlighted one on its line.
Export video or subtitles
Burned-in MP4 for Shorts, or SRT/VTT to upload alongside a regular video. Re-export in another style free.
Common questions
Burned-in captions or YouTube’s CC — which should I use?
For Shorts: burned-in. They’re always visible, styled to stop the scroll, and they survive reposting to Reels and TikTok. For long-form videos, many creators do both — burned-in for the hook, plus an SRT upload so YouTube can index every word for search.
Can I get just the subtitle file?
Yes. SRT, VTT and TXT downloads are included on every plan, including free.
How accurate is the transcription?
Strong on clear speech in English, Hindi and Hinglish — the three languages offered, each tuned rather than inherited — and Candy Ultra sharpens it further. Every word stays editable, so the occasional miss is a two-second fix, not a re-run.
What does it cost?
The free plan includes Candy Lite captions (up to 20 min/mo) plus 5 minutes of premium Candy Ultra, all styles unlocked, and free unlimited exports with no watermark. Paid plans start at ₹166/month billed annually — they add hours of Candy Ultra, far more Lite, 4K and longer videos.
