Add Subtitles to Video Automatically

There are three ways to add subtitles to a video. Which one fits depends on how much time you have and where the video will be posted.

1. Use an automatic subtitle generator. A speech-to-text model listens to the audio, writes down every word with its timing and turns it into subtitle lines. You only check the text and choose how it looks. For anything with speech, this is the fastest way, and it’s what StoryCut does.

2. Write a subtitle file by hand. An SRT file is plain text: a number, a start and end time (for example 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,500), then the line of text, repeated for every subtitle. You can type one in any text editor and upload it next to the video on YouTube or any other platform that accepts subtitle files. It works, but timing every line by hand is slow: a few minutes of speech means dozens of lines.

3. Use the captions tool in a video editor or app. Desktop editors such as Adobe Premiere Pro and CapCut can turn speech into captions on their timeline, and TikTok and Instagram offer auto captions when you post. These are fine if you already edit in that tool. The trade-offs are a learning curve (editors) or a plain look that only exists on one platform (apps).

Burned-in subtitles (also called hardcoded or open captions) are drawn into the picture. They show on every platform and every phone, even with the sound off, and they can use any font, color and animation. Viewers can’t switch them off or change their language.

A subtitle file such as SRT (closed captions) sits next to the video. Viewers turn it on or off in the player, but it always looks like the player’s default subtitles, and it only works where the platform accepts subtitle files.

For TikTok, Reels and Shorts, burned-in subtitles are the usual choice. For YouTube videos, online courses and video players, uploading an SRT is common. StoryCut gives you both from the same project: export the styled MP4, then download the SRT from the editor menu.

StoryCut runs in your phone’s browser, so the steps are the same on an iPhone or an Android phone: open StoryCut, sign up, upload the video from your camera roll, check the subtitles and download the MP4 back to your phone. There is no app to install, and no native app either.

If the video is only going to TikTok or Instagram and plain captions are enough, their built-in caption tools are another option. Use StoryCut when you want styled subtitles that stay on the video wherever you post it, or an SRT file you can reuse.