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How to add automatic captions in Premiere Pro.

Typing captions by hand takes minutes even for one minute of speech. Premiere Pro offers a few ways to do it automatically; which one you choose depends on the spoken language and on how you want the captions to look.

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1. Premiere's own speech to text2. Importing an existing SRT file3. With Sylba: animated, and transcribed locallyWhich way should you choose?For readable captions

1. Premiere's own speech to text

Premiere Pro can transcribe speech and build a caption track from it.

  1. Open the Text panelWindow › Text.
  2. Transcribe the sequenceIn the Transcript tab, choose the spoken language and start the transcription.
  3. Create captionsIn the Captions tab choose Create captions from transcript; set line length and number of lines.
  4. Adjust the lookSelect the captions and change font, size and position in the Essential Graphics panel (Properties in recent versions).

This route works in the languages on Premiere's list. If your spoken language is not on it, use one of the two ways below.

2. Importing an existing SRT file

If you already have an .srt file, bring it in with File › Import and drag it onto the timeline; Premiere places it as a caption track. Timings come in as they are in the file, and you can fix the text in the Text panel.

3. With Sylba: animated, and transcribed locally

Sylba transcribes speech on your own computer; the video is not uploaded anywhere. It works in Turkish, English and other languages. The Captions section is free.

  1. Open the panelWindow › Extensions › Sylba, then Captions.
  2. Select your clip and generate captionsSpeech is transcribed word by word with timing.
  3. Choose your pathWord-by-word animated captions, SRT, or Dynamic Text for short-form video.
  4. Review, style, sendFix the text, pick one of 61 ready-made styles and send it to the timeline.

Which way should you choose?

If a plain caption is enough and your spoken language is on Premiere's list, the first way is ready to use. If you had the captions made in another tool, import the SRT. For word-by-word animation, emphasis, or a language Premiere does not list, the third way fits.

For readable captions

Keep at most two lines on screen and break lines where the meaning breaks. In vertical video, keep captions away from the bottom area covered by the Instagram and TikTok interface. A thin outline or shadow on light text keeps it readable on any background.

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Auto captionsFREE

Turn speech into captions inside Premiere Pro. Your video never leaves your computer, no watermark; translation into 27 languages and SRT included.

Learn more ›

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Try it in Premiere Pro.

Captions and Graphics are free. macOS and Windows.

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