You put a lot of work into creating and editing your YouTube videos, so of course you want as many people as possible to watch them. 

But once you’ve perfected your video content, how else can you get eyes on your YouTube channel? One is incredibly simple: adding subtitles and captions.

Subtitles and captions let you share your videos with a bigger audience, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing, viewers who speak a different language, and people who would just rather not turn on the sound. They also make for more engaging social media sharing, since many platforms keep videos silent until users click on them.

This guide describes four ways to include captions and subtitles in your YouTube video content.

Why add subtitles and captions to your YouTube videos?

Before getting into the tutorial, let’s cover the purpose behind captions. Why even bother taking the extra time to add subtitles and captions to your videos? Do closed captions really make that big of a difference?

The short answer is yes, they absolutely can. Here are four reasons why.

Improved SEO

Captions and subtitles let more people digest your video content. When more people watch for longer periods of time, it improves view time metrics, which leads the YouTube algorithm to put your video in front of more people.

Plus, when more people understand your content, it leads to more shares, likes, and comments. And, as you may have guessed, YouTube uses those engagement metrics to rank your videos in its search engine and on Google.

Enhanced user engagement and experience

Captions are also important for improving the overall user experience. A 2019 Verizon report discovered:

• 92% of U.S. consumers watch videos without sound on mobile
• 83% watch without sound overall
• 50% said captions are important
• 29% said captions helped them better understand the video

In general, what we can learn from these responses is that captions are key for enhancing the user experience. So many people are watching video content on the go—on public transportation, at coffee shops, or even at home when kids or other family members are sleeping.

Make sure those people can still watch and enjoy your content by incorporating video subtitles.

Increased reach

Reach an even wider audience by adding captions to your videos—even retroactively. One company tested this out by going back and adding subtitles to old video content. After adding captions, the team discovered that their newly captioned videos generated 7.32% more reach than before.

Better accessibility

As noted, you can make your video content more accessible by enabling captions and ensuring they're accurate. That way, everyone, no matter who they are, has a comfortable viewing experience. 

Around 48 million Americans have some type of hearing loss. That is not a small number. Making it easy for them to enjoy your video content just like everyone else helps you reach more people and builds trust.

4 ways to add subtitles to YouTube videos

You can add subtitles to YouTube videos in four ways—three ways as the video publisher and one as the video viewer. We will walk you through each option so you can find the right method for your video creation process.

How to add subtitles to YouTube videos with Descript’s auto-captions

Normally, captioning a video is challenging and time-consuming. But not with Descript. Our video caption generator offers the perfect shortcut for creators.

Watch the video below or use the step-by-step written tutorial to caption your YouTube video.

Step 1: Import your video into Descript

Well, the very first step is to create an account with Descript if you haven’t yet. What a silly thing to say, of course you have.

Then, open up a new project and import your video into Descript so you can get started.

Step 2: Edit your video

Before adding captions, take advantage of Descript’s YouTube video editing features. After loading your video, Descript will automatically transcribe it in seconds. Your screen will look something like this:

Review the transcript. Correct any misspellings and remove filler words. If you skip that, words like 'uh' and 'um' will show up in your captions, which isn't a great look for recorded video.

Those are the basics as they relate to captions and subtitles. But Descript’s editing features don’t stop there. You can also:

• Add a background to your video with an AI green screen.
• Make an AI clone of your voice and add extra dialogue.
• Add royalty-free music and sound effects to your video. 
• Apply transitions to your clips.
• Remove background noise and enhance your voice with Studio Sound.

💻 Want to learn more? Check out our full video editing tutorial.

Step 3: Generate your captions

Once your video is edited, it’s time to add your captions. 

From here, you get to make a decision:

• Do you want your captions to appear embedded in your video file?
• Or do you want your subtitles to be optional for your YouTube viewers?

Using Descript, you can make videos with hard captions, where you select a style to ensure that your captions are seamlessly integrated into the video design and remain visible. This is particularly useful for YouTube Shorts videos.

To do that, start by selecting the portion of your video that requires captions. In many cases, it’ll be the whole video. So, just highlight all the text in your transcript.

Then, select the + icon in your Selection Toolbar and select Captions. 

From here, you can customize the captions to fit your brand and style. In the Canvas, you can position captions wherever you want. You can also change how many words are on screen at once by resizing the boundary. 

There are more customization options in your sidebar. In the text panel, you can select your font, style, size, alignment, and casing. If you have custom fonts, you can add those too. 

Step 4: Publish your video

Now your video is ready to publish. Head to the Publish tab in your dashboard and select YouTube from the dropdown menu. Customize your video settings, like Title, Description, Category, and Tags, then hit Publish.

📹 Producing TikTok videos that need subtitles too? Learn how to add captions to TikTok videos. 

How to add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically in YouTube Studio

The next way to add subtitles to your YouTube video is through YouTube’s automatic captions feature. If you choose this, YouTube will generate automatic subtitles using its speech recognition technology.

Follow these steps to auto-generate your YouTube captions.

Step 1: Upload your video

Start by uploading a video to your YouTube channel as you normally would—by heading to YouTube Studio and clicking the Create button in the top right corner.

Upload your video, insert a title and description, select your video’s language, and select Next. On the next page, you’ll have the option to Add Subtitles. 

If you have a polished transcript you want to use in Descript, scroll down to the instructions about how to add subtitles manually. But if you want to use the auto-generated captions, you’ll want to just click Next in the bottom left corner of the popup.

Continue through all of the screens until you’re back in the Creator Studio dashboard. 

Step 2: Edit your video captions

Next, click Content in the left sidebar, then hover over your video until you can click on the pencil edit icon by your video thumbnail. Then, head to Subtitles in the left sidebar.

You should see “[Language] (automatic captions)” as an option in the list, like so:

It may take a while for these captions to process. Once they're done, you can hover over it to access the pencil icon so you can edit them.

If you use the auto-generate option, don't expect your captions to be perfect. YouTube will always auto-generate captions so that users can turn them on, but you have to guarantee they're accurate.

Also, you can tap Add Language to auto-translate your video into different foreign languages, so viewers who don't speak English can still watch your video with subtitles in their native tongue.

Step 3: Publish your video

Once you’ve ensured your captions are 100% accurate, publish your video. Be sure to run through our publishing checklist to make sure you’ve hit all the important parts—title, description, tags, SEO, thumbnail, and everything else involved in publishing a video that ranks.

How to add subtitles to YouTube videos manually

If you prefer full control over your YouTube captions, you can add them manually. Because auto-generated and manually added captions will need editing, it might take you the same amount time.

Follow these steps to add your subtitles manually.

Step 1: Decide how to transcribe your video

There are a couple of ways to manually capture your subtitles:

• Use a transcription tool like Descript
• Manually type the captions as you watch the video

Do your research to find the best transcription software for your needs or your budget. Import your video into the transcription tool, then either copy the output or download your caption file.

If you plan to type your transcription out yourself manually, YouTube will provide you with the option to do that as you upload your video to move on to the next step.

Step 2: Upload your video

Next, follow the steps outlined in the last method for uploading your video. Head to YouTube Studio, click the Create button, and select the new video you plan to publish.

Fill out all the necessary information, and choose a language from the Video language dropdown menu. If you don’t take this step, you won’t be able to add new subtitles on the next screen. If you’re new to uploading content, you can find this dropdown under the Show more section in the first Details screen after you upload your video.

Once you’ve added your details, click Next in the bottom right corner of the popup to move to the next step.

Step 3: Add your subtitles

The next button takes you to the Video elements screen. Select Add subtitles from the options available to you. (This will be grayed out if you haven’t selected a language, but you can easily go back to the Details screen to do that.)

After you click Add, you’ll be taken to the subtitles dashboard. From here, you can choose between three options:

If you choose Upload file, you can upload a file in one of the supported formats. One of the more popular subtitle file formats is the SRT file, which is essentially a plain text document that helps YouTube place the correct text at the correct timestamp.

To use your Descript transcript, go to Descript and hit Publish, then Export, then Subtitles, then upload the SRT file to YouTube. 

You can also choose Auto-sync to paste a transcription in and have YouTube automatically line up each line of text with the right timestamp.

Select Type manually if you plan to type out your subtitles right inside the YouTube editor. You’ll also need to align them with the video’s timing to make sure the captions appear at the right times.

Once you’re finished, click Done in the top right corner.

Step 4: Publish your video

Go through each of the remaining steps to fully publish your video or schedule your video to go live at the best time for you.

💻 Learn: YouTube video size: Tips to hit the perfect aspect ratio, resolution, and dimensions

How to add captions on YouTube videos as a viewer

YouTube no longer automatically shows captions for its long-form videos. But the platform does make sure they’re always accessible to those who need them.

This is why it’s so important to make adding subtitles an essential step in your publishing process—YouTube will offer them anyway for those who want them. If you haven’t made sure your captions perfectly match your video audio, people may not want to watch your content.

If you’re watching a video and want the captions turned on, simply click the CC icon in the bottom bar of the video, as seen below:

As soon as you click that, captions will appear. It’s as simple as that!

Thousands of creators use Descript’s video editing software to grow their YouTube channel. Want to join them? Take a free tour today. 

How to add captions to YouTube videos FAQs

How do I add subtitles to a YouTube video that is not mine?

Click the CC icon in the video bar at the bottom of a YouTube video to turn on closed captioning for a video that you’re watching.

What is the best tool to add subtitles to YouTube videos?

Descript is one of the best tools for adding subtitles to YouTube videos. Its caption generator makes it quick and easy to add subtitles into your video or as closed captions. Automatically transcribe your video and easily make any necessary adjustment before publishing to YouTube.

What tools does Descript have for YouTube creators?

Descript has a number of tools that YouTube video creators can take advantage of:

• Caption generator
• Video editor
• Video templates
• AI YouTube description writer
• Video script generator
• Green screen effect
• AI Eye Contact correction