Free auto caption apps, compared

Every free plan at a glance

Cuecaps: Unlimited on-device transcription, 10 cloud minutes/mo, unlimited 1080p MP4 (small watermark) and free SRT/VTT export. The video is rendered in your browser and never uploaded.

• CapCut: Watermark on some exports; free accounts hit an unpublished usage cap on auto captions (per 2026 third-party testing).
• Submagic: 3 videos a month with a watermark, up to 1 min 30 s and 200 MB each.
• Kapwing: Watermark, exports up to 4 minutes at 720p, 10 minutes of auto-subtitling.
• Descript: Watermark, 720p export, 60 media minutes a month.
• OpusClip: Watermark, up to 1080p, no editing, clips exportable for 3 days.
• Captions: Free version with 1 caption template (100+ on paid plans).
• AnimateCaptions: No watermark, clips up to 2 minutes, MP4 or MOV up to 500 MB.
• CueSprint: No sign-up, no watermark; MP4, MOV or WebM up to 3 minutes.

Competitor details as published or reported, checked 26 October 2026 and 29 October 2026. Each one has its own side-by-side page with sources.

Captions built into the apps you post to

• TikTok: the Captions button in the editor transcribes your speech, and you can correct the words before posting. They sit on a separate track that each viewer can switch off.
• Instagram: Reels can get automatic captions while you post, and Meta's Edits app adds captions as part of its editor.
• YouTube: automatic captions appear on uploads in many languages, and viewers turn them on with the CC button.

These cost nothing and carry no watermark. What they can't do is follow the video: a clip you post to TikTok, Reels and Shorts gets three different caption looks, or none on the platforms that don't caption it. The style is fixed too, so no word-by-word highlight in your colors.

Free word-by-word captions with Cuecaps

1. Open the studio in any browser, on a computer, a Chromebook or a phone. No account is needed to start.
2. Add the video and click Find words. On-device transcription is free and unlimited; a free account adds 10 cloud minutes a month for 90+ languages.
3. Pick one of the ten styles, from Bold and Karaoke to Typewriter and Glow, and fix any word by clicking it.
4. Export an MP4 up to 1080p with a small "Made with cuecaps.com" mark, or an SRT or VTT file, which never carries a mark.

Creator, at €9 a month, removes the mark and adds the transparent overlay for Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and CapCut.

Which one to pick

• Posting to one app only: its built-in captions are free and good enough for speech.
• Posting the same clip everywhere: burn the captions in, so every platform shows the same words.
• Several videos a week: look at the limits first, since a cap of a few videos or minutes a month runs out fast.
• Privacy matters: Cuecaps renders in your browser, and most cloud tools need the whole video uploaded.

Questions