How to add captions in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro, now called simply Adobe Premiere, can transcribe your sequence and turn it into captions, with no extra purchase on top of your subscription. Here's how to use it, how to style the result, and how to add animated, word-by-word captions it can't make on its own.

Can Premiere Pro add captions automatically?

Yes. Speech to Text is included in a Premiere subscription and transcribes 18 languages. Once a language pack is installed it works offline; English is built in.

Generate captions with Speech to Text

1. Open your sequence and go to the Text panel.
2. Click Transcribe Sequence, choose the language that's spoken, and start the transcription.
3. When the transcript appears, click Create Captions. In the caption preferences, set how long each caption is; under Layout, Single Word shows one word at a time.
4. The captions appear on a caption track above your video. Read through them in the Captions tab of the Text panel and correct any mistakes.

If you already have a caption file, Premiere can import SRT, SCC, MCC, STL and DFXP files instead.

Edit and style your captions

• Select captions on the caption track and change the font, size, colour and alignment in the Properties panel. Select several captions to style them together.
• Split or merge captions in the Captions tab to change where the lines break.
• To animate captions, you'd have to turn them into graphics and keyframe them by hand.

What Premiere doesn't do, as of 26.5, is highlight each word as it's spoken, or animate words in karaoke style. For that, bring in captions from Easy Caption Pro.

Animated, word-by-word captions with Easy Caption Pro

We make Easy Caption Pro, a Mac app that turns speech into captions on your Mac, in 99 languages, and gives you 280+ ready-made looks, from word-by-word highlights to 3D captions. You bring them into Premiere as a transparent clip above your video.

Make the captions

1. Open your clip in Easy Caption Pro and click Transcribe All.
2. Fix any word in the Script Editor or on the timeline, and choose a look in Presets.
3. In the Export menu, set Resolution to Match Source.
4. Choose Export Captions Only › Transparent (ProRes 4444).

Put them on your video in Premiere

1. Choose File › Import (Command-I) and import the captions file.
2. Turn on snapping (S) and put the playhead on the first frame of the clip you captioned. The Up and Down Arrow keys jump between edits.
3. Open the captions file in the Source Monitor and drag its Drag Video Only icon onto the track above your clip (V2), so its start meets the playhead. The file carries a copy of the clip's sound, and this leaves it out.
4. Play it back: the captions sit over your video. To keep the two together, select both and choose Clip › Group.

Or caption the finished video

The simplest route is to finish your edit first. Choose File › Export › Media (Command-M), export an H.264 or ProRes file that matches your sequence, open it in Easy Caption Pro, caption it, and click Export with Captions. You get a finished video, ready to post, and Safe Zones in Easy Caption Pro shows TikTok's, Instagram's and YouTube's buttons over your video while you place the captions.

Export with captions burned in

• Premiere's captions: in the export settings, you can burn the captions into the video or export them as a separate file. Burn them in for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, where viewers can't switch captions on.
• Easy Caption Pro captions: they're part of the picture, so they export like any other clip.

Troubleshooting

Transcribe Sequence is greyed out or won't start

Check that the sequence has audio and that the language you chose has its language pack installed. English is built in; other languages download once.

The captions come out in the wrong language

Choose the spoken language before transcribing. If your language isn't among Premiere's 18, Easy Caption Pro transcribes 99.

The captions aren't in the exported video

Captions only appear in the picture if you burn them in when exporting. Otherwise they're a separate track that players can switch on.

The sound is doubled or echoey

The captions file's audio was added with it. Select its audio clip in the timeline and delete it.

FAQ

Is Premiere's Speech to Text free?

It's included in a Premiere subscription at no extra cost. Premiere itself is a subscription.

Can Premiere Pro highlight words as they're spoken?

Not as of version 26.5. It can show one word at a time with Single Word captions. For word-by-word highlights, use Easy Caption Pro's captions as an overlay.

Is Premiere Pro the same as Adobe Premiere?

Yes. Adobe renamed Premiere Pro to Adobe Premiere in January 2026. It's the same app.

Will the captions keep their transparent background?

Yes. Premiere reads ProRes 4444 with its transparency.