Burned-in subtitles are drawn into the picture itself, so they show in every app, on every phone, with the sound off, exactly as you styled them. Burncaps listens to your video, lets you fix any word, and writes a new MP4 with animated word-by-word captions burned in. The video never leaves your browser.
Burn subtitles in, freeLive preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
A video file holds pictures and sound. Subtitles can travel with it in two different ways, and the difference decides where they show up.
| What matters | Burned-in (open) captions | Separate subtitle file (SRT, VTT) |
|---|---|---|
| Where the words live | In the pixels of every frame | In a text file or track beside the video |
| Shows up in | Every player and app, because it is part of the picture | Only players and sites that read subtitle files |
| Your style (font, colour, animation) | Exactly as designed | Whatever the player chooses |
| Viewer can turn it off | No | Yes |
| Can be edited later | Only by exporting again from the original | Yes, edit the text file |
So burn captions in when the video will be watched in apps and feeds, often with the sound off, and you want them to look the same everywhere. Keep a subtitle file when a site accepts one and viewers should be able to switch captions off. Burncaps gives you both from the same transcript.
An MP4 or MOV of up to ten minutes. It opens in your browser and nothing is uploaded. It starts listening at once, on your device, or on our speech service if you choose it, which receives only the sound.
The transcript opens as a script under the video. Click a word to correct it; one more click fixes every other time it appears, and the browser remembers the fix for next time.
Pick one of 20 animated styles and where the captions sit, then export. The video encoder built into your browser writes a new MP4 with the captions burned in, and the SRT, VTT or ASS file is there too, free.
Burncaps writes its own transcript from the sound; it does not load an existing subtitle file today. If your SRT is already right and you only need it in the picture, the free command-line tool FFmpeg can burn it in: ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf subtitles=subs.srt -c:a copy captioned.mp4. That encodes the picture again with the text drawn on, copies the sound unchanged, and uses a plain subtitle look rather than animated styles.
It means drawing the words into the picture itself, frame by frame, so they become part of the video. Burned-in captions show in every player and app with the sound off and look exactly as styled, but a viewer cannot switch them off and you change them by exporting again from the original.
Open burncaps.app, drop an MP4 or MOV of up to ten minutes, correct any word in the transcript, choose a caption style and export. Your first two videos are free with every feature; after that videos stay free with a small burncaps.app credit, or Pro removes it for $49 once. The video never leaves your browser.
Not in Burncaps today: it writes its own transcript from the sound. To burn an existing SRT into a video, the free tool FFmpeg does it with one command: ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vf subtitles=subs.srt -c:a copy captioned.mp4.
The picture has to be encoded again because the words are now part of it. Burncaps uses the video encoder built into your browser, and when it writes an MP4 of the whole video it copies the sound unchanged. Keep your original file, because burned-in words cannot be taken out later.
Burn them in when the video will play in feeds and apps, often muted, and you want one look everywhere. Upload a subtitle file where a site accepts one and viewers should be able to turn captions off. Burncaps exports both from the same transcript.
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or cuts it to its best 30 or 60 seconds.
Price: free with every feature, for as many videos as you like. The first two carry no mark; after that each carries a small burncaps.app credit, which Pro removes for $49 once. No subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound leaves only if you choose our speech service.
Files: MP4 or MOV up to ten minutes in; an MP4 with the captions burned in out. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 37 languages, 20 caption styles.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: twelve caption tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.