Canva auto captions: how to add them, and free animated captions for the same video
In Canva, select your video, go to Text, then Dynamic text, then Captions; choose a style pack and select Generate captions. That is Canva's own route, from its help centre read on 8 November 2026, and its edits, animations and languages are below. For captions lit word by word as they are said, with any word corrected once for every time it was heard, download the video from Canva as an MP4 and drop it here: Burncaps burns the captions in, free, and the video never leaves your browser. Canva is another company; this page is written by Burncaps.
- Free, no sign-up
- No watermark
- Video never uploaded
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
How to add captions in Canva
Canva's help calls these Editable Captions. They work on a video design, a social media design or an audio file (M4A, MP3, OGG, WAV or WEBM) that contains speech. On a computer, its help says to wait until the video has fully uploaded to Canva before you generate captions; on a phone, it says only the sound is processed.
Generate captions
- In the editor, go to Text, then under Dynamic text select Captions. Or select the video and choose Captions in the toolbar, or search Apps for Captions.
- Choose a caption style pack.
- Optional: under Apply captions to, deselect any video or audio you want left out.
- Optional: under Translate captions into, choose a language.
- Optional: select Edit beside Automatically detect spoken language and choose the language spoken. Canva's help says this can make the captions more accurate.
- Select Generate captions. Canva adds them to the video timeline.
Download the video with its captions
Canva's help says the captions download with the design when you export it as an MP4 video, and are not kept in image or PDF downloads.
Edit the words and timing
Captions sit as their own layer on the timeline. Select a caption and type to change it, or open the Captions panel and edit a line there. Drag a caption's start and end edges to change how long it stays on screen.
Style packs
More than 20 style packs set the font, colour and animation at once; select any caption, open Captions, then Styles. Canva's help says the style packs are offered in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian and German, and that packs which do not match a Brand Kit may be hidden.
Animations
Select a caption, then Animate, and choose Reveal, Highlight or Snake under Captions. Canva's help says this animation feature is being rolled out gradually, so not every account has it yet.
Two kinds of captions in Canva
Canva also has view-only captions, turned on under Accessibility or with Show view-only captions. Its help says those are a different feature: they show only inside Canva, cannot be downloaded and cannot be edited. The steps above are for Editable Captions, the ones that go out with an MP4. All of it is from Canva's help centre, Generate and animate captions in Canva, Edit and manage video captions and Enable accessibility or view-only captions, read on 8 November 2026. Canva changes its editor often; if a button has moved, its help is the authority. None of those pages says which Canva plans include captions.
Canva's caption languages, beside ours
Canva's help lists 57 languages for its captions. Burncaps writes captions in 59 spoken languages. Most are the same; these are the differences, name by name.
| Which list | Languages |
|---|---|
| In Burncaps, not in Canva's list | Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Sinhala, Telugu |
| In Canva's list, not in Burncaps | Belarusian, Croatian, Maori, Serbian, Welsh |
| In both | The other 52, English, Hindi, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and Japanese among them |
Canva's list as its caption help page states it on 8 November 2026; ours from the editor's own language menu the same day. Twelve Indian languages can also be heard on your own device in Burncaps, so the sound stays on it.
Free animated captions for a Canva video
Make the video in Canva, then caption it here. The captions are drawn into the picture, so they show on every app you post to.
- In Canva, download the design as an MP4 video, without Canva's captions if you want these instead.
- Drop the MP4 in the box at the top of this page, or tap it on a phone and choose the file. It is read in your browser and never uploaded.
- Burncaps listens and shows the script under the video. Click any word to correct it: one click changes every other time it was heard, and the browser remembers the fix for next time.
- Pick one of 60 caption styles and set the size, position and colours.
- Export the MP4 with the captions burned in, and an SRT or VTT file if you want one too. Post it, or upload it back into Canva.
The whole video keeps every second, up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB. Under More, Shape turns it to Vertical 9:16, Square 1:1 or Portrait 4:5 if you made it another shape.
When Canva's own captions are enough
If the video is still being edited in Canva and one of its style packs suits it, keep the captions there: it is one step less. Use Burncaps when you want the words lit one by one as they are said, a script you correct once for the whole video, an SRT or VTT file with the times, or a video that is never uploaded anywhere.
Canva, not Canvas
Canvas, the learning platform schools use, is a different product from Canva. This page is about Canva, the design app.
What it costs
Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Pro free for 7 days, no card. Pro is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Starter is $9.98 a month or $49 once.
Questions, answered plainly
Does Canva have auto captions?
Yes. Canva's help calls them Editable Captions: in the editor, go to Text, then Dynamic text, then Captions, choose a style pack and select Generate captions, and Canva writes the captions from the speech and adds them to the video timeline. Read on Canva's help centre on 8 November 2026.
How do I add captions to a video in Canva?
Select the video, go to Text, then Dynamic text, then Captions (or Captions in the toolbar), choose a style pack, optionally choose the spoken language and a translation, and select Generate captions. Canva's help says the design must be a video, a social media design or an audio file with speech, and on a computer the video must finish uploading first.
Can I edit captions in Canva?
Yes, for Editable Captions: select a caption and type, or edit a line in the Captions panel, and drag a caption's start and end edges on the timeline to change its timing. Canva's help says its view-only captions, turned on under Accessibility, are a different feature and cannot be edited.
Can I download a Canva video with captions?
Canva's help says Editable Captions download with the design when you export it as an MP4 video, and are not kept in image or PDF downloads. Its view-only captions cannot be downloaded.
Which languages does Canva caption?
Canva's caption help lists 57 languages, from Afrikaans to Welsh, read on 8 November 2026. Burncaps writes captions in 59 spoken languages; it has Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Odia, Punjabi, Sinhala and Telugu, which Canva's list does not name, and Canva's list has Belarusian, Croatian, Maori, Serbian and Welsh, which Burncaps does not.
Is there a free way to add animated captions to a Canva video?
Yes: download the video from Canva as an MP4 and drop it on Burncaps. It writes animated word-by-word captions, with 60 styles to choose from, lets you correct any word once for every time it was heard, and exports the MP4 with the captions burned in. Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. The video is read in your browser and never uploaded.
Burncaps facts, checked 8 November 2026
What it is: a browser tool that burns animated word-by-word captions into a talking video, or finds the best moments of a talk, podcast or interview and gives them back as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips.
Price: free for 2 videos every 30 days, each one recording with its captioned video and up to 3 clips, no mark and no sign-up; then the free 7-day Pro trial, no card (your email only); then Pro, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Starter, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Starter paid once is not a subscription.
Privacy: the video never leaves your browser. The sound goes only to our speech service, on a phone unless you switch it off, on a computer only if you choose it. Because the video never reaches us, we cannot keep it or train AI on it, and we train no AI on anything you make.
Files: MP4 or MOV in, MP4 out. Captions on the whole video: up to ten minutes. Clips: up to three hours, on a phone or a computer. SRT, VTT, ASS and text files are free without limit for recordings up to ten minutes; a longer recording, up to three hours, gives its script and those files (the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos, in the trial or with Pro or Starter) and its clips (every one found and shown before you sign up; up to 3 from each free video exported free, every one in the trial or with Pro).
Clips: about one clip for every two minutes of talk, up to 30, ranked, the ones we would post first circled, each showing the words it opens and ends on and the reason it was chosen; each cut to 9:16 with ums and dead air removed, an opening card and captions, framed on whoever is talking. Every clip of the whole recording is found and shown, free and with no sign-up; each free video exports up to 3 of them, and the 7-day trial and Pro export every clip, unlimited.
Languages and styles: captions in the language spoken, twelve Indian languages heard on your device, translation into 59 languages, 60 caption styles.
After it listens: correct any word (one click changes it everywhere), add or cut words, one to six words at a time, position, size, text and highlight colours, and names this browser remembers, all free and without listening again.
Made by: Jordan Labs Ltd, UK company no. 17358646.
Against other tools: sixteen caption tools compared, from the vendors' own pages.