Edit a Zoom recording: captions and short clips, free
Burncaps makes two edits to a Zoom recording, in your browser, without uploading the video. Up to ten minutes, it burns word-by-word captions into the whole recording, every second kept, and can change its shape. Up to three hours, it finds the moments worth posting and cuts each into a captioned clip of up to 3 minutes, with ums and stutters cut and long pauses shortened. It is not a timeline editor: it does not trim the whole recording or cut a section out of its middle. Free for 2 videos every 30 days, with no watermark and no sign-up.
The video never leaves your browser. On a computer, the sound is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; on a phone, it goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone. The service gets short pieces of sound, never the picture.
- Video never uploaded
- Free, no sign-up
- No watermark
- Up to three hours
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
What Burncaps does with a Zoom recording
What you get depends on the file and its length. Zoom saves a recording either on your computer or in Zoom's cloud; getting a transcript from a Zoom recording says where each file is and which one has the picture.
| The file | Whole video | Clips |
|---|---|---|
| The MP4, up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB | Every second kept, with captions burned in (60 styles, or No captions), the shape changed if you like (Vertical 9:16, Portrait 4:5 or Square 1:1) and the room behind you blurred or replaced | Its best moments, each a captioned clip of up to 3 minutes |
| The MP4, over ten minutes and up to three hours and 10 GB | Its script and its SRT, VTT, ASS and text files, with no captions burned into the whole recording: the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos | It opens on its clips: every one found and shown, ranked, each up to 3 minutes; each free video exports up to 3 of them |
| The audio-only M4A | Its script and subtitle files only | None: clips and burned-in captions need the picture, so use the MP4 |
What an edit in Burncaps is, and what it is not
What you can change
The words of the captions (click a word to correct it, and one click changes it everywhere it was heard), the caption style, size and place, the shape of the frame and the background. In a clip, you also choose which words stay: ums and stutters are cut for you, and a click on any word keeps or cuts it.
A clip's start and end
Drag a clip's start and end to any word of the recording, up to 3 minutes apart. Choose an opening title or none, and a Layout for a call: Fill follows whoever is talking, Split shows two people one above the other, and Fit keeps the whole picture, slides included.
What it is not
Not a timeline editor. The whole video has no start and end to drag, and nothing can be cut out of its middle: it keeps every second and its sound as recorded. There are no transitions, music, extra tracks or joined recordings, and the script does not name who is speaking.
A call with two people in two windows, or a webinar with slides and a small camera tile, is framed shot by shot in each clip: clips for coaches shows what the frame does on each kind of call.
Zoom's own trim, for a cloud recording
To cut the start and end off a recording kept in Zoom's cloud, Zoom has its own trim. This is what Zoom's help says, read on 3 November 2026:
| What Zoom's help says | Trimming a cloud recording |
|---|---|
| Where | In the Zoom web portal: Recording, the Cloud recordings tab, the recording, then the scissor icon; the sliders set the start and end, and more trim sections can be added |
| What it needs | Cloud recording enabled and a supported desktop web browser; trimming is not supported on mobile web browsers |
| The original | Trimming overwrites the original recording, with its audio and transcript files; the original can be restored at any time |
| Limits | Each recording can be trimmed 5 times every 12 hours; depending on its length, trimming can take about 2 hours; separate participant audio and in-meeting chat cannot be trimmed |
Where these facts come from
Zoom's help centre, Trimming cloud recordings (updated 28 January 2025), read on 3 November 2026. It covers recordings in Zoom's cloud; it says nothing about recordings saved to your computer. Zoom changes its settings often, so check its help before you rely on a row.
How to caption a Zoom recording
For a recording up to ten minutes, with no account.
- Drop the MP4. The video file from the recording, not the audio-only one. It opens in this page and is never uploaded to us.
- Let it listen. Burncaps writes down every word. Type the names of the people on the call in Names to spell right and our AI spells them right in the captions (only the text goes).
- Correct and style. Click any word to fix it, then pick a caption style in the Style tab, from 60, or No captions.
- Change the shape, if you like. In the More tab, Shape: Vertical 9:16, Portrait 4:5 or Square 1:1, with the frame following your face or keeping the whole picture (change a video's aspect ratio).
- Export. A new MP4 with the captions burned in, every second of the recording kept. Or press SRT, VTT, ASS or Text for the words alone.
How to cut a long Zoom recording into clips
- Drop the MP4. A webinar, a coaching call or a talk, up to three hours. A video over ten minutes opens on its clips.
- Choose how it listens. Before a recording over ten minutes is heard, a computer asks once which way to listen, our speech service, which is much quicker, or this computer, each with its time, while your speech-service allowance covers it.
- Read the 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.
- Open a clip and adjust it. Drag its start and end, keep or cut any word, pick the style and the layout.
- Export it, or Export all. Each clip is an MP4, 9:16 unless you chose another Frame, with captions, an opening title unless you switched it off, and its sound levelled. Each free video exports up to 3 clips; the 7-day trial and Captions + Clips export every clip, unlimited.
Only post people who have agreed to it
Someone who spoke on a call agreed to the call, not to appearing in your posts. Before you post a clip with another person in it, ask them first.
Where your recording goes, and what it costs
The video stays in your browser. On a computer, English is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service, which is also offered for other languages and for recordings over ten minutes; on a phone the sound goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone. The service gets short pieces of sound, never the picture. The script's text leaves your device only if you type names to spell right, choose a translation or choose Clips (it then goes to our AI); ticking Keep everything on this device stops that.
Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up. Then try Captions + Clips free for 7 days, no card. Captions + Clips is $29 a month for unlimited clips and captions; Captions is $9.98 a month or $49 once.
Questions, answered plainly
How do I edit a Zoom recording for free?
Drop the MP4 of the recording on this page. Up to ten minutes, Burncaps burns word-by-word captions into the whole recording and can change its shape; up to three hours, it cuts the best moments into captioned clips of up to 3 minutes with the ums removed. Free is 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up.
Can you edit a Zoom recording?
Yes, in two ways. Zoom's help, read on 3 November 2026, says a cloud recording can be trimmed in the Zoom web portal: sliders set its start and end, more sections can be added, and the trim overwrites the original, which can be restored. Burncaps works on the file itself: captions burned into it, a new shape, or short captioned clips.
Can Burncaps cut a section out of the middle of my Zoom recording?
Not from the whole video: it keeps every second, as recorded. A clip is the way to take a part out: drag its start and end to any words up to 3 minutes apart, and inside it ums and stutters are cut and any word can be cut with a click. To remove a section from a long recording and keep the rest, use a timeline editor.
How long can the Zoom recording be?
Up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB for captions burned into the whole recording. Up to three hours and 10 GB for clips and for the script and subtitle files: the first ten minutes free, all of it as one of your free videos (2 every 30 days), in the 7-day Captions + Clips trial (free, no card) or on a paid plan.
Can I edit the audio-only file from Zoom?
Only for its words. The M4A has no picture, so it gives a script and SRT, VTT, ASS and text files, but no clips and no burned-in captions. For those, drop the MP4 from the same recording.
Is my recording uploaded?
No. Burncaps opens the video in your browser and never receives it. On a computer, the sound is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; on a phone it goes to our speech service unless you keep it on the phone (short pieces of sound, never the picture, to Microsoft's speech recognition in the EU, which by Microsoft's terms for the service stores none of it).
Burncaps facts, checked 3 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 Captions + Clips trial, no card (your email only); then Captions + Clips, $29 a month, gives unlimited clips and captioned videos, or Captions, $9.98 a month or $49 once, gives unlimited captioned videos. Captions 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 Captions + Clips or Captions) 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 Captions + Clips).
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 Captions + Clips 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.