Horizontal video to vertical, free, in your browser
Drop a horizontal video of someone talking and Burncaps gives it back vertical 9:16, portrait 4:5 or square, without uploading it. A whole video up to ten minutes keeps every second: the frame follows you, stays where you put it, or shows the whole picture over a blurred copy of itself. A longer recording, up to three hours, is made vertical only as clips of at most 3 minutes each, with ums cut and long pauses shortened. 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
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video. The new frame is set on your own video.
Two ways to turn a horizontal video vertical
The whole video, for anything up to ten minutes, or clips, for the best moments of a longer recording. Both run in your browser on a phone or a computer.
| What matters | Whole video | Clips |
|---|---|---|
| How long | Up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB | From a recording up to three hours; each clip at most 3 minutes |
| What is cut | Nothing: every second, as recorded | Ums and stutters cut (click a word to keep it), long pauses shortened |
| Shapes | Vertical 9:16, Portrait 4:5, Square 1:1, or Original | Vertical 9:16, Portrait 4:5, Square 1:1, or Keep original |
| How the frame is set | Follow me, Fixed or Fit everything | Fill, Fit or Split |
| Sound | As recorded | Levelled to -14 LUFS |
| Captions | 60 styles, or No captions | Burned in, with an opening card, a title, a caption and hashtags to copy |
How to make a horizontal video vertical
Six steps for the whole video, with no account. The new shape runs from the first second to the last.
- Drop the video. An MP4 or MOV of someone talking, up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB, from a phone, a camera or a call recording. It opens in this page and is never uploaded to us.
- Let it listen. Burncaps writes down every word, for captions you can keep or leave out.
- Open More, then Shape. Choose Vertical 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, Portrait 4:5 for the Instagram and Facebook feeds, or Square 1:1.
- Choose how the frame is set. Follow me, Fixed or Fit everything (the three are explained below). The preview shows the new frame at once.
- Keep the captions, or not. Pick one of 60 caption styles under Style, or choose No captions to change only the shape.
- Export. You get a new MP4 in the new shape, its file name marked -vertical, -4x5 or -square.
A landscape video cut to vertical is enlarged, so it is a little softer than the original. If your video is already vertical, the editor says so and keeps its own frame.
Follow me, Fixed or Fit everything
Follow me
"The frame moves with you." It looks for your face through the video first, then stays still while you stay near the middle and moves smoothly when you step away, like a calm camera operator. If it finds no face, the frame stays in the centre.
Fixed
"You place it." Drag the picture to where you want it, or select it and use the arrow keys, and zoom in up to twice. Recentre puts it back in the middle. The frame then holds that place for the whole video.
Fit everything
"Nothing cut." The whole horizontal picture sits across the vertical frame, and the space above and below is filled with a blurred, dimmed copy of the same picture. Made for slides, screen recordings and two people side by side.
The words in quotation marks are the editor's own. Every caption style and background works in every shape, so the room behind you can be blurred or replaced in the vertical video too (blur video background).
From a longer recording: vertical clips
For a podcast, a call or a talk over ten minutes, up to three hours, choose Clips. Burncaps finds the moments worth posting, about one clip for every two minutes of talk, and gives each back vertical 9:16 by default, or 4:5, 1:1 or in its own shape under Frame. You can drag a clip's start and end to any word of the recording, up to 3 minutes apart.
Fill
"The frame follows who is talking." With two or more people in the shot it cuts to whoever is speaking, the way a vision mixer would, and never pans slowly across the empty middle.
Fit
"The whole picture, its colours blurred behind." The wide shot stays whole across the frame. It works when no face is found, and a clip with nobody in it, such as a screen recording, is shown whole by itself.
Split
"Two people, one above the other." Offered once two people have been found in the picture; with one person, the editor says so and keeps the layout you had.
A clip is an edit, not a straight copy: ums and stutters are cut (click any word to keep it) and long pauses are shortened to a breath. By default it also opens with its strongest line before playing from the start (choose "From the start, as said" to skip that) and zooms in a little at each cut (choose Plain to skip that). For every second as recorded, use the whole video. Long video to Shorts explains how the clips are chosen.
What it does not do
It does not rotate a video that plays on its side because the phone was turned: that needs a rotate tool first. A whole video changes shape only up to ten minutes; a longer recording becomes vertical as clips of at most 3 minutes, which are cut tighter than the recording. It is made for people talking, so Follow me and Fill look for faces, not for a ball or a car. And a landscape picture enlarged to fill a vertical frame is softer than the original; Fit everything keeps it sharp at its own size.
Where your video goes
The video stays in your browser; the new shape is drawn on your device. On a computer, English is heard on your own device unless you choose our speech service; 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. Every request the page can make.
What it costs
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 turn a horizontal video vertical for free?
Drop the video, an MP4 or MOV up to ten minutes, on this page. When the editor opens, go to More, then Shape, and choose Vertical 9:16; then choose Follow me, Fixed or Fit everything, and export a new MP4. Nothing is cut. Free is 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up.
Can I make a video vertical without cutting anything off the sides?
Yes. Choose Fit everything: the whole horizontal picture sits across the vertical frame, and the space above and below is filled with a blurred, dimmed copy of the same picture. It suits slides, screen recordings and two people side by side.
Will the vertical frame keep me in shot?
With Follow me, yes: it looks for your face through the video first, stays still while you stay near the middle and moves smoothly when you step away. If it finds no face, the frame stays in the centre, and Fixed lets you drag it into place and zoom in.
How long can the video be?
A whole video can be made vertical up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB. A longer recording, up to three hours, is made vertical only as clips: each clip is at most 3 minutes, and in a clip ums and stutters are cut and long pauses shortened.
Can I make it vertical without adding captions?
Yes. Under Style, choose No captions. The export is then the same video in the new shape, with no words added to the picture.
Can it rotate a sideways video?
No. It changes the frame of a video that plays the right way up but is wide. A video that plays on its side because the phone was turned needs a rotate tool first.
Is my video 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.