How to add captions to an Instagram Story: the Captions sticker, or burned in free
This page is about words on the video, not the text you type under a post. In the Instagram app, start a Story, add your video, tap Stickers at the top and choose Captions. That is Instagram's own route, from its help centre read on 8 November 2026, and its help also says stickers may be unavailable in Japan and in countries in Europe. To have the captions in the video itself, styled and corrected, drop it here: Burncaps burns them in, saves a 9:16 MP4 for your Story, and the video never leaves your browser.
- Free, no sign-up
- Vertical 9:16
- Video never uploaded
Live preview, rendered on this page by the same engine that burns your video.
The Captions sticker, step by step
Instagram's help lists Captions among the stickers you can add when you share a photo or video to your story or record a reel. The steps below are from its pages on sharing to a story and on using stickers, as its help centre showed them.
- Tap Create (+) at the top, or swipe right anywhere in Feed.
- Scroll to Story at the bottom.
- Swipe up anywhere on the screen to choose a video from your camera roll, or tap and hold Record to film one.
- Tap Stickers at the top.
- Choose Captions from the stickers.
- When you are ready, tap Your Story in the bottom left.
For a video post, Instagram's help on reels and video captions gives the same two taps: Stickers, then Captions to generate your captions. It says Instagram writes captions with speech recognition, and that captions on reels and videos may not be available to everyone.
If Captions is not in your stickers
Instagram's sticker help says the feature may be unavailable in Japan and in countries in Europe, that not all stickers are available to everyone, and that you should update the app if one is missing.
How long a Story video can be
A video up to 60 seconds long appears as one clip. Instagram's help says a longer one is broken up into several clips, which you can edit with the video trimmer at the bottom; it says the trimmer is only on iOS devices for now.
Its shape
Make a Story 9:16, 1080 x 1920: the one shape both of Instagram's published Story rules name. The figures and their sources are on Instagram Reel and Story size.
From Instagram's help centre: Share a photo or video to your Instagram story, Using stickers on Instagram and Manage reels and video captions on Instagram, and About Instagram's Stories page, all read on 8 November 2026. Instagram changes its app often; if a button has moved, its help is the authority.
Burn captions into a Story video, free
Captions burned in are part of the picture: they are in the file before Instagram sees it, so they show on the Story, on a repost, and on TikTok or Shorts if you post the same video there.
- Drop the video in the box at the top of this page, or tap it on your phone and choose the video. MP4 or MOV, up to ten minutes and 1.2 GB.
- Burncaps listens and shows the script under the video. Click any word to correct it; one click changes every other time it was heard.
- Pick one of 60 caption styles and set the size, position and colours.
- If it was filmed sideways or square, open More, then Shape, and choose Vertical 9:16: Follow me keeps the speaker in frame, Fit everything keeps the whole picture. A video already 9:16 keeps its own frame.
- Export. The MP4 saves to your phone or computer; on a computer, Vertical 9:16 comes out at 1080 x 1920. Share it to your Story as above.
A Story over 60 seconds
Instagram splits it into clips, and the burned-in captions are in every one, because they are in the picture. Or cut a long video into clips first, below.
Clips from a longer video
Choose Clips and Burncaps finds the best moments of a talk or interview as ranked, captioned 9:16 clips, with 30, 45 and 60 second lengths a click away, ums and long pauses cut. Each free video exports up to 3 clips.
Keep the words clear of the buttons
The free safe zone checker lays the Reels, TikTok and Shorts buttons over your own 9:16 video, so you can see where captions sit clear of them.
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
How do I add captions to an Instagram Story?
In the Instagram app: tap Create (+), scroll to Story, swipe up to choose a video, tap Stickers at the top and choose Captions, then tap Your Story. These are Instagram's own steps, read on its help centre on 8 November 2026. For styled captions that are part of the video, burn them in with Burncaps before you post.
Why can't I find the Captions sticker on Instagram?
Instagram's sticker help says the feature may be unavailable in Japan and in countries in Europe, that not all stickers are available to everyone, and that you should update the app to the latest version if a sticker is missing. Captions burned into the video with Burncaps do not depend on the sticker.
How long can an Instagram Story video be?
Instagram's help says a video up to 60 seconds long appears as one Story clip, and a longer one is broken up into several clips that you can edit with the video trimmer, which it says is only on iOS devices for now. Read on 8 November 2026.
How do I add animated captions to an Instagram Story?
Drop the video on Burncaps, pick one of 60 caption styles, correct any word in the script, choose Vertical 9:16 under More, then Shape if it is not already vertical, and export the MP4. Then share it to your Story. Free: 2 videos every 30 days, each with captions and up to 3 clips, no watermark, no sign-up.
What size should an Instagram Story video be?
Make it 9:16, 1080 x 1920. Instagram's help prints no pixel size for an ordinary story; its one shape rule is for boosting, 9:16 or between 4:5 and 1.91:1, and Meta's page for apps that post stories recommends 9:16. The sources are on our Instagram Reel and Story size page.
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.