How to Add CC to a Facebook Video

Adding captions to your Facebook videos isn’t just a nice-to-have feature, it’s a powerful way to make your content more accessible and engaging for a much wider audience. Whether you're a business owner, a creator, or a social media manager, ignoring closed captions means you're leaving views on the table. This guide will walk you through exactly why captions matter and provide step-by-step instructions on how to add them to your videos using Facebook’s built-in tools and the more professional-grade .SRT file method.

Why Captions on Facebook Videos are a Non-Negotiable

Before jumping into the "how," it's important to understand the "why." You put time and effort into creating great video content, and a few extra minutes spent on captions can dramatically increase its impact. Here’s how:

• You'll Reach Sound-Off Viewers: Think about where people scroll through Facebook: on the bus, in a quiet office, or waiting in line. The famous statistic still holds true - a massive number of users, some reports say as high as 85%, watch videos with the sound off. Without captions, your message is completely lost. Captions grab their attention and deliver your story even in silence.
• Improved Accessibility for All: Over 400 million people worldwide are deaf or have disabling hearing loss. Captions make your content inclusive and accessible to this community, ensuring everyone can understand and enjoy what you create. It’s not just a good marketing practice, it’s the right thing to do.
• Better Comprehension and Retention: Captions aren't just for those with hearing impairments. They help viewers in loud environments, non-native speakers, or anyone who might have difficulty understanding specific accents or technical jargon. Studies show that captioned videos improve focus and subject matter retention.
• SEO Benefits within Facebook: While Google can't "watch" your video, it can read your captions. Facebook's search algorithm behaves similarly. Adding a transcript via captions gives the platform valuable keywords and text data about your video's content, making it easier to be discovered by people searching for relevant topics.

The Two Paths to Adding CC to Your Facebook Video

Facebook offers two primary methods for adding closed captions. Neither is technically difficult, but they offer different levels of control and accuracy.

1. Automatically Generated Captions: Facebook can listen to your video's audio and create a set of captions for you. This is the fastest method, but it almost always requires a human review to fix mistakes.
2. Uploading a SubRip (.SRT) File: This involves creating a special text file with timestamps and uploading it with your video. It takes more work upfront but gives you 100% control and unparalleled accuracy. This is the professional standard.

Let's break down how to use both methods.

Method 1: Using Facebook’s Auto-Generated Captions (The Quick Way)

If you need to get something posted quickly and don't require perfect captions right away, the auto-generate feature is a great starting point. Just remember: always review and edit the results. Artificial intelligence is smart, but it's not perfect and can easily mishear names, slang, or industry-specific terms.

Step-by-Step Guide to Auto-Generating Captions

You can add captions when you first upload a video or edit a video that's already on your Page.

1. Start Your Upload: Head to your Facebook Page, Group, or Creator Studio. Click to create a post and select "Add Photo/Video." Choose the video file you want to upload.
2. Open Video Options: As your video uploads, a window will pop up with details like title and description. On the right side of the options, click on ‘Video Options’ or you may see a tab directly called ‘Captions’. If the interface has been updated, look for accessibility settings or subtitles.
3. Generate the Captions: Within the captions section, find the option labeled "Auto-Generate Captions" or something similar. It might be a simple toggle or a button that says "Generate." Turn it on. Facebook will begin processing your video's audio, which may take a few minutes depending on its length.

(Note: For videos already published, find the video on your timeline, click the three-dot menu (...) and select "Edit Post." From there, you should be able to find the caption settings.)

1. Review and Edit: Once the captions are generated, you’ll see them in a text editor-like window, complete with timestamps. This is the most important step. Carefully read through every single line. Listen to your video's audio and compare it to the text.
   • Look for Misspellings: AI often misspells unique names, company names, or technical terms.
   • Fix Punctuation: Auto-generated captions often lack proper punctuation, which hurts readability. Add commas, periods, and question marks to make sentences flow naturally.
   • Correct Misheard Words: Listen for homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings) or words that the AI simply got wrong. "Their" vs. "they're," for example, is a common error.
   • Break Up Long Lines: If a single caption block contains too much text, it can be hard to read. Break long sentences into two separate caption lines for better pacing.
2. Save Your Changes: Once you’re satisfied with the accuracy of your captions, click the "Save" button. Finish entering your video title and description, then post or schedule your video. The CC option will now be available to viewers.

Method 2: Uploading a SubRip (.SRT) File (The Pro Method for Precision)

If accuracy, branding (e.g., getting all your product names 100% right), or multi-language support is a priority, uploading your own .SRT file is the way to go. This approach gives you complete control over what appears and when.

An .SRT file is just a plain-text file that follows a specific format. You tell it when to show a line of text and when to hide it. Sounds technical, but it’s actually quite straightforward once you see the structure.

Part A: How to Create an .SRT File

You have a couple of solid options for making one.

Option 1: The Do-It-Yourself Way with a Text Editor

You can create an .SRT file from scratch using a simple application like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). Just be sure to save the file as plain text (.txt) and then rename the extension to .srt.

Here is the required format for each caption block:

Caption Number
Start Time -->, End Time
Caption Text (one or two lines)

(Blank Line)


Here’s what a real example looks like:

1
00:00:02,450 -->, 00:00:05,120
Hey everyone, and welcome back
to our channel.

2
00:00:05,500 -->, 00:00:08,740
Today we're talking about how to
add captions to Facebook videos.


• Caption Number: A sequential number starting at 1.
• Timestamp: The format is `Hours:Minutes:Seconds,Milliseconds`. This tells the video player exactly when to display and hide the text.
• Caption Text: The words you want to appear on screen. Best practice is to keep it to one or two lines per block.
• Blank Line: A blank line separates each caption block.

This method is free but can be very time-consuming for longer videos.

Option 2: Using Transcription & Captioning Services

For a quicker and more accurate workflow, you can use an online service. Tools like Rev.com, Otter.ai, or Descript leverage a combination of AI and human transcribers to create highly accurate caption files for you. The typical process is:

1. Upload your video file or link to your video.
2. The service transcribes the audio.
3. You review their transcript and make any small corrections.
4. Export the file in the .SRT format.

This costs a bit of money (usually priced per minute of video), but it can save you tons of time and headaches while delivering a flawless result.

Part B: How to Upload Your .SRT File to Facebook

Once you have your .SRT file, adding it to your video is super easy.

1. Prepare Your Filename: Before you upload, rename your SRT file to follow Facebook’s naming convention: filename.[language_code]_[country_code].srt. For American English, that would be myawesomevideo.en_US.srt. For British English, it would be myawesomevideo.en_GB.srt. This helps Facebook correctly identify the caption language.
2. Upload Your Video: Just like in the first method, start a new post and begin uploading your video content.
3. Navigate to the Captions Section: In the video options panel, find the 'Captions' or 'Subtitles & Captions' section.
4. Upload Your File: This time, instead of generating captions, click the ‘Upload’ button. A file browser will open. Select the shiny .SRT file you just created and named.
5. Check for Errors: Facebook will process the file, and you’ll be able to preview the captions along with your video. If you see any errors in the text, you can either fix them directly in the Facebook caption editor or correct your original .SRT file and re-upload it.
6. Save and Publish: Once you're happy with the preview, click 'Save' and publish (or schedule) your perfectly captioned video.

Final Thoughts

Adding captions makes your Facebook videos more effective, inclusive, and professional. Whether you choose the speed of auto-generated captions or the precision of a manually prepared .SRT file, you're taking a vital step to connect with more viewers and improve the performance of your social media content.

With captioned content ready to go, the next hurdle is always the chaos of managing your posting schedule across different platforms. Having worked in this space for years, we know firsthand that tools built a decade ago just weren’t designed for the short-form video formats that dominate today’s feeds. That's exactly why we built Postbase - a modern, clean social media tool made to help you plan, schedule, and analyze your video content across all your platforms without the usual hassle.