How to Do Auto Captions on Instagram

Adding automatic captions to your Instagram videos is one of the easiest ways to boost your reach, engagement, and accessibility all at once. If you're not using them, you're leaving views on the table. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add, edit, and style automatic captions for your Instagram Reels and Stories, ensuring your content connects with the widest possible audience.

Why Auto-Captions on Instagram Are a Must-Use Feature

Before we get into the step-by-step process, it’s worth understanding just how powerful this little feature is. This isn’t just about ticking a box, it’s about fundamentally improving your video’s performance and inclusivity.

1. You'll Reach the Sound-Off Viewers

A huge portion of people watch videos with the sound off. Think about it: they might be on public transportation, in a quiet office, or scrolling in bed next to a sleeping partner. According to multiple studies, up to 85% of videos on social media are viewed without sound. If your video relies entirely on audio to tell a story or share information, a majority of your potential audience will simply scroll right past. Captions grab their attention and deliver your message even when their device is muted.

2. It Makes Your Content Accessible

Over 430 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss. By adding captions, you're making your content accessible to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, a large and engaged audience that is often excluded from video content. Inclusivity isn't just good ethics, it's good marketing. It shows you care about your entire community and broadens your potential follower base.

3. It Boosts Viewer Retention and Engagement

Captions can hook a viewer in the first few seconds, even without audio, and keep them watching longer. Increased watch time is a powerful signal to the Instagram algorithm that your content is valuable. The longer people watch your Reel, the more likely the algorithm is to push it out to a wider audience on the Explore Page and Reels tab. Captions create a more engaging, multi-sensory experience that holds attention.

4. Everyone Understands Your Message Better

Let's be honest, sometimes audio quality isn't perfect. Maybe there’s background noise, you have a strong accent, or you simply speak quickly. Captions provide clarity, preventing any of your key points from being misheard or lost. They reinforce your spoken words, making your message more memorable and easier to comprehend for everyone, regardless of their environment or native language.

How to Add Automatic Captions to Your Instagram Reels

Instagram's 'Captions' sticker makes this process surprisingly simple. It automatically transcribes your audio and syncs the text to your video. Here's exactly how to do it.

Step 1: Record or Upload Your Reel

Start by creating your Reel as you normally would. You can either record clips directly within the Instagram app or upload a pre-edited video from your camera roll. Once your clips are arranged on the timeline, tap "Next" to move to the main editing screen.

Step 2: Access the Sticker Tray

On the editing screen, you’ll see a row of icons at the top right: music, effects, text, and stickers. Tap the square smiley-face icon to open the sticker tray. This is where you find polls, quizzes, GIFs, and other interactive elements.

Step 3: Select the "Captions" Sticker

Look for a sticker labeled "Captions." It might be near the top, close to the location and mention stickers. Tap it once. Instagram will automatically begin transcribing the audio from your video. You’ll see a little "Transcribing audio..." message pop up for a few seconds.

Once it’s done, the transcribed text will appear over your video, synced in time with your speech.

Customizing and Editing Your Auto-Captions

Instagram’s AI transcription is pretty good, but it's rarely perfect. It often struggles with names, slang, punctuation, and industry-specific terms. Taking a minute to clean up your captions is what separates amateur content from a professional-looking polish. Here’s how you dial in the details.

How to Edit Caption Text for Accuracy

After the transcription appears on your screen, tap on the text block. This will open up a text-editing window at the bottom of the screen, showing you the full transcription with timestamps.

• Tap on any word to correct spelling mistakes or replace words the AI got wrong.
• Add punctuation like commas and periods to make your sentences easier to read. The AI often omits these.
• Capitalize proper nouns, brand names, or the beginning of your sentences for a more professional look.

Proofreading is critical. Inaccurate captions can be distracting or, in the worst case, completely change the meaning of your message. Always do a quick read-through before moving on. When you're finished, tap "Done."

How to Style Your Captions

Once the text is accurate, you can change its appearance to match your brand's style. Tap the caption text on your video preview again. You’ll see several styling options similar to the regular Text tool:

• Fonts: At the bottom, you can scroll through different font styles. Some are animated, others are more classic and static. Pick one that matches the vibe of your video and your brand’s aesthetic.
• Color: Tap the color wheel icon at the top of the screen to change the text color. Tapping again on a color swatch allows you to select deeper hues. You can even use the eyedropper tool to pull a color directly from your video for a cohesive look.
• Background/Highlight: Tap the "A" icon with stars at the top-left to add a background color block or highlight to your captions. This dramatically improves readability, especially when your video has a busy or bright background.

How to Position and Resize Your Captions

The placement of your captions matters. You don't want them to cover your face, a key product, or a call to action.

• To move the captions, simply press and hold the text block and drag it around the screen where you like.
• To resize it, use your two fingers to pinch or zoom out.

Pro Tip: Keep your captions out of the "no-go" zones. Instagram overlays your username, description, and engagement icons at the bottom and right edges of the screen. Position your captions more centrally to avoid having them blocked by the UI.

Adding Auto-Captions to Your Instagram Stories

Good news! The process for adding captions to Instagram Stories is almost identical to adding them to Reels.

1. Record or upload a video to your Story.
2. Tap the Sticker icon at the top of the screen.
3. Select the "Captions" sticker.
4. Wait for Instagram to transcribe the audio.
5. Tap the transcribed text to edit it for accuracy and style it with different fonts, colors, and backgrounds.
6. Position and resize the text, then you're ready to share your Story.

Because Stories are often more spontaneous, raw, and in-the-moment content, captions are vital to grabbing viewers as they tap through quickly.

A Quick Note on In-Feed Videos

What about regular in-feed video posts that are not Reels? Unfortunately, the 'Captions' sticker has not yet been rolled out for that format. However, you have a couple of options:

1. Enable Server-side Captions: After selecting your video and writing a caption, tap "Advanced Settings" at the bottom of the screen. Here you will see an "Auto-generated captions" toggle. Flipping this on will allow users to turn captions on themselves, but you can't control the style and they are off by default. This is less ideal but is still better than nothing.
2. Burn Captions In: The recommended workaround is using a third-party app (like CapCut or Captions) to generate and custom-style your captions *before* uploading your video to Instagram. These apps offer extensive styling options and "burn" them directly onto the video, so they are always visible, irrespective of Instagram’s settings.

Final Thoughts

Adding and styling automatic captions is a small step in your content creation process that delivers big results. By taking the time to make your videos more engaging and accessible, you're not just improving individual video performances but also setting yourself up to reach a wider, more loyal audience.

Keeping track of all these small details, like captioning and scheduling content across multiple videos and platforms, can feel overwhelming. That's why we built Postbase to simplify the entire content creation workflow. By using our visual calendar to plan your video strategy and get your content ready, you can focus more on creating great videos and less on the manual checklist of publishing. With Postbase, we handle the scheduling and analytics so you can put your energy into making your content shine.