How to Put Subtitles on TikTok Videos

Adding subtitles to your TikToks is one of the simplest and most effective ways to boost your views, watch time, and overall engagement. It’s a small change that delivers a huge impact. This guide will walk you through exactly how to add captions using TikTok’s built-in tools for a quick fix, and how to use third-party apps to create professional, attention-grabbing subtitles.

Why Subtitles on TikTok Are a Game-Changer (Not Just a Nice-to-Have)

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Understanding the impact of subtitles will motivate you to make them a permanent part of your content strategy. In a fast-scrolling world, captions are your secret weapon.

• Most People Watch With the Sound Off: It’s the number one rule of social media video. Whether someone is on public transit, in a quiet office, or just scrolling in bed next to a sleeping partner, the sound is usually off. Subtitles make your content accessible to this massive audience, instantly growing your potential reach.
• Increased Accessibility: Beyond the sound-off browsers, you’re also opening your content up to the 430 million people worldwide who are Deaf or hard of hearing. Inclusive content is not only good ethics, it's good for business, widening your audience and building a more loyal community.
• Boosted Watch Time and Engagement: Subtitles keep viewers' eyes glued to the screen. People naturally read along, which keeps them on your video for longer. This increased watch time is a powerful signal to the TikTok algorithm, telling it your content is valuable and worth pushing to more "For You" pages.
• Improved Comprehension: Sometimes audio just isn't clear. Maybe there’s background noise, you speak quickly, or the topic is complex. Captions give your audience a second way to process your message, ensuring your key points land perfectly every time.
• TikTok SEO is Real: TikTok is becoming a major search engine for Gen Z. When you add subtitles, all of that text gets indexed by the app. It means your videos can surface in search results for relevant keywords, giving your content a longer shelf life and helping new followers discover you organically.

Method 1: Using TikTok's Built-In Auto-Captions

This is the fastest and easiest way to add subtitles directly within the TikTok app. The technology has gotten impressively accurate, but you'll almost always need to do a quick proofread to catch any mistakes. It's a lifesaver for getting content out quickly.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Record or Upload Your Video: Start by firing up the TikTok app and either recording a new video or uploading a pre-recorded clip from your camera roll. Tap the red checkmark to move to the main editing screen when you're done.
2. Find the "Captions" Button: On the editing screen, look at the panel of icons on the right side. You’ll see options like "Text," "Stickers," and "Effects." Tap the icon that looks like a small speech bubble or says "Captions."
3. Let TikTok Work Its Magic: The app will automatically start transcribing the audio from your video. This usually only takes a few seconds, but it might take a bit longer for videos over a minute long. You’ll see a progress bar as it generates the text.
4. Review and Edit the Text: This is the most important step! Once the captions are generated, they will appear on your video. Tap the text box or the pencil icon to open the editor. Read through everything carefully and fix any grammar mistakes, punctuation errors, or words the AI might have misheard. Don't skip this, a typo can change the entire meaning of your sentence and make your content look unprofessional.
5. Customize the Appearance: Once the text is perfect, you can change how it looks. TikTok offers several font styles and color options. You can also add a background color or outline to the text to make it stand out against a busy background. Tap the 'A' icon to cycle through different capitalization styles and backgrounds.
6. Position and Resize: After styling, tap "Done" to go back to the preview. You can use two fingers to pinch and zoom the text box to make it bigger or smaller. Drag the captions to the best spot on the screen, making sure they don't cover your face or any important visuals. A good rule of thumb is to place them in the lower center of the screen.
7. Save and Post: When you're happy with how everything looks, you can proceed to the final posting screen, write your video description, add hashtags, and share it with the world!

Method 2: Adding Text Manually for a Stylized Look

If you're creating dynamic "talking head" videos and want a punchier, more stylized effect, adding your text manually is a great option. This method gives you perfect control over what words appear and when, often used to emphasize key points one phrase at a time. It's more time-consuming but offers more creative control than auto-captions.

How to Do It

1. Go to the "Text" Tool: From the editing screen, tap the "Text" (labeled 'Aa') icon.
2. Type Your First Phrase: Instead of the whole script, just type the first sentence or even a single important word you want to emphasize. Customize the font, color, alignment, and background just like before.
3. Set the Duration: After you type your text, tap on the "text sticker" that appears on your video preview. You'll see an option to "Set duration." Tapping this opens a timeline editor at the bottom of the screen.
4. Trim the Timing: Drag the start and end handles of the red bar so the text appears on screen at the exact moment you say the words and disappears when you're done speaking that phrase.
5. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: Now, for the hard part. You need to repeat this process for every single line of dialogue in your video. Tap "Text" again, type the next phrase, style it, and set the duration. Layering these text stickers one after another creates that dynamic, word-by-word subtitling effect you see everywhere.

Method 3: Level Up with Third-Party Video Editing Apps

For truly professional, custom, and engaging subtitles - think the kind with animated words, emojis, and killer fonts that content marketing gurus use - you’ll need to step outside of TikTok. Third-party apps are designed specifically for this purpose and offer features far beyond TikTok’s native tools.

Here are a few of the most popular options:

• CapCut: Owned by the same parent company as TikTok (ByteDance), CapCut is a free and extremely powerful mobile video editor. Its auto-caption feature is best-in-class, offering tons of animation styles, custom fonts, strokes, and shadows. It's the go-to app for most serious TikTok creators.
• Captions: This app is a powerhouse built specifically for creating social video subtitles. It uses AI to generate highly accurate captions that animate word-by-word as you speak. It can even auto-detect filler words like "um" and "uh" for easy removal, and uses AI to suggest emojis and B-roll visuals.
• Descript: A desktop-based video and audio editor that works like a document. It transcribes your video automatically, and you can edit the video itself simply by deleting words or sentences from the text transcript. It's phenomenal for editing longer-form videos that you want to chop up into clips for TikTok.

A Quick Starter Guide to Using CapCut

Since CapCut is free, powerful, and wildly popular, it’s the perfect place to start. Here’s a basic workflow:

1. Import Your Video: Download CapCut and start a new project. Select the video file you want to subtitle from your camera roll.
2. Find Auto Captions: In the bottom toolbar, tap "Text," then select "Auto captions."
3. Generate the Captions: Let the app process your video. It will generate a timed text track that's remarkably accurate.
4. Edit and Style: Tap on the text track to open the editing menu. Use "Batch edit" to quickly read through and fix any typos. Then, tap on "Style" to explore an enormous library of fonts, effects, animations, and pre-made styles. You can apply styles that make words pop up, slide in, or change color as they're spoken.
5. Export and Upload: Once you love how your captions look, export the video from CapCut (make sure to choose 1080p resolution and a high frame rate for the best quality). Then, simply open TikTok and upload the finished video file. You won't need to add any more text within TikTok!

Best Practices for Effective TikTok Subtitles

Just having subtitles isn't enough. You need good subtitles. Follow these guidelines to make sure your text improves your video instead of distracting from it.

• Keep Them Readable: Your number one priority is legibility. Use clean fonts and a color combination with high contrast (e.g., white text with a black outline or background). Avoid script fonts or colors that blend into your video.
• Stay in the "Safe Zone": TikTok's interface (your username, the description, like/share buttons) covers the very bottom and right side of the screen. Keep your captions positioned slightly above the bottom to ensure nothing gets cut off.
• Break Up Your Sentences: No one wants to read a giant block of text on a 15-second video. Keep lines short and punchy - ideally one to two lines at a time. This makes them easier to read at a glance.
• Always Proofread Auto-Captions: It's worth saying again! Automated captions make mistakes. Misspelled words look sloppy and can undermine your credibility. Always do a quick review before posting.
• Let Them Reflect Your Brand: Your subtitle style is a branding opportunity. A funny creator might use a playful, colorful font. A business coach might use a sleek, minimalist font. Keep your style consistent across videos to build a recognizable look.

Final Thoughts

Adding subtitles to your videos is a small effort with an outsized reward. It’s no longer an optional extra - it’s a fundamental part of creating successful, accessible, and engaging content for TikTok. Whether you stick with TikTok’s easy auto-captions or elevate your look with an app like CapCut, you are making a strategic decision to reach a wider audience and keep them watching longer.

As creators and marketers, we know every bit of efficiency counts when you're growing your brand. Creating great, polished video is one thing, getting it published consistently is another. That’s why we built Postbase to streamline the whole process. You can schedule your perfectly subtitled videos to TikTok, Reels, and Shorts all at once from a single visual calendar, ensuring your content goes live on schedule without you having to juggle multiple apps and a spreadsheet just to stay organized.