How to Add Subtitles to YouTube Videos in 5 Best Ways

Adding subtitles to your YouTube videos offers many benefits. YouTube subtitles allow your video content to reach wider viewers who speak a foreign language and make it easier for people who are hard of hearing to read your YouTube videos with text.

Besides, adding subtitles to YouTube videos can also increase YouTube watch time. So, with higher watch time, your videos are more likely to rank high on YouTube’s search list. You may also add subtitles for strong CTA for a promo video. What’s more, viewers can catch your YouTube videos without audio on.

So, in this post, we will walk you through how to add subtitles to YouTube videos in the 5 best ways. Then, you can add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically with ease.

Here is what you will learn:

1. How to Add Subtitles to YouTube Videos Using YouTube Studio

Well, the official way to add subtitles to a YouTube video is by using YouTube Studio. It’s 100% free and offers you an easy way to upload and edit the subtitle and caption.

*Add YouTube Subtitles When Uploading a YouTube Video

Add YouTube subtitles when uploading a YouTube video

When you uploaded a video to YouTube, you will go through the “Video Elements” where you can add subtitles to your YouTube videos in the “Add Subtitles” section.

*Add YouTube Subtitles When a Video Has Been Uploaded

Log in to your YouTube account > go to the left “Subtitle” tab in YouTube Studio > click on the “Language” drop-down menu > add a specific language and click “add” under the “Subtitle” column.

Add subtitles for uploaded YouTube videos

Once you click on the “Add” subtitle button, YouTube Studio offers you 3 options to add subtitles to a YouTube video:

You have 3 options to add subtitles to YouTube plus keyboard shortcuts

Option 1: Upload a Prepared Subtitle File

A YouTube subtitle file can be an SRT file or a TXT file in which the subtitles of the speakers in the video and the timings of the texts are written. Once you upload it to the YouTube Studio, YouTube will automatically arrange the subtitles according to the timings.

Option 2: Auto-sync the Transcript of a Video

You can manually type the transcript of the video with timing or copy and paste the transcript of a video > click on the “Assign Timings” button > YouTube Studio will automatically set subtitles timings for your YouTube videos.

Option 3: Type Subtitles Mannually

You can manually type in the texts as you watch the video and set the timing for each subtitle. To boost working efficiency, YouTube Studio also offers you keyboard shortcuts for editing.

You may use keyboard shortcuts, trim subtitles, or zoom in/out to check for details.

To enable the keyboard shortcut feature, simply check the “Pause while typing” button and click on the “Keyboard Shortcuts”. Then a pop-up window will show you the hotkeys, like “shift+space = pause or play the video”, etc.

Or You can click and drag the caption to move it above the exact audio track and drag the slider to easily trim a subtitle or use the zoom in/ out tool to check whether your timeline is correct or not.

2. How to Add Subtitles to YouTube Videos Automatically

If your YouTube podcast video is more than 25 mins and involves multiple speakers, then manually adding subtitles to YouTube videos would drive you crazy and be too time-consuming.

But, luckily, with FlexClip online video maker’s auto subtitle generator, you can add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically with the click of a button. FlexClip can identify 140+ languages with different accents and automatically transcribe YouTube videos to text with high accuracy and multiple styles. So, you can relax and sip a cup of coffee and wait for the auto-generated YouTube subtitles to get ready.

Automatically add subtitles to YouTube videos by FlexClip auto subtitle generator.

Upload your YouTube videos to FlexClip.

Add your YouTube video to the timeline.

Click the Subtitle tab > Auto AI Subtitle > select the source language in your YouTube video and click Next > choose the style for your YouTube subtitles > hit the Generate Subtitles button. Then, FlexClip shall automatically generate the subtitles for you. How long will take to generate subtitles depends on your video length and bandwidth.

Automatically generate subtitles for your YouTube videos by FlexClip.

The generated subtitles will be shown along with the exact timestamps on the subtitle window. You can skim through the subtitles and manually correct any spelling errors. Or change the subtitle styles, such as fonts, text color, the color of background fill, opacity, and spacing or add, merge, or delete subtitles to your liking.

Skim through the auto-generated subtitles and make small changes.

Create Now

If you are satisfied with the auto-generated YouTube subtitles, you can click the Export button to download the video to your hard drive or directly share it to your YouTube channel or Google Drive, Dropbox, or even TikTok; a clickable link and an embed code will also be available for repurposing. Fantastic!

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3. How to Add Subtitles to a YouTube Video That Is Not Yours

What if you have come across a valuable YouTube video that has no subtitles and you want to add subtitles to this YouTube video that is not yours to look back on later, or one of your friends asks your help to add subtitles to his/her YouTube video. So, is there an easy way to do it?

Well, the answer is yes and the tool you need is HappyScribe, a professional online tool, offering auto-generated and human transcription services.

Use Happyscribe to add subtitles to a YouTube video that is not yours online.

With Happyscribe, you can directly paste the URL of a YouTube video and add subtitles to that YouTube video automatically. Here is how to do it.

Paste the URL of a YouTube video to Happyscribe.

Select the source language in the video and choose either human or machine to generate subtitles.

If you have chosen the Machine Generate option, once the auto-transcription is done. You may open the auto-transcripted subtitles. You can manually correct the minor mistakes and add the name of multiple speakers at different timestamps, etc.

4. How to Add Subtitles to YouTube by Hiring Professionals

For long YouTube videos like documentaries with many terminologies, hiring a professional to add subtitles to your YouTube video can be a great alternative. Our recommendation would be to use the affordable human service offered by Rev($1.25/per min).

Use Rev’s human service to directly add subtitles on YouTube

Like HappyScribe, Rev has fine integration with YouTube. So, you can grant Rev access to your online YouTube video and then select the video you wanna add subtitles. Then pay for the service. Then the professionals will add subtitles to your YouTube videos within the agreed time. So, there is no need for you to upload an SRT file to your YouTube Studio and save your precious time.

Click on the “YouTube” icon > sign in Rev and grant Rev access to your YouTube account. So, Rev can download your YouTube video and directly upload subtitles to your YouTube videos. > select the video you would like to add subtitles > hit “Add Selected to Cart”.

If you are pressed for time, you can select “Rush My Order” by adding $1 more/ per min for human transcription service.

5. How to Add Subtitles to YouTube Videos Automatically on iPhone/Android

Well, if you are a content creator who often uses iPhone/Android to record and create YouTube videos and YouTube Shorts, then CapCut, a free and versatile mobile app with an auto-captioning feature, can be your ultimate choice to add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically on your mobile phone.

Add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically on your phone by CapCut.

The only downside is that since CapCut is built to edit short videos, you can only add auto subtitles to YouTube videos that are no more than 15 mins. Other than that, CapCut is almost flawless to add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically.

Import your clips to CapCut.

Tap Text > Auto Captions > select Orignal Sound and the language you wish the subtitles to be > tap Continue. Then CapCut will automatically add subtitles to your YouTube videos with impressive accuracy.

Add subtitles to YouTube videos automatically by CapCut.

Edit subtitles in batch in CapCut.

Now, It’s Your Move

So, these are the 5 best ways to add subtitles on YouTube. Now, the question is which solution works best for you to add subtitles to YouTube videos. Share this post on your Facebook and Twitter and leave your comments to us. Cheers!

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Frank /

Passionate about photography, video-making and travel, Frank is a seasoned copywriter and a beloved father of 2-year-old daughter at FlexClip. He is always keen to share his latest discovery about video marketing and tricks to relive your memories through videos and images.