Add subtitles to YouTube Shorts automatically. Burned-in, animated captions that show for every viewer, plus an SRT for YouTube's own CC track.
Free: clips up to 3 minutes, 2 a day without an account, 5 with one. Paid plans take 10-minute clips with no watermark.
How It Works
Drop an MP4, MOV or WebM clip up to 3 minutes long.
Every word is transcribed. Pick the style, how many words per line, the position and caps on a live preview.
Click the button and the captions are burned into a 1080×1920 MP4, ready for TikTok, Reels and Shorts.
The Add Subtitles to YouTube Shorts is a free online tool from ShortsHero: captions burned in, so they show even with YouTube's CC off. Upload a clip, AssemblyAI transcribes every word, and you choose the style, words per line and position on a live preview before the captions are rendered onto the video in 1080×1920. No account needed for clips up to 3 minutes.
Nothing renders until you click the button: you see the captions on your own video first and change the style, words per line and position as often as you like.
Why Use This Tool
AssemblyAI times every word, so the highlight lands exactly as each word is spoken.
One punchy word at a time or six for a full sentence, with top, middle or bottom placement.
MrBeast, Hormozi, karaoke, neon, comic and more. Switch styles on the preview before you render.
The preview is drawn by the same renderer as the download, so what you approve is what you get.
Exported ready for TikTok, Reels and Shorts. Horizontal videos can be cropped or kept whole.
Upload, style and download without an account.
Yes. Clips up to 3 minutes are free without an account: 2 a day, or 5 with a free account. Free renders carry a small watermark; any paid plan removes it and allows 10-minute clips.
Yes. After the transcript is ready you pick 1 to 6 words per line, the position (top, middle or bottom) and whether the words are in capitals, and the preview updates as you change them.
Yes. This page opens on one style, but all 38 are on the preview, and you can render again in a different one.
Open the video in the free ShortsHero editor with an account to fix any word, then export again.
ShortsHero turns long videos into short vertical clips with AI moment detection, face tracking and animated captions — and has free tools for subtitles, transcripts and video formats.
The same transcription powers ShortsHero's clip maker: it finds the strongest moments, reframes them to vertical and adds word-by-word captions in 36 styles.
Try the clip maker freeFree to start · No credit card required
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