Adobe Premiere Pro is the best-known video editor for professionals. It’s packed with numerous features to customize your videos in great detail.
But sometimes you can get lost in all the possibilities. For example, how do you add captions to your video?
This is not the easiest thing to do in the editor. That’s why we show you the different ways to do it, especially to subtitle big video projects efficiently and at scale.
Good news, yest it does!
Premiere Pro offers a built-in Speech to Text feature. This feature is designed to transcribe spoken words in your video and convert them into captions.
This integration makes the entire workflow seamless, especially if you’re already familiar with Premiere Pro’s interface.
While this tool is powerful, there are some limitations. The Speech to Text feature requires clear audio input to function effectively. If your audio quality is poor or contains heavy accents, the transcription might need more manual corrections.
You should always review and adjust the transcript to ensure it aligns perfectly with your content. Small tweaks might be necessary for names, technical terms, or specific phrasing.
Just know that using the feature requires an active Creative Cloud subscription.
Adobe Premiere Pro auto caption feature makes it easy to generate subtitles right inside your project. And the best part? You don’t need any extra plugin or extension.
Let’s walk through the steps.
Start by opening your project in Premiere Pro. Make sure your video is already on the timeline and your audio track is clean and audible. Once ready, go to the top menu and click on “Window” > “Text.” This opens the Text Panel, where all the captioning magic happens.
In the Text panel, you'll see the “Transcribe Sequence” button. Click it. A pop-up will ask you to select the audio track you want to transcribe. You can choose the right audio channel and set the spoken language to match your video.
Then hit “Transcribe.” Premiere Pro will now listen to your video and automatically convert your audio to text. This may take a few minutes depending on your video length. Once done, you’ll get a full transcription displayed in the panel.
Now click “Create Captions.” Premiere will break your transcription into timed caption blocks and place them above your video track. You’ve just created subtitles without typing a single line!
Now it’s time to polish your subtitles. Start by playing back your video and reviewing the captions in the Text panel. You can click on any caption block to edit the text. Fix typos, add punctuation, or make the tone match your brand voice.
If you notice that some subtitles don’t match the timing exactly, you can adjust them. Just select the caption block in the timeline and slide it left or right to sync it with your audio. You can even shorten or extend the duration if needed.
This step is crucial, especially for interviews or fast-paced discussions. A well-synced subtitle feels natural and keeps your audience engaged.
Now let’s make your subtitles look good.
Click on the subtitle track in your timeline. Then open the Essential Graphics panel. This is where you can customize everything — font, size, color, position, and background.
Want bold yellow text with a black shadow? No problem. Prefer white text with a semi-transparent background? You got it. Play around with these settings until your subtitles match your video’s style.
And if you’re feeling creative, we’ll show you later how to add animations to bring your subtitles to life.
Once you’re happy with the subtitles, you’re ready to export. Go to File > Export > Media. In the export settings, click on the Captions tab. Here, choose how you want your subtitles to appear — burned into the video (hardcoded), or as a separate file like SRT.
Hardcoded subtitles are great for social media. Separate files are better for platforms like YouTube or Vimeo that support closed captions.
Already have subtitles from another tool? Or maybe you used an AI generator like Checksub to create them faster? Good news — Premiere Pro makes it easy to import existing subtitle files and sync them with your video.
Here’s how to do it step by step.
First, open your Premiere Pro project and make sure your video is placed on the timeline. Now go to the top menu and click “File” > “Import.” Locate your subtitle file — this will usually be in .srt format, but Premiere also supports .xml and other formats.
Once imported, your subtitle file will appear in the Project panel like any other media asset. It’s now ready to be added to your timeline.
Drag and drop your subtitle file onto the timeline. Make sure to place it above your video track, in a new layer. This ensures your subtitles appear on top of your footage when you play back the video.
Most of the time, the subtitles will automatically sync with your audio based on the timestamps in the file. But depending on the tool you used to generate them, some adjustments might be necessary.
Play through your video and check if everything aligns properly. If something feels off — maybe the captions are a few seconds too early or too late — you can fix it easily.
Click on the subtitle track in your timeline. You can now manually drag each caption block left or right to adjust its position. This is super useful if your video has been trimmed or the subtitles were generated using a slightly different version of the file.
For finer control, open the Captions panel. There, you’ll see the exact start and end times of each subtitle segment. You can edit these values directly to get frame-perfect timing.
Take a few minutes to go through the whole video and make sure everything syncs naturally with your audio. This part might feel repetitive, but it makes a huge difference in the final result.
Now let’s make your imported subtitles look professional.
With the subtitle track selected, go to the Essential Graphics panel. Just like with auto-generated captions, you can now customize the font, size, color, alignment, and background.
You want your subtitles to be easy to read and visually aligned with your video’s tone. Whether you go for bold and colorful, or minimal and discreet, Premiere Pro gives you full creative control.
When you're done syncing and styling, it’s time to export.
Go to File > Export > Media. In the export window, click on the Captions tab. Choose whether you want to burn the subtitles into the video or export them as a separate file.
Burned-in subtitles stay visible no matter where your video is watched. External subtitle files give your viewers the option to turn captions on or off.
Now that your subtitles are looking sharp, let’s take things up a notch. Want to make them pop? Move? Fade in or out? Good news — Premiere Pro lets you animate your captions for more dynamic and engaging videos.
It’s easier than you might think. Let’s walk through it together.
First, you need to turn your subtitles into graphic elements. That’s how you unlock all the animation tools.
In your timeline, select the caption track. Then go to the top menu and click on “Graphics and Titles” > “Upgrade Caption to Graphic.” This will convert all your captions into editable graphic clips.
Each caption block now becomes a graphic layer. You’ll be able to apply effects, keyframes, and motion — just like you would with any text or shape.
Now it’s time to animate.
Select one of your graphic clips in the timeline. Then open the Effects panel and search for the “Transform” effect. You’ll find it under Video Effects > Distort. Drag and drop it onto the selected graphic clip.
Next, go to the Effect Controls panel. You’ll now see options to animate position, scale, rotation, and more.
For a clean scaling effect, start by adding keyframes to the “Scale” property. Place the playhead at the beginning of the clip and set the first keyframe with the scale set to 0. Move forward a few frames and add a second keyframe, setting the scale to 100.
Play it back — your caption now grows from nothing to full size. It’s a simple trick that instantly adds motion and life to your video.
Let’s make the animation smoother.
Still in the Effect Controls panel, find the Shutter Angle setting under the Transform effect. Set it to 150. This creates natural-looking motion blur, which gives your animation a more polished feel.
Now right-click on your keyframes and choose “Ease In” or “Ease Out.” This adds a smooth acceleration or deceleration to the movement — instead of starting or ending abruptly.
Don’t want to animate every single caption one by one? You don’t have to.
Once you’re happy with the effect, select the animated graphic clip and copy it using Cmd+C (Mac) or Ctrl+C (Windows). Then select the rest of your caption graphics and paste the effect using Paste Attributes. Make sure the Transform effect is selected in the options.
Just like that, the animation is applied across all your subtitles.
Manually syncing subtitles or animating every caption can take time. If you're working with multiple videos, long interviews, or multilingual content, things can get overwhelming fast.
That's where AI subtitle tools like Checksub come in. They speed up the whole process, without sacrificing quality. You get fast, accurate subtitles — ready to use in Premiere Pro or to export directly.
First, head over to checksub.com. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up — it only takes a minute.
Once logged in, click “New Project” and upload your video. Checksub accepts all common video formats. You can also paste a link if your video is already hosted online.
Then choose the language spoken in your video. Want subtitles in multiple languages? You can select translation options here too — Checksub handles that automatically.
Once uploaded, Checksub’s AI gets to work. It uses speech recognition to transcribe your video — quickly and accurately.
In just a few minutes, you'll have your full transcript broken into subtitle segments, already time-coded to match your audio.
Unlike manual tools, Checksub also detects punctuation, speaker changes, and even background noise. So your subtitles feel natural and professional from the start.
When the subtitles are ready, you can edit them right inside Checksub’s built-in editor.
Want to fix a name, adjust a pause, or correct a typo? Just click on the subtitle and type. The interface is super intuitive — it’s like editing a Google Doc, but synced with your video.
You can also drag and drop subtitles on the timeline to tweak timing, or split long lines into shorter ones. This is perfect if you want clean, readable subtitles without diving back into Premiere Pro.
Checksub also lets you style your subtitles. You can change the font, color, size, alignment, and even background — just like in Premiere Pro. Want subtitles that match your brand or content style? You can do that here too.
When you're ready, choose your export option. You can download your subtitles as an SRT, VTT, or TXT file to import into Premiere Pro. Or you can choose to burn the subtitles directly into the video and export it as an MP4.
If you're working with a team, Checksub also supports collaboration. Share your project with others and work together on edits and translations. Everything’s in the cloud — no downloads, no mess.
Want to speed up your subtitling process in Premiere Pro ? Try Checksub for free.
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