How to Add YouTube Closed Captioning

Are you looking to add subtitles to your YouTube videos? You’ve come to the right place.

How to turn on captions on Youtube

When you first upload your video to YouTube, you can select the language for your video. This will help YouTube generate closed captioning.

1. Upload your video.
2. In the Details menu, scroll down to “Language, subtitles, and closed captions.”

1. Select the language for your video.
2. Proceed through the Video Elements and Visibility sections of the pre-publishing process. Then click DONE.

Your audience will now be able to turn on the auto-generated closed captions by clicking the CC button on your video.

How to edit automatic captions on YouTube

To edit the automatic captions or uploaded captions that we set in the last section, head to YouTube's Creator Studio Classic. Then follow these steps.

1. Click Video Manager.

1. Click the dropdown menu next to the Edit button for your video and click “Subtitles/CC.”

1. Select the captions that you want to edit. For this example, we’re editing the automatic English captions seen in the screenshot below.

1. Click Edit in the upper right hand corner of the window.

1. From there, you can click right into the captions to add, remove, and edit your captions, as well as adjust their timing.

1. Click Publish edits to finalize your changes.

How to download closed captions from YouTube

Whether you’ve tweaked them or not, you can download your closed captions from YouTube to use elsewhere, such as Facebook.

1. Click Video Manager, like we did above.
2. Click the dropdown menu next to the Edit button for your video and click “Subtitles/CC.”
3. Select the captions that you want to edit.
4. Click Actions and select the file format you want to download your captions in. Facebook, for example, takes .srt files. Lean more about Facebook captions here.

How to upload your own closed caption file to YouTube

Last but not least, let’s talk about how to upload your own closed caption file to YouTube.

If you haven’t uploaded your video yet

1. Upload your video.
2. In the Details menu, scroll down to “Language, subtitles, and closed captions.”

1. Click “Upload Subtitles/CC,” then choose either “With timing” or “Without timing,” and select your file.
2. To finish up, proceed through the Video Elements and Visibility sections of the pre-publishing process and click DONE.

If your video is already on YouTube

1. In YouTube Studio, click the Videos tab.

1. Select your video by clicking either the title or thumbnail of the video in question.

1. Click the Advanced tab.

1. Click “Upload Subtitles/CC.” Then choose either “With timing” or “Without timing,” select your file, and save your video.

Ready to get started?

YouTube captions can be instrumental to the success of a video. YouTube closed captioning contributes to your video’s SEO ranking and has been shown to boost engagement with your video. That’s not even to mention the accessibility benefits associated with adding subtitles to your video.

We hope this answered any and all of your questions about adding closed captioning to YouTube videos. If you’re unclear on anything, give us a shout in the comments! If you’re creating a video for YouTube, check out our YouTube video maker here.

For video inspiration and discussion with fellow creators, join our private Facebook group, the Animoto Social Video Marketing Community.