How to Add Subtitles to a Video

To add subtitles to a video, upload it, ask, and download two files a few minutes later: the video with subtitles burned in, and a matching SRT for platforms that take a caption file. Styling is one more sentence.

Upload the video and ask

Add your video to a new chat, any common format, and say what you want. "Add subtitles to this video" is enough: Chat Octopus transcribes the speech, breaks it into short lines of six or seven words, and times every line to land on the word being spoken.

Two files come back:

• The subtitled video: an MP4 at the original resolution, with the text burned into the picture so it shows everywhere the video plays.
• A matching SRT: a separate caption file with the same lines and the same timing, for platforms that accept caption uploads.

The default styling is built for phones: clean text sized to read on a small screen, placed in the lower third with a soft shadow or a subtle background so it stays legible over bright footage. On vertical video the lines sit a little higher, out from under the TikTok and Reels buttons. If the same clip is also getting a name bar for whoever is speaking, say which one takes the bottom of the frame.

Describe the style you want

There is no styling menu. Font, color, size, position, background, and animation all respond to plain description, in the first request or after you see the result:

• "Bold white text with a black outline at the bottom."
• "Yellow captions that pop word by word."
• "Minimal lowercase, high enough to clear the app's buttons."

Karaoke-style timing and word-level highlighting work the same way: describe the effect and the next version has it. One habit worth keeping: a single accent color at most. One highlighted keyword per line stands out; three colors compete with the footage.

Fix mistakes by talking

Accuracy is high on clear speech; accents, background noise, and technical jargon are where a word can slip. Watch the result once and correct anything you catch, right in the thread:

• "Change 'their' to 'there' at 2:14."
• "Fix the timing on the third subtitle."

Each fix applies to that one line, with no timeline scrubbing and no redoing the whole video. The conversation keeps the whole project loaded, so a follow-up refines the work instead of restarting it.

Add another language

When the first set reads right, ask for a translation: "Now make Spanish subtitles from the English ones." Both languages stay in the same conversation, so later corrections can go to either version.

Get them onto YouTube, TikTok, or Reels

There is no direct upload to any platform: you download the finished files and post them yourself. Each platform gets the file it handles best.

• TikTok, Reels, Shorts: post the burned-in MP4. These feeds autoplay on mute, and burned-in subtitles always show, styled exactly the way you asked.
• YouTube: upload your video as usual, then add the SRT to it in YouTube Studio's subtitle settings. Viewers can turn the captions on and off and read them at their own size.
• A platform that wants a different caption format: ask for VTT or ASS and export that instead.

For anywhere else, the rule is short: feeds that autoplay on mute need the burned-in version, platforms with a caption toggle take the file. Captions and subtitles are different jobs, and knowing which one your viewers need picks the file for you.

Next steps

Attach the video and ask for subtitles, then play the result back once with a list of the proper nouns in front of you: the names, the company, the product. That is where a caption slips, and each one costs a sentence in the thread. If you have not made an account yet, it costs nothing today and comes with credits already in it.

Starting from raw footage rather than a finished cut? Ask the footage which moments are worth keeping first, then caption the clip you cut.