TikTok's captions or your own
TikTok's built-in captions are generated from your speech and shown in TikTok's own style; viewers can turn them on or off. They help accessibility, but they all look the same and you can't animate them.
Burned-in captions are drawn into the video before you upload it. They show for every viewer, keep the font and animation you picked, and survive when the video is downloaded or reposted to Reels and Shorts.
You can use both: burned-in captions for the look, and TikTok's captions switched on for viewers who rely on them.
Add animated captions with CAPWAV
- Open the TikTok captions tool and drop in your video.
- Pick the language you speak and a caption style. Karaoke and bold pop styles are made for TikTok's pace.
- CAPWAV transcribes the speech and times each word. Correct any word and adjust the style in the editor.
- Export the MP4 and upload it to TikTok.
Want it tighter? AI Cut removes pauses and filler words before you caption, on the Creator and Pro plans.
Video size for TikTok
| Setting | Recommended |
|---|---|
| Shape | 9:16 (vertical) |
| Size | 1080 × 1920 pixels |
| File | MP4 (H.264) |
| Captions | Burned in, with high contrast |
If you recorded landscape, Smart Reframe (Pro) crops it to 9:16 and keeps the speaker in frame.
Where captions should sit on TikTok
TikTok puts the like, comment, share and profile buttons down the right side, and your username, description and sound along the bottom. Text in those areas is hidden behind them.
Keep captions above the bottom fifth of the frame and away from the right edge; the middle third of the screen is the safest place for words. See the caption safe zones guide for the other platforms too.
Write captions for the first two seconds
Most viewers decide whether to keep watching in the first moments of a TikTok. Captions do a lot of that work: the opening line on screen is your hook, so make sure it says something worth staying for.
- Start talking straight away, so the first caption appears in the first second.
- Put the most surprising word of your first sentence in the highlight colour, or bigger.
- Cut the throat-clearing: “so”, “um” and long pauses at the start lose people. AI Cut removes them for you (Creator and Pro).
- Keep the hook short on screen: one to three words at a time read faster than a full sentence.
Captions in other languages
TikTok's audience is global. CAPWAV transcribes speech in 90+ languages, so you can caption a video in the language it was filmed in, from Spanish and Portuguese to Hindi, Arabic and Japanese, with fonts made for each script.
To reach people who speak another language, the Creator and Pro plans can translate the captions into one of 75 languages as they're made. Read how to translate a video's subtitles for the details.
Caption styles that work on TikTok
- Word-by-word highlight (karaoke): the spoken word lights up, which keeps attention on fast talking videos.
- Bold pop: big, heavy words that bounce in one or two at a time, for hooks and punchlines.
- Emoji captions: a relevant emoji beside key words. CAPWAV's auto-emoji is part of the Pro plan.
- Minimal: smaller, clean captions for tutorials and calm videos, where the picture matters most.
See them all, moving, in the caption templates.