How to add captions to an MP4 in Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro can caption an MP4 on its own. Import the video, transcribe it in the Text panel and create captions, and they land on a caption track above the picture. That's the right tool when the captions only need to live in Premiere. If you also want the same captions burned into an MP4 for Shorts or Reels, or in CapCut or Resolve, Captions makes them on your computer and gives you a Premiere XML with every caption as a Text clip over the video.

Speech recognition makes mistakes. Check names and spellings before you post.

The manual way: Speech to Text in Premiere Pro

Speech to Text is built into current versions of Premiere Pro and comes with the subscription. Adobe's tutorial on adding captions shows the same panels.

1. Choose File > Import and pick the MP4. Right-click it in the Project panel and choose New Sequence From Clip, so the sequence matches the video's size and frame rate. A vertical phone video gives a 1080×1920 sequence.
2. Open Window > Text. In the Transcript tab, click Transcribe and pick the language. The first time, Premiere downloads that language's pack.
3. In the Captions tab, click Create captions. Choose a caption preset and the longest line you want; around 32 characters reads well on a phone. The captions land on a caption track above V1.
4. Select the captions and style them in the Properties panel, or Essential Graphics in older versions: font, size, fill, stroke and a background box. Save the look as a track style so every caption follows it.
5. To move or animate captions one at a time, select them on the timeline and choose Graphics and Titles > Upgrade Caption to Graphic. Each caption becomes its own graphic clip. The command arrived in Premiere Pro 23.1.

Speech to Text does the words well. What it doesn't give you is the same captions anywhere else: the burned-in MP4 for your phone means an export, and CapCut or Resolve means doing it all again.

The CutConvert way: an XML with every caption as a Text clip

1. Open Captions and drop the MP4. The speech is turned into words in your browser, so the video isn't uploaded.
2. Pick a look, then read the list of captions and fix names and spellings.
3. Download Premiere Pro. Project files come with a paid video: $5, or one of the videos a Pro or Studio plan includes. You get a Premiere XML.
4. In Premiere Pro, choose File > Import and pick the .xml. Premiere adds a bin named after the file, with the sequence inside.
5. Open the sequence. The video comes in offline, because the XML names it but not where it is. Right-click it in the Project panel, choose Link Media, click Locate and pick the MP4.

The free tier works with Premiere too. Download the SRT, choose File > Import in Premiere and drag it onto the sequence: you get Premiere's own caption track, as in step 3 of the manual way, without transcribing in Premiere. For Text-Based Editing instead, SRT to Premiere JSON turns the same SRT into a transcript Premiere can import, and the guide to importing a transcript into Premiere Pro has the steps.

What the timeline looks like

Take a 60-second vertical MP4, 1080×1920 at 30 fps, of one person talking to the camera, captioned with the Box look at one line a caption. After the import:

• The sequence is 1080×1920 at 30 fps.
• V1 holds the video. Its stereo sound comes in as two mono clips, on A1 and A2.
• V2 holds one Text clip per caption. A minute of steady talking makes about 30 of them, each starting and ending on its caption's frames.
• Each Text clip has its words, size, colour and position, so the captions sit where the MP4 shows them.

What comes across, and what doesn't

• Words and timing come across to the frame.
• Size, colour and position match the look you picked.
• Bold, outline and the box don't. A Text clip in Premiere XML has no place for them, so the text comes in plain. If you need them in Premiere, use its caption track with a track style, or post the burned-in MP4, which has the full look.
• The spoken-word highlight of the Bold and Pop looks is drawn into the MP4 only. In the XML each caption is one Text clip.
• Fonts. The XML names the font, Arial for most looks and Bebas Neue for Pop. If Bebas Neue isn't installed, Premiere uses another font.

Which way to use

If the captions only need to live in this one Premiere project, use Speech to Text. You've already paid for it, and a caption track restyles in one go. CutConvert earns its place when the same captions have to go to several places: the burned-in MP4 for the phone, the SRT for YouTube and the Text clips in Premiere, all from one pass over the words.

FAQ

Can Premiere Pro add captions to an MP4 automatically? Yes. Import the MP4, make a sequence from it, open Window > Text and click Transcribe in the Transcript tab. Then click Create captions in the Captions tab. The captions sit on a caption track above the video.

How do I turn Premiere captions into graphics? Select the captions on the timeline and choose Graphics and Titles > Upgrade Caption to Graphic. Each caption becomes a graphic clip you can move and style on its own. The command arrived in Premiere Pro 23.1.

Why is the video offline after I import the XML? The XML names the video but not where it is on your computer, so Premiere brings it in offline. Right-click the offline clip in the Project panel, choose Link Media, click Locate and pick the MP4.

Why don't the captions have an outline or box in Premiere? A Text clip in Premiere XML holds the words, size, colour and position, but not bold, an outline or a box, so the text comes in plain. The burned-in MP4 has the full look.

How much does it cost? Free: the captioned MP4 up to 3 minutes with a small cutconvert.com mark in the corner, plus the SRT and VTT. One captioned video costs $5: any length, no mark, and the captions as editable text in CapCut, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro. Pro includes 10 captioned videos a month and Studio 40.