CapCut auto captions aren’t free any more
CapCut restructured its pricing in 2025 and auto captions went with it: they now sit inside CapCut Pro, listed at $19.99 a month, and exporting without a watermark on the web wants you signed in. If you opened CapCut to caption a reel and found a paywall where the button used to be, this page is about what to do instead. (Prices checked August 2026 — CapCut has changed them before and may again.)
AI Caption Cut vs CapCut, side by side
| AI Caption Cut | CapCut | |
|---|---|---|
| Auto captions | Free, unlimited | CapCut Pro |
| Price | Free; one payment to drop the watermark | $19.99 / month, $179.99 / year |
| Account | None | Sign-in required |
| Install | None — it is a web page | App, or the web editor |
| Where your video goes | Nowhere — read from your disk | Their servers |
| Free export | 480p, small watermark, unlimited | Watermarked without Pro |
| Caption styles | 62 presets, 22 animations | Large library, much of it Pro |
| Word-by-word karaoke | Free | Pro |
| Hinglish (Roman Hindi) | On-device romanisation | Not offered |
| Trim, crop, grade | Yes, free | Yes, some of it Pro |
| Full editing suite | Captions, cuts, crop, colour | Far bigger — effects, music, templates |
| Works offline | Yes, after the first load | App only |
CapCut figures read from their pricing page in July 2026. Prices change — check theirs before deciding.
What actually changed
Automatic captions were one of the reasons CapCut got as big as it did: they were free, they were fast, and everyone captioning a short-form clip used them. In the 2025 pricing change they moved into the Pro tier, alongside 4K export and the AI toolkit. The monthly price is listed at $19.99, or $179.99 for a year.
For a studio editing every day that may be worth it — CapCut is a real editor and Pro buys a great deal more than captions. For someone captioning a few reels a week it is $240 a year for a feature that used to cost nothing, which is why so many people are looking for somewhere else to do it.
What AI Caption Cut does instead
Captions are free here and always unlimited: open the site, drop a video in, and speech-to-text runs on your own device with word-level timing, so karaoke highlighting lands on the right syllable. No account, no download, no trial that expires.
Free exports are 480p and carry a small watermark in the corner. Removing it and exporting in HD is a one-off payment for that video — not a subscription, and nothing recurring to cancel. If you never want HD, you never pay anything at all.
The video is never uploaded. It is read straight from your disk, transcribed in the browser and rendered back to a file on your machine. That is a different architecture from CapCut, not a policy promise — there is no server for the footage to sit on.
Where CapCut is still the better tool
It is a full editor and this is not. CapCut has effects, transitions, a music library, templates, green screen, multi-track timelines and a mobile app that syncs. If you are making something elaborate, or you edit on a phone away from a desk, CapCut earns its place.
What this does is the short-form job end to end: captions in 62 styles, cut a long recording into clips, crop to 9:16, grade the colour, export an MP4. If that is the whole of what you needed CapCut for, you can stop paying for it.
If you caption in Hindi or Hinglish
Every cloud tool transcribes Hindi speech into Devanagari, because that is what the underlying model outputs. Creators captioning reels almost always want Roman Hindi instead — "kya scene hai", not "क्या सीन है".
AI Caption Cut romanises on your device, and ships three caption styles set in Devanagari fonts for the times you do want the script. It is the one thing on this page a bigger competitor cannot match by changing a price.
Questions
Are CapCut auto captions really not free any more?
As of the 2025 pricing restructure they sit in CapCut Pro, listed at $19.99 a month. The free tier still edits video; automatic captions, 4K export and the AI features are behind the subscription. CapCut has changed its pricing before, so it is worth checking their page as well as this one.
Is there a free alternative to CapCut for captions?
This is one: captions are free and unlimited with no account and no install, and the video never leaves your device. Free exports are 480p with a small watermark; removing it is a one-off payment for that video rather than a monthly fee.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It is a web page. Open it, add a video and start — it works on a laptop or a phone browser, and once loaded it keeps working with the internet off.
Can I still use CapCut for the rest of the edit?
Yes, and plenty of people will. Caption here, export the MP4, and take it into CapCut for whatever else you need — or download the .srt file and bring the captions across on their own.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. Speech-to-text, styling and the final render all happen inside your browser on your own machine. You can check it yourself: disconnect from the internet after the page loads and caption a video anyway.
Related free tools
Try it on your own video
Nothing to install, no account, and your video never leaves your device. Unlimited free exports, and a one-off payment when you want the watermark gone.
Caption my video — free