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As of 13 August 2026, AI can add captions to your social media videos.
This still needs a person who signs their name to it.
Can you do it?
5 minutesto a draft.
15 minutesto something you’d act on.
Cost, all in£0/month
Skill needednone
Who has to check ityou
What the alternative costsA specialist video editor is the alternative; no price is stated in the supplied data.
If this goes wrong: a word, name or line break is wrong in the posted video, so you correct the captions and publish a replacement.
What to actually do
Hand it to a person
The route this page recommends
A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.
Do it yourself
Second choiceA chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 15 minutes until you can act on the result.
How to actually do it
- Open VEED and upload the finished video file.
- Choose Subtitles or Auto Subtitles, select the spoken language, and let the editor transcribe the audio.
- Use the caption settings to choose readable line breaks, text size, contrast and placement that suit the platform you will use.
- Play the video from the start and compare every caption with the speech, correcting names, numbers, technical terms, punctuation and timing in VEED.
- Watch the video with the sound muted to confirm that the captions still communicate the message and do not cover important on-screen text or faces.
- Export the captioned video, then upload that file to the relevant social platform and check its preview before publishing.
Prompt
I am adding captions to a social media video for work. Use the uploaded video if you can access its audio; otherwise use the transcript I provide below. Create accurate captions in British English, preserving names, technical terms and the speaker's meaning. Do not invent words or silently rewrite the speech. Break captions into short readable lines, keep punctuation natural, and return an SRT file with timestamps if the audio is available. If any word is unclear, mark it as [unclear] and list the timestamp or sentence for me to check. Also give me a short list of words, names and phrases that need manual verification. Platform: [Instagram / TikTok / LinkedIn / YouTube]. Brand or accessibility requirements: [paste requirements]. Transcript, if needed: [paste transcript].
Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.
Use a tool built for this
The distant third
What it gets wrong
- AI cannot know whether a caption style fits your brand, audience or campaign without your direction.
- It mishears names, accents, overlapping speech, background noise and specialist terminology.
- It cannot decide whether a spoken joke, swear word or sensitive phrase should remain in a work post.
- It does not reliably notice when captions cover a product, face, chart or other important visual detail.
- It cannot take responsibility for the version you publish from your business account.
Even on a YES, the friction has a name: taste and verification cost.
How we scored this
Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.
| Axis | Score (0–2) |
|---|---|
| Output | 2 |
| Inputs | 2 |
| Verification | 2 |
| Liability | 2 |
| Effort delta | 2 |
| Total | 10 / 10 |
The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.
FAQ
- Can AI automatically caption a video?
- Yes. A tool such as VEED can transcribe the speech, time the captions and place them on the video. You still need to listen through the result before publishing.
- What is the best AI tool for adding captions to videos?
- VEED is a suitable purpose-built option because it is a browser video editor with AI subtitles. Descript is another option if you also want to edit the video through its transcript.
- Are AI-generated captions accurate?
- They are often a useful first draft, but they can get names, accents, numbers, jargon and noisy speech wrong. Play the whole video and compare the captions with the audio before posting.
- Can AI add captions to an Instagram video?
- Yes. Create and check a captioned video in an editor such as VEED, then upload the exported file to Instagram. Check that the captions do not cover important visuals or Instagram's own interface elements.
Nearby answers
- Can AI answer messages on my Facebook business page?PARTLY
- Can AI create Instagram Reels for my business?YES
- Can AI create a social media strategy for my UK business?PARTLY
- Can AI find influencers for my UK small business?PARTLY
- Can AI make social media videos for my business?YES
- Can AI respond to my social media messages?YES
Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.
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