YouTube Shorts how-to
How to add captions to YouTube Shorts (auto and your own)
Short answer
YouTube can create automatic captions for Shorts as well as long videos, and publishes them on their own once processed. To check or fix them, open YouTube Studio > Subtitles, choose the Short and edit the automatic track. To add your own captions, click Add language, then Add under Subtitles and upload a file, auto-sync a transcript or type them. Viewers turn these on with CC; for words that are always visible, add text in the Shorts editor or burn captions in before upload.
Checked against: YouTube Studio and the YouTube app, October 2026.
Method 1: Review automatic captions
Open Subtitles
Sign in to YouTube Studio and select Subtitles in the left menu.
Pick the Short
Click the Short; under Subtitles click More next to the automatic track.
Fix mistakes
Review the captions and edit or remove anything that wasn't transcribed properly, then publish.
Method 2: Add your own captions
Add a language
In Studio > Subtitles, select the Short, click Add language and choose the language.
Choose a method
Under Subtitles click Add, then Upload a file (SRT and other formats), Auto-sync (paste a transcript), or Type manually. You can also add captions during upload.
Method 3: Always-visible text
Shorts editor text
In the YouTube app's Shorts editor, after recording tap Done, then add text (and text-to-speech) from the editing tools. This text is part of the video, unlike CC captions.
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Captions vs on-screen text
| Type | Viewer can turn off | Where to add |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic captions | Yes (CC) | Created by YouTube; edit in Studio |
| Your caption file | Yes (CC) | Studio > Subtitles |
| Shorts editor text | No | YouTube app |
| Burned-in captions | No | Your editing app before upload |
If it doesn't work
| What you see | Fix |
|---|---|
| No automatic captions appeared | They can take time to process. YouTube also skips them for unsupported languages, poor audio, overlapping speakers or long silence at the start. |
| Captions show the wrong words | Edit the automatic track in Studio > Subtitles, or upload your own file. |
| Viewers say there are no captions | CC captions are off by default for many viewers. Add on-screen text if every viewer must see the words. |
| Captions in the wrong language | Automatic captions are only in the video's default language. Set the video language in its details. |
Questions people ask
Does YouTube auto-caption Shorts?
Yes. YouTube's help says automatic captions are available on long-form videos and Shorts in its supported languages.
Can I add captions to a Short from my phone?
The Studio Subtitles editor is on the web. On the phone you can add on-screen text in the Shorts editor.
Should I burn captions into Shorts?
Burned-in captions are seen by everyone, including viewers who never turn on CC; keeping a CC track as well lets viewers switch captions off or translate them.
More YouTube Shorts guides
Sources and how we checked
- YouTube Help: Use automatic captioning (checked 2026-10-05)
- YouTube Help: Add subtitles and captions (checked 2026-10-05)
- YouTube Help: Create YouTube Shorts (checked 2026-10-05)
Reviewed October 5, 2026 by the Koldflux team. Each step is compared with YouTube Shorts's own documentation (linked above) and with the top search results for this task; where they disagree, the maker's documentation wins. Steps without a source link follow the menu names that several current guides agree on.