You want captions that light up word by word as the speaker talks. Premiere Pro will transcribe your sequence and put captions on screen, but the text sits still.
This guide covers what Premiere Pro does by itself, then how to make animated captions for free with Captions, a free plugin we build for Premiere Pro and After Effects. You get five styles for nothing, and every caption stays editable on your timeline. Further down it lists what a Filmit Studio subscription adds, so you know where the free part ends.
This video may reference an older version of Captions. Features and UI may have changed since recording.
Can Premiere Pro make animated captions by itself?
Not word by word. Premiere Pro transcribes your sequence and creates captions you can style. As of Premiere Pro 26.3 it can also show one word per caption, but it has no word highlight animation. The native steps, from Adobe's guide to creating captions:
- Open the captions workspace. Choose Window, Workspaces, Captions and Graphics. The Text panel opens.
- Transcribe. In the Text panel, click Transcribe sequence and wait for the transcript.
- Create the captions. On the Captions tab, click Create captions from transcript. In the Create Captions dialog, choose your settings, such as one line or two, and click Create captions.
- Style them. Select the captions on the caption track and set the font, fill and stroke in the Properties panel.
That gives you readable captions on their own track, and for a lot of work that is all you need. It does not give you a highlight that moves from word to word.
What do you need to make animated captions for free?
You need Premiere Pro 2025 or newer, a free Filmit account, and Filmit Studio, the desktop app that installs Captions.
- Premiere Pro 2025 or newer, on Mac or Windows. Captions also runs in After Effects 2025 or newer.
- A free Filmit account. Go to the Captions page and click Download Captions. It asks you to create an account.
- Filmit Studio. The desktop app installs Captions into Premiere Pro and keeps it up to date.
Once it is installed, open Premiere Pro and choose Window, Extensions, Filmit Studio. Click Captions in the panel that opens. To close a tool, right-click it in that panel.
How do you make animated captions for free in Premiere Pro?
Open your sequence, get the words in with Transcribe or From Premiere, choose a layout and one of the five free styles, check it in the preview, and click Create captions. Each caption lands on your timeline as its own clip.
- Open the sequence, then open Captions.
- Get the words in. Click Transcribe to transcribe with Whisper on your own computer. The first time, it installs the transcription engine. Pick the language in the menu under Transcribe. Or click From Premiere to read the caption track already on your sequence, the one the native steps above make.
- Set the layout. Choose 1, 2 or 3 lines, the size, and one of nine positions. You can also drag the caption in the preview, with a snapping grid and safe margins to line it up.
- Pick a style. The five free styles are Clean, Subtitle, Soft Rise, Read Along and Bold Social.
- Check it with sound. Press Sound and the preview plays the captions against the voice, before anything goes to the timeline.
- Check the words. Review flags the words the transcription was unsure of. Play a caption, and retype it if it is wrong.
- Click Create captions. Every caption goes on the first free track above your edit, as its own clip.
Nothing is uploaded and there are no per-minute fees. If you used From Premiere, hide the native caption track afterwards so the text does not show twice.
In the video, Max does this on a short storybook film he makes for his kids. He transcribes it, sets two lines at the bottom of the frame, plays it back with sound, and clicks Create captions.
Pro Tip: Press Sound before you click Create captions. If the highlight lands a little early or late, move Word timing until it matches the voice, so the captions are right when they reach the timeline.
What can you change for free?
The whole Layout section, five styles, a set of Customize controls and Review are free, along with one saved style of your own.
- Layout. Lines, size and nine positions, or drag the caption into place. In a wide sequence, the Vertical 9:16 frame keeps captions inside the center column.
- Styles. Clean and Subtitle are quiet line styles. Soft Rise and Read Along animate word by word. Bold Social is the loud one, for shorts. The Style Library shows all 111 styles, so you can watch the others play.
- Customize. Font, colors, outline and size, plus Punctuation, Word timing and Caption length. You can save one style of your own.
- Review. The list of words the transcription was unsure of, with each caption open to retype.
How do you fix or change captions after they are made?
The captions are not burned in. Each one is a clip on the timeline that you can move, trim, retype or delete, and three buttons in the panel change many at once.
- Update all captions. Pick a new style or layout in the panel and apply it to every caption.
- Update selected. Select caption clips on the timeline and only those change. Use it when one line needs a different look.
- Remove captions. Takes all of them off the timeline.
- One caption by hand. Click its clip and edit the text, font, colors or animation in the Properties panel.
What does a Filmit Studio subscription add?
A Filmit Studio subscription adds the full Style Library of 111 styles, which is 106 more than the free five, the rest of Customize, more saved styles, and Bulk. There is a 7-day free trial.
Five: Clean, Subtitle, Soft Rise, Read Along, Bold Social
All 111 in the Style Library
Font, colors, outline, size, Punctuation, Word timing, Caption length
The rest of Customize, for example all caps, shadow, animation and spacing controls
One of your own
More saved styles
On your own computer
The same
One at a time
Bulk: many sequences in one run
Bulk is for batches. You add many sequences, picking them from the project, and Captions transcribes and captions all of them in one run. Max says in the video that he finds it useful for short-form content.
Where does it stop?
- Transcription makes mistakes. Review flags the words it was unsure of. Read the captions through before you export anyway.
- Free means five styles. The other 106 play in the Style Library, and using them takes a subscription.
- Bulk is not free. Without a subscription you caption one sequence at a time.
- It needs Premiere Pro 2025 or newer.
- You may not need it. If plain captions that sit still are all the piece calls for, the built-in captions do that with nothing to install.
Getting started
Captions starts on the Captions page, and the five free styles need only a free Filmit account. If the same video has to go out in another language, how to translate captions in Premiere Pro covers that, and our guide to free Premiere Pro plugins covers where to find more of them safely.
