Add Captions to Videos (EASY Subtitles in Descript)

Wondering how to create captions in Descript? You’re in the right place!

If you’ve ever wanted to add captions to your videos without overcomplicating your editing workflow, you’re going to love how easy Descript makes this now.

The good news is that adding captions and subtitles in Descript has never been easier.

Descript gives you pre-designed caption templates that work right out of the box and even better, you can customize them to match your brand and save those preferences so that future videos are literally a one-click process.

In this post, I’m walking you through how to add captions to videos in Descript from selecting pre-designed templates to customizing fonts and colors, we cover everything you need to know to make your captions stand out.

You’ll also learn how to apply captions to specific scenes or your entire video.

Perfect for educators, marketers, and creators, this tutorial will help you elevate your video content and improve accessibility for your audience.

VIDEO: Add Captions to Videos (EASY Subtitles in Descript)

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Where to Find the Captions Tool in Descript

As with most of my Descript tutorials, I highly recommend opening your timeline so you can see exactly what’s happening in your edit.

Over on the right-hand side, you’ll find the Captions option. When you open it, you’ll see a list of pre-designed caption styles. These allow you to burn captions directly into your video, meaning Descript takes the transcript and visually applies captions on screen.

Some styles are intentionally tilted. Some use a karaoke-style effect, where the word currently being spoken is highlighted. When you apply one, you’ll also notice a captions track appear in your timeline just like music, images, or B-roll.

That captions track is fully editable and movable.

Adding Captions to One Scene vs the Entire Video

One of my favorite things about captions in Descript is that you’re not locked into applying them everywhere.

You have two options:

Apply captions to all scenes
Apply captions to just the current scene

If you only want captions to appear during one specific moment maybe a key message or emphasized section you can choose Apply to this scene. Descript will add the captions track only where that scene exists on the timeline.

If you want captions across your entire video, simply select All scenes.

For learning and styling, I usually work on just one scene first.

Moving and Positioning Captions on Screen

Once your captions are added, you can click on the captions track and reposition them anywhere in the frame.

Most people place captions in the lower third of the video, but that’s not a rule. You can move them wherever they make sense visually.

This is also where you can:

Resize the caption box
Reposition it vertically or horizontally
Adjust spacing so it doesn’t cover important visuals

Choosing Fonts and Adjusting Text Size

Descript lets you fully customize caption fonts.

You can:

Choose from Descript’s built-in fonts
Upload your own custom font for branding
Adjust font weight (light, regular, bold, extra bold)

One of my favorite little hidden features is how easy it is to change font size. You can either double-click the number and type in a value, or simply hover over the number and drag left or right to resize quickly.

It’s a small thing, but it makes styling captions so much faster..

Styling Captions with Color, Borders, and Effects

When you open the Effects panel, this is where captions really start to feel custom.

Under Style, you can control:

The color of the active word
The color of future words
The color of words already spoken
Borders around text
Border thickness

For example, you might set:

A purple active word
Light or white future words
A darker fill for completed words

This lets you take a Descript-created caption style and truly make it your own.

Saving Your Caption Style as a Reusable Layout

If you style captions exactly the way you want: colors, borders, font, placement, you don’t want to recreate that every time.

Instead, you can:

Right-click the scene in the scene rail
Choose Save scene as new layout
Name your layout
Save it to your layout pack

Now that caption style is saved as a scene layout, not just a caption preset.

That means in future projects, you won’t go to the captions menu at all, you’ll go to Scenes, find your saved layout, and drop it into your timeline instantly.

And the best part? Layout packs work across projects, so you can reuse your branded captions in every video inside your Descript account.

Creating Captions from Scratch with Freeform Text

If you don’t want to start with Descript’s pre-designed caption styles, you can build captions from scratch.

You can:

Go to Elements
Add text
Switch the text type to Captions using the freeform option

Once set to captions, Descript automatically pulls words from the transcript. From there, you can resize, reposition, and style the text however you want.

This is especially useful if you want captions that:

Fill more of the screen
Feel more like animated text
Emphasize key phrases visually

Using Karaoke and Clean Caption Styles

Under Style, you can choose different caption behaviors.

For example:

Karaoke style highlights the active word dynamically
Clean style hides words until they’re spoken

Each style gives a very different feel, and both can be customized further by adjusting opacity, background color, and emphasis.

Once again, if you like a style, save it as a scene layout so you never have to rebuild it.n be customized further. If you find one you love, save it as a scene layout so it’s always ready to go.

How to Fix Caption Mistakes in Descript

Captions in Descript are dynamic, meaning they’re directly tied to the transcript.

That also means you don’t edit captions on screen.

If Descript misspells a word or inserts the wrong word:

Select the word in the transcript
Click Correct
Make the change

The captions update instantly.

You can also remove punctuation or adjust phrasing directly in the transcript, and the captions will reflect that change automatically.

Conclusion

Captions don’t have to slow you down or complicate your editing process. Inside Descript, they’re fast, flexible, and fully customizable especially once you start saving layouts and reusing your styles.

This Descript tutorial is just one part of my larger Descript tutorial series, where I break down tools, workflows, and shortcuts to help you edit faster and create better videos. Don’t forget to download free Descript cheat sheet which includes keyboard shortcuts and updates that pair perfectly with everything you learned here.

If you want your videos to be more engaging, accessible, and polished without adding hours to your workflow, captions in Descript are absolutely worth mastering.