Captioning using YouTube

Edit or Remove Captions

Note: If you’re in YouTube Studio, click Creator Studio Classic in the left menu to follow these steps.

Edit captions

You can use the captions editor to make changes to the text and time codes of your captions. You can also use caption editing software or services.

Edit caption text

Note: If you’re editing captions created automatically, a new caption track that includes your revisions will be generated.

1. Go to your Video Manager.
2. Next to the video you want to edit captions for, click the drop-down next to "Edit" and then Subtitles/CC.
3. Click the caption track you want to edit.
4. Click Edit above the video.
5. Click Publish edits.

Edit caption timing

You can edit the timing on your caption tracks directly in the YouTube captions editor or by downloading your caption files.

Use the YouTube captions editor

1. Go to your Video Manager.
2. Next to the video you want to edit captions for, click the drop-down next to "Edit" and then Subtitles/CC.
3. Click the caption track you want to edit.
4. To change the timing, click Edit above the video, then drag the bars on the caption track.
5. Click Publish edits.

Download & edit caption files

You can edit time codes by downloading the caption file and using a plain text (.txt) editing program like TextEdit or Notepad to make edits. 

1. Go to your Video Manager.
2. Next to the video you want to edit captions for, click the drop-down beside "Edit" and then Subtitles/CC.
3. Select the caption track you want to download.
4. Click the Actions drop-down.
5. Click the captions file format you need. Learn more about caption file formats. 
6. Your browser will download a file containing the captions track. Edit the file and save it.
7. Follow the instructions to upload the captions to your video again.

Remove captions

To stop captions from showing on your video, you can either turn off the captions or delete them completely from your video and YouTube channel.

Remove captions that you added

If you added subtitles or closed captions to your video, you can delete them by following the steps below.

1. Go to your Video Manager.
2. Next to the video you want to edit captions for, click the drop-down next to "Edit" and then Subtitles/CC.
3. Click the language you want to delete.
4. Click the Actions drop-down.
5. Select Delete and confirm you want to remove the track permanently.

Remove captions added automatically

YouTube's automatically generated captions can't be deleted from your YouTube channel, but you can hide them from viewers using the steps below.

1. Go to your Video Manager.
2. Next to the video you want to edit captions for, click the drop-down next to "Edit" and then Subtitles/CC.
3. Click the language you want to turn off (it should say "Automatic").
4. Select Unpublish.

If you change your mind, select Publish to turn them back on.