How to add captions in Final Cut Pro
Last updated 2026-10-20
In Final Cut Pro, select clips in the timeline and choose Edit › Generate Captions › Closed Captions. Apple's guide says this needs an Apple silicon Mac and U.S. English speech, and it makes iTT captions. You can also build captions by hand. Export them with File › Export Closed Captions. Woven burns captions into an MP4 instead.
Add captions in Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro keeps captions as clips connected to your video, in a lane at the top of the timeline. This page follows Apple's Final Cut Pro for Mac 12.4 user guide.
Finish your dialogue edit first. Apple advises locking dialogue and related audio before you create or edit captions, because later audio changes can leave captions out of sync.
- Generate them. Select clips in the timeline, then choose Edit › Generate Captions › Closed Captions, or press Shift-Command-C. You can also Control-click the selection, or use the Enhancements pop-up menu below the viewer. Apple says the captions are created in iTT format and connected to their source clips.
- Build them by hand. Choose Modify › Edit Roles and click Captions. Click the Caption Role button, choose iTT, CEA-608 or SRT, and name the role. Hover over it, click the Language button, pick a language and click Apply. Then put the playhead where a caption starts and type it in the caption editor.
- Import a first set. Apple's workflow also lets you import a first set of captions, then duplicate and translate it for other languages.
What Final Cut Pro can generate
Apple's guide says Generate Captions needs a Mac with Apple silicon and works only with U.S. English speech. The first run downloads a language model and needs an internet connection once. Apple warns that background noise, music or overlapping speech can lower accuracy, and suggests cleaning the dialogue with Voice Isolation and Noise Removal first.
For any other language, make a role with a language subrole and type or import the captions. Even in English, read every caption before you export.
CEA-608, iTT or SRT: which format to pick
Closed captions get format-specific caption roles, with subroles for each language. Titles and subtitles have their own roles. If a caption breaks its format's limits, it turns red in the timeline and a warning appears in the inspector.
| Format | What Apple says it is for | Embed in the video? | Line limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEA-608 | Broadcast and web video standard with many position, formatting, color and animation options | Yes, the only one | Four lines of 32 characters |
| iTT | iTunes Store, YouTube and Vimeo; suits non-Roman alphabets | No, separate file | Two lines |
| SRT | Subtitle format supported by Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo | No, separate file | Same character limit as iTT; lines set by the player |
Edit and export captions
The export route depends on the format you chose.
- Edit. Double-click a caption in the timeline or the timeline index, or select it and press Control-Shift-C, to open the closed caption editor. You can also select a caption and change the Caption Text field at the top of the inspector.
- Export files. Choose File › Export Closed Captions, name the file and pick a folder. In Roles, select the language subroles to export. Final Cut Pro makes one file per subrole. Under Start Time, choose Relative to Timeline or Absolute.
- Export SRT. The Include Formatting checkbox controls whether styling is kept. Apple recommends turning it off, because SRT has no standard for formatting.
- Embed or burn in. CEA-608 captions can be written into the output file. Apple's workflow page also says you can add open (burned-in) captions, and that many Share destinations can permanently display captions on the video.
Burned-in captions in Woven
Captions in Woven are open captions. Woven draws them into every frame of the exported MP4, so every player shows them and nobody can switch them off. Woven exports no caption file: no SRT, no VTT and no closed-caption track. If a platform wants a caption file, make that one in Final Cut Pro. Woven makes them by transcribing the speech in your clips, one language per run, and it detects the language itself. A reel that mixes languages may caption the second one poorly. Transcribing speech uses credits, but a file Woven has transcribed before is not charged again for those seconds.
Ask in chat
- Add captions to this clip in the Word by word look.
- Fix the spelling of the product name in the captions.
- Put the captions near the top and make them larger.
Or do it by hand
- 1Import. Bring the finished video in through Add, then Video, or drag it from Finder.
- 2Generate. Open the Add menu (the + button) and pick Generate captions.
- 3Pick a look. On the Style tab, open Caption style under Appearance and pick one of five looks, from Highlight to Progressive reveal. Preset, below it, holds None and Kinetic.
- 4Fix words. A caption's right-click menu has Split at Playhead, Join with Next and Split into Words, and the Captions track header's menu has Split All into Words. Fixing a word in chat is free and keeps the styling.
- 5Place and export. Move the captions by dragging them on the canvas. Then export the MP4, choosing 1080p or 1440p.
Common questions
Either select clips and choose Edit › Generate Captions › Closed Captions, or create a caption role under Modify › Edit Roles and type captions in the caption editor.
Yes. Apple's guide for Final Cut Pro for Mac 12.4 says Generate Captions needs an Apple silicon Mac and works only with U.S. English speech. It creates iTT captions.
Create the captions in an SRT role, then choose File › Export Closed Captions. Apple recommends turning off Include Formatting for SRT.
CEA-608 is a broadcast and web video standard and the only one of the three that can be embedded in the video. iTT and SRT are separate files, used by YouTube and Vimeo among others.
Apple's workflow page says you can add open (burned-in) captions, and its export page says many Share destinations can permanently display captions on the video.
No. Woven exports an MP4 with the captions drawn into the picture, and no SRT, VTT or closed-caption track.
Sources
- Intro to captions in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Create closed captions in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Closed captions workflow in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Edit closed caption text in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Export closed captions in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
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