About CaptionBolt
Which languages can CaptionBolt caption, and can it translate?
Short answer
CaptionBolt captions the language spoken in your video. Leave the spoken language on Auto-detect or choose it from 45 languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Arabic. Captions stay in the spoken language: CaptionBolt doesn't translate subtitles or dub audio, so a translated version needs a separate translation step.
3 min read
Which languages can CaptionBolt caption?
When you upload a video, CaptionBolt can detect the spoken language or use the one you choose. As of the date of this page, you can choose from 45 languages:
Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Vietnamese.
Should I use Auto-detect or pick the language?
Auto-detect is the default and works for most videos with one clear speaker. Choose the language yourself when the video starts with music or silence, when the speaker has a strong accent, or when the first words are in a different language from the rest. Choosing the language helps accuracy.
Does CaptionBolt translate captions?
No. Captions and transcripts stay in the language that was spoken, and CaptionBolt doesn't dub audio. If you need subtitles in another language, export the transcript or a subtitle file and translate it with a translation tool, then review it with someone who speaks the language. SRT files are included in Pro and Max.
What happens when a video mixes two languages?
Speech recognition usually follows one language at a time. In a video that switches languages, words in the second language may be transcribed phonetically, translated by mistake or skipped. Choose the language spoken most, then read the transcript closely and fix the other parts in the Text Editor.
How accurate are captions in other languages?
Accuracy depends on the audio more than the language: a clear voice, little background noise and one speaker at a time give the best results. No speech recognition is perfect in every language, so review the text before you export. See how to fix misspelled names before posting.
How to do it in CaptionBolt
For talking-head videos in any of its 45 supported languages, CaptionBolt times every word from the audio and lets you fix the text before export, keeping captions in the language you spoke.
- Upload your video and leave Spoken language on Auto-detect, or choose the language.
- Pick a caption style. All 338 styles are included on every plan.
- Check the text in the Text Editor and fix any wrong words.
- Export the MP4, plus subtitle files on Pro and Max.
When another approach is better
- You need subtitles in a language you didn't speak, or a dubbed version. Use a translation or dubbing service; CaptionBolt captions the spoken language only.
- Your language isn't on the list. Check the list above before you upload a long video.
Related questions
Auto captions keep misspelling names and product terms. How do I fix them before posting?
Read the transcript before you export and correct every name, brand and technical term; speech recognition guesses unfamiliar words from their sound. Fix them in a caption editor that keeps each word's timing, so corrections don't knock the captions out of sync, and check numbers and acronyms too. Speaking clearly helps, but reading the text is the reliable fix.
How do I censor swear words in my captions?
Edit the caption text to mask the word, for example f*** or [bleep], and decide separately what to do with the audio: leave it, mute or bleep it in an editing app, or cut the moment out. Captions and audio are separate, so censoring the text doesn't change what viewers hear. Check the platform's rules too, since some flag strong language in speech and text.
How do I remove or fix captions that are already burned into a video?
You can't truly remove captions that are burned into a video, because they're part of the picture. You can crop the caption band off, cover or blur it, or try an AI tool that paints over text, and each has trade-offs. The clean fix is to go back to the original video, or the project you made it in, and export again without captions or with corrected ones.
Why do auto captions go missing when a video has music?
Most auto-caption tools use speech recognition that listens in chunks of about 30 seconds. When music, singing or fast speech makes a chunk hard to read, the model can skip part of it without any error, leaving a gap or one word stuck on screen. Check long gaps, re-transcribe just that section, or add the missing lines yourself.