How-to
Burn subtitles into a video
Burning in, hardcoding, and open captions all describe the same thing: rendering the subtitle text into the video frames so no player can turn it off. Here is when that is the right call, and what it costs you.
What burning in actually does
A subtitle file is a set of instructions: show this text between these two timestamps. The player decides the font, size, position, and whether to show it at all. Burning in removes the player from that decision by drawing the text into the picture during encoding. After that the text is pixels, exactly like everything else in the frame.
When burning in is the right choice
- Social feeds. Most of them do not read subtitle files, and most of them autoplay muted. If the words are not in the picture, most viewers never see them.
- Anywhere you cannot control the player. Embedded videos, messaging apps, and downloads all render subtitle files differently or not at all.
- Non-Latin scripts. If the viewer device lacks a font covering Thai, Devanagari, or Hebrew, a subtitle file shows boxes. Burned-in text has already been rendered, so it always looks right.
- Styled captions. Any positioning, sizing, or emphasis you care about survives burning in, and is at the mercy of the player otherwise.
What you give up
- Viewers cannot turn the subtitles off, and cannot switch to another language.
- Search engines cannot read burned-in text the way they read an uploaded subtitle file.
- Fixing a typo means re-encoding the video, not editing a text file.
- One video carries one language. Several languages means several files.
How to do it here
Upload the video
MP4, MOV, AVI, or MKV, up to 500 MB, or a link from a supported source.
Choose the subtitle language
Any of the 30 available languages, including the original if you only want captions.
Review before the burn
On Pro and Studio you can correct wording and timing first, which matters more here than with a soft subtitle file because the result is permanent.
Download the MP4
The subtitles are rendered into the frames and encoded, so they play identically in every player.
Quality notes for burned-in text
- Burning in re-encodes the video, which means one more generation of compression. Starting from the highest-quality source you have keeps that invisible.
- Text near the bottom edge can collide with player controls and platform interface elements. Vertical formats are the worst offender.
- Check the result on a phone. Text that is comfortable on a laptop is often too small on the screen most people will actually use.
- Get the wording right first. A typo in a burned-in video costs a re-encode; a typo in an SRT costs a text edit.
Burn subtitles into your first video with 50 free credits.
Continue with Google50 free credits. No credit card needed.Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between burned-in and hardcoded subtitles?
Nothing. Burned in, hardcoded, hard subs, and open captions all describe subtitles rendered into the picture rather than supplied as a separate file.
Can burned-in subtitles be removed later?
Not cleanly. The text is part of the image, so removing it means covering or reconstructing what is underneath. Keep the original file if you might need a clean version.
Does burning in reduce video quality?
It requires re-encoding, which adds one compression generation. Starting from a high-quality source keeps the difference hard to notice.
Do I still get an SRT file if the subtitles are burned in?
Yes. Every job returns SRT and TXT files for both the original language and the translation, alongside the burned-in MP4.