01 · Getting started
Quick start
Create your first caption track in four steps. No language selection is required.
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1
Choose your media
Upload a video or audio file from the home page. Captionate creates a project for that media.
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2
Start caption generation
Open the generation panel, add optional context or a time range, then review the displayed cost.
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3
Keep working while it processes
The new caption appears as processing immediately. You can leave the editor and return from Projects later.
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4
Review and export
Open the completed caption, make any edits, then export a subtitle file or a captioned MP4.
02 · Generation
Generate captions
Captionate detects the spoken language automatically and turns the selected media into timestamped caption segments.
Owner Note
Add names, terminology, or a short description when that information can help the correction stage.
Time Range
Process only part of a file by setting a start and end time before submitting the job.
Persistent jobs
Generation continues on the server after submission. The project updates when the browser reconnects.
Language detection
You do not need to choose a source language. Mixed-language speech is preserved when detected.
Job states
The server is working on the caption.
The caption can be opened and edited.
The job stopped and can be deleted or retried.
03 · Editing
Caption editor
The player and caption viewer stay synchronized, so you can inspect timing and text in one workspace.
Text and timing workflow
- Click a segment to seek to its start time.
- Edit text while preserving its timed word structure.
- Split a segment at a visible text boundary.
- Merge a segment with the one directly before or after it.
- Delete segments that should not appear in the final caption.
Keyboard
- Undo
- Ctrl Z
- Redo
- Ctrl Shift Z
- Navigate words
- ← →
Caption edits are stored as you work. The editor status shows when the latest change has been saved.
04 · Translation
Translate a caption
Translation creates a separate caption track, leaving the source caption available in the same project.
Select the source track you want to translate.
Select the target language and review the cost.
The translated track appears separately when ready.
Translation charges use the estimate shown before submission. See Credits & billing for the current calculation.
05 · Appearance
Caption styling
The editor previews captions with an ASS renderer, matching the style data used for ASS and rendered-video exports.
Caption size is stored in the ASS style. The browser scales the rendered result to the player while export uses the source media dimensions.
06 · Delivery
Export
Export the caption currently open in the editor as a subtitle file or render it directly onto the source media.
Video File
Creates an H.264/AAC MP4 with captions rendered onto the picture at the original resolution.
Subtitle File
Downloads the current caption track in the format that fits your player, editor, or publishing workflow.
Widely supported timed captions with simple formatting.
Web-friendly captions designed for HTML media players.
Styled captions that preserve the current ASS appearance settings.
Plain transcript text without timestamps or styling.
07 · Workspace
Projects & storage
Projects group the source media, generated captions, translations, and processing jobs in one place.
- Filter projects by Ready, Processing, or Failed status.
- Pin important projects and caption tracks to the top of their lists.
- Rename a project without changing its source media.
- Delete individual captions or remove a complete project.
- Return to a submitted job after navigating away from the editor.
08 · Languages
Languages
Source languages are detected automatically. Captionate supports multilingual media and preserves language changes within a transcript.
Availability and transcription behavior can vary by language, dialect, audio quality, and speaker overlap.
09 · Billing
Credits & billing
The cost is displayed before you submit a generation or translation job, and the displayed estimate is used for the credit deduction.
10 · Help
Troubleshooting
The server did not find my job.
The upload may not have reached the server, or the server may have restarted before the job was stored. Submit the generation request again.
A processing caption does not update.
Reconnect to the server and reopen Projects. Captionate resumes polling saved jobs when the application initializes.
Caption preview is missing or shows broken glyphs.
Wait for the ASS renderer and fonts to finish loading. If it persists, reload the editor and check whether the language is covered by the bundled font.
Video export failed.
Confirm that the source media is still available in the browser and that the local API server can access FFmpeg.
A downloaded video does not open.
Try downloading again after the export job reaches completion. Security scanning or an interrupted download can temporarily leave an unusable file.
11 · Data
Privacy & data
Captionate uses browser storage to reconnect media, captions, style settings, and job references to the local workspace.
Browser data
Project records, caption edits, style preferences, and locally retained media references support the editing experience.
Server processing
Uploaded media and generated artifacts are processed on the configured API server and external inference providers.
Publish a complete privacy policy and retention policy that matches the production server configuration and third-party providers.