Adding captions to your videos is an excellent way to improve the accessibility of your courses. You can add or autogenerate captions in your native language to make your content accessible to students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. You can even open up your business to new markets by adding captions in other languages!
Thinkific's Asset Library allows you to easily upload or automatically generate closed captions for the videos you upload to Thinkific! Adding closed captions to your videos has several benefits:
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Increase Accessibility
Make your video content accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing, allowing them to fully engage with your videos.
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Increase Comprehension
Closed captions allow your students to better understand video content. This is especially useful for those learning a new language or those who rely on captions to understand words, accents, and pronunciations.
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Expand Your Market
Adding closed captions in multiple languages allows you to reuse the same video in products targeted to different markets.
You have two options when it comes to adding closed captions to your videos:
- Autogenerate closed captions directly in Thinkific
- Create SRT files outside of Thinkific and upload them
For more, see: Manage Content with the Asset Library
Available on select Thinkific Plus plans
Easily generate closed captions for all of your videos directly in Thinkific using our AI-powered captioning tool! When this feature is enabled, all you need to do is upload your video — closed captions (as an SRT file) will be automatically generated in the language of the speaker!
To enable this feature:
- From the Admin Dashboard, go to Settings
- Select the Learning content tab
- Find the AI video captions setting
- Turn the toggle on
Once the feature is enabled, SRT files will be generated for all videos, including the existing ones. Existing captions will not be overwritten.
Note
If you are enabling the feature for the first time, it might take some time for all videos to process and closed captions to generate.
After the feature is enabled and you upload a new video, the captions will be generated shortly after the video finishes processing. If the captions are not generated within 24 hours, please contact our support team.
After closed captions are generated, you can edit them directly in Thinkific, download, or delete them.
To disable this feature:
- From the Admin Dashboard, go to Settings
- Select the Learning content tab
- Find the AI video captions setting
- Turn the toggle off
For more, see: Asset Library: Upload and Manage Videos
- The ability to autogenerate closed captions is available for customers on Plus Silver plan and higher. If you're already a Plus customer, reach out to your dedicated Customer Success Manager to learn more.
- Closed captions will not be generated if a video does not contain any audio.
- If an existing closed captions (.SRT) file already exists, it will not be replaced.
- Only one closed caption file will be generated, in the language of the speaker in the video. If you need to upload captions in other languages, you can follow the steps below to upload them manually.
- When the feature is disabled, no new captions will be generated going forward, however, the already generated captions are not removed. You will need to remove them manually by following the steps below on how to delete captions.
- If the feature is enabled and you delete closed captions, they will be automatically regenerated. If you would like to delete captions, disable the feature first.
Another option available on all plans is to generate closed captions outside of Thinkific and upload them individually to each video. Follow the instructions below on how to create and upload closed captions.
First, you'll need to have your subtitles in an .SRT file format. You can create these files yourself (please follow Wistia's instructions for this to ensure that the file's formatting is correct). Or save time and do it through third-party software or hire an experienced freelancer to do it for you (e.g. via Upwork).
Here's an example of an SRT file, to give you an idea of the formatting you're looking for.
1
00:00:23,983 --> 00:00:28,033
Hello, and welcome to the first video lecture
2
00:00:28,033 --> 00:00:31,033
on the topic of cooking and baking.
3
00:00:31,033 --> 00:00:34,033
In today's lesson, we will cover basics, such asOnce you have your SRT files, you can add them to your videos:
- From the Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Asset Library
- Click the video row to open it
- Enable the Captions toggle
- Drag your .SRT file into the upload area, or click to browse and select the file
- Click Upload captions
Note
You can add up to 25 SRT files in one batch, each up to 5 MB, with one caption per language per video.
Your captions will now be available as an option when the student selects the CC icon on the video player to switch on subtitles.
Now that you have closed caption files added to your video, you can update, download, or remove them. All caption management is done from the video detail panel in the Asset Library: navigate to the video, and use the icons next to each caption file to act on it.
Found a typo in your captions? You can edit your captions directly in Thinkific!
To edit your captions:
- From the Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Asset Library
- Click the video row to open it
- Click the Edit icon (pencil) next to the closed caption file you want to edit
- You will be brought to the transcript editor
- Optional. Play the video — the part of the transcript that will appear as a caption during the part that plays will appear in blue, so you can make edits as you follow along
- Make necessary edits
- Click Save
- If you want to make additional changes, click Edit Transcript
Note that the editor does not allow you to edit the timing of closed captions or how they are presented. If you would like to change the closed captions timing, download the captions by following the instructions below and edit them manually.
You can download SRT files that were generated or previously uploaded to Thinkific. This option allows you to make edits to your existing files and reupload them.
- From the Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Asset Library
- Click the video row to open it
- Click the Download icon next to the closed caption file you want to download
Note
If the autocaptioning feature is enabled and you delete closed captions, they will be automatically regenerated. If you would like to delete captions, disable the feature first.
- From the Admin Dashboard, go to Products
- Select Asset Library
- Click the video row to open it
- Click the Delete icon (trash) next to the closed caption file you want to delete
Note
The deletion of SRT files is permanent and irreversible. We are not able to recover deleted files. We recommend downloading caption files before deleting them.
If you have any errors when uploading your SRT file, try the troubleshooting steps below:
- Remove any spaces included in the file name
- Confirm there are spaces before and after the arrows that separate the caption timecodes (and add them in if they're missing)
- Remove any HTML text formatting; caption files should be in plain text with no styling
- Confirm the timecodes start at 00:00:00:00 (some captioning programs use timecodes that start at 01:00:00:00 by default)
If the issue continues, please reach out to the Support Team with your SRT file attached as well as the name of the video you are uploading to.
For more, see: How to Get Help and Contact Thinkific Support
If your students are having trouble viewing closed captioning on their devices, you can suggest the troubleshooting steps below:
- Our general browser troubleshooting steps are a great place to start
- Make sure devices meet the system requirements and supported browsers
- For mobile devices, test viewing the video as minimized and maximized (fullscreen) in the Thinkific Course Player; some mobile devices hide closed captioning when videos are maximized
For more, see: Browser Troubleshooting · System Requirements and Supported Browsers
Currently, the autocaptioning feature can only generate closed captions in the language of the speaker. If you need to upload captions in other languages, you can follow the steps above to upload them manually.
No, this is currently not possible. The closed captions can only be shown in the default style.
No. If you need to download your closed caption, you can do it manually by following the steps above.
No. When following the steps above, your captions will be downloaded as an .SRT file. If you would like to turn this file into a PDF, you can do it by using a third-party tool.
No. Once the feature is enabled, SRT files will be generated for all videos, including the existing ones. Existing captions will not be overwritten.
AI captioning tools rely on speech recognition models, which work best when the audio is:
- Clear (minimal background noise or echo)
- Well enunciated (words spoken distinctly)
- Consistent (steady pace, not too fast or mumbled)
- Accurate pronunciation (closer to standard language training data)
When the audio doesn't meet these conditions, the AI may have difficulty mapping sounds to words accurately, which can result in errors or missing captions if the system isn't able to detect the language.