Best AI Tools for Course Video Captions (2026)

Best AI tools for course video captions depends on where the lesson plays and who is allowed to sign the file. A Teachable lesson, a Kajabi lesson, an unlisted YouTube module, and a school LMS can all show captions. They do not all accept the same shortcut. Most of the time you need an SRT made from the MP4. Sometimes the contract wants a person.

This list is the tool picker. Doing eighty lessons in a row, with file names and a spot-check, is how to caption an entire course library. The wider creator stack (cutting lessons, trailer clips, worksheets from the transcript) is best AI tools for course creators. Prices below for File Transcribe match the public plans. For everyone else, confirm on their site. Human caption rates move, and they are rarely a flat monthly creator plan.

Quick picks

The course host plays the video. It is not the speech engine. Transcription happens before the student sees the lesson, unless you are deliberately using YouTube's draft on a video that already lives there.

1. File Transcribe: the SRT from the lesson MP4

Export the finished lesson. Upload that MP4 on the File Transcribe homepage. You get speaker-labeled segments and a timeline you can play. Fix terms the student must type correctly: the product, the shortcut, the formula, the guest's name. Export SRT for most hosts. Export VTT when the player or the LMS help doc asks for VTT.

SRT and VTT export is on Pro. Pro is about $19 a month for about 2,000 minutes. Plus is about $49 a month for about 5,000 minutes if the library is large. Free is about 50 minutes a month, which is enough to see the editor on a short lesson and not enough to ship a catalog. Cards are on pricing. A guest can upload without an account for a first look.

This is file in, captions out. It does not join the Zoom room, the live cohort call, or the classroom. Record the lesson, export the file, then transcribe. Lecture-shaped recordings use the same path: lecture recordings.

Use it for Teachable, Kajabi, a school player that accepts a caption file, and the SRT you will also upload to YouTube. Skip it for a required human sign-off, a multi-language subtitle studio, or burned-in trailer graphics. Those are the next tools, or your video editor.

Same SRT if you also post the lesson as a Facebook video: how to add captions to a Facebook video.

2. YouTube automatic captions: a draft, including on unlisted lessons

YouTube generates automatic captions on many uploads, public or unlisted. On a clean single-speaker lesson the draft is a head start. It is a poor final file. Students should not be the ones who find the wrong step.

Upload the lesson if YouTube is the host, let the automatic track appear, then replace it with a proofread SRT or with the human file a contract requires. Set the language and unpublish the automatic track once your file is the one you stand behind.

Studio edits get slow on a long lesson. A module full of screen-recording jargon is faster to correct in a transcript editor, then upload once. The upload path is how to add captions to YouTube videos. If the video is already on the channel, start at transcribe YouTube videos.

Unlisted only changes who has the link. The captions are still the lesson.

3. Happy Scribe: when the caption job is a studio

Happy Scribe fits when subtitles are a small production, not a single export tonight. Reviewers, a style for burned-in text, glossaries, and a second language are the reasons teams pay for a subtitle studio. A course company shipping English plus two translations, with someone else approving the file, is in that bucket. A solo teacher attaching English SRT to Kajabi is usually not.

File Transcribe stops at a timed file you edit yourself. Happy Scribe keeps going into review and delivery. The subtitle-only comparison is File Transcribe vs Happy Scribe for subtitles. Confirm the current plan on their site before you budget a catalog. Studio tools are the wrong meter if every lesson is one language and you are the only proofreader.

Pick Happy Scribe if the statement of work mentions reviewers, brand styling, burn-in from the caption tool, or ongoing translation. Pick File Transcribe if the deliverable is an SRT the course host already knows how to store.

4. Rev: human captions when a person is the requirement

Rev belongs on this list for its human caption work. Use that line when the client, the platform agreement, or your own standard says a person captions the lesson. Typical cases: a regulated how-to, a medical or legal module, an ad that makes a claim, a customer who wrote "human captions" into the order.

Rev also sells faster AI options. Those are a separate product decision. If the sentence in the contract is about a human, buy the human pass and ask Rev what the current turnaround and rate are. Do not invent a per-minute number from memory, and do not swap in an AI SRT and call it the same deliverable.

You can still draft in File Transcribe so you know the trouble spots before the human file comes back. The file you attach for that contract is the one Rev (or the named vendor) returns.

5. 3Play Media: when the school or the company already named a vendor

3Play Media shows up in campus and company accessibility contracts. If the accessibility office, the procurement list, or the client names 3Play, their file is the official caption track. Follow their intake. An AI export does not replace a vendor the institution already approved.

If the school named a different approved vendor, use that vendor. 3Play is here because those contracts exist, not because every LMS account must buy it. A solo course on Teachable with no accessibility rider does not need an enterprise caption desk to ship lesson two.

Ask one question before you order: "Is this file the system of record, or am I captioning my own course?" System of record goes to the named human vendor. Your own course, with you responsible for the words, can be File Transcribe plus a real proofread.

How the host changes the pick

Teachable and Kajabi. Both let you attach captions on the lesson. The field name and the extension live in that host's current help. Export the format they name, then read the first minute in a student preview with sound off. The sales page saying "video" does not transcribe the MP4.

YouTube unlisted. Fine for a cohort that should stay off the public channel. Weak as a reason to leave automatic captions up. Replace the draft. The caption button is the player. Your SRT is the text.

A school LMS (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and the rest). Read that LMS article for caption upload, and the campus rule if you have one. Renaming `.srt` to `.vtt` is not a conversion. With no vendor named, a checked SRT or VTT from the master is the practical file. With a vendor named, use their portal.

Trailers and Reels that sell the course can use burned-in type. The lesson inside the member area should stay a soft file so a wrong term is a new SRT, not a re-encode of a 40-minute master. Trailer tools sit in the course creator stack, not in this caption list.

What this list leaves to other pages

Queuing a catalog, file names, and how many lessons to spot-check: how to caption an entire course library.

Course captions start from a file you already exported. A live class becomes a recording after the session. This list does not pick a meeting bot.

Fonts matter when you burn a trailer. They do not live inside the SRT an LMS stores. Burned-in YouTube type: best subtitle fonts for YouTube.

FAQ

What is the best AI tool for captions on a Teachable or Kajabi course?

File Transcribe. Upload the lesson MP4, edit names and steps, export SRT or VTT on Pro, and attach that file in the lesson settings your host documents. YouTube auto captions do not run inside Teachable.

Can I leave YouTube automatic captions on a paid course?

Only as a temporary draft. Replace them with a proofread SRT before you send students the link. Unlisted videos need the same replacement. The audience is smaller. The lesson is still the product.

When should I use Happy Scribe instead of File Transcribe?

When you need a subtitle studio: reviewers, translation, glossaries, or burned-in delivery from the caption tool. For one language and an SRT your course host already accepts, File Transcribe is the smaller tool that matches the job.

Do school courses need Rev or 3Play?

They need whatever the contract or the accessibility office names. Use Rev or 3Play when that paperwork says a human captioner or that specific vendor. If nobody has named a vendor, a checked SRT from the master is a reasonable file to attach, and you still follow the LMS format.

Can I reuse one SRT on YouTube, the LMS, and Facebook?

Yes, if each one is playing the same cut and each one accepts a soft caption file. Upload that SRT to YouTube, to the course host, and to a Facebook video you manage. Reels and some LMS players will refuse a sidecar. Those placements need burn-in or a different format, not a second transcript written from scratch.

More guides

• Transcription guides
• Try File Transcribe free
• Transcript format guide
• Best transcription software
• Transcribe Zoom meetings

Further reading

• Zoom cloud recording help
• W3C captions overview