> Canonical: https://www.cliphi.com/tools/add-subtitles-to-youtube-shorts

# Add Subtitles to YouTube Shorts

Paste or upload your video and Cliphi adds accurate, animated subtitles, sized and synced for YouTube Shorts.

## How it works

1. **Paste a link or upload your video** Drop in a supported video link or upload a file. Cliphi pulls the audio and reads what is said.
2. **AI captions every word** Cliphi transcribes the speech and lays animated captions over the video, synced word by word.
3. **Style it, then post** Pick a caption style and tweak the font, color, size, and position, or keep the default. Then download or publish to your socials.

## Why Cliphi

- **Better than YouTube's auto-captions** YouTube's auto-captions are small, plain, and often wrong on names and accents. Cliphi adds proper animated subtitles, transcribed accurately and placed where the interface won't cover them.
- **Text that helps a Short surface** On YouTube a Short can show up in search for a long time, and accurate on-screen words give it clean text to be found by.
- **Watchable on mute** Most short-form gets watched with the sound off. On-screen captions are usually the difference between someone watching and someone scrolling past.

## YouTube's auto-captions are not enough for Shorts

YouTube can throw auto-captions on a Short, but they are small, plain, often wrong on names and accents, and they sit where the interface can cover them. For a Short that needs to hold attention on mute, that is not enough. Cliphi adds proper animated subtitles, transcribed accurately and placed where they stay readable, so the words carry the clip.

## Subtitles that help the Short get watched

On YouTube, text matters more than on other platforms, and a Short can surface in search for a long time. Accurate on-screen subtitles keep viewers watching on mute and give the clip clean, readable words. You can style them to match your channel or keep a default that works, and the export is clean with no watermark.

The captions come from \[Whisper-grade transcription\]\(/tools/transcribe-youtube-video\) that handles accents, crosstalk, and noise, in around 99 languages. And because Cliphi clips, you can paste a long video and get \[captioned vertical Shorts\]\(/tools/youtube-to-youtube-shorts\) out of it, not just subtitles on a single file.

Accessibility is part of it too. Subtitles let viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing follow the Short, and they help anyone watching without sound, which on Shorts is most people. Paste a single clip you already have or a long video you want to cut down, and either way the subtitles come out accurate and placed where the interface will not cover them.

## FAQ

### Can I get Shorts out of a long video, captioned?

Yes. Paste a long video and Cliphi finds the best moments, cuts them to vertical, and adds the subtitles, so you get ready-to-post Shorts.

### Why not just use YouTube's own captions?

They tend to be small, plain, and inaccurate on names and accents, and they sit where the interface can hide them. Cliphi's subtitles are accurate and placed to stay readable.

### Which languages work?

Around 99 languages, the full set Whisper supports, with the language detected for you.

## Related

- [Add Captions to TikTok](https://www.cliphi.com/tools/add-captions-to-tiktok.md)
- [YouTube → Shorts](https://www.cliphi.com/tools/youtube-to-youtube-shorts.md)
- [Animated Captions](https://www.cliphi.com/tools/animated-captions.md)

## About Cliphi

Add subtitles to your Shorts. Paste a link or upload a file and get captioned Shorts.

[Get clips](https://www.cliphi.com/)