Repères Captions

Guide · TikTok

A free TikTok captions generator, right in your browser

Captions make a video understandable with the sound off, and animated captions, where the spoken word lights up, catch the eye. Here is how to generate them automatically, with no app to install and no account to create.

Open the free tool

The tool runs in your browser; its interface is in English.

In short

Open the tool on a computer, drop in your video, click "Transcribe", review, then export in 1080×1920 and upload the file to TikTok. It's free and needs no account; the video is not sent to any server. The free version adds a small watermark.

Step by step

  1. Open the tool on a computer, ideally in an up-to-date Chrome or Edge: they support WebGPU, which speeds up transcription.
  2. Drop in your video (MP4, MOV, WebM…). The file is read by your browser: it is not uploaded.
  3. Pick the spoken language and the model. 8 languages are available (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic). Model "Accurate" (whisper-small, ~250 MB) or "Fast" (whisper-base, ~90 MB), downloaded once and then cached.
  4. Click "Transcribe". The Whisper speech recognition model detects every word and the moment it is spoken.
  5. Review. Every line is editable; when you fix a line, its start and end times are kept.
  6. Set the style: Highlight, Box or Word by word, active word color, 1 to 5 words per line, size, height, uppercase, and framing: "Fill" (crop to 9:16) or "Fit" (whole frame on a blurred background).
  7. Export with "Export 1080×1920 video". Export runs in real time (a 60 s video takes about 60 s): keep the tab visible meanwhile.
  8. Post on TikTok: upload the exported file like any other video, from the app or the TikTok website.

Placing captions well on TikTok

In the TikTok app, the account name, the description and the buttons cover the bottom of the screen and the right-hand column. Keep your captions a bit above that area with the "Height" setting (the preview shows the result frame by frame), and prefer 2 or 3 words per line: the text stays big and readable on a phone.

For a video shot horizontally, the "Fill" framing crops the center of the image to vertical; "Fit" keeps the whole frame and fills the top and bottom with a blurred copy of the video.

What is free, what is paid

  • Free: unlimited transcription in your browser, 3 animated styles, adjustable colors and size, 1080×1920 video export, .srt and .ass export. A small "Captioned with Repères" watermark appears at the bottom right of the video.
  • Pro, €19 paid once: the same tool without the watermark, with updates. No subscription, no account: Gumroad emails you a license key.

Limits, honestly

  • A recent desktop browser is required. Tested on desktop Chrome and Edge (WebGPU). Firefox and Safari have not been fully tested yet; without WebGPU the tool falls back to WebAssembly, which is slower. On phones it may fail for lack of memory.
  • First run. The model is a one-time download of ~90 MB (Fast) or ~250 MB (Accurate), then it is cached.
  • Processing time depends on your hardware. WebGPU uses your graphics card; the WebAssembly fallback runs on the CPU and is noticeably slower. Video export runs in real time (a 60 s video takes about 60 s).
  • The AI sometimes gets it wrong (names, numbers, acronyms). Review and fix the text before exporting.
  • Output format. The video export is vertical 1080×1920: MP4 on recent Chrome/Edge and Safari, WebM on Firefox.
  • Short videos. Built for short-form content (up to 3 to 5 minutes). Beyond that, the browser may run out of memory.
  • Watermark on the free video export. Exported videos carry a small "Captioned with Repères" at the bottom right; the Pro license (€19, paid once) removes it. The .srt and .ass files never have a watermark.

FAQ

Do I need an account?

No. The tool works directly in the page, with no sign-up and no email address.

Does it work on a phone?

It may fail for lack of memory: the transcription model is heavy for a phone. The tool is built for a computer, with Chrome or Edge. Export on the computer, then send the file to your phone.

Is TikTok's own auto caption feature not enough?

TikTok's built-in captions are a separate text layer with TikTok's own look. This tool burns animated captions into the video itself (highlighted word, box or word-by-word reveal), with your color, size and position, so they look the same on every platform you post to.

Which languages are recognized?

English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic: pick the spoken language before transcribing.

Can I use it for Reels and YouTube Shorts too?

Yes, the 1080×1920 export is the vertical format all three use. Instagram and YouTube generally expect MP4: use Chrome or Edge (Firefox exports WebM).

Try it now

Free, no sign-up, and your video never leaves your computer.

Open the tool

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