The Short Answer: Video Captions Cost
Human-made video captions cost $1.99 a minute and up at Rev, at 99%+ accuracy within 12 hours. Caption gigs on Fiverr typically run $39–$67, by Fiverr's own figures. AI caption apps cost $12–$69 a month, and YouTube's automatic captions are free but need a review. Translated subtitles run $6.49–$15.99 a minute.
Those are market prices, not ours. Mark Studios includes captions in the edits we quote, and our plan prices are on our pricing page. Every figure here links to the page that published it, checked October 15, 2026.
The range is wide because "captions" names three different things. One is an accurate caption file that viewers switch on. Another is styled text burned into a Short. The third is a translation. Find out which one a quote prices before you compare.
Video Caption Prices in 2026
| Route | Published price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube automatic captions (YouTube Help) | Free | Machine captions published on the video automatically, in more than 60 languages |
| AI caption app (Submagic) | $19–$69 a month, or $12–$41 a month billed yearly | Animated captions on 15–100 videos a month, depending on the plan |
| AI editor (Descript) | Free plan with a watermark; $16–$50 a person a month billed yearly | Transcription, animated captions, and caption translation into 61 languages |
| Human captions (Rev) | $1.99 a minute and up | 99%+ accuracy, delivered in 12 hours or less |
| Fiverr seller (category) | $39–$67 typical, $54 average | A caption file or burned-in captions, scope set by the gig |
| Translated subtitles (Rev) | $6.49–$15.99 a minute, by language | Subtitles in another language |
| Enterprise captioning (3Play Media) | Quoted per account | AI plus expert review; a Pro plan for up to 10 hours a year |
Per-minute pricing makes the math simple. At Rev's starting rate, a 10-minute video costs about $20 to caption and a 60-minute episode about $119. AI apps price by video or by hour instead: Submagic's plans cap video length at 2, 5 or 30 minutes, and Descript's include 10 to 40 media hours a month.
Closed, Burned-In or Translated: What You're Buying
- Closed captions are a file, usually SRT or VTT, uploaded next to the video. Under WCAG success criterion 1.2.2, captions identify who is speaking and include meaningful sound effects, so an accessible caption file is more than a transcript. YouTube's automatic captions are free, but YouTube warns they "might misrepresent the spoken content" and tells creators to review and edit them.
- Burned-in captions are part of the picture: word-by-word text styled for Shorts, Reels and TikTok, so a clip still reads on a muted feed. They usually come with the edit rather than as a separate line item. Our guide to short-form video editing cost prices clips with captions included, and our breakdown of burned-in vs closed captions covers which format wins where.
- Translated subtitles put the words in another language. Rev charges $6.49 a minute for Spanish or Hindi, $10.49 for languages such as French and German, and $15.99 for Japanese or Korean. If you're weighing subtitles against a dub, our video dubbing cost guide prices all three ways to localize a video.
What Moves the Price
- Accuracy. A machine draft is free or nearly free. A human-checked file costs per minute, and accessibility and legal uses call for the checked one.
- Audio and speakers. YouTube says accents, dialects and background noise all lower automatic accuracy, and overlapping speakers make any transcript harder.
- Turnaround. Rev's human rate covers delivery within 12 hours. Ask what a faster deadline adds before you order.
- Styling. A plain file is the cheapest. Word-by-word animated captions in your fonts and colors are design work, priced into the edit.
- Languages. Every translated language is priced separately.
- Volume. AI apps sell a monthly allowance of videos or hours, so the per-video price falls only if you use it.
How to Get an Accurate Quote
Send these with your first message and every quote you get back will price the same job:
- The total runtime in minutes, because most caption pricing is per minute.
- The speakers and audio: how many people talk, and any music, crosstalk or noise.
- The format: an SRT or VTT file, captions burned into the video, or both.
- A style reference for burned-in captions: font, colors, words per line and where they sit.
- Every language you need, with English listed separately.
- Your deadline, and whether you need a human review pass for accessibility or legal use.
Where Mark Studios Fits
Captions came up in 82 of 698 first messages from buyers in our inbox, and subtitles in 31. On short-form edits, the first versions arrive fully captioned and every caption is read against the audio before delivery. Our content localization service adds SRT, VTT and burned-in captions, subtitles in other languages and AI-assisted dubbing. You send the video and work with Mark directly. We've delivered 10,000+ projects for 4,500+ clients at a 4.9★ average, with 100M+ views generated. Podcasters can get word-by-word captions on every clip with video podcast editing. Weighing a Fiverr seller instead? Our freelance marketplace comparison lays out the trade-offs.
The Bottom Line
Video captions cost $1.99 a minute and up from a human service, $39–$67 for a typical Fiverr gig, $12–$69 a month for an AI caption app and nothing for YouTube's automatic captions, which still need a review. Translated subtitles run $6.49–$15.99 a minute. Decide whether you need a file, burned-in captions or a translation before you compare prices.
