Closed captions (CC)
Also called CC, closed captioning
What are closed captions?
Closed captions (CC) are a text track of a video's dialogue and important sounds that viewers can switch on or off. Unlike basic subtitles, they are written for people who cannot hear the audio, so they also include speaker names and descriptions like [laughter] or [upbeat music]. They are stored separately from the picture.
Closed means hidden until turned on, as opposed to open captions, which are burned into the video and always visible. Closed captions are usually delivered as a file such as SRT or WebVTT, or embedded as a track in the video container.
In many countries, accessibility laws and standards require captions for certain video, including broadcast TV and much public-sector and education content. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ask for captions on prerecorded video with audio.
Why closed captions matter
Captions make your video usable by deaf and hard-of-hearing customers, and by everyone watching muted. They are a basic part of accessible marketing and, for some organizations, a legal requirement.
Because the text is a separate track, platforms like YouTube can index it, and viewers can choose their own size and language. Auto-generated captions are a start but often get names and product terms wrong, which looks careless.
How to add closed captions
- Start from the script or an automatic transcript.
- Correct errors and add speaker labels and key sound descriptions in brackets.
- Keep each caption to one or two short lines and time it to the speech.
- Export as SRT or WebVTT.
- Upload the file in the platform's captions or subtitles settings and preview it.
Closed captions example
[upbeat music]
MIA: Welcome back to the studio.
[door chime]
Today we're trying a new flow.Closed captions FAQ
What does CC mean on a video?
CC stands for closed captions. The CC button turns on a text track with the dialogue and key sounds.
Can you add closed captions to Instagram and TikTok?
Both offer automatic captions that viewers can turn on, and you can edit them. Neither has long supported uploading your own caption file the way YouTube does, so many creators burn captions in instead.
Related terms
Open captions are captions burned into the video picture, so they always show and cannot be turned off. They are the norm for social video.
Subtitles are on-screen text of the spoken words in a video, often translated, for viewers who can hear the audio but need or prefer to read it.
An SRT file is a plain-text subtitle file listing numbered captions with start and end times. Most video platforms and players accept it.
Animated captions are on-screen captions that appear or highlight word by word in time with speech, common in Reels, TikTok and Shorts.
A caption is the text that goes with a social media post. It adds context, tells a story, invites action and helps the post be found in search.