TikTok auto captions: how to add, edit and turn them off

TikTok's on-video captions are different from the description you write under a post. Its accessibility page lists these options for creators:

Source: TikTok Support: Accessibility for your videos, checked 15 October 2026

Captions are generated automatically, but you choose the language they're generated in:

1. In the TikTok app, upload or create a video.
2. On the post screen, tap More options.
3. Tap Select video language and choose the caption language.
4. Tap Post. Eligible videos show auto-generated captions in that language.

Source: TikTok Support: Accessibility for your videos, checked 15 October 2026

Speech recognition gets names, product terms and accents wrong, so read your captions once the video is live and fix anything that's off.

1. In the TikTok app, go to your video with auto-generated captions.
2. Tap the caption on the video, then tap Edit captions.
3. Edit or remove any of the captions.
4. Tap Save at the top.

Source: TikTok Support: Accessibility for your videos, checked 15 October 2026

Creator captions are made before you post, and you can change how they look:

1. In the TikTok app, tap the Add post + button at the bottom.
2. Record or upload a video and continue to the preview screen.
3. Tap Captions on the side panel. TikTok transcribes the speech into text. The first time, you'll be asked to opt in.
4. Preview and edit each line, then tap Save.

Source: TikTok Support: Accessibility for your videos, checked 15 October 2026

Viewers control whether captions show for them, but only on posts that have captions:

1. Go to the post with captions.
2. Tap the Share button on the side of the post.
3. Tap Captions at the bottom. You may need to scroll across.
4. Turn Show captions on or off.

Source: TikTok Support: Accessibility for watching videos, checked 15 October 2026

For photo posts, describe each image with alt text: on the post screen, tap More options, then Add alternative text. For a photo already posted, tap More options (the three dots), then Edit post, then Add alternative text.

• Only eligible videos show auto-generated captions, in the language selected when posting.
• The viewer has turned Show captions off from the Share menu.
• The post has no captions, so there's nothing to turn on.
• For creator captions, you may not have opted in yet: TikTok asks you the first time you tap Captions.

Sources: TikTok Support: Accessibility for your videos, checked 15 October 2026; TikTok Support: Accessibility for watching videos, checked 15 October 2026

Zolyp, which publishes this guide, is an AI social media manager: it plans, writes, designs and schedules posts for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads, and you approve the week before anything goes out. It writes the description that goes under each TikTok, within 2,200 characters. The on-video captions come from TikTok's speech recognition, so check them in the app after the video is live.