Final Cut Pro captions in other languages

Final Cut Pro can transcribe captions for you, but Apple documents Transcribe to Captions as English-only. Here's how to caption other languages without leaving your Mac.

What Final Cut Pro does today

Final Cut Pro's Transcribe to Captions turns speech in your timeline into captions, and Apple's guide lists English as the supported language. Final Cut Pro can also import caption files in SRT and iTT format, in any language, and it can burn captions into an export.

So the missing piece is just the transcription. Caption plugins sold for Final Cut Pro (around $20 on the Mac App Store, checked 20 October 2026) fill that gap inside the app. A separate transcription app that writes an SRT file works too.

Other-language captions with an SRT file

Finish your edit in Final Cut Pro, then share a master file (File ▸ Share ▸ Master File) or an audio-only export.
Open it in Stillreel, choose the language (or Detect language) and click Transcribe. It runs whisper.cpp with Whisper's multilingual model on your Mac.
Correct the text and timing in Stillreel's caption track.
Choose Export SRT + VTT.
Back in Final Cut Pro, choose File ▸ Import ▸ Captions, pick the SRT file and place it at the start of the project.

Because the SRT was made from your finished edit, its times line up with your timeline. If you change the edit later, re-export and re-transcribe, or adjust the captions in Final Cut Pro.

How well does it handle other languages?

We measured German with real voices: 10–16% of words were wrong depending on the sentences, so plan on a quick read-through. French was checked only with a synthetic voice. German was correctly auto-detected. Any caption that is off can be fixed with a quick nudge. The language menu also offers Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese, which we haven't measured yet; check a short clip first.

A lighter option for short vertical clips

If the job is a 30-second Reel rather than a film, you may not need Final Cut Pro at all. Stillreel trims, splits and reorders clips on a single timeline, captions them, reframes to 9:16 and exports a 1080×1920 MP4, with no watermark.

	Final Cut Pro	Stillreel
Price	$299.99 once, or a subscription	$24 once
Automatic captions	English (Apple's documentation)	English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese (English and German measured with real voices)
Caption styles	Standard caption formats	Five burned-in styles, including word-by-word highlight
Editing	Full professional editor	One video track and a caption track
Where it runs	Your Mac	Your Mac

Stillreel can also write an OpenTimelineIO (.otio) file of its timeline, an open interchange format, and SRT/VTT for your captions. Many people use both: Final Cut Pro for the main edit, Stillreel for fast captioned cut-downs.

Final Cut Pro is a trademark of Apple Inc. Stillreel isn't affiliated with Apple.

Common questions

Can I burn the captions in with Final Cut Pro instead? Yes. Once the SRT is imported as a caption role, Final Cut Pro can include it in the share; or export straight from Stillreel with one of its five styles.

What about iTT files? Stillreel writes SRT and VTT. Final Cut Pro imports SRT directly, so you don't need iTT.

Try Stillreel free for 14 days

Every feature, no watermark, nothing uploaded. Then $24 (launch price until 2026-11-30, then $29) once if you keep it.

Download the free trial Buy for $24