Closed Captions vs Subtitles: What's the Difference?
People use the two words for the same thing, but they were made for different viewers. Captions are for people who can't hear the audio. Subtitles are for people who can hear it but don't follow the language. Here's the difference, with an example, and when it matters.
The short answer
| Closed captions (CC) | Subtitles | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Viewers who can't hear the audio | Viewers who can hear but don't understand the language |
| Contains | Speech, plus sounds ([door slams], [music]) and who is speaking | Speech only |
| Language | Usually the same as the audio | Usually a translation |
| Can be turned off | Yes — that's what "closed" means | Usually yes |
In the U.S. and Canada the two words are kept apart like this. In the UK and much of Europe, "subtitles" is often used for both.
The same scene, both ways
A woman walks through a doorway. The door creaks, tense music starts, and she says, "I never should have come back here." As closed captions:
[door creaks open] [tense music] SARAH: I never should have come back here.
As Spanish subtitles for a hearing viewer:
Nunca debí haber regresado aquí.
The captions tell a viewer who can't hear what is happening in the sound. The subtitles only tell a viewer who can hear what the words mean.
Where SDH fits
SDH stands for "subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing". It's an American term that came from the DVD industry. In practice, SDH is a subtitle track that carries the same extra information as captions — sounds, music, speaker names — and it's usually in the same language as the audio. Streaming services show it in the subtitle list, often labelled CC or SDH. Our SDH explainer covers the labels service by service.
Open captions vs closed captions
- Closed captions are a separate text track. The viewer turns them on or off, and many players let them change the size and color.
- Open captions are burned into the picture. Everyone sees them and no one can turn them off. Short social videos often use them because many people watch with the sound off and never open a menu.
When the difference matters
Accessibility and the law (U.S.)
- TV: FCC rules require captions on most TV programming.
- TV shows put online: under the CVAA (2010), video that aired on TV with captions must keep captions when it's shown online.
- Federal agencies: Section 508 requires their technology and content to be accessible, including captions on video.
- Business websites: the ADA covers "places of public accommodation", and some courts have applied that to websites — courts are split. There's no settled legal standard, but WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark most often used, and it asks for captions on pre-recorded video (success criterion 1.2.2, Level A).
For accessibility, a file with speech only is not enough: WCAG captions include the sounds that matter and who is speaking. This isn't legal advice; check what applies to you. Our closed captioning guide goes deeper on the rules.
Reaching other languages
Translating a video for new markets means subtitles: the speech in another language, timed to the video. YouTube lets one video carry many caption and subtitle tracks, so viewers can pick theirs.
What makes captions good
For TV, the FCC sets four caption quality standards, and they're a useful checklist for any video:
- Accurate: the words match what is said, and the sounds that matter are described.
- In sync: each caption appears while the words are spoken and stays long enough to read.
- Complete: captions run from the start of the video to the end, not just the first part.
- Well placed: captions don't cover faces, on-screen text or other things viewers need to see.
Subtitles have one extra job: a good translation reads naturally in the new language while still fitting the time each line is on screen. That often means shortening what was said rather than translating it word for word.
Captions, subtitles and transcripts
A transcript is the third term people mix up with these two. It's the words of a video as one document, for reading rather than watching along. A caption or subtitle file is a transcript split into short timed pieces. You'd use a transcript to quote a talk, search a long interview, or turn a video into an article; you'd use a caption or subtitle file to show the words on the video itself. Our tool gives you both from one link: TXT for reading, and SRT or VTT for the screen.
Files: the same formats for both
Captions and subtitles usually travel in the same file types. SRT is the simple, widely supported one; VTT is the format browsers use for web video; TTML is used for professional delivery — Netflix, for example, asks for TTML-based files. The format doesn't make a file captions or subtitles; what's written in it does. See SRT vs VTT for how the two common formats differ.
Making captions from a transcript
- Get the words with times. Paste a video link into our tool and download an SRT. For TikTok and Instagram it turns the audio into text; for YouTube it reads the video's own captions, so it's only as good as those.
- Fix names and terms. Automatic speech-to-text spells names the way they sound.
- Add what a viewer who can't hear would miss. Our files contain speech only, so add sounds like [phone rings] and speaker names yourself. That step turns a subtitle file into captions.
- Upload it as a caption track. On YouTube: YouTube Studio → Subtitles → choose the video → add the language and upload the file.
FAQ
Why are they called closed captions?
Because they are hidden until the viewer turns them on. On TV, the caption text was sent inside the broadcast signal and only appeared when a decoder showed it. Open captions are the opposite: they are part of the picture and everyone sees them.
How do I turn on closed captions?
On YouTube, click the CC button on the player. On most TVs and streaming apps, open the subtitles or audio menu during playback and pick a track marked CC or SDH. On Apple devices, Settings → Accessibility → Subtitles & Captioning has an option to prefer closed captions and SDH.
Why does Gen Z like closed captions?
Surveys find most young viewers use them. In a 2021 survey for the UK charity Stagetext, 80% of 18–24-year-olds said they use subtitles some or all of the time, and in a 2023 YouGov poll, 63% of U.S. adults under 30 said they prefer subtitles on for TV in a language they know. Common reasons people give: watching with the sound low, dialogue that's hard to hear, accents, and doing something else at the same time.
Should closed captions be on or off?
Whatever helps you follow. Turn them on if you're deaf or hard of hearing, watching quietly or in a noisy place, learning the language, or struggling with fast dialogue. Turn them off if they distract you.
Are YouTube's automatic captions closed captions?
They are a closed caption track — viewers can turn them on and off — but they only write down speech, and they often get names, technical words and punctuation wrong. They don't describe sounds or name speakers. For accessibility, creators should review them in YouTube Studio and add what's missing.