Glossary
When you add captions to a video, you have two delivery options. Burn-in (also called open captions) bakes the text directly into the video pixels — captions are part of the rendered output and cannot be turned off. Sidecar (closed captions) stores the captions in a separate .srt or .vtt file that the player overlays at playback time. Each has clear use cases.
When burn-in wins
Social media: TikTok, Instagram Reels, Twitter, LinkedIn. Most social videos auto-play with sound off; burn-in captions are visible immediately, drive engagement, and survive video-only re-uploads. Distributed video: educational content, training videos, marketing reels passed around as standalone files. The captions can never get separated from the video. Heavy styling: bouncing text, color-coded speakers, animated word-by-word reveals — burn-in is the only option since players don't render fancy styling from sidecar files.
When sidecar wins
YouTube and Vimeo: prefer SRT/VTT uploads; YouTube auto-uses them for search indexing. HTML5 video on websites: <track> elements load VTT files; users toggle captions on/off, change languages, change appearance. Multi-language: ship one video file with several SRT files, one per language. Updates: fix a typo by editing the SRT — no re-rendering the video.
The hybrid approach
Best practice for many use cases: ship sidecar SRT/VTT for the canonical delivery (YouTube, web), and burn-in a styled version for social-media-specific cuts. Use the same source transcript for both. We export SRT and VTT as standard for sidecar use; burn-in tools like Captions.ai, Headliner, or Premiere Pro accept our SRT files and overlay them with custom styling onto the video before final render. Step-by-step: how to add an SRT file to a video.
In practice
You produce a 30-second clip from a 1-hour podcast for promotion. Drop the audio in Transcript.you, generate an SRT, then in Premiere/CapCut import the SRT and style it with bold sans-serif text, yellow highlight on key words, white drop-shadow background. Burn the styled captions in. Upload the final MP4 to TikTok and Reels — captions are always visible, always readable, regardless of viewer settings.
Related terms
Add captions to a video
Get started — freeLast updated: September 20, 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Burn-in vs sidecar captions mean in transcription?
Burn-in captions are baked into the video pixels (cannot be turned off). Sidecar captions are stored separately as SRT/VTT files and toggled by the player. Social-media captions are typically burn-in; web video uses sidecar.
Why does Burn-in vs sidecar captions matter when choosing a transcription workflow?
Burn-in vs sidecar captions affects how you understand transcript quality, timing, compatibility, or the technology behind speech-to-text results.
Where can I apply Burn-in vs sidecar captions on Transcript.you?
Use the related workflow at /add-captions-to-video when you want to see how this glossary concept connects to an actual transcription task.
Browse the full transcription glossary or read the complete guide to AI transcription.