Add subtitles in Adobe After Effects

After Effects has no caption track, no built-in speech-to-text and no SRT import. There are three reliable ways to add subtitles to an After Effects composition, depending on whether the text needs to be animated.

Step by step: subtitles through Premiere Pro

1. Render a draft of your composition and upload it to the HappyScribe subtitle generator. You can start with the free trial.
2. Choose the spoken language. The AI creates the subtitles in a few minutes, in any of 150+ languages.
3. Fix wording and timing in the online subtitle editor, and translate into 80+ languages if you need other versions.
4. Export the subtitles as an SRT file.
5. In Premiere Pro, choose File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import After Effects Composition and drag the composition into a sequence. Then import the SRT and drag it onto the same sequence: Premiere Pro creates a caption track.
6. Export from Premiere Pro with a sidecar caption file or with the captions burned into the video. Changes you make in After Effects update in Premiere Pro automatically. Our Premiere Pro subtitles guide covers the caption settings.

Without Premiere Pro: burn subtitles into the render

If you only need hard subtitles on the finished video, render the composition, upload it to HappyScribe, adjust the subtitle style in the editor and export the video with the subtitles burned in. No plug-in and no extra software needed.

Animated captions inside After Effects

Kinetic, word-by-word captions have to be text layers in the composition. Third-party scripts and plug-ins can turn an SRT file into text layers, and most of them still rely on the text and timing being right. Starting from a reviewed HappyScribe SRT saves the correction work, and for a short video you can also paste key lines into text layers using the timings shown in the subtitle editor.

Which subtitle format to export

SRT is the format to choose for After Effects work: Premiere Pro imports it as a caption track, and SRT-to-text-layer scripts read it. For broadcast deliveries finished in Premiere Pro, HappyScribe also exports SCC and EBU-STL, which Premiere Pro accepts as well.

After Effects subtitles: FAQ

Does After Effects have auto captions?

No, After Effects doesn't include speech-to-text or a captions workspace like Premiere Pro. Generate the subtitles with an AI tool such as HappyScribe, then add them through Premiere Pro or as text layers.

Can I import an SRT file into After Effects?

Not natively, because After Effects doesn't read SRT files as captions. Bring the SRT into Premiere Pro next to your Dynamic Linked composition, or use a third-party script that converts SRT into text layers.

Do I need a subtitle plugin for After Effects?

Not for standard subtitles. Export the video from HappyScribe with burned-in subtitles, or use Premiere Pro's caption track; plug-ins are only worth it for animated text layers.

How do I keep subtitles readable over motion graphics?

Keep subtitles clear of animated elements, limit them to two short lines and give them a background box or outline. Set this in the HappyScribe editor or in Premiere Pro before you export.