Windows 11 · Windows
Turn Automatic Captions On or Off on YouTube
Source-checked About 10 minutes
Answer
Start a video, open its player settings, select Subtitles/CC, then choose the available caption option. Automatic captions are not available for every video or language.
Prepare and identify the exact scope
Open the exact video and confirm captions exist; the CC button may be absent when the creator supplied no track and YouTube has not generated automatic captions for that language or audio.
Start the video
Open the YouTube video whose captions you want to change.
Open player caption controls
Select the player Settings control, then choose Subtitles/CC.
Choose an available caption option
Select the available caption track or turn captions off; use auto-generated captions only when YouTube offers them.
Verify the supported result
Play a spoken section after selecting the caption track and confirm text appears in the chosen language. Reopen Settings to verify which track is active rather than relying only on the CC icon.
Understand limits and consequences
Automatic captions can contain errors, especially with poor audio, accents, overlapping speakers, or specialized terms. They are not a certified transcript and turning them on does not create captions for an unsupported video.
Use the safest supported follow-up
Use YouTube's caption preferences to change appearance or default behavior where offered. Turn captions off from the same player control when they obstruct content without changing the video's audio track.
Video walkthrough
If it does not work
- If CC is available but no text appears, reload the video, update the official app or browser, and test another captioned video. Report the specific video to YouTube if only that track fails; avoid caption extensions requesting unnecessary account access.
Sources and verification
Checked against official documentation on . Scope: Windows.
Follow the linked first-party guidance if labels differ after a platform or app update.