YouTube‘s default captions are functional but not always easy to read. Small white text on a dark background can be hard to see against certain video content, and the default font size may be too small on a large screen or too large on a phone. The good news is that YouTube offers surprisingly detailed caption customisation – most users just never look for it.

How to Turn On Subtitles and Captions

On Desktop

Click the CC button at the bottom right of the video player, next to the settings gear. If the video has captions available, they will appear immediately. If you do not see the CC button, the video does not have captions.

On Mobile (iPhone and Android)

Tap the video to show player controls, then tap the CC button that appears. On some phones it may be in the three-dot menu under Captions.

How to Customise Caption Appearance on Desktop

1. Click the gear icon (Settings) at the bottom of the player.
2. Select Subtitles/CC.
3. Click Options at the top right of the subtitle menu.

You can adjust the following:

• Font family – choose from several readable options including a dyslexia-friendly font.
• Font colour – white, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, red, or black.
• Font size – scale from 50% to 300% of the default size.
• Background colour and opacity – change the box behind the text from solid black to transparent, or any colour in between.
• Window colour and opacity – adds a coloured backdrop behind the entire caption area.
• Character edge style – add a drop shadow, raised, depressed, or outline effect to make text stand out from the background.

Click Reset to defaults at any time if you want to start over.

How to Customise Captions on iPhone

Caption styling on the YouTube iOS app is more limited than desktop. For full customisation, go to your iPhone’s Settings, tap Accessibility, then Subtitles and Captioning, then Style. Create a new style and set your preferred font, size, and colour. YouTube will respect these system-level caption settings.

How to Customise Captions on Android

Android has its own caption accessibility settings. Go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Caption preferences or Subtitle settings (varies by manufacturer). Enable captions and customise the text size, style, and colour. The YouTube app uses these system settings when displaying captions.

Auto-Generated vs Manual Captions

YouTube auto-generates captions for most videos using speech recognition. These are usually reasonably accurate for clear audio in English but can struggle with accents, technical terminology, or fast speech. When a creator manually uploads captions, they are usually more accurate. You can check which type is available by clicking the CC button and looking at the subtitle options – manually uploaded captions may appear as a specific language without the ‘(auto-generated)’ label.

How to Translate Captions

If a video has captions, you can translate them to another language. Click the gear icon, select Subtitles/CC, then click Auto-translate and choose your language. Quality varies based on the machine translation, but it is useful for videos in languages you do not speak.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are captions out of sync with the audio?

Auto-generated captions can occasionally drift out of sync. If this happens, try switching to a manually uploaded caption track if one is available, or report it to the video creator.

Can I make captions appear at the top of the screen?

On desktop, you cannot reposition captions through YouTube’s settings. On mobile, system accessibility settings may allow repositioning depending on your device.

Do caption style settings save between videos?

Yes. Caption customisation is saved to your Google account and will apply to all YouTube videos you watch while signed in, across desktop browsers.