The Problem With Traditional Captioning
Most After Effects editors do captions the same way: finish the edit, export to CapCut or Premiere, add captions there, re-export, bring it back. It works, but it costs you 15–30 minutes on every project, and the captions never feel quite right because you're working in a separate tool with different typography controls.
There's a better way — generate captions natively inside After Effects with the Subflow plugin so the output is real text layers, frame-snapped to your composition.
What You Need
- Adobe After Effects CC 2022 or newer
- Subflow installed (install guide)
- An active Subflow license
- A composition with audio on at least one layer
That's it.
Step 1: Open the Subflow Panel
In After Effects, go to Window → Extensions → Subflow. The panel will open on the right side of your workspace. If you don't see it in the menu, restart After Effects after installation.
Step 2: Select Your Language
Subflow supports 51 languages plus auto-detect. If your audio is in English, you can leave it on Auto — Subflow will figure it out. If you're working with mixed-language content or a specific dialect, select it manually for better accuracy.
Step 3: Choose Your Caption Mode
Subflow offers three caption modes:
Single Word — Each word appears as it's spoken. Great for social content and reels where you want high visual engagement.
Smart Flow — Groups words into natural phrases. The most readable option for longer videos, interviews, podcasts, and educational content.
Full Sentence — One caption per sentence. Best for documentary-style work or broadcast content where readability over time matters more than pace.
For a deeper comparison of when each mode wins, see our caption mode guide.
Step 4: Click Generate
Hit the Generate button. Subflow analyzes the audio, transcribes it, and creates a text layer for each caption — synced to the frame, styled with your comp's default text settings.
Depending on the length of your composition, this takes between 5 and 30 seconds.
Step 5: Style and Adjust
Your captions appear as standard After Effects text layers, which means you can:
- Change the font, size, colour, and tracking
- Apply effects and animations
- Move them around the frame
- Edit any word that was transcribed incorrectly
Nothing is locked or proprietary. It's just After Effects.
Tips for Better Results
Use a clean audio track. Subflow's transcription is accurate, but heavy background music or reverb will reduce precision. If you can, route dialogue to a dedicated audio layer.
Check the first and last caption. The start and end of audio tracks sometimes get clipped. Spend 30 seconds reviewing the first and last few captions.
Use Smart Flow for talking-head content. Single Word looks great on reels, but if your video is longer than 60 seconds, Smart Flow is much easier to watch.
Final Thought
Captions aren't just an accessibility feature — they're one of the most effective ways to keep viewers watching. Videos with captions consistently outperform those without on every platform.
If you're spending more than two minutes on captions per video, you're spending too long. See the Subflow pricing page or jump straight to the install guide.