How to Add Text to a Video

The fastest way to add text to a video is to open our free browser tool, import your clip, type your text, position it on the frame, and download the MP4, no app install, no upload, no watermark. Here's the step-by-step, plus how to add animated text and automatic captions.

Open the free Add Text to Video tool →

Add text to a video with iMovie

On Mac and iPhone you can also use Apple's free iMovie. On Mac, add your clip and open Titles to pick a style; on iPhone and iPad, the equivalent is the Text tool in the editing bar. Type your text over the video and adjust when it appears.

It's free and runs on your device. The limitation is that iMovie has no speech-to-text: it can't turn what you say into captions automatically, so every caption has to be typed and timed by hand. It also won't remove silences or clean up your audio.

The fastest way to add animated text and captions

Typing text by hand is fine for one title. But if you want your spoken words on screen, doing it manually is slow. That's the job most creators dread.

Montaj adds animated text on a real timeline and, more usefully, generates word-by-word karaoke subtitles automatically from your audio, editable inline with word-level timing you can nudge. In the same pass it removes silences and cleans up the audio with an on-device neural model tuned for voice.

Everything runs on your device, so your footage is never uploaded. Free today, no watermark.