How to add subtitles in Premiere Pro

There are two ways to get subtitles into Premiere Pro: let it generate them from the audio, or import a subtitle file you already have. Both end up on the same caption track, styled and exported the same way.

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Way 1: generate subtitles automatically

Open Window > Text, click Transcribe sequence, wait for the transcript, then click Create captions with the format set to Subtitle. Premiere places a caption track above your video with every line timed to the speech. For the short-form look, set max characters per line to 16 to 20 before you create them.

Way 2: import an .srt file

Go to File > Import, pick the .srt (or .vtt, .scc), and drag it from the Project panel onto the timeline. Premiere creates a caption track from it. Check that the file's timecodes start where your sequence does; an offset of a few seconds is the usual reason imported subtitles drift.

Styling the subtitles

Select any subtitle and open Essential Graphics. Set font, size, fill, stroke and background, then save it as a Track Style so every subtitle on the track matches. One style per track is the limit.

Exporting

In the export dialog, open the Captions tab. Burn captions into video for social platforms, or Create sidecar file to hand over an .srt. Leaving it on None exports no subtitles at all, which catches people constantly.

If you want the subtitles to move

Native subtitles stay static. For the highlighted-word style, you need a graphics-based approach: either Upgrade caption to graphic and keyframe by hand, or a plugin that generates animated captions with word timing.