Six AI tools can caption a classroom video from its audio: AutoSubtitles, Yap, ScreenPal, Adobe Express, Canva for Education and Otter.ai. Choose by where the video will live. A caption file (SRT or VTT) suits a learning management system or YouTube; captions burned into the picture suit a download. None of the six is finished until a person has read the captions against the video.
The timing matters this fall. On April 20, 2026, the Department of Justice moved the deadlines for public entities, which include public schools, to meet its web accessibility rule: April 26, 2027 for entities with 50,000 or more people, and April 26, 2028 for smaller ones. The rule's standard is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and WCAG includes captions for video (ADA.gov fact sheet). Which date applies to your district depends on the population it is measured by: the same fact sheet says a school district is not a special district government, so a city or county school district uses that city's or county's population. Ask your district's counsel which date and which exceptions apply to you. This post covers the captioning job, not the law.
The Department gave one reason for the delay that matters here: it said generative AI does not yet reliably fix inaccessible content at scale. Captions follow the same logic. The W3C says automatic captions do not meet user needs or accessibility requirements unless they are confirmed to be fully accurate. Everything below treats AI as the first draft and you, or a colleague, as the editor. All prices and limits were checked on October 23, 2026.
Which tool fits which video?
| Tool | The job it does | Strengths | Limitations | Price / free tier | Privacy considerations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoSubtitles | Quick captions on a short recorded clip | Edit words and timing before export; no account needed | Free exports burned-in captions only, with a watermark; separate caption files need Pro | Free: videos to 10 minutes, 720p. Pro $9 a month (site) | Audio track is sent for transcription; policy says it is deleted within minutes |
| Yap | Free caption file from a long recording | SRT and VTT export, up to 60 minutes or 300 MB, 99 languages | Your text edits do not reach the SRT or VTT file; does not tell speakers apart | Free, no account (site) | Runs in the browser tab; vendor says no upload and no copy kept |
| ScreenPal | Record a lesson and caption it in one place | Captions inside the recorder and video editor; accepts an uploaded caption file | No automated captions on the free plan | Free; Deluxe Edu $3.00 a month, billed annually (plans) | Education page makes no student-data statement; unverified |
| Adobe Express | Captions on a video you are already editing | Generate, then edit text in a Transcript panel; free for K-12 | Supported languages and plan requirements not stated on the help page | Free offer for K-12 schools (overview) | School or district can own accounts and restrict sharing |
| Canva for Education | Captions on a video you are designing in Canva | Edit captions before export; translation into 100+ options | Exports a captioned MP4; no stated caption-file export | Free for K-12 educators and students (education page) | Vendor claims FERPA and COPPA compliance; verify with your district |
| Otter.ai | Transcript of a talk, discussion or PD session | Live transcription; search and share | Free plan cannot export SRT; 30 minutes per conversation | Basic free, 300 minutes a month (pricing) | Policy lists training on de-identified recordings and transcripts |
How do I choose among them?
Four questions narrow the field before you open a single pricing page.
- Where will the video live? A learning management system or YouTube can take a separate caption file, which students can switch on and off. A video you will send as a download needs captions burned into the picture. Only some tools here do both.
- Who edits? Every tool makes errors on names, terms and noisy rooms. Pick a tool whose edits reach the file you will publish. On Yap, they do not.
- What may leave the device? Yap's page says the file is transcribed in your browser. AutoSubtitles sends the audio track to outside providers. Otter's policy lists training on de-identified recordings. If a video includes student voices or faces, the answer decides what your district has to approve.
- Is it recorded or live? For a live class, YouTube's automatic captions are English only, and Otter offers live transcription. For a recorded lesson, any of the six works.
AutoSubtitles: the best fit for a short clip with a quick fix
AutoSubtitles is the best fit for a teacher who needs captions on a clip under ten minutes and wants to correct them on screen, because its page says you can edit words, adjust start and end times, and merge or split segments before export (site).
Watch out for: the free plan exports a video with the captions burned in, 720p, with a small watermark. Separate SRT, VTT and TXT files come with Pro, which also stretches the video limit to 30 minutes. The page says both "100+ languages" and "20+ languages" in different places, so test your language first.
Pricing: Free (videos up to 10 minutes); Pro $9 a month (30 minutes, no watermark, caption files); Max handles videos up to an hour, with no price stated (site).
Safety: the site says the video stays on your device and only the audio track is sent for transcription. The privacy policy says outside providers delete it "typically within minutes," does not name those providers, and says nothing on AI training or minimum age. The directory lists United States hosting and 18 and older. Teacher-only use is the sensible reading.
Choose something else if you need a caption file on the free plan, or a video longer than ten minutes.
Yap: the best fit for a free caption file from a long recording
Yap is the best fit for a teacher who wants an SRT or VTT file at no cost, because its page says it transcribes in the browser tab, takes files up to 60 minutes and 300 MB, recognizes 99 languages, and lets you download subtitles "as an .srt or .vtt file" (site).
Watch out for: the page says edits in the text box apply only to the .txt and the copy; the subtitle files use the text as recognized. If Yap mishears "mitochondria," you fix it in the text, not in the caption file. It also does not tell speakers apart, and the page warns of more mistakes with names, crosstalk, music and noisy rooms. Open the SRT in a caption editor or in YouTube Studio and correct it there.
Pricing: free, with no account and no limit on how many files you transcribe (site).
Safety: the vendor states "no account, no upload and no copy kept by us," and records usage events but "never the file, its name or its words." That is a vendor claim about its own page, not an audit. The directory lists a minimum age of 13.
Choose something else if you want to correct captions inside the tool, or you need speaker labels.
ScreenPal: the best fit for recording a lesson and captioning it in one place
ScreenPal is the best fit for a teacher who records explanations on screen, because its Deluxe Edu plan lists AI speech-to-text captions alongside the full video editor, so you record, trim and caption in one place (plans). Our video tools comparison covers the recording side.
Watch out for: the Free plan lists no automated captions, only the option to upload a caption file you made elsewhere, and a 15-minute recording limit. Captions start at Deluxe Edu.
Pricing: Free ($0); Deluxe Edu $3.00 a month, billed annually; Max Edu $6.00 a month, billed annually, which adds the AI video generator and text-to-speech narration; Team Education $3.00 per user a month for 10 or more users (plans). The directory shows 4.67 from three reviews.
Safety: the education page makes no FERPA or student-data statement and no accessibility conformance claim, and it only links to its privacy policy. Treat both as unverified and ask the vendor in writing.
Choose something else if you do not record on screen, or need free automated captions.
Adobe Express: the best fit for captions on a video you are already editing
Adobe Express is the best fit for a teacher or student already making a short video there, because the help page says to pick the spoken language, select Generate, then "review and edit the generated text in the Transcript panel." A "Caption video" quick action does the same for a finished file.
Watch out for: the help page does not list the supported languages, any length limit, or whether a free or Premium plan is needed, so those are unverified. It describes exporting a captioned video; it does not say you can export a separate caption file.
Pricing: Adobe describes Express for Education as "a free offer for K-12 schools and districts", with free premium features and AI credits for verified educators. The directory shows 4.57 from seven reviews.
Safety: Adobe says a school or district that deploys accounts owns them and can exercise admin rights, and K-12 administrators can restrict sharing in the Adobe Admin Console. It lists student privacy controls but gives no minimum age on that page, so check the terms for your students' ages.
Choose something else if you need a caption file for an LMS, or you do not want students working inside Adobe's editor.
Canva for Education: the best fit for captions on a video you are designing
Canva for Education is the best fit for a school that has already approved Canva, because Canva's auto-caption page says the AI detects the spoken language, translates captions into "over 100 options," lets you edit before you "download your video as an MP4 file," and calls the generator free.
Watch out for: the output is a captioned video, and the page does not mention a separate caption file or any limit on length or file size. The page's accuracy claim, "accurate captions," is a marketing statement with no error rate behind it. Its help-center page on captions would not load during research.
Pricing: Canva says Education is "100% free" for K-12 educators, their students and qualified schools, that teachers verify their status, that students are invited by a teacher or school, and that Pro features are included. The directory shows 4.62 from 39 reviews.
Safety: Canva states that its education and district offerings are FERPA and COPPA compliant and that it signed the National Data Privacy Agreement. Those are vendor claims; your district decides whether its agreement is in place.
Choose something else if you need a caption file, or your school has not approved Canva for student accounts.
Otter.ai: the best fit for a transcript of a talk, not captions on a video
Otter.ai is the best fit for a transcript of a class discussion, a parent meeting or a PD session, because its pricing page lists live transcription and searchable, shareable text. It is a note-taker first; our note-taker comparison covers that job.
Watch out for: the free Basic plan caps meeting transcription at 300 minutes a month and 30 minutes per conversation, allows three file imports in total, and exports mp3 and txt but not SRT. SRT export appears on Pro, listed at $16.99 a month at list price, with 20 percent off Pro for teachers and students with a .edu address. The page shows regional discounts, so check the price you are shown.
Pricing: Basic is free; Pro and Business are paid; Enterprise is by quote (pricing).
Safety: Otter's privacy policy lists "training our proprietary AI technology on de-identified audio recordings and on transcriptions" as a purpose, and says it does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Do not feed it recordings of students unless your district has approved those terms.
Choose something else if you need captions on a video, a free SRT file, or a tool whose terms rule out training on recordings.
What about YouTube's automatic captions?
YouTube is not in the directory, but many teachers already post there. Its help page says automatic captions "might misrepresent the spoken content due to mispronunciations, accents, dialects, or background noise," advises you to "always review automatic captions and edit any parts that haven't been properly transcribed" in YouTube Studio, and says automatic captions for live streams are available in English only. Microsoft and Google's built-in meeting and video captions were not checked for this post.
Worked example: one 8-minute lab-safety video
This is a plan, not a result. A grade 7 science teacher records an 8-minute lab-safety demonstration to post in the class learning management system.
- Before recording, list the words a machine will miss: "Bunsen burner," "goggles," "beaker," and any student names the video mentions.
- Generate captions in Adobe Express or Canva, whichever the school has approved. Both limit you to a captioned video, so post that version.
- Watch the whole video at normal speed with the captions on, and fix every listed term. Add a short note for sounds that matter, such as "[timer beeps]," because the W3C defines captions as covering speech and the non-speech audio needed to understand the content.
- If the LMS needs a caption file, route the audio through Yap, then correct the SRT in a caption editor or YouTube Studio, not in Yap's text box.
- Ask a colleague to spot-check two minutes. Save the corrected file next to the video.
What did the checks show?
Free gets you three different half-answers. AutoSubtitles' free plan burns captions into the picture, Yap gives you a caption file you cannot correct in place, and Otter's free plan will not export SRT at all. Adobe Express and Canva, which both offer free K-12 plans, let you edit before export but produce a captioned video, not a separate file, as far as their pages say. A teacher who needs a clean, editable caption file for an LMS has to combine two tools. That gap is the useful finding, and it is why question 1 above comes first.
Further reading
For the wider video picture, see AI video tools for teachers. For the data questions to ask any vendor, see AI tools a school can approve and AI tools for district technology directors. Browse the special education and accessibility category for more.
