Text is one of those small touches that quietly makes a video feel finished. A clean title at the start, a few captions over the talking parts, a call-to-action at the end — none of it is hard, and all of it helps people follow along. If you've just opened the editor and you're wondering how to add text in CapCut PC, you're in the right place.

This guide walks through the whole thing on the desktop app: dropping in a text layer, styling the font and color, adding animations so the words slide or fade rather than just popping on screen, and positioning everything exactly where you want it. We'll also touch on auto-captions, which is the fast way to subtitle a video full of dialogue.

Everything here uses the free CapCut desktop editor from ByteDance, downloaded from the official site at capcut.com. If you haven't installed it yet, grab it first with our step-by-step Windows 11 download guide, then come back and we'll get your text looking sharp.

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Quick answer
  • Add text from the Text tab in the top-left panel, then drag the layer onto its own timeline track above your video.
  • Use the right-hand properties panel to change font, color, size, outline, and shadow, and the Animation tab to make text move in and out.
  • For lots of spoken-word subtitles, CapCut's auto-captions feature transcribes your audio automatically instead of typing every line by hand.

Add your first text layer

Adding text in CapCut desktop starts in the panel along the top-left of the editor. Here's the basic flow:

  1. Open your project (or click New project and drag a clip onto the timeline so you have something to caption).
  2. In the top-left panel, click the Text tab.
  3. Choose Add text — usually the first option, sometimes shown as Default text or a plain T thumbnail. Drag it down to the timeline, or just click it to drop it in at the playhead.
  4. A text box appears in the preview window with placeholder words. Double-click it, delete the placeholder, and type what you want.

That text now lives on its own layer above your video track. Because it's a separate clip, you can move it left or right on the timeline to control when it appears, and drag its edges to control how long it stays on screen. Treat it like any other clip — that mental model makes the rest of this much easier.

Tip: You can stack several text layers at once — a title on one track, a lower-third caption on another. CapCut shows them in the preview in the order they're stacked, so a higher track sits in front.

Style the font, color, and size

With your text selected on the timeline, look at the properties panel on the right side of the screen. This is where all the styling lives, and it's the heart of working with capcut text on desktop.

Under the Font or Style section you'll find the controls that matter most:

  • Font: Pick from CapCut's built-in typefaces. There are dozens, including bold display fonts for titles and cleaner ones for captions.
  • Size: Scale the text up or down. You can also drag the corner handles of the text box in the preview to resize it visually.
  • Color: Set the fill color of the letters. For captions over busy footage, a strong color with good contrast reads best.
  • Bold / italic / spacing: Quick toggles for weight, slant, letter spacing, and line height.

Two settings are worth calling out because they make text readable over any background:

  • Outline (stroke): Adds a border around each letter. A thin dark outline on white text is the classic captions look for a reason — it stays legible over bright and dark areas alike.
  • Background: Puts a solid or semi-transparent box behind the words, which is great for lower-third subtitles.
  • Shadow: A soft drop shadow that lifts text off the footage without a hard edge.

If you'd rather not build a look from scratch, browse the Text templates (sometimes under a Styles or Bubbles sub-tab). These are pre-designed combinations of font, color, and effects you can apply in one click and then tweak.

Animate text so it moves on and off screen

Static text is fine, but a little motion makes a big difference. With your text layer selected, open the Animation tab in the right-hand panel. You'll see three groups:

  • In: How the text enters — fade in, slide up, type-on, pop, and so on.
  • Out: How it leaves the screen.
  • Loop: A continuous animation that runs the whole time the text is visible, like a gentle pulse or wave.

Click an animation to apply it, then use the duration slider underneath to control how fast it plays. A short in-animation of around half a second usually feels snappy; drag it longer for a slower, more cinematic entrance.

You can combine an In and an Out animation on the same text layer — for example, fade in at the start and slide out at the end. Just don't pile on so much motion that the words become hard to read.

Preview your choice by moving the playhead just before the text and pressing the spacebar. If the animation eats up too much of the time the text is on screen, either lengthen the text clip on the timeline or shorten the animation duration.

Position and align your text

Where text sits on screen matters as much as how it looks. CapCut gives you a few ways to place it precisely.

Drag it in the preview. The simplest method: click the text in the preview window and drag it anywhere. As you move it, CapCut shows alignment guides — faint lines that snap to the center and edges — so you can line things up cleanly.

Use the Position controls. In the properties panel you'll find numeric Position (X and Y), Scale, and Rotation fields. These are handy when you want two captions in exactly the same spot across different clips, or when you need text perfectly centered.

  • Titles usually sit in the upper or center area of the frame.
  • Captions and subtitles belong near the lower third, leaving room below so they don't crowd the edge.
  • Calls-to-action often work in a corner where they won't cover the main action.

Keep it inside the safe area. Some platforms crop the edges of a video or overlay their own buttons there. Keep important text away from the extreme top, bottom, and sides so nothing gets cut off or hidden on phones.

If you're layering text over a subject you've isolated — say a person on a green screen or with the background removed — placement gets even more flexible. Our guides on using green screen (chroma key) and removing a video background on PC pair nicely with text overlays for titles that wrap around your subject.

Add captions and subtitles automatically

Typing out every line of dialogue by hand works for a short clip, but it gets tedious fast on anything longer. This is where CapCut's auto-captions feature earns its keep, and it's the quickest route to capcut captions on PC.

Auto-captions listens to the audio in your project, transcribes the spoken words, and drops them onto the timeline as synced text — no manual typing required. The general flow looks like this:

  1. Select the clip (or clips) that contain the speech you want to caption.
  2. Open the Captions or Text tab and look for Auto captions.
  3. Choose the spoken language and start the process.
  4. CapCut generates a set of caption clips timed to the audio. Click any one to fix a typo or restyle it.

Because the result is just regular text layers, everything from the styling and animation sections above still applies — you can give your auto-generated subtitles an outline, a background box, or a font that matches your brand. To restyle them all at once, look for a Sync to all or Apply to all captions option after you've styled the first one.

Always proofread. Auto-captions are impressively accurate, but they can stumble on names, slang, or unclear audio. A quick read-through to fix the odd word makes your capcut add subtitles workflow look polished and professional.

Useful text habits and shortcuts

A few small habits make adding text in CapCut faster and your videos more consistent:

  • Reuse a styled layer. Once you've perfected a caption's look, copy it (Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) for the next one. You keep all the styling and just change the words.
  • Match timing to speech. For manual captions, line each text clip up with the moment the words are said. Nudge the clip on the timeline until it feels natural.
  • Don't overcrowd the frame. One clear idea on screen at a time reads far better than three competing text boxes.
  • Check legibility on a small screen. Most viewers watch on phones. If you can read it comfortably at a glance, you're set.

One more thing worth knowing: the free desktop editor exports without a watermark on standard edits, though certain premium templates and effects can add one. If you spot a mark you didn't expect, our guide on avoiding and removing the CapCut watermark explains where it comes from.

That's the full picture. Add a layer, style it, give it a touch of motion, place it well, and lean on auto-captions when there's a lot of speech to cover. With those steps, text stops being an afterthought.