What a free export actually has on it
A small Capster badge in a corner of the frame, and a short branded end card after your footage. Both are gone the moment a subscription is active, including during the free trial.
Free tier
A free auto caption app for iPhone
Capster is free to download and free to export from. The free tier covers5 transcriptions, clips up to 2 minutes, and 2 of the 9 caption styles. Exports are never blocked, but a free export carries a small Capster badge and a short end card. There is no account and no card to start.
iPhone, iOS 16.0+ · Updated September 2026
Exactly what free covers
Every limit, in one table, with the catch written next to it. Nothing here is timed, and nothing expires.
| On the free tier | The detail | |
|---|---|---|
| Transcriptions | 5 in total, per install | A failed or cancelled run costs nothing — the count only moves when a transcription actually lands. |
| Clip length | Up to 2 minutes | Longer clips are refused before transcription starts, so a long video never burns a credit. |
| Caption styles | 2 of the 9: Plain and Yellow Desert | Picking any other preset opens the paywall rather than applying it. |
| Style controls | Font, size, text colour, letter case, outline, and position on a nine-point grid | Caption background, word highlight, layout effect and animation are Pro. The controls stay visible so you can see what they do. |
| Export | Never blocked | Free exports carry a small Capster badge in the corner and a short end card. Video quality is identical to a Pro export. |
| Languages | All 99 | No language is behind the paywall, and detection is automatic on both tiers. |
| Account | None, on either tier | No sign-up, no email, no card to start. The free count lives on the device. |
The pricing page has the same table with the Pro column next to it, plus the subscription terms in plain words.
About the watermark, plainly
Searches for a free caption app usually mean "free and without a watermark". Capster is the first of those and not the second, so here is the honest version.
Why the export is not blocked instead
An app that transcribes your clip and then refuses to give it to you has wasted your time. The badge is the trade: you always get the file, and you can see whether the app is any good before paying.
Why free cannot be unlimited
Transcription runs on a paid speech-to-text service billed per minute of audio. A genuinely unlimited free tier would be funded by selling something else — ads, or your data. Capster has neither.
What you can do without paying anything
The free tier is a working app, not a demo. This is the whole list.
Free
- Automatic transcription in all 99 languages
- Word-level timings
- Edit any caption: rewrite, split, retime
- Plain and Yellow Desert presets
- Font, from all 18 bundled caption fonts
- Text size and colour
- Letter case
- Outline colour and width
- Position on a nine-point grid
- Export at full quality, badge and end card included
Pro only
- Unlimited transcriptions, clips of any length
- No badge, no end card
- All 9 caption styles
- Caption background: colour, corner radius, padding
- Word highlight: colour, and a highlight background
- Layout effect: one word, two line, boxed, pill, glow
- In and out animation: fade, slide, scale, pop
- Pixel-precise caption position
All 18 bundled caption fonts are on the free tier. Every style control is explained here.
Questions people ask
Is Capster actually free, or is it a trial?
Free, with limits that are permanent rather than timed: 5 transcriptions, clips up to 2 minutes, and 2 of the 9 styles. Nothing expires after a week. When the transcriptions run out, that part of the app stops until you subscribe.
Is there a free auto caption app with no watermark?
Not this one, and it is worth saying plainly: free Capster exports carry a small badge and a short end card. Removing them is what Pro is for. Any app promising unlimited watermark-free auto-captions for free is paying a per-minute speech-to-text bill somehow.
What happens after the free transcriptions run out?
The app keeps working for everything except new transcriptions. Existing projects still open, restyle and export. Starting a new one opens the paywall. The count is stored on the device, so it is per install rather than per person.
Is the free export lower quality?
No. The encode settings are the same on both tiers — the only differences in a free export are the badge and the end card. Nothing about resolution, bitrate or frame rate depends on whether you have paid.
What does Pro cost if I decide I want it?
$6.99 a month, or $29.99 a year with a 3-day free trial, billed by Apple. That removes the transcription count, the clip length cap, the badge and end card, and unlocks all 9 styles and every style control.
Cancelling, refunds and the trial are covered on the pricing page.
Read next
Try it on a clip you already have
5 free transcriptions is enough to find out whether the captions are good. No card, no account.
Free to try: 5 transcriptions, clips up to 2 minutes, exports carry a small Capster badge. iPhone, iOS 16.0+. No account.