Earlier this week, Jake Browne wrote to introduce CaptionX for Premiere. Since Premiere already does captions, I asked him why he bothered to create this. His answer was so interesting, I turned it into an interview.
Website: https://caption-x.com
BIO: Jake Browne is the founder of CaptionX, an AI captioning tool for video creators used by nearly 40,000 editors. A video editor and software engineer, he built CaptionX after seeing how badly existing tools handled languages beyond English, starting with underserved ones like Indonesian and Ukrainian. It now captions in 89 languages, right inside Premiere Pro or the browser.
Larry: Jake, what is CaptionX?
Jake: CaptionX is a Premiere Pro plugin that generates animated captions and standard subtitles right on your timeline, without exporting to another app. There’s a web version too, for anyone not working in Premiere.
Larry: Why should someone buy CaptionX? Premiere does captions already. What do you offer that’s new or better than the competition?
Jake: Where CaptionX is different comes down to two things: languages and styling.
On languages, Premiere’s native captions cover around 16, while CaptionX captions in 89 languages. We actually started by focusing on languages that were poorly supported everywhere, like Indonesian and Ukrainian, and expanded from there. You can also caption your English audio and then translate those captions into another language right in the same tool, which lets creators reach a much wider audience without much extra work.
On styling, CaptionX gives you animated captions when you want them to grab attention, and clean static ones when they’re just there to support the video. Both drop straight onto your Premiere timeline, whether you’re working in English or any other language.
Larry: When you say “generate then translate,” what do you mean?
Jake: It’s a two-step process. First, CaptionX generates captions from your audio, so an English video gives you English captions on your timeline. Then, as a separate step, you can translate those captions into another language, added as its own track so your original stays untouched. So you could take an English video and produce Polish captions from it. We caption and translate across the same 89 languages, and that’s on the static caption side; animated captions are generation-only for now.
Larry: Are your translations handled locally or in the cloud? If you are using the cloud, how are you guaranteeing privacy and security?
Jake: Generation and translation happen in the cloud. On privacy, two things matter to us. The providers we use are explicitly instructed not to train their models on your data, which is a setting we’ve actively turned off, and we don’t store your audio at all. It’s sent, used only to generate the captions, and then discarded. Nothing is retained or reused.
Larry: What models are you using to create the translations? In other words, how accurate are they?
Jake: We combine some of the best speech and translation models available with our own processing layer on top. The models do the heavy lifting on accuracy, and our engineering is what ties them together and tunes them for editing workflows, with real strength across languages, especially ones that are usually poorly supported.
Larry: How do you keep up with changes in languages as they evolve?
Jake: Two ways. The underlying models improve over time as their providers update them, so we benefit from that automatically. On top of that, we run our own automated monthly accuracy checks, testing both the captioning and the translation, to make sure quality stays current and nothing drifts as languages evolve.
Larry: What else does CaptionX do besides captions?
Jake: Captions are the core, but we’ve built out the things editors kept asking for. Inside the Premiere plugin there’s silence removal, AI eye-contact correction, and a profanity filter. And on the web there’s a big set of free tools: transcription, subtitle translation, format converters, timing and merging, and a popular lyrics-to-captions generator. There are nearly 30 of them, all running in the browser with no account needed.
Larry: Are there any cases where using Premiere’s native captions are sufficient?
Jake: Honestly, yes. If you’re doing a quick, simple caption job in English, one language, straightforward styling, Premiere’s native captions are perfectly fine. Where CaptionX earns its place is the moment you step outside that: working across languages, needing one of the many Premiere doesn’t cover, translating, or wanting animated and styled captions rather than plain ones.
Larry: How is CaptionX priced?
Jake: There’s a free plan to start with, no credit card, and you get a set number of caption generations plus access to all 89 languages, so you can properly try it. Pro is $13.95 a month, or $139 a year, for unlimited use. There’s also a one-time Lifetime option at $399 for anyone who’d rather not subscribe, and it all works on Windows and Mac.
Larry: What questions should I have asked that I did not?
Jake: The biggest one is why we built it. Most caption tools are English-first, with other languages an afterthought. We started the opposite way, with languages that were poorly supported everywhere, like Indonesian and Ukrainian, because those creators had bad options. But as we grew, people kept requesting more languages, some I’d genuinely never heard of, and the product got shaped by that feedback. A lot of what CaptionX does now came straight from users: we didn’t start with animated captions or translation, both came from people asking for them. It’s all grown from real demand and real conversations with the editors using it.
Larry: Put your sales hat on and write a one-minute commercial for CaptionX.
Jake: Captions aren’t optional anymore. With short-form video everywhere, a video without captions just gets scrolled past. And doing them by hand, typing every line, fixing every timestamp, syncing it all, is the part of editing everyone dreads, and it eats hours you don’t have.
CaptionX does it for you. It generates captions right inside Premiere Pro. Animated ones that grab attention, or clean subtitles that support the video, dropped straight onto your timeline. No exporting, no separate apps.
Working for a global audience? CaptionX captions in 89 languages, including the ones other tools ignore, and translates them too, reaching people English-only tools leave behind. Not in Premiere? Use it right in your browser.
Nearly 40,000 editors already caption with CaptionX. There’s a free plan, no credit card. Try it today, and get those hours back.
Larry: Jake, thanks for your time!
