AetherCut™ auto-captions
Word-perfect subtitles in 20 languages via OpenAI Whisper. Editable, exportable, and burned-in or sidecar — your call.
AetherCut's auto-caption tool generates word-level timestamps using OpenAI Whisper. You can edit each word inline, restyle the captions (Submagic-style animated word-by-word reveal is available on Pro), and either burn them into the export or download a sidecar .srt / .vtt file.
Honest disclosure that 90% of caption tools never make: this is one of the few AetherCut features that genuinely uses a server-side API. Your audio (not your video — just the audio track) is sent to OpenAI's Whisper endpoint for transcription. Whisper returns text + timestamps. Nothing else leaves your device.
If you'd rather your audio never leaves either, AetherCut's Privacy Mode toggle disables the feature entirely. The rest of the editor — including the on-device timeline, background remover, color grading, video stabilization, green-screen — continues to work normally.
What exactly gets sent and what doesn't
Only the audio track of the clip you're captioning is sent to Whisper. Not the video frames, not your project file, not your other clips. The audio is sent as a single request, transcribed in one round-trip, and OpenAI's published Whisper API policy does not retain the audio after the response is returned.
The transcription includes per-word timestamps. We use those timestamps to position captions on the timeline frame-accurate. The word-level granularity is also what enables features like AI Silence Removal and Voice Cleanup (disfluency cuts) — both of which then run locally on the transcript.
20-language coverage
Whisper supports about 99 languages with widely varying accuracy. AetherCut's UI surfaces the 20 we've measured working well in production: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Arabic, Korean, Hindi, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Greek, Vietnamese, Indonesian, plus Hindi-Latn transliteration.
You can also auto-translate the resulting transcript into a different language as a separate step. For voiced dubbing rather than just translated text, AetherCut's AI Dubbing tool (Pro, ElevenLabs) ports the spoken audio into 25 target languages.
Caption styles and export options
The free tier ships static block captions — the standard YouTube-style two-line bottom-third rendering, restylable for font, color, outline, and background.
On Pro, animated captions (one-word-at-a-time reveal with emphasis on certain words, the format popularized by Submagic) are available. The animation runs on Canvas locally — only the original transcription was the API call.
Both export burned-in (rendered into the MP4) or as a sidecar .srt / .vtt file you can ship separately to YouTube, social platforms, or accessibility tooling.
Frequently asked questions
Does this tool work offline?
No. Whisper is a server-side API call. If you're offline, the auto-caption button is disabled. The rest of the editor (timeline, trimming, effects, on-device AI features) continues to work without internet.
What's the cost?
Free tier includes auto-captions with a minutes-per-month cap that suits most creators. Pro includes substantially more transcription minutes and unlocks the animated caption styles.
Will my audio be used to train AI models?
OpenAI's published API policy states that data sent through the Whisper API is not used for training. AetherCut adds no additional retention layer of our own — we don't store the audio after the transcription completes.
Can I edit the captions after they're generated?
Yes. The Transcript Editor (a separate tool that consumes the same Whisper output) gives you click-to-seek + inline word editing. Re-export with your corrections — no re-transcription needed.
Try AetherCut now — no signup required.
Open the editor and verify the no-upload claim yourself in Chrome DevTools.
Free tier · Pro $14.95/mo · $129.88/yr · Lifetime Pro one-time
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