TikTok captions: the words under the post and the subtitles on the video

TikTok uses “caption” for two different things

“Caption ideas” means the text typed under a post; “captions in the wrong language” means the subtitles on the video. TikTok's Content Posting API stores the first in a field called title, and its Accessibility help page covers the second.

The next two sections cover the caption under the post, and the two after them cover the subtitles. Start with the post text.

A caption formula: search phrase, promise, question, tags

This is the site's rule of thumb for the text under the post: four parts, in this order. Each part has one job.

1. The search phrase, first. Open with the words a viewer would type into TikTok search, such as “one pan dinner”. The caption is one of five places for that phrase; the TikTok SEO guide covers the other four.
2. What the viewer gets. One clause naming the payoff they will see, such as “chicken, rice and greens in 15 minutes, with one pan to wash”. Promise only what the video shows.
3. One question. Ask something a viewer can answer in a few words: “What would you add to yours?” One question, not three.
4. 3 to 5 hashtags, last. One broad, two category and two niche, sized by post count with the three-tier hashtag method. TikTok lists hashtags as content information its recommender systems use, so every tag should describe this video.

Here is the builder's default, the first of its three shapes:

One pan dinner: chicken, rice and greens in 15 minutes, with one pan to wash. What would you add to yours?
#cooking #easyrecipes #dinnerideas #onepanrecipe #15minutemeals

Check the length. The caption is 170 characters, counting spaces, punctuation and the line break before the tags. A scheduler posting through the API leaves 2,200 − 170 = 2,030 characters unused; the app leaves 4,000 − 170 = 3,830. Length is not the constraint.

The tags are the hashtag page's cooking set, in the tiers that page puts them in: #cooking broad, #easyrecipes and #dinnerideas category, #onepanrecipe and #15minutemeals niche. That is 1 + 2 + 2 = 5, the top of the range.

Caption examples for four more niches

Each caption follows the four parts, with the hashtag page's tag set for that niche. Counts include the line break before the tags, as the builder counts them.

• Fitness (216 characters): “Kettlebell swing for beginners: hinge at the hips, let the bell float up to chest height, and keep your arms loose. Which cue took you longest to get?”
  #fitness #homeworkout #gymtok #kettlebellworkout #beginnerlifting
• Personal finance (228 characters): “No spend challenge rules: what counts as an essential, what waits until next month, and how to get through the first weekend. What would you struggle to skip?”
  #money #budgeting #personalfinance #debtfreejourney #nospendchallenge
• Skincare (230 characters): “Retinol for beginners: where it goes in a night routine, between cleanser and moisturiser, and what to leave out on the same night. What did your skin do in week one?”
  #skincare #skincareroutine #acne #retinolbeginners #dryskintips
• Small business (202 characters): “How to pack candles for shipping: the box, the filler and the note, in the order they go in. Which scent should the next batch be?”
  #smallbusiness #entrepreneur #packingorders #etsyseller #candlebusiness

None quotes a figure the video cannot show. Rewrite the two niche tags and the question for each new video. The broad tag can repeat.

Short TikTok caption ideas you can adapt

Not every post needs the full formula. These keep the two parts that do the most work, the phrase first and one question, and leave the tags to add underneath.

• One pan dinner in 15 minutes. What goes in yours?
• Sourdough for beginners, day one. Starter or no starter?
• Kettlebell swing, three cues. Which one fixed yours?
• Budget grocery haul for one week. What would you cut?
• Retinol night routine, step by step. Week one or week ten?
• Packing candle orders. Which scent sells out first for you?
• Small balcony garden, month two. What should I plant next?
• Desk setup on a small budget. What would you swap?

Swap the phrase for the words your viewer would search and the question for one only your viewers can answer. The hook generator page has openings in the same shapes for the video itself.

How do auto-generated captions work on TikTok?

Auto-generated captions are subtitles TikTok makes with speech recognition for uploaded videos. You do not type them. You choose their language: on the post screen, tap More options, then Select video language.

On eligible videos the first spoken sentence also appears as text, so a viewer watching with the sound off reads it too. The script beat sheets give that line the first 2 to 3 seconds.

Can you edit a TikTok caption after posting?

The on-video captions, yes; the text under the post, TikTok's help pages do not say. To fix auto-generated captions on a live video, tap the caption on the video, choose Edit captions, correct or remove the words and tap Save.

For the text under a post, TikTok's pages on accessibility and on editing, posting and deleting describe no way to change it once it is live. The Edit post screen they mention is for adding alt text to photo posts, and they do not say it changes a description. Proofread before you post.

Why are TikTok captions in a different language?

TikTok's help page names one setting for it: eligible videos show auto-generated captions in the language chosen on the post screen under More options, then Select video language. Set it before posting. On a video that is already live, the documented fix is Edit captions, to correct or remove the words.

How do you change the caption font on TikTok?

Font choice belongs to creator captions. At the preview screen, tap Captions on the side panel; TikTok transcribes the speech, you preview and edit each line, and then you can change the font style and colour. TikTok's help page does not list the fonts. Check the editor.

The same page covers alt text for photo posts, up to 300 characters per description, and text-to-speech, which reads on-screen text aloud: tap Text, tap the text, then Text-to-speech.

Where Go Viral fits: the opening line and the tags

Go Viral's generators write hooks and scripts and suggest hashtags; the caption around them is yours to write. Three tools touch it.

• Hashtag Finder: suggests relevant tags balanced between reach and competition; sort them into the three tiers for the last line.
• Hook Generator: writes multiple hook variations for a topic. Pick one that contains the search phrase and say it first, so the auto-generated captions carry it as well. The six hook types help you choose.
• Script Generator: turns a topic into a ready-to-record short-form script. Give it the search phrase as the topic.

Then run the recorded clip through the Hook Score, which rates the first 3 seconds from 0 to 100. The app reads the clip or the TikTok, Reels or Shorts link you give it and has no access to your TikTok account, so captions of both kinds are set inside TikTok.