March 26, 2026 | StreamTranslate Team

How to Get Live Captions on Any Video or Stream

Whether you are a viewer wanting captions on streams you watch, or a streamer wanting to add captions for your audience — here are all your options in 2026.

For Viewers: Getting Captions on Streams You Watch

Twitch

If a streamer has enabled CC via OBS, you can turn on captions by clicking the speech bubble icon in the bottom-right of the player and selecting Closed Captions. Most streams do not have this enabled. If a stream has a visible subtitle overlay, no action is needed — subtitles are already on screen.

YouTube Live

YouTube generates automatic live captions for most streams. Click the CC button in the player controls to enable them. Quality varies — gaming terms and fast speech sometimes get transcribed incorrectly.

Chrome Live Caption (Any Video)

Chrome has a built-in Live Caption feature that transcribes audio from any tab in real time. To enable: Chrome Settings > Accessibility > Live Caption. English only, runs locally on your device.

For Streamers: Adding Captions to Your Stream

If you want to give your viewers always-on captions without requiring them to do anything, you need to add captions at the source — meaning in your streaming setup.

StreamTranslate adds a real-time caption overlay via OBS browser source. Every viewer on every platform sees the captions automatically — no CC button, no browser extension, no opt-in required. It also supports live translation into 50+ languages so international viewers get subtitles in their language.

Setup for Streamers

1. Sign up at StreamTranslate.live
2. Create your overlay and copy the browser source URL
3. Add as a Browser source in OBS at 1920x1080
4. Go live — captions appear for all viewers on all platforms