Adobe Premiere Pro Transcription: How to Transcribe Audio

In the ever-growing landscape of content creation, two topics remain relevant today: How do you stand out in an already saturated market, and is your content inclusive? One solution that perfectly answers these two questions is using transcripts when creating audio and video content. 

Unfortunately, many content creators find manual transcription to be taxing and time-consuming. Alternatively, different platforms' auto-captioning capability only partially solves the problem. Why? The creator loses control of the transcript quality and customization options.

What if you could generate a transcript straight from your video editing platform? 

Premiere Pro, one of the best editing platforms for content creators, now has a speech-to-text feature that can auto-generate transcripts and captions. Join us as we explore how to use the Premiere Pro transcription tool and what it can do for you.

Two Transcription Methods in Premiere Pro

Before starting, it helps to understand that Premiere Pro now has two distinct transcription methods, and which one you use affects the workflow.

Static Transcript (Sequence-based) — the original method. It transcribes the current sequence in your timeline. The transcript is fixed to that sequence and does not update automatically as you edit. This is the standard method for generating captions from a completed edit.

Source Transcript (Media-based) — introduced in Premiere Pro 23.4 (May 2023). It transcribes the source media clip itself, not the sequence. The transcript travels with the clip and supports text-based editing, where you edit by deleting words in the transcript rather than trimming on the timeline.

For generating captions from a finished edit, use the static/sequence transcript method. For a transcript-first editing workflow where you rough cut by reading text, use the source transcript method.

The steps below cover the static transcript method, which applies to most users. To access the source method, right-click a clip in the Project panel and choose Transcribe.

Why use speech-to-text in Premiere Pro

The Premiere Pro speech-to-text feature is available in every creative cloud app or single app subscription of Premiere Pro at no added cost. It lets users caption their video and audio files automatically to improve their visibility and engagement capacity. This feature is beneficial to editors because:

1. It gives you complete creative control over the result of your output.

2. Editing becomes much easier since you can use the transcript as a guide to edit the visuals.

3. After creating the transcript, you can change it into captions from your timeline.

4. The Adobe transcription panel is searchable, making finding specific clips in the sequence easier.

5. You can export the text and repurpose your content.

NB: The speech-to-text feature is available in the Premiere Pro version 15.4 or later. It's also present in Premiere Pro (beta).

Reviewing and Editing the Transcript

Once generated, review the transcript for errors before converting it to captions. Premiere Pro's speech-to-text is reasonably accurate for clear speech but will struggle with strong accents, technical terminology, proper nouns, and overlapping voices.

Double-click any word in the transcript to make it editable. Type the correction and click outside the field to confirm. To rename a speaker, click the three-dot icon beside the speaker label and type the new name.

For detailed editing, enable Follow Program Monitor in the Transcript tab settings — the playhead in the transcript will track your position in the timeline as you scrub.

How to Export a Transcript or Captions from Premiere Pro

Exporting captions as an SRT file: Go to File > Export > Media, then click the Captions tab. Set Create Sidecar File as the export option and choose SubRip Subtitle (.srt) as the format. Click Export.

Exporting the raw transcript as a text file: In the Text panel, click the Transcript tab and then the three-dot menu in the top right. Select Export Transcript and choose your preferred file format.

How to auto-transcribe your video with Premiere Pro

You can transcribe audio in the video sequence of Premiere Pro by following the steps below: 

Step 1: Navigate to the main menu bar and click 'Windows>Workspaces>Captions and Graphics.' An alternative method to access the captions and graphics workspace is to use the keyboard shortcut 'Alt+Shift+4.'

Step 2: In the floating panel that appears, click 'Transcribe sequence' to open the 'Create Transcript Panel.'

Step 3: Choose the transcription language from the drop-down menu below the sequence name and length in the 'Create Transcript Panel.' 

Step 4: Select the audio you wish to transcribe. The number of options available will depend on the number of tracks available in the sequence. To transcribe all tracks at once, click on 'Mix.' 

Step 5: The next step involves customizing your transcription instructions. There are three options to choose from here: 

1. Transcribing your audio by selecting an in-point and out-point - click this checkbox to set the desired transcription starting point and endpoint on your timeline. Leave it unchecked to transcribe the entire audio file. 

2. Merging the transcription output- Click on this checkbox if you have an existing transcription file that you want to integrate with the output. 

3. Recognizing the different speakers: This option will help distinguish the voices in the audio file and identify them as 'Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc'. You can make edits to the names later on in the text box.  

Step 6: Finally, click the blue 'Transcribe' button to begin transcription. The transcription time for the audio will be a few seconds or a few minutes, depending on the audio length and your computer's processing speed. The transcription will appear in the 'Transcript' tab under the 'Text Panel.'

Step 7: Review the transcript to make any necessary edits and change the names of your speakers. Premiere's transcription feature is fairly accurate. However, it's likely to make some mistakes with unfamiliar brands, spellings, and punctuation. To edit the errors present, double-click on the incorrect word to make the section editable and use the built-in text editor. Click anywhere outside the section to confirm the changes.

To edit the speaker name, click on the three dots '...' on the left side of the speaker. A dialog box screen will appear where you can change the speaker's name accordingly.

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How to generate captions with Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro provides users with three ways to create captions; 

1. Get them from the automatic transcriptions

2. Import from a third-party

3. Add captions manually

Automatic transcription

To generate captions from transcriptions, complete the edit to the transcript first. Once satisfied with the text, convert them into captions by following the steps below: 

Step 1: Click the 'Create Captions' button at the top right corner of the 'Captions Panel.' This opens up a dialog box with an array of settings.

Step 2: In the captions dialog box that appears, choose the subtitle preset (the best option in most cases is often the 'Subtitle default'), the caption format, style, character length, duration between each line, and the gap between the captions.

Step 3: Finally, click the 'Create captions' button. Premiere Pro will create your captions and align them with your audio.

Import transcript from a third party

You can use a third-party tool like Notta to create your transcript and later import it to your Premiere Pro project.

Step 1: Head over to the 'Captions' workspace by clicking 'Windows>Workspaces>Captions and Graphics.' 

Step 2: In the panel that pops up, select 'Import captions from file' and select the SRT file from your local drive. 

You can also import the SRT file, like any other media, into your project and drag it into your sequence to add to the audio file.

Manually transcribe your captions

This method can be laborious, but it's one of the best ways to maintain your caption's accuracy. It involves listening to the audio and typing out the captions manually. To do it:

Step 1:Navigate to the captions workspace and click 'Create new caption track.' A faster way to do this is using the shortcut [Ctrl+Alt+A] in Windows and [Opt+Cmd+A] in Mac.

Step 2: Next, choose the format as 'subtitle' and select the style before clicking the 'okay' button. In the timeline, a new track will appear above what is already present.

Step 3: Add your audio or video footage and adjust the playhead on the wavelength where the first speaker is talking.

Step 4: Head to the Text panel and click the [+] icon under captions to add new caption segments. Alternatively, use the shortcut [Ctrl+Alt+C] on Windows and [Opt+Cmd+C] on Mac.

Step 5: Type what the speaker is saying in the text field that appears. Keep adding more captions until you complete the entire sequence.

Step 6: Edit the caption's screen time from the timeline. Trim it just right for the timing to coincide with your visuals.

Note: Be careful not to delete captions while editing a video. This can happen when the captions item and the audio are linked. Unlike video or audio clips that are easy to restore, this action is permanent to captions; you may have to recreate them again.

How to stylize your captions

After creating your captions, you can stylize them using the text option in the Essential Graphics Panel. To access this, navigate to 'Essential Panel' and click the 'Edit panel'. 

Stylizing involves giving the captions a unique look. Premiere Pro provides five options for this, including: 

Changing the font: This allows you to change font properties like type, style, and size.

Caption Alignment: Use it to determine the vertical position of a caption. There are only three options due to Premiere Pro's limited control over style.

Captions alignment is also possible through the align and transform options. This allows you to choose where to place the captions according to zones.

Tracking and Leading: Add or reduce space between the characters and lines. 

Faux styles: Use formatting options such as bold, italics, underline, superscript and subscript, all caps, and small caps to improve the caption's look and feel.

How to export captions 

To export your captions as an SRT file, navigate to File>Export>Media and select the Captions tab. Choose the export options as 'create sidecar file' and the file format (Subrip subtitle format is the most common) before finally exporting.

To get a text version of the captions, export the transcript.

Click on the 'Text panel' to access your transcript. Next, click the dotted (...) icon on the right corner of the 'Transcript tab.' Then, click on 'Export transcript' and select the file version.

Supported languages of Premiere Pro

The following languages are supported by Premiere Pro's speech-to-text feature. Language availability differs between cloud and offline (local) transcription — see the next section for the distinction.

Supported languages:

• English (United States)

• English (United Kingdom)

• English (Australia)

• Spanish (Spain)

• Spanish (Latin America)

• French (France)

• French (Canada)

• German

• Italian

• Portuguese (Brazil)

• Portuguese (Portugal)

• Dutch

• Danish

• Norwegian

• Swedish

• Finnish

• Polish

• Russian

• Arabic

• Hindi

• Japanese

• Korean

• Simplified Chinese (Mandarin)

• Traditional Chinese (Mandarin)

• Traditional Cantonese

• Turkish

• Hebrew

• Thai

• Vietnamese

• Indonesian

• Malay

• Tagalog

There must be an internet connection to download and use the language packs. You can install them from the creatives cloud app or within Premiere Pro.

When using the Creatives Cloud app:

1. Click 'All Apps' to see all apps in your ecosystem.

2. Scroll down to Premiere Pro and click the three-dotted lines'...' on the right next to the open button.

3. Select 'Add-on' in the drop-down option and 'Add' your preferred language.

When installing within Premiere Pro, navigate to the transcript tab under 'Windows>Text' and click 'Create Transcript.' Next, click the drop-down icon on 'Languages' to reveal the various language packages you can download.

The latest Premiere Pro version (as of the writing of this article), Premiere Pro 22.2, comes with an already installed English Language pack.

To use other language packs, download them individually. Once downloaded, you can use the Adobe speech-to-text feature without an internet connection.

Alternative way to generate transcripts

Premiere Pro does an excellent job of enabling users to create transcripts from the app. Although the accuracy level is fair, it's not the best. Therefore, be ready to spend some time on edits. 

If accuracy and time are your top considerations, consider using Notta to streamline your workflow. Notta is a cloud-based speech-to-text app that uses A.I. to transcribe and summarize audio and video content.

The platform provides much better service because:

1. It supports 58 languages.

2. The transcription accuracy is 98.86% (expect minimal edits).

3. Transcription speed is fast (it takes a few minutes to generate a transcript and download the SRT).

4. The transcripts are saved in the cloud and are available when needed.

How to use the tool:

Step 1: Head to Notta's webpage and sign in. Create a free account if you don't have one.

Step 2: Click 'Import files' on the left side of your dashboard.

Step 3: Set your transcription language in the pop-up window and choose whether to enable speaker identification.

Step 4: Drag and drop your audio/video file to start the transcription.

Step 5: Navigate to the dashboard to find the transcript under 'Recent recordings.' Double-click on it to open and make any edits.

Step 6: Click 'download' on the top right corner to export the transcript. Select the file format as 'SRT' and click ‘Export.’ 

Step 7: Import the SRT file into your Premiere Pro project (follow the steps noted above on importing the SRT file from a third party) 

Cloud vs Offline (Local) Transcription: What Is the Difference?

This is one of the most-searched questions about Premiere Pro's speech-to-text feature, and the answer matters for workflow planning.

Cloud transcription sends your audio to Adobe's servers for processing. It typically produces higher accuracy and supports more language variants. It requires an active internet connection. Adobe states that audio data submitted for cloud transcription is processed in accordance with its privacy policy and is not used to train AI models without consent.

Offline (local) transcription processes your audio entirely on your machine using a downloaded language model. No internet connection is required during transcription. It is suitable for sensitive material or locations without reliable connectivity. Offline transcription requires you to download a language pack for each language you want to use offline.

To switch between methods: In the Create Transcript dialog, look for the Processing options or Speech Analysis dropdown where you can select between local and cloud processing. The availability of this setting varies slightly by Premiere Pro version.

Not all languages are available for offline transcription. Languages without a downloadable offline model are cloud-only. As of 2024, cloud-only languages include Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog, and several others. Check the language dropdown in your version — languages with a cloud icon and no download option are cloud-only.

Premiere Pro Language Pack Sizes

Language pack file sizes are a practical concern for editors with limited storage. Each offline language model must be downloaded individually before it can be used without an internet connection.

As a general guide, individual language packs for Premiere Pro speech-to-text range from approximately 600 MB to 1.5 GB per language. The exact size varies by language and model version.

English packs tend to be on the larger end given the number of regional variants. Language packs for less common languages are generally smaller.

To install a language pack:

1. In Premiere Pro, go to the Text Panel > Transcript tab and open Create Transcript.

2. Click the Language dropdown. Languages available for offline download show a cloud-with-arrow download icon.

3. Click the icon next to the language to begin downloading.

4. Alternatively, open the Creative Cloud desktop app, navigate to Premiere Pro's Add-ons section, and install language packs from there.

Once downloaded, the language appears without an internet indicator in the dropdown, confirming it is available offline.

Brazilian Portuguese: Cloud and Offline Availability

Brazilian Portuguese (Português do Brasil) is one of the most-searched specific languages in the context of Premiere Pro transcription.

As of 2024, Brazilian Portuguese is available for both cloud and offline transcription in Premiere Pro. It appears in the language dropdown as Portuguese (Brazil), distinct from Portuguese (Portugal). The offline language pack must be downloaded separately before it can be used without an internet connection.

If you see only one Portuguese option in your version, check whether your Premiere Pro is up to date — earlier versions did not differentiate between Brazilian and European Portuguese variants.

How to Change the Transcript Language After Generation

If your transcript was generated in the wrong language, you can re-transcribe:

1. In the Text panel, click the three-dot menu in the Transcript tab.

2. Select Generate Static Transcript (or Retranscribe).

3. Change the language in the dialog and click Transcribe. The new transcript replaces the previous one.

If the wrong language is being detected automatically, check that the language dropdown in the Create Transcript dialog is set correctly before clicking Transcribe — Premiere Pro defaults to the last language used, which may not match your current project.

Troubleshooting: Common Premiere Pro Transcription Issues

Transcription is taking too long or stuck

Long audio files and complex sequences increase processing time, especially for cloud transcription on slower connections or local transcription on older machines. If the transcription appears frozen, wait at least 10 to 15 minutes before cancelling. For very long projects, break the sequence into shorter segments and transcribe them individually.

Wrong language appearing in the transcript

This happens when the language dropdown in the Create Transcript dialog was set incorrectly or defaults to a prior project's language. Cancel the current transcription if possible, check the language setting, and retranscribe.

Auto-transcription running unexpectedly on new sequences

Premiere Pro can be set to transcribe sequences automatically when they are created. To disable this, go to Edit > Preferences > Transcription and turn off automatic transcription.

No audio in transcript output

Confirm that the correct audio track is selected in the transcription dialog. If your sequence uses a specific track for the relevant audio, select that track rather than Mix. Also check that the track is not muted.

Offline language unavailable despite appearing to be installed

Restart Premiere Pro after downloading a language pack. In some versions, the newly downloaded language does not appear as available until the application is relaunched.

FAQs

How large are the Premiere Pro speech-to-text language packs?

Individual language packs range from approximately 600 MB to 1.5 GB. English packs with multiple regional variants are on the larger end. Download size varies by language and Premiere Pro version.

How accurate is Premiere Pro speech-to-text?

Accuracy varies with audio quality, clarity of speech, accent, and language. For clean studio audio in English, accuracy is typically high with minimal corrections needed. For challenging audio — heavy accents, overlapping speakers, background noise, or technical vocabulary — expect more errors and budget time for transcript review. For projects where accuracy is critical, using an external transcription service and importing the SRT file is a reliable alternative. Notta supports 58 languages with high accuracy and exports directly to SRT for import into Premiere Pro.

Can I use text-based editing in Premiere Pro?

Yes, from Premiere Pro 23.4 onwards. Transcribe the source clip (not the sequence) by right-clicking the clip in the Project panel and selecting Transcribe. Once the source transcript is generated, you can select and delete words in the transcript to remove the corresponding footage from the timeline. This workflow is best suited to interview and dialogue-heavy edits.

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In sum

Every content creator wants to make their content stand out. Captions and transcripts make your content visible to Google's SEO crawlers, making it easy for them to rank. It also taps into the people who are hard of hearing, thus expanding your audience.

Premiere Pro's transcription feature eases the headache of generating captions with the help of A.I. It also gives you back control over how and when to use the captions.

Although its accuracy may not be the best, the ability to import transcripts into a project allows you to use much more accurate transcription tools like Notta to make your work easier. Don't let your content get lost in an already saturated market. Make use of these tools today to improve your content.