- The two ways YouTube translates a video
- How to auto-translate captions on a computer
- Why the Auto-translate option sometimes isn't there
- How to switch to a dubbed audio track
- If you're a creator: how to translate your own videos
- Common mix-ups
- Which languages YouTube can work with
- My advice
- Frequently asked questions
To translate a YouTube video, turn on its captions, open Settings, choose Subtitles/CC, then Auto-translate, and pick your language. Some videos also have a dubbed audio track you can switch to, but auto-translate only works on videos that have captions in the first place.
YouTube has two separate ways of putting a video into your language. One translates the words on screen. The other swaps the soundtrack. They're switched on by different people, and knowing which is which saves a lot of hunting through menus.
The two ways YouTube translates a video
| Method | What changes | Who controls it |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-translated captions | The subtitles appear in your language | You, as the viewer, from the captions menu |
| Auto-dubbed audio | The voice track is in your language | The creator turns dubbing on; you pick the track |
| Translated titles and descriptions | The title and description show in your language | The creator adds them |
How to auto-translate captions on a computer
YouTube's help page gives these steps:
- Start the video and turn on captions with the Closed captions (CC) button, if it's there.
- Click Settings at the bottom right of the player.
- Click Subtitles/CC.
- If your language is listed, select it.
- If it isn't listed, click Auto-translate, then select your language.
On a phone, open the video, tap the player, then tap More or Settings at the top right, choose Captions, and look for the same Auto-translate option if your language isn't in the list.
Why the Auto-translate option sometimes isn't there
Auto-translate works on a video's captions. If a video has no captions at all, there's nothing for it to translate, and the CC button won't show.
YouTube can create captions automatically using speech recognition, but its help page lists reasons they might not appear:
- The captions are still processing because the audio is complex.
- Automatic captions don't support the language spoken in the video.
- The video is too long.
- The sound quality is poor or YouTube doesn't recognise the speech.
- There's a long silence at the start of the video.
- Several people talk over each other, or several languages are spoken at once.
YouTube also warns that automatic captions are made by machine learning, so they can misrepresent what's said because of accents, dialects, mispronunciations or background noise. A translation of a shaky caption will be shakier still, so treat auto-translate as a guide rather than a transcript.
How to switch to a dubbed audio track
Some videos come with automatic dubbing, which YouTube describes as translated audio tracks in different languages. Videos with these tracks are marked auto-dubbed in the description. YouTube says viewers can set preferred languages for audio, titles and descriptions, or switch between the original and dubbed audio for any specific video.
If you'd rather always hear the original voice, I've covered how to turn off auto dubbing on YouTube for viewers and creators.
If you're a creator: how to translate your own videos
YouTube points creators to a few tools in its help pages:
- Automatic captions: switched on through speech recognition in your video's original language. YouTube recommends reviewing them in YouTube Studio under Subtitles and editing anything it got wrong.
- Your own subtitles: uploading accurate captions gives auto-translate a clean starting point.
- Translated titles and descriptions: YouTube says these can show up in search for viewers who speak other languages.
- Automatic dubbing: on by default for eligible creators, with a setting in YouTube Studio under Settings, then Channel, then Advanced settings.
For dubbing, YouTube lists reasons a video may not qualify: it runs over 120 minutes, has little or no speech, uses an unsupported language, speaks too fast, or contains copyrighted content. It also says that if your video's default language is set wrongly, the dubs may be mistranslated, so check that setting at upload.
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Common mix-ups
- Your YouTube language isn't the video's language: changing the language of the YouTube menus doesn't translate videos. That's a separate setting, and I've explained how to change your YouTube language if the app itself is in the wrong language.
- Auto-translate isn't a voice-over: it changes the subtitles only. For audio, the creator needs dubbing switched on.
- Quality varies by language: YouTube says dub quality may not be the same across all languages, and it may struggle with names, idioms and jargon.
Which languages YouTube can work with
YouTube's automatic captions page lists a long run of supported spoken languages, from Afrikaans and Arabic through Hindi, Japanese and Spanish to Vietnamese and Zulu. If the language spoken in a video isn't on that list, YouTube can't caption it automatically, and without captions there's nothing to auto-translate.
Dubbing is narrower. YouTube's dubbing page shows a table of original languages and the languages each can be dubbed into. English videos have the widest choice, including French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish, while several other source languages can only be dubbed into English or one or two others. YouTube says it's gradually adding languages, so a video that can't be dubbed today may be later.
If you're a viewer, the practical upshot is simple: captions plus Auto-translate reaches far more videos than dubbing does, so start there.
My advice
For watching, captions plus Auto-translate is the fastest fix and works on most talking-head videos. For your own channel, the biggest win is boring: set the right video language at upload and fix your automatic captions once. Every translation YouTube makes after that starts from better words, which is exactly what you want if you're hoping to reach viewers outside your own country.
Frequently asked questions
Can YouTube translate a video into English?
Yes, if the video has captions. Turn on captions, open Settings, choose Subtitles/CC, then Auto-translate and select English.
Why can't I see Auto-translate on YouTube?
Auto-translate needs captions to work from. If the video has no captions, the option won't appear.
Can I hear a YouTube video in another language?
Only if the video has a dubbed audio track. Videos with automatic dubs are marked auto-dubbed in the description, and you can switch tracks.
Are YouTube's translated captions accurate?
Not always. YouTube says automatic captions can misrepresent speech because of accents, dialects or background noise, and translations build on those captions.
How do creators add translations to their videos?
Creators can review automatic captions in YouTube Studio, upload their own subtitles, add translated titles and descriptions, and use automatic dubbing if their channel is eligible.
