Snapchat Text Caption Maker for Photos and Videos

Add the Snapchat-style caption band or big text to a photo or video and export it locally.

Put the familiar translucent caption band or the big bold white text over a photo or video, drag it to the height you want, and export a PNG, a WebM or an MP4 with the sound left in. Everything, including the video encoding, runs inside your browser.

How to add a Snapchat caption to a photo or video

  1. Drop a photo or a video onto the picker.
  2. Choose Caption band for the translucent black strip or Big text for large bold white lettering, then type your caption.
  3. Drag the caption up or down on the preview, or use the vertical position and font size sliders.
  4. Pick Story 1080 × 1920 for a vertical snap, or Source size to keep the original dimensions.
  5. Download a PNG, or export WebM or MP4 when the source is a video so the clip keeps playing with its sound.

Two caption styles

Classic is the black band at fifty percent opacity that runs edge to edge with centred white text; it grows taller when the caption wraps onto more lines and can sit anywhere from the top of the frame to the bottom. Big is the large bold white text with a soft shadow that sits directly on the image. Both scale with the output size so a caption that looks right on a 1080-pixel-wide story looks the same on a 720-pixel export.

Short Snapchat caption ideas that fit one band

This tool draws the caption; it does not write it for you. If you came looking for an AI that suggests caption text, you will still need to supply the words, and the band looks most like the real thing when they fit on a single line at the default size. A few one-liners in that spirit:

Story canvas or source size

Choose story mode and the source is cover-fitted into a 1080 by 1920 portrait canvas, cropping the long edge the way the app itself does, which is what you want for something that will be posted vertically. Choose source size to keep the original dimensions untouched and just draw the caption over them, useful for landscape clips or images that must not be cropped.

Positioning by touch or mouse

Grab the band or the text on the preview and drag it up or down; the position is stored as a fraction of the height so it survives a change of canvas mode. A slider does the same thing for keyboard users, and the band is clamped so it can never slide off the frame.

Getting the look right

The classic band is drawn at 1.55 times the font size per line with the text vertically centred, which is the proportion that reads as authentic at a glance; the default 24-pixel size at 1080 width matches what the app produces on a phone. The big style uses a 48-pixel bold weight with a subtle shadow so it stays legible over bright skies and busy backgrounds without the heavy outline that would make it look like a different kind of meme.

Line wrapping happens at about ninety percent of the frame width (92 percent for the band, 90 for big text), so a long caption becomes a neat block rather than running off the edge. Emoji render with the system's own emoji font, which is what the real captions use as well.

Video exports with audio

WebM records the composited canvas in real time while the clip plays, capturing its audio track alongside. MP4 works offline: every frame is seeked, drawn and encoded to H.264 with WebCodecs, the audio is re-encoded to AAC and both are muxed into one file. MP4 is available in browsers that expose H.264 encoding, currently Chrome and Edge; elsewhere the option explains why it is disabled. If AAC encoding is unavailable the MP4 is written without sound and you are told.

Drafts and storage

The page opens on an editable draft that autosaves locally; Save as keeps a named copy and Open lists previous ones. The source photo or clip is stored in your browser's database and never uploaded, so the tool works offline once loaded.

Caption exports are free 30 times a day, watermark-free, and Pro removes the daily figure.

Questions people ask about Snapchat Caption Maker

How long can a Snapchat caption be?
This tool sets no character limit. Long text wraps inside the frame and the band grows one line at a time, but a caption that fills several lines stops looking like a real snap, so keep it to a short phrase that fits on one band.
Is this Snapchat caption maker free, and do I need an account?
No account or sign-up is needed. Free use includes 30 exports a day with no watermark, counted together with the fake chat, meme and fake tweet tools on this site, and Pro removes the daily cap.
Can I add a Snapchat caption to a GIF?
Only as a still. A GIF is decoded as a single frame, so you can caption it and download a PNG, but the WebM and MP4 exports are reserved for video files. Convert the animation to MP4 first if you need it to keep moving.
Why does story mode crop my picture?
Story mode reproduces a 9:16 vertical canvas and fills it completely, so a landscape or square source is scaled to cover the frame and the overflow is cropped. Switch to source size if you need the whole picture preserved.
Can I add more than one caption?
Not at the same time. One caption is drawn per export; if you need a second band, export the first result and load it back in as the new source.
Does the exported video keep the original sound?
Yes. WebM captures the clip's audio track during recording and MP4 re-encodes it to AAC and muxes it with the new video, so playback stays in sync with the picture.
Which browsers support MP4 export?
Those with an H.264 WebCodecs encoder, which today means Chrome and Edge on desktop and Android. Firefox and Safari can still export WebM, which most editors and players accept.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. Loading, drawing, encoding and downloading all happen on your device. The page makes no requests beyond fetching its own code and fonts.
Can I change the caption colour or opacity?
The two styles reproduce the app's fixed looks on purpose: a fifty percent black band with white text, and plain bold white with a shadow. Changing those would stop it looking like a Snapchat caption, so the controls are limited to text, size, position and canvas mode.

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Content reviewed 2026-09-27.