DesiCaptionsTamil Subtitle Generator
Tamil speech in, Tanglish or Tamil-script captions out.
Most subtitle tools give you Tamil in formal written Tamil or nothing. But look at how Tamil is actually typed on YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp, in Chennai, Jaffna and Singapore alike: "enna panringa", "romba nalla iruku", "seri da". That is Tanglish, and for short-form video it is what your viewers read fastest.
DesiCaptions transcribes Tamil speech and writes it the way people type it, with the spoken forms kept as spoken, English words kept in English and Tamil words in plain Roman letters. Prefer Tamil script? Switch the language to Tamil (Tamil script) and the same video comes out in proper Tamil letters, still in the spoken form you said, with English sentences translated and the everyday loanwords Tamil creators actually use kept the way they write them.
Either way every word carries its own timestamp, so word-by-word and karaoke caption styles land on the beat, and the Tamil-script mode ships with fonts that actually contain the glyphs, so you never get empty boxes or broken letters.
Why creators use it
Tanglish the way it is typed
Captions come out as "epdi irukeenga" and "romba thanks", the spelling your audience already uses in comments. No diacritics, no textbook spellings.
Spoken Tamil, not textbook Tamil
The captions say "iruku" when you said "iruku", not "irukkiradhu". Written and spoken Tamil are different languages on screen, and your viewers notice.
Tamil script when you want it
Pick the Tamil (Tamil script) mode for a Tamil-first audience or formal content. Bundled Tamil fonts keep every pulli and vowel sign intact in the burned video.
Word-level timing
Every word carries its own timestamp, so word-by-word and karaoke caption styles land on the beat instead of drifting.
How it works
Upload your Tamil video or audio
MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, MP3, M4A, or WAV, up to 4 GB. The free plan includes 2 free minutes.
Pick Tanglish or Tamil (Tamil script)
About a minute later for a Reel, or 2 to 3 minutes for a 5-minute video, you have a full transcript with word-level timestamps, in the script you chose.
Style and export
Choose a caption template, fix any names in the editor, then export a burned-in video or an SRT, VTT, or ASS file.
One sentence, every mode
The same spoken line as DesiCaptions writes it in each mode you can pick for this language:
Innaiku naan ungaluku unga life la eppavum paakadha oru arumaiyana vishayam kaatta poren
இன்னைக்கு நான் உங்களுக்கு உங்க வாழ்க்கையில எப்பவும் பாக்காத ஒரு அருமையான விஷயம் காட்டப் போறேன்
Today I am going to show you something absolutely amazing that you have never ever seen before in your entire life
What is different about captioning Tamil
Tamil script uses one letter for sounds English splits in two: க is "k" at the start of a word and closer to "g" between vowels, ட is "t" or "d", ப is "p" or "b". Tanglish captions follow how the word is said, so you get "magan" and "padam", not the letter-by-letter "makan" and "patam" a naive converter produces.
Tamil words are long and Tamil letters are wide, so Tamil-script captions hold the fewest characters of any language here: about 26 per caption, against 42 in Tanglish. That keeps each caption a short, readable line instead of a block of text over your video.
Caption your next video in minutes
Free plan, no credit card. Upload a Reel and see your captions in about a minute.
Start for freeFrequently asked questions
What is Tanglish?
Tamil written in Roman letters, the way people type it on phones: "neenga epdi irukeenga", "enakku theriyadhu". It is not a translation, only the alphabet changes, and the words, tone and slang stay exactly as spoken.
Will Tamil-script captions render correctly in every caption style?
Yes. Tamil captions are set in Noto Sans Tamil, or Baloo Thambi 2 for the comic templates, in both the editor preview and the exported video, so what you see is what burns.
Does it work for Sri Lankan, Singapore and Malaysian Tamil?
Yes. The speech model handles all of them, and Tanglish spelling follows common phone-typing conventions. Regional spellings you prefer are easy to fix in the transcript editor.
Can I get English captions for a Tamil video instead?
Yes. Choose English (Translate) and the Tamil speech is translated into natural English captions.
What does it cost?
There is a free plan with 2 free minutes and no credit card required. Each video uses exactly its own length from your balance. Paid minute packs start at 12 USD or 799 INR and never expire.