LiveCaptionIt / Live captions for podcasts

Live captions for any podcast.

Spotify Web, Apple Podcasts, YouTube podcasts, Pocket Casts — any podcast playing in your browser, captioned in real time. Floats over other apps so you can read while doing chores, commuting, or working out. Free, nothing uploads.

Start captioning →

Free · no signup · audio processed locally

Works for podcasts on:

Spotify Web

Apple Podcasts Web

YouTube podcasts

Pocket Casts Web

Overcast Web

Castbox Web

Note: native desktop podcast apps (Spotify desktop, Apple Podcasts app) play audio outside the browser, so tab capture can't see them. Use the web version instead.

Step-by-step

  1. 1

    Open the podcast in a browser tab

    Spotify Web (open.spotify.com), Apple Podcasts Web, YouTube podcast video, Pocket Casts Web, Overcast Web — anywhere the podcast plays in Chrome.

  2. 2

    Open LiveCaptionIt in another tab

    Visit livecaptionit.com and click "Start captions".

  3. 3

    Share the podcast tab + tick 'Share tab audio'

    Pick the podcast tab in the browser picker. Tick 'Share tab audio' at the bottom.

  4. 4

    Press play, read along

    Floating caption window appears. Press play on the podcast. Read captions in PiP while doing chores, taking notes, or following a recipe.

Common questions

Why caption a podcast when transcripts exist?

Most podcasts release transcripts after publication, if at all. Live captioning lets you follow along in real time — useful for noisy environments (gym, commute, public space), accessibility (hearing assistance, English-as-second-language), or quickly skimming a long podcast for a specific topic.

Will Spotify or Apple Podcasts let me share tab audio?

Yes — Spotify Web (open.spotify.com), Apple Podcasts Web, Pocket Casts Web, and Overcast Web all stream audio through the browser tab in standard ways. Chrome's tab capture works on all of them. The native desktop apps (Spotify desktop, Apple Podcasts app) bypass the browser so LiveCaptionIt can't see their audio — use the web version instead.

Can I caption a podcast in a foreign language?

Yes — Whisper supports 99 languages out of the box and LiveCaptionIt uses its multilingual mode automatically. Spanish, Hindi, Tamil, Mandarin, Japanese, etc. all work. Captions appear in the source language. For best accuracy on a specific language, the Custom Vocabulary panel lets you pre-load common terms.

How accurate is podcast captioning vs YouTube auto-CC?

Whisper Base (default) is roughly comparable to YouTube auto-CC for clean conversational English — about 95% accurate. For heavy accents, multiple speakers, or technical jargon, the Small or Large turbo model tiers do better. The trade-off is download size (244 MB and 537 MB respectively) and slightly higher GPU load.

Caption your next podcast

Floating window stays on top while you work, walk, or take notes. Audio processed locally. Never uploads.

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